Speak ADVANCED English in 60 MINUTES | American English Lesson (LESSON PDF + QUIZ)

My goal is that by the end of this lesson, you're going to feel more confident speaking

English in public.

Now, in this one hour English lesson, you're going to improve all areas of your English.

Of course you'll improve your English speaking, but to do that you also need to include your

English.

Listening, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation.

You'll do it all in this lesson.

Welcome back to JForrest

English, of course, I'm Jennifer.

So that's what you'll do right now.

Now let's get started with your weekly lesson.

First, let's talk about your listening skills.

A lot of students tell me that they struggle to understand native speakers at a fast pace.

The best way to solve this is by listening to native speakers at a fast pace and getting

comfortable with our pronunciation changes and also the advanced expressions that we.

Here's how this lesson will work.

I'm going to say a sentence three times, and you need to write down exactly what you hear

in the comments.

After, I'll explain the pronunciation changes that take place in fast English, and I'll

also explain the advanced expressions that I used.

So let's start your first listening test.

I'll say it three times.

Careful with the blender.

It's a little finicky.

Careful with the blender.

It's a little finicky.

Careful with the blender.

It's a little finicky.

I said careful with the blender.

It's a little finicky.

First, let's talk about the pronunciation changes.

You can see here it's this is a contraction.

It is.

It's it's a little.

It's a little.

So we pronounce that as a a soft D little, the little, the little little.

Now some native speakers will drop those sounds entirely and it will just sound like Lil will.

And then we connect it with a a little, a little, a little.

I personally pronounce the soft D's a little.

A little.

It's a little finicky.

Finicky is probably a new word in your vocabulary.

So let's focus on the sounds.

Fin, ick E Now we're going to put the syllable stress on the first sound.

Fin.

Finicky.

Finicky.

Finicky.

What does this mean?

Well, finicky.

This is an adjective to be finicky, and this means that something requires a lot of attention

to detail.

So the example is using a blender, a common household appliance that's easy to use.

But if this blender is finicky, it means that to use it successfully you have to really

pay attention to detail.

Maybe you have to make make sure the lid is on in just a precise way, or press the buttons

in a very specific way in order for the blender to operate.

Likely because the blender is very old or there's a problem with the blender.

It's finicky.

It's a little finicky because it being so finicky with me.

This machines are really finicky.

It's.

Being finicky.

Now let's talk about grammar for a second, because notice the sentence started with careful.

Careful.

Technically you need the verb be.

Be careful, be careful.

But native speakers will commonly drop verbs when they're not required to understand the

sentence.

So if I said to a native speaker careful, they're not going to be confused because there's

no verb be.

They understand what it means out the verb.

Careful.

Be careful.

They're both correct, and a native speaker will most likely just.

Say careful.

Let's try this again with another listening exercise.

I'll say it three times.

She's a finicky eater.

She's a finicky eater.

She's a finicky eater, I said.

She's a finicky eater.

This was easy for you, right?

Because it's the same word.

Finicky, finicky.

So hopefully you could clearly hear that now.

But the meaning in this context is different.

We're not saying she's an eater.

That requires a lot of attention to detail.

A finicky eater is an eater who is difficult to please.

Now, why would an eater be difficult to please?

Because there are probably many things that she doesn't like or she has a lot of specific

preferences about how her food is prepared.

This adjective is commonly used to describe children because most children are finicky

eaters.

If you have kids, you can probably relate to this.

And you were once a child, so I don't know about you, But As for me, I was definitely

a finicky eater.

When I was a kid, I only liked about 5 things and there was a long list of things I didn't

like.

If you can relate to, that put me too.

Me too in the comments.

Me too.

So I know that you were also a finicky eater.

Good luck with my finicky appetite.

Let's try this again.

I'll say this sentence three times.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

I said.

The audience was hanging on her every word for pronunciation.

Notice how on her sounds like honor, honor, Honor.

Because we frequently drop the H sound on her and then I connect those two words together.

Honor.

I can also connect that with every honor, every honor, every honor, every.

What does this mean to hang on ones every?

This is an expression, and it means that you listen very closely, very attentively, very

carefully.

Now with expressions, you need to make sure you have every single word.

So here it's on her every word.

So if you said the audience was hanging on her word and you forgot to use every, it wouldn't

make sense.

Because with expressions, you have to use every single word of the expression.

So if you are listening to this lesson very closely, you're taking notes, you're actively

participating, then you, my friends, are hanging on my every word.

