Learn English Through Stories | BBC Learning English Story

In this lesson, you're going to improve your  English reading skills. We're going to read  

a newspaper article together, and you're  going to learn advanced vocabulary events,  

sentence structure and complex grammar by  reading this article with me. And at the end,  

you're going to improve your pronunciation  because I'm going to read the article in full  

and you can practice along. And I'll also share  the free lesson PDF right at the end, so you can  

keep practicing all the concepts from this lesson.  Are you excited? Welcome back to JForrest English  

training. Of course, I'm Jennifer, and this is  your place to become a fluent confident English  

speaker. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome  to our article today. Let me read our headline,  

why Gen Zers? are growing up sober curious, what  is this Gen Zer? Well, this is a shortened form  

and it stands for Generation Z Generation Z.  So this woman in the image is a representative  

of Generation Z, because that has to do with  your age range. So Generation Z is 11 to 26  

years old. Are you Generation Z? Are you between  11 and 26 years old? Now the generation before  

that were called millennials, some also called  them Generation X, it's the same and their age  

range was 25 to 39. So are you in the millennial  generation, I'm in the millennial generation.  

So Gen Z refers to Generation Z people from that  generation. Now notice they have this e r s bounce  

when we add URL onto a verb to make it a noun.  For example, I could say, I dance. This is a verb,  

right? So this means I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer  to make it a noun. So they're just turning this  

into a noun by adding that E R. S. Y Gen Z ers  are growing up sober, curious, sober, curious,  

what is sober, sober, this is an adjective.  And it is when you're not influenced by  

alcohol. So if you go to a party and you don't  drink, well, then you are sober. The people who  

drink you could say either they're not sober,  or they're drunk, they're drunk now to be drunk.  

This is when you're influenced by alcohol to  a large degree where your ability to speak  

to think to act is impaired, right. So I will  say to be impaired by alcohol. So this is when  

you should not drive a car, you should not go to  work, you should not care for young children if  

you're drunk. So now you know what this headline  means. So let's continue on. And I also want to  

point out that this is an article that a student  recommended and shared the link for so if there  

is an article you would like me to review, you can  share the link and to the article in the comment  

of the video. Okay. Let me read this, a complex  combination of outside pressures. And information  

overload is driving young people to snub  alcohol far more than generations before them.  

So we know that one of the generations  before them was the millennial generation.  

So a complex combination, an outside pressure is  just a pressure from the outside. So from society,  

from your friends, from family from work, those  would be outside pressures inside pressures are  

pressures you put on yourself, I cannot make  a mistake. That's not an outside pressure.  

That's an inside pressure, right? Information  overload. This is when you receive too much  

information. So let's say you go onto YouTube,  and you want to learn how to use the verb to  

be and you put in the verb to be an 20,000  results show that's information overload,  

it's too much information. So this is actually  considered a negative thing too much information.  

Too much information. So if you're in a  meeting at work, and someone is explaining  

how to do something, but they explain every  little detail and in, it takes them a really  

long time, you might say that's information  overload, I don't need that much information.  

Okay, so these outside pressures from your  family, friends, work and too much information.  

Information overload is driving young people  to snub alcohol. When something drives someone,  

it's another way of saying influence influence.  So it's influencing young people to snub alcohol  

influencing. Now, what does this mean to  snub alcohol, this means to to ignore?  

Now, honestly, I see this commonly more commonly  with people, because when you snub someone,  

you ignore them, but usually it's on purpose.  So let's say you're at a party and you see  

your friend Maria. But Maria doesn't make eye  contact with you. She doesn't come say hello,  

she doesn't talk to you. You might say, Why  did Maria snub me? Why did she ignore me?  

Even though clearly she knew I was there? So I  for now, I would suggest using it with people  

because that is how I see it more commonly  use. So why did Maria snub me at the party.  

