Advanced English Reading Practice To Improve English Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation

Are you ready to read an article from the news  with me? In this learn English with the news  

lesson, we'll read a news article together so  you can get comfortable with advanced grammar,  

vocabulary, sentence structure, and  practice your pronunciation at the  

same time. Welcome back to JForrest English  training. Of course. I'm Jennifer and this  

is your place to become a confident  English speaker. Let's get started.  

Hello and welcome to our article today we're  talking about debt debt in the United States.  

So first, I'm going to read the article in  full so you can understand the overall idea  

and you can pay attention to my pronunciation  and after we will go through the article by  

mine and I'll teach you the most common  vocabulary and sentence structure and  

grammar points that you need to understand the  article. So let me read the article in full.  

Treasury Secretary warns us could  default on its debt as soon as June.  

The US will reach the debt limit on January 19.  And then extraordinary measures will need to be  

taken. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote  in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,  

she said that the Treasury Department will pursue  those measures, but they will only last a limited  

amount of time. It is unlikely that the government  will exhaust its cash and the extraordinary  

measures of for early June. So she said there is  considerable uncertainty around that forecast,  

Yellen wrote, she urged lawmakers to act  in a timely manner to increase or suspend  

the debt limit. Failure to meet the government's  obligations would cause a reparable harm to the  

US economy. the livelihoods of all Americans  and global financial stability she wrote.  

The debt limit is the maximum that  the federal government is allowed to  

borrow after Congress set a level more than a  century ago to curtail government borrowing.  

Congress has in the past raise the debt limit to  avoid a default on US debt that economists have  

warned would be financial Armageddon. That's  what lawmakers did in late 2021. Following the  

last standoff over the debt ceiling. Don't worry  if you didn't understand a lot of this article,  

because now what I'll do is I'll go through  the article line by line and explain the  

most important points. Let's start at the  beginning here. Treasury Secretary warns  

us to default on its debt first of all, I  hope you noticed in my pronunciation that  

I was not pronouncing the B in this the B is  silent. It's pronounced as debt, debt debt  

as soon as June. Debt is simply money that you  owe that is debt. Most likely you have debt for  

your home, credit cards, your car payments,  and your student loans other things as well.  

Now when you default on the debt, it's when  you do not make the required payments. So for  

your mortgage, every month, you're required  to pay a certain amount, let's say $5,000.  

If you do not pay $5,000, then you default on  your mortgage and the bank can take your house  

from you. So that's the consequence. So the  US could default on its debt as soon as this  

means the earliest point so June is the earliest  point where the US could default on its debt.  

I made the notes for you here and this lesson PDF  is available as a download and I'll share the link  

at the end of the lesson. Let's continue on. The  US will reach the debt limit. Now remember later  

in the article they explained what the debt limit  is. So we'll talk more about what that is. The US  

will reach the debt limit on January 19. And  then extraordinary measures so a measure is a  

tactic or a step that you need to take to solve  a problem. And then extraordinary measures are  

measures that go beyond what you would expect.  So let's say there's a terrible accident as an  

example because of extraordinary measures. So I'm  thinking of an extraordinary situation. I might  

say the doctor had to take extraordinary measures  to save the child. So measure steps to solve a  

problem and then extraordinary more than you would  expect. So that's extraordinary measures. We'll  

learn more about that in the article and notice  my verb here, because you take extraordinary  

measures. That's what I use and that's what  you see in the article as well will need to be  

taken for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote  in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.  