But if, as you're watching this video, you're also checking your e-mail or making dinner

or doing something else, then you're not hanging on my every word.

So I hope you're hanging on my every word.

If you are, put that in the comments, Jennifer, I'm hanging on your every word.

And that means you're paying very close attention to what I'm saying.

They're hanging on his every word, but he hangs on your every word.

They all hang on my every word.

Let's try this again.

I'll say it three times.

She has me wrapped around her finger.

She has me wrapped around her finger.

She has me wrapped around her finger, I said.

She has me wrapped around her finger for pronunciation.

Notice wrapped the Ed is pronounced as a soft T Wrapped, wrapped, wrapped, wrapped around.

Now because I'm combining this with around, I can take that sound wrapped around wrapped

around and I can combine them together.

Remember I said we commonly get rid of the H sound on her?

So I can do that here as well, and then I can connect it together wrapped around her

to have someone wrapped around your finger.

Or we commonly say little finger wrapped around your finger wrapped around your little finger.

There's no difference.

So little is optional in this expression, and this is when you have complete control

over someone.

And he's just infatuated with her.

This happens in situations where perhaps this guy is totally in love with this.

And because of that she has complete control over him.

And no matter what she says, he just does it.

So he does her laundry for her.

He drives her to work every day.

She has him wrapped around her little finger.

I'll have you wrapped around my finger.

No time.

Please, I've got Doctor.

Reed wrapped around my finger.

Boy, Archie, Veronica's got you wrapped around her little finger.

Let's do this one more time.

I'll say it three times.

I can't get anything past you.

I can't get anything past you.

I can't get anything past you, I said I can't get anything past you.

For pronunciation, notice we have get anything, so we have AT between 2 vowels.

So I can pronounce that as get anything, get anything, get anything.

And then I'll combine those two sounds together.

I can't get anything past due now.

What does this mean?

To get something past someone or you can also say to get something by someone they're exactly

the same.

It's just an option you can use past or by.

This is when someone doesn't notice something important.

But notice in my example I can't get anything by you.

I used it in the negative.

Let's imagine an example.

Let's say a customer is in a restaurant, and that customer ordered an expensive bottle

of French wine, but the restaurant tried to serve him cheap American wine.

Now, because I can't get anything by you, it means that you notice the details when

they're important.

So it means that you noticed that this isn't the wine you ordered, and you'll say, wait,

this isn't the wine I ordered, and then the waiter can say I can't get anything by you

can't get.

Anything past this guy?

Can't get anything past you, can I?

Never could get anything past you Can I?

An amazing job improving your listening skills of fast English and also adding these advanced

expressions to your speech.

Now let's improve your pronunciation.

Let's do an imitation exercise.

I'm going to say each sentence again three times, and I want you to repeat each sentence

out loud so you can imitate my pronunciation.

Let's do that now.

Careful with the blender.

It's a little finicky.

Careful with the blender, it's a little finicky.

Careful with the blender, it's a little finicky.

She's a finicky eater.

She's a finicky eater.

She's a finicky eater.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

The audience was hanging on her every word.

She has me wrapped around her finger.

She has me wrapped around her finger.

She has me wrapped around her finger.

I can't get anything past you.

I can't get anything past you.

I can't get anything past you.

Now let's move on and we're going to read a short article together.

This article is about the moon, something we look at every single day.

Now, I love using articles in my classes because as we're reading this together, you're learning

correct pronunciation, you're learning advanced vocabulary, you're learning complex grammatical

structures, and you're doing it all in a very interesting and engaging way as we're learning

about the moon.

So let's start the lesson now.

1st I'll read the headline Why does the moon shine?

So?

Of course, the verb shine is when something sends out or reflects light.

I'm sure you know that the sun shines.

The sun shines.

Shine is an irregular verb.

So of course you have the verb to shine with an S because the subject is the sun ** *** it.

Now, in American English in the past simple, we just add an Ed.

So it's regular verb in the past simple.

The sun shined yesterday in British English.

They.

Use shown.

This sun shone yesterday, now in both American and British English, in the participable form

it's shown.

So in the present perfect the sun has shone all day.

So in American English you can say shine, shined shone.

Now notice how I said the Sun.

And here in the headline we have the moon.

We'll talk about the other planets in a minute, but for now, remember that for Moon and Sun

you need the because there's only one it's unique, the Moon, the Sun.

Don't worry about taking all these notes because I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can look in the description for the link.

Let's continue.

You know that Earth would be a dismal place without its bright shining neighbor, the Sun.

So as we talked about, notice here the article the Sun.