You might feel like one of your co workers  or your boss is snubbing you or even a family  

member is snubbing you so they're ignoring  you. But I would say to ignore someone on  

purpose, because you might accidentally ignore  someone if it's a big party. And you did not  

see that your friend was there. But in this  case, Oh, Maria knows you're there. She's  

purposely ignoring you to snub. So I guess in  the context of snub alcohol. It's saying that  

I know there is alcohol at a party or at a bar  like she's on a bar right now. There's alcohol,  

but I'm going to ignore it on purpose. I'm going  to snub alcohol. But again, I suggest keeping it  

with people for now, let's continue on. As  a teenager, Lola's drinking went in cycles,  

there will be a night of heavy drinking, then a  regretful day spent piecing the previous evening  

together next, a period of sobriety before the  next big night out. Okay, I'll end it there.  

So to go in cycles, I think you can understand  it's when you do something for a period of time,  

and then you do something else for a period  of time. And then it repeats. The weather is  

a perfect example of cycles or seasons, I should  say, we have spring, then there's always summer,  

then fall and winter, in North America, in your  part of the world, it could be a very different  

cycle. But that's the cycle. So in this case,  Lola's cycle is drinking heavily regretting it,  

piecing the evening together, not drinking, and  then repeating it drinking heavily regretting it,  

piecing it together, not drinking, and then  she just repeats that over and over again.  

So a night of heavy drinking, drinking  too much a regretful day spent piecing  

the previous evening together. Now, when  you try to piece something together,

it's when you have individual pieces of  information, and you're trying to understand how  

it works together. So remember, we talked about  when you're drunk, you're impaired by alcohol,  

right? So you might not remember something. So  you remember going to the bar, talking to someone  

getting a phone number, and doing one thing  but you don't know how all of those pieces  

of it Information work together. So you have to  piece it together. Now this is in the context  

of drinking. But I could use this if I'm trying  to solve a problem. So I know there's a piece of  

information here, here, here and here. But I'm  trying to understand how that information works  

together. So you might say, how can we piece this  together? How can we take the individual pieces of  

information and make sense of them. So this means  make sense of individual pieces of information.  

Now, notice, I said pieces of information because  information is always singular in English. So  

if you want to show more than one piece of  information, you have to make pieces, plural,  

pieces of information, information is always  singular. So here's sobriety. This comes from the  

word do you know from the word sober. So remember,  sober means not influenced by alcohol. So sobriety  

just refers to the category of being sober. So  this is a period of being sober. And remember,  

this means not drinking alcohol. Let's  continue on. But when the pandemic hit,  

Lola moved back in with her parents in London,  and her drinking came to an abrupt halt.  

So, a halt is when something just stops a halt.  So your car could come to a halt, you might  

slam on the brakes, and your car will come to a  halt. Notice the verb I'm using come to a halt.  

Now honestly, abrupt as an adjective just means  very quickly or suddenly. But in my opinion, come  

to a halt, already means quickly. Or suddenly,  when I say my car came to a halt, it means my car  

stopped quickly and suddenly. So I don't actually  think this adjective adds a lot of information.  

But that's what it means. I guess they're  using it just to emphasize it. So this means  

quickly, suddenly. And then our expression is  to come to a halt. And this means to to stop.  

Let me share an example of how you could use this  in a business context because it is quite common.  

You might say, our funding came to a halt. So  maybe you were working on a project and you had  

funding, but then it just stopped, you no longer  have that funding, it came to a halt. Remember,  

my verb is come. So here, I'm conjugating it.  In the past, simple, our funding came to a halt.  

Or a good one could be our negotiation  came to a halt. So we were discussing,  

we were negotiating something and then it just  stopped, it came to a halt. We could not agree.  

Our funding came to a halt. And we have to piece  together what happened we have to piece together  

why that could be a good way to combine the  two expressions. Let's continue on. Lockdown,  

she says presented her with an opportunity to step  back from ingrained habits and address her anxiety  

issues. Let's take a look at this phrasal verb  here to step back from when you step back from  

something is when you are no longer involved in  that something. And usually because you want to  

create some distance so you can think about it  in a new way. So we step back from a problem.  