She says that the Treasury Department will pursue  those measures. So pursue is another word of  

saying take action to accomplish. We generally  use this with goals major goals. For example,  

I'm pursuing my PhD so this is a major goal  and I'm taking action to accomplish it. Pursue,  

pursue. This is a verb so notice right now it's  in the Present Continuous because it's an action  

I'm taking right now. I wrote the definition here  and remember we do generally use this for goals or  

major accomplishments. But they will only last a  limited amount of time. So the measures remember  

those are the extraordinary measures so they will  be limited it is unlikely that the government will  

exhaust its cash and the extraordinary measures  before early June. When you exhaust something it  

means you have used all of it you used 100% of  it. Now you can use this with money. And in this  

context, it makes sense. But for your purposes,  you will probably use it in the sense of options  

or solutions. So let's say you're at work and  you're trying to solve a problem for your company,  

you might say we've exhausted all options, which  means you have no options left you've used all  

the options available and you haven't solved  the problem. So it's a negative thing. We've  

exhausted all our options, or if you're trying  to refinance your mortgage because your mortgage  

payments went up so you have more debt. And you  don't want to D fall default on that debt. You  

don't want to default on that debt. Well then  you might pursue different options pursued take  

action towards you might pursue different options.  And then when you have tried every single option,  

you could say we've exhausted all our options.  Nobody will give us a loan. So those options  

might be talking to different banks, talking to  your family friends. you've exhausted all your  

options. So it's a good expression we generally  use when you're trying to solve a problem.  

Okay, so it's unlikely that the government  will exhaust its cash which means use all  

of its cash. So let me use that when you  exhaust something, to use all of something.  

So to use all of its cash and the extraordinary  measures before early June, though, she said there  

was considerable uncertainty. So uncertainty  means you're not sure what's going to happen,  

right? It could be 50%. You succeed 50%  You fail, but when you say considerable,  

you're making the amount of uncertainty more  you're increasing that amount. So maybe it  

went from 50% uncertainty to 80% uncertainty. So  this is when you make the noun more basically,  

to make the noun more so uncertainty around that  forecast, Yellen wrote, she urged lawmakers when  

you urge someone, you try to convince someone or  to persuade someone to do something. So we hear  

this a lot with people who give advice. Maybe your  mother, my mother urged me to become a doctor. You  

should become a doctor here are all the reasons  why so your mother is trying to convince you she's  

urging you. So this is a verb you can see it's  in the past simple here. So this is to convince  

someone to strongly advise or to persuade she  urged lawmakers to act in a timely matter,  

a timely matter. There is no set time, but it's  when you do not take more time than is necessary  

or ideal. So it's just general advice. You should  act in a timely matter when you pursue your goal.  

So you don't want to take more time that's  needed, but the amount of time is not specific.  

As an example, you might say I didn't get the job  because I didn't act in a timely manner. Maybe it  

took you too long to submit your resume too long.  To follow up with the company after the interview  

too long to provide your references. You didn't  act in a timely manner. Okay, let's continue  

on. Failure to meet the government's obligations  would cause e reparable. harm to the US economy.  

irreparable is damage that can not be on done and  we use it a lot with harm. So I'll highlight this.  

So damage or a negative consequence, all  right damage that cannot be on. Done.  

Now not a lot of things can't be on  Done. Usually if you make a mistake,  

you can correct that mistake. But a lot of people  say that climate change has caused irreparable  

harm to our environment, our planet, whatever you  want to say. So without the word irreparable II  

reparable it sounds negative, but there could be  a solution. But if I add irreparable, it sounds  

really negative because there's no solution. So  we might use this with a climate related problem.  

Now, there could be a circumstance that caused  a reparable harm in your relationship with your  

husband or wife or with friends for example. I  cheated on my wife, and it caused a reparable  

harm to our marriage. So this is saying that  you cheated on your wife which means you had  

a relationship with another woman. Of course it  could be you cheated on your husband as well. And  

the action cannot be undone. So you  cannot restore or fix your marriage  

is another way of saying your marriage is  over because of that you reparable harm.  

Now let's hope this doesn't cause II  reparable harm because that is very negative.  

So the if they default on their loans, which is  the same thing as failure to meet the government's  

obligation, because it's their obligation to pay  their loan, so if they default on their debt,  

it would cause irreparable harm. To the US  economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and  

global financial stability. She wrote, wow,  that's a lot of negative is the livelihood,  

one's livelihood is how you support yourself.  So is simply how you get your money.  