But notice Earth.

Earth doesn't have an article in front of it.

For.

It's not the Mars, it's just Mars.

You can see Mars on a clear night.

Earth is the third planet from the sun.

The because I already mentioned that, Sun and moon.

It's the sun, the moon because they're unique.

Let's talk about dismal.

This is an adjective and it means sad without hope or very bad depending on the context.

For example, you could say the weather's been dismal.

So when I think of that, I probably think a lack of sunlight.

Maybe cloudy, a little bit of rain, not very nice.

The weather's been dismal or my promotion was dismal this year.

So in that sense it sounds like very bad.

My promotion was very bad this year.

Earth would be a dismal place without its bright shining neighbor, the sun.

But did you know that the moon would also be just another dull orb if not for the sun's

rays?

The rays are where the light comes from, the rays.

So you have the ball, which can also be called an orb.

An orb is just an object in the shape of a ball, and then the rays are the light that's

coming off of the orb.

That's for the sun.

Now, dull.

That's the opposite of bright, dull.

You can also describe a day as, oh, it was a dull day, not very bright.

So there wasn't a lot of sun.

It was cloudy, maybe a little rainy.

I think of the weather in London, England, when I think of dull or dismal.

Let's talk about the sentence structure here, because notice this first sentence is you

know that but in this sentence we have did.

You know that when you add did.

This is to form a question in the past simple.

But in this case because there is no did.

We know that this is a statement, not a question.

So this is being phrased as a statement.

You know that.

But this is a question.

Did you know that?

Let's review this example.

You know that I'm an English teacher.

This is a.

So this is a question because.

I know that this information is known, so I'm not forming it as a question, It's a statement,

but I don't know if this information is known, so it's a question.

Now this is not true.

I'm not a piano teacher.

That would be really awesome if I were.

But I'm not.

Is just an example to show you a statement followed by a question.

So you can use this to give a known fact, but then provide additional information in

the form of a question.

Let's continue.

The moon shines because its surface reflects light from the sun.

So again, here we have our verb shine and the subject is moon, and that's why you have

this S on it.

The moon shines, and despite the fact that it sometimes seems to shine very brightly,

the moon only reflects between 3 and 12% of the sunlight that hits it.

OK, so let's take a look at despite the fact that notice how we have this additional information,

the fact that this is only required grammatically to form a sentence.

When you have despite and then a clause.

A clause is simply a sentence.

It has a subject and then a verb and other information.

An object you can't say despite it seems to shine brightly.

This is a mistake I see a lot from my students.

You have to include these three words and they're only there for grammar.

They don't have any meaning.

Let's review these sentences.

This is the one I see from students and it's incorrect.

Despite I'm busy.

I'm busy is a clause.

We have a subject, a verb, and then other information.

Despite I'm busy.

I'll help you despite the fact that because you have despite and a clause, you need these

three additional world words.

Despite the fact that I'm busy, I'll help you.

So this is the correct one.

So remember that and the only purpose is grammatical.

There's no meaning in those words, so make sure you remember that.

Are you?

Enjoying this lesson?

If you are, then I want to tell you about the Finely Fluent Academy.

This is my premium training program where we study native English speakers from TV,

the movies, YouTube and the news so you can improve your listening.

Skills of fast.

Plus, you'll have me as your personal coach.

You can look in the description for the link to learn more, or you can go to my website

and click on Finally, Fluent Academy.

Now let's continue with our lesson.

The perceived brightness of the moon from Earth depends on where the moon is in its

orbit around the planet Orbit.

This is used specifically in space, and it just means a path, but a path in space.

So the path that the moon follows.

The moon travels once around Earth every 29.5 days, and during its journey it's lit from

varying angles by the sun.

In this case you could say orbit instead of journey, because when you're on a journey

you're following a specific path and in this case the path is in space.

So you could say orbit this movement of the moon around the Earth.

Do you notice something here?

The moon?

We talked about this, but I said that planets in our solar system don't take articles.

But right here we have the Earth.

Now, for the rest of this article, you'll notice that sometimes the article says the

Earth, and sometimes the article says Earth.

Why is that without an article?

Earth represents just a planet in our solar system.

For example, Earth is the third planet from the sun when you add the article.

It represents the planet we live on, our home planet.

We need to protect the Earth in this sentence.

This movement of the moon around the Earth.

You can think of it around the Earth, our home planet and the simultaneous orbiting

of Earth.

Earth being just a planet in the solar system around the sun, remember the sun and the moon

always take articles.