We step back from a conflict problem are the two  most common ones really, because you want some  

distance so you can think about how to handle  that in a different way. And in this case,  

her drinking. Remember her drinking went in  cycles, her drinking might be the problem  

and she wants to create some distance from  it so she can think about it differently.  

So to step back from and I'm going to say  a problem or even a conflict is when you  

are no longer involved in the situation.  So you can think about it differently.  

Get some distance from it. An ingrained  habit is just when something is ingrained,  

it means it's in your permanent  memory. You've done it so many times,  

that is just ingrained. You don't have to think  about it. For example, when I'm driving my car,  

I don't have to think about turning on my  turn signal to go left or right. It's just an  

ingrained habit. When I get to a stop, I turn on  my indicator just automatically ingrained habit.  

Let's continue on. The 22 year old student is  enjoying a different relationship with alcohol.  

She recently tried clubbing, sober, remember, not  under the influence of alcohol. Clubbing is when  

you go to a club or go to a bar for the purpose  of dancing, socializing. And let's be honest  

drinking is one of the main reasons as well. So  that is an activity. Let's go clubbing tonight.  

Let's go clubbing tonight. Or you  could say let's go to all club.  

Tonight. A club is a nightclub. It's the location  where you listen to music you drink and you dance.  

So let me highlight this for you. And although  she still drinks, it's much less frequent. I'm not  

anti drinking. If you're anti something, it means  you oppose it. I'm anti smoking, anti drinking. I  

don't like it. I don't agree with it. So she's not  anti drinking. I just don't like getting drunk.  

Remember to be drunk is when you're impaired by  alcohol. You can't see properly you can't talk you  

can't walk because you're drunk or feeling ill the  next morning, says Lola, I like going home safely  

and remembering the people I met. So solver nights  work well for me. Let's continue on. Lola isn't  

an anomaly among her friends. So this one listen  to the pronunciation, anomaly, anomaly, anomaly.  

And anomaly is something or someone that's  different from everything else. So it's suggesting  

that she isn't an anomaly. So what it's suggesting  is she isn't different from all of her friends,  

which implies that her friends are also  sober, curious, they're curious about not  

drinking alcohol when they go clubbing. Okay, she  isn't an anomaly. If it said Lola is an anomaly,  

it would mean that all of her friends drink they  drink when they go out. She's the only one so an  

anomaly is different from the rest but remember  they're using it in the negative isn't an anomaly.

She says all have been drinking less since  the pandemic and she feels no judgment from  

her peers when not drinking so they support her  friends who haven't limited their drinking as much  

as me think it's cool when people go out sober.  So her friends support her. She explains it's a  

you do you mentality. You do you? It's kind of a  popular catchphrase right now. It's like saying,  

whatever your preferences are, I support  you. So let's say you love eating meat.  

But your friend is a vegetarian and doesn't  eat meat. So when you go to a restaurant,  

you say to your friend Oh you do you which  means it's fine with me if you don't want to  

eat meat. If you do want to eat meat, it doesn't  matter. You do you it's just a catchphrase.  

Some of these catchphrases are short lived, which  means they don't last very long. But right now  

this is a pretty common popular catchphrase.  So you can use this when someone says, Oh,  

do you mind if I Is it okay? If I, and you want  to let them know that you are happy with whatever  

they decide to do, you can say you do you, you do  you. It's a you do you mentality where people are  

respectful of your choices. I guess that's a nice  way of summarizing what this expression means when  

people are respectful of your choices. Whether  you're protecting your mental health, or you  

just don't fancy it, experimenting with alcohol  and drinking to excess to excess in this context,  

it just means too much drinking too much. Getting  drunk, when you drink too much is another way of  

saying getting drunk has long been seen as a rite  of passage. a rite of passage is something that is  

considered a necessary part of getting to the next  stage of your life. So maybe a rite of passage  

would be when you go to your prom. In North  American culture, we have big ceremonies when  

we complete our final year of high school and we  go to a prom. That's a rite of passage, everybody  

goes to their prom when they graduate from high  school. So it's considered just a ceremony that  

you must do. So in this sense, it's not a positive  thing. They're saying drinking excessively,  

getting really drunk was considered something  you have to do in order to get to adulthood.  