Because we already talked about climate  change, I can say climate change is threatening  

the livelihood of farmers so people who earn  their money from the land. Now notice I didn't  

go as far as saying cause irreparable harm. I just  said threatening which is less severe. Climate  

change is threatening the livelihood of farmers.  So how farmers earn their money. Let's continue on  

the debt limit. Oh, so now we got  the definition of a debt limit,  

which they explained at the very beginning.  Remember, debt is money that you owe. The  

debt limit is the maximum that the federal  government is allowed Tokoro after Congress  

set a level more than a century ago to curtail  government borrowing. Here's our verb is curtail.  

And curtail means to limit or reduce something.  Since we're talking about government spending,  

and I talked about mortgages earlier. Let me give  you an example related to that. The government  

increased interest rates to curtail consumer  spending. Per tail means to try to reduce to  

trying to reduce to reduce or to limit consumer  spending. I can also say COVID curtailed  

my vacation plans obviously COVID curtailed  my vacation plan so it limited my ability to  

travel it reduced my ability to travel COVID  curtailed my vacation plans. curtail is a more  

formal sounding word. We definitely hear it a lot  with official communication from the government  

or from companies but you can use it in your day  to day speech. It is just a more formal choice.  

Let's also talk about borrow. The debt limit  is the maximum that the federal government is  

allowed to borrow. When you borrow something, it  means that you receive something. So you might  

say I borrowed this book from my sister, I borrow  this book from my sister. So I received this book  

and my sister was the one who gave me this book.  And of course, when you borrow something is only  

temporary. You're supposed to give it back you're  supposed to return it after a period of time. And  

that's why we use it with money when you take out  a loan. When you acquire debt. You borrow money,  

right? I asked my parents if I could oral money,  and they said yes. So my parents are going to give  

me money. And then at some point in the future,  I am going to give the money back to them.  

Now we don't say my parents borrowed me money.  This is wrong. It's incorrect. It's I borrowed  

money from my parents. That is the correct  sentence structure. I hear this a lot. My  

parents borrowed me know. I borrowed money from  my parents that is correct. So do some example  

sentences in the comments and I do not want to see  this. Let's continue on. Since our last paragraph.  

Congress has in the past raised the debt limit.  So increased it raised it to avoid a default on  

US debt. You already know what default is default  is when you're not able to make your required  

payments, and they want to avoid it. They don't  want that to happen before we saw a default as a  

verb to default, here, it's a noun. I know it's a  noun because I have my article ah, and we only use  

articles with nouns. So this can be used as a verb  and a noun. You already know the definition. It's  

the same. A default on US debt that economists  have warned would be financial Armageddon. Oh  

my gosh. Remember, our other term was e reparable.  harm. It's the same thing. Because I'm sure you've  

seen the movie Armageddon, a giant asteroid is  going to hit Earth and obviously Earth would be  

destroyed. That's e reparable. Because we can't  put Earth back together again. So it's the same  

thing as saying e reparable. harm. It's just  a more dramatic way. That's what lawmakers did  

in late 2021. That refers to raised the debt  limit that what they did in 2021, following  

the last standoff over the debt ceiling Okay. A  standoff is just when two parties cannot agree,  

and they're not willing to change their opinion.  So this party says, don't increase the debt limit  

the debt ceiling, and this party says increase  it. Now if it's just back and forth. No, yes,  

no, yes. And they're not changing their  opinion, then we can call that a standoff.  

So now you know the main points to understand this  article. So what you can do is you can go back to  

the beginning and listen to me read it again  and practice along with my pronunciation. And  

of course, you can practice all the vocabulary  that you learned and you can download the free  

PDF in the link below. I hope you enjoyed this  lesson. Amazing job with this lesson. And if you  

look in the description, you'll find a link to  the free lesson PDF that you can download. And  

if you found this video helpful, please hit  the like button, share it with your friends,  

and of course subscribe. And before  you go, make sure you head on over to  

my website, Jay Forrest english.com and download  your free speaking Guide. In this guide, I share  

six tips on how to speak English fluently and  confidently. And until next time, Happy Studying!