If you're ever in doubt and you're confused, I would say always add an article for the

moon, the sun, but other planets don't take articles because it is acceptable to just

say Earth, but it's also acceptable to say the Earth.

But it sounds odd to say the Mars and add the in front of other planets.

So just remember that accounts for the moon's different phases, so the different phases

of the moon.

That is the shape of the moon when you look at it, when you see the full orb.

Remember an orb is a round shape when you see the full orb.

We of course call that a full moon.

Oh wow, look, there's a full moon tonight.

1/4 moon is when you just see 1/4 of the moon.

And then they have other phases etcetera.

At any given point in the moons trajectory trajectory is the path that the moon is following

the moons trajectory at any given point in the moons trajectory around the Earth.

Now, I'll be honest, I think in this case it doesn't necessarily represent our home

planet, and I'm not sure why the article is switching between the Earth and Earth.

I find it a little confusing because in my mind, in this case it sounds like we're just

talking about a planet in the solar system.

We're not necessarily talking about our home planet.

So if you're a little confused why at this exact moment they chose to use the Earth,

and in this case they didn't, I also don't find it follows a lot of logic, so don't let

that confuse you.

At any given point in the Moon's trajectory around the Earth, only half of its surface

is facing the Sun, and therefore only half of the Moon is lit up.

In this case, because it's lit up, it means it's visible.

It's visible because there is now light on it.

So only half of the moon is visible.

Only half of the moon is lit up.

The other half of the surface faces away from the sun and is in shadow.

Because it's in shadow, it means you can't see it.

To you, it's invisible because it's not lit up although.

It is the same shape of course in the sky, you just can't see a specific part of it.

The moon is at its brightest when it is 180 degrees away from the sun.

From our perspective, picture the sun, earth and Moon in a straight line.

So when you picture they want you to imagine it.

So the Sun, earth, moon all in a straight line.

Sun, earth, Moon.

That is when it's the brightest.

At this time, the full half of the moon's surface facing the sun is illuminated.

Illuminate is when you make something brighter with light.

So we use this a lot in festivals, holidays, parties.

You could say the streets were illuminated.

In this case to be illuminated, the streets were illuminated for the festival.

So I imagine walking down the street and there are lots and lots of lights hanging.

So even if it's night time, the streets are still bright because of the lights because

the streets were illuminated.

Let's continue.

This is what's known as a full moon.

I'm sure you're familiar with a full moon when the entire moon is visible.

Personally, I think my favorite moon is the Crescent moon shape because I find it looks

so magical in the sky, this little sliver of the moon.

So what about you?

Are you more of a full moon?

A Crescent moon?

Put that in the comment.

You could just put the emoji or you can put the full word as well.

I'm sure probably more people want the full moon, but who knows, maybe other people like

the Crescent moon just like me.

So put that in the comments.

OK, At New Moon on the other hand, This is a stage of the Moon called New Moon.

At New Moon, on the other hand.

The moon isn't even visible from our vantage point.

Our vantage point.

This is another way of saying our perspective, because of course the moon is visible.

It's visible in the sky, but we can't see it because of our perspective.

Where we physically are and the angle at which we're trying to see it.

It's impossible, but it's still there.

Of course, this is when the moon is between the sun and the Earth, so that the side of

the moon reflecting sunlight is facing away from Earth.

And this is the reason why we can't see the moon when it's in the moon phase, new moon.

So if my hands were people, right now they're facing each other.

They're facing each other.

Now this person is facing away from this person, facing each other, facing away from this person.

Let's continue.

In the days before and after a new moon, we'll see a sliver.

I used this word before when I was describing Crescent moon.

A sliver is a very small amount, so let's look at this example.

Would you like some cake?

So you have a whole cake and someone can say just a sliver, A sliver.

So they're telling you just a very small amount of cake.

So not even a normal portion of cake, just a sliver, a small amount of that cake.

In the days before and after a new moon, we'll see a sliver of the moon reflecting sunlight,

and during those times, the faint brightness of the rest of the moon.

Let's talk about faint.

Faint means not strong, not clear, so faint brightness.

The brightness was not very strong, not very clear.

So let's imagine that the color is this bright bright red.

But all you see is this color.

You would say, oh, the color is very faint.

It's supposed to be bright red.

But this is all I see.

The color is very faint, not strong, not clear.

We also have a very common expression using this word, faint.

I haven't the faintest idea.

I haven't the faintest idea.

This means I have no idea.

So if someone asks you how large is the moon, you could say, oh, I haven't the faintest

idea because I don't know.