At least in Western cultures, from an  early age, often before the legal age,  

the legal age refers to when you are  legally allowed to drink alcohol. Now,  

the legal age can vary depending on where you  live. In the US, the legal age is 21 years old.  

So this is when you can go to a store and legally  purchase alcohol or you can go to a restaurant,  

a bar and you can order a drink. If you're 20  years old, and you go to a club, you cannot  

buy alcohol legally, you can do it illegally, but  you can't do it legally. Alcohol is embraced as a  

social lubricant. In this sense, embrace means  just accepted. All people say yes, just alcohol  

is what kids do they drink is embraced as a  social lubricant, a way to have fun, make friends  

escape day to day realities, few professional or  social events or without some form of alcohol.  

That is definitely true in North American culture.  I don't know if that's true in your culture,  

I'd be interested to know I'm sure the other  students will be as well. So please share your  

perspective in the comments. If you go to a social  event or a professional event, would it be common  

to drink alcohol? So Gen Zers. Remember, those are  people what was it 11 to 26 years old, Gen Zers  

are taking it slow as they enter adulthood, either  by not drinking at all being sober, or drinking  

less often not getting excessively drunk, and in  less quantity than older generations. Remember,  

our older generation is the millennials, also  known as Generation X, which is 25 to 39.  

So that's our article very interesting. Actually,  it'd be interesting to know your perspective  

about drinking in your culture, the difference  of generations as well feel free to share that  

in the comments. Now what I'll do is I'll  read the article from start to finish so  

you can focus on my pronunciation and you can  practice along with me. So let's do that now.  

Why Gen Zers are growing up sober curious.  

A complex combination of outside pressures and  information overload is driving young people to  

snub alcohol far more than generations before  them. As a teenager, Lola's drinking went in  

cycles, there would be a night of heavy drinking,  then a regretful day spent piecing the previous  

evening together next, a period of sobriety before  the next big night out. But when the pandemic hit,  

Lola moved back in with her parents. In London,  and her drinking came to an abrupt halt. Locked  

down, she says presented her with an opportunity  to step back from ingrained habits and address her  

anxiety issues. Now the 22 year old student  is enjoying a different relationship with  

alcohol. She recently tried clubbing, sober, and  although she still drinks it's much less frequent.  

I'm not anti drinking. I just don't like getting  drunk or feeling ill the next morning says Lola,  

I like going home safely and remembering the  people I met. So sober nights work well for me.  

Lola isn't an anomaly among her friends. She says  all have been drinking less since the pandemic  

and she feels no judgment from her peers when  not drinking. Friends who haven't limited their  

drinking as much as me think it's cool when people  go out sober she explains. It's a u du U mentality  

where people are respectful of your choices,  whether you're protecting your mental health,  

or just don't fancy it. Experimenting with  alcohol and drinking to access has long been seen  

as a rite of passage into adulthood. At least in  Western cultures. From an early age often before  

the legal age. Alcohol is embraced as a social  lubricant, a way to have fun, make friends and  

escape day to day realities, few professional or  social events or without some form of alcohol.  

But Gen Zers are taking it slow as they enter  adulthood, either by not drinking at all or  

drinking less often and in less quantity than  older generations. Amazing job with this lesson  

I hope you enjoyed the newspaper article. If  you did, please share your thoughts in the  

comments below and practice using some of your new  vocabulary or sentence structure in the comments  

as well. And you can look in the description of  this video to the link where you can download the  

free lesson PDF. 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, JForrest 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