I have no idea, I haven't the faintest idea.

Very common expression.

The faint brightness of the rest of the moon, the part not brightly lit as a sliver.

Remember the sliver is the small amount of is a result of what scientists call earth

shine.

I've never heard this before.

It's the technical term in which the moons relatively dark disk is slightly illuminated.

Remember, we know what illuminated is when it's becomes brighter because of light and

slightly means a small amount.

You could also say faintly illuminated because it would be not strong or not clear, so I'll

write that for you.

You could say faintly, faintly illuminated, slightly illuminated by sunlight that reflects

off of Earth, then off the moon and back to our eyes.

So this is the process of earth shine.

I've never heard that before, so if you don't quite understand what this means, don't worry.

It's quite a technical term I personally don't quite understand.

It either, so we could say together.

Oh, I haven't the faintest idea what earth shine is.

If I read this some more a few more times and think about it, I'm sure it will become

clearer to me.

But right now I can say I haven't the faintest idea what earth shine is.

And that's the end of our article.

So what I'll do now is I'll read the article from start to finish, and this time you can

focus on my pronunciation.

Let's do that now.

Why does the moon shine?

You know that.

Earth would be a dismal place without its bright shining neighbor, the sun.

But did you know that the moon would also be just another dull orb if not for the sun's

rays?

The moon shines because its surface reflects light from the sun, and despite the fact that

it sometimes seems to shine very brightly, the moon reflects only between 3 and 12% of

the sunlight that hits it.

The perceived brightness of the moon from Earth depends on where the moon is in its

orbit around the planet.

The moon travels once around Earth every 29.5 days, and during his journey it's lit from

varying angles by the sun.

This movement of the moon around the Earth and the simultaneous orbiting of Earth around

the sun accounts for the moon's different phases.

Full moon, quarter moon, etcetera.

At any given point in the Moon's trajectory around the Earth, only half of its surface

is facing the sun, and therefore only half of the moon is lit up.

The other half of the surface faces away from the Sun and is in shadow.

The moon is at its brightest when it is 180 degrees away from the sun from our perspective.

Picture the sun, Earth and moon in a straight line.

At this time, the full half of the moon's surface facing the sun is illuminated and

is visible from Earth.

This is what's known as a full moon at New Moon.

On the other hand, the moon isn't even visible from our vantage point.

This is when the moon is between the sun and the Earth, so that the side of the moon reflecting

sunlight is facing away from Earth.

In the days before and after a new moon, we'll see a sliver of the moon reflecting sunlight.

And during those times, the faint brightness of the rest of the moon.

The part not brightly lit as a sliver is a result of what scientists call earthshine,

in which the moon's relatively dark disk is slightly illuminated by sunlight that reflects

off of Earth, then off the moon and back to our eyes.

Now we're going to keep expanding your vocabulary, and you're going to learn advanced phrasal

verbs.

These phrasal verbs are.

Commonly used in a more academic and professional environment.

So now you're going to learn the top 10 academic phrasal.

Verbs to.

Put forth, this is used when you present or propose.

An idea, argument, or theory for consideration.

For example, the scholar put forth an intriguing hypothesis regarding cultural evolution.

In this case, when you say, she put forth this hypothesis.

It means she presented it, she proposed it, and it suggests there's going to be consideration.

Is this a good hypothesis?

Is this a bad hypothesis?

And why?

So they'll discuss it and decide.

Let's talk about the verb conjugation of the verb to put forth.

So the phrasal verb is to put forth.

But with phrasal verbs, you only conjugate the verb.

Here the verb is.

Is.

She put forth a hypothesis and the past participle is put.

She's already put forth, she has put forth.

So notice those 3 conjugations are put.

It's the time reference or the context of the sentence that will make it obvious if

it is the base verb, the past simple or the present perfect to bring about.

This is used to say that.

Something causes or initiates a change, a result or an outcome, for example.

This study aims to bring about a shift in public perception of environmental issues.

So in this case, they want to bring about a shift in public perception, so they want

to initiate a change in the public perception.

To draw on this is when you use or refer to existing knowledge or sources.

For example, the author drew on.

Previous studies to support the proposed hypothesis O if the author drew on the previous studies,

it means.

The author used the information in those previous studies or refer to the information in those

previous studies.

So.

Simply use.

The information and notice here it's an irregular verb.

The author drew on.

That's the past simple.

So the author draws on.

That's the present simple.

The author drew on.

That's the past simple and the author.

Has drawn on.

That's the present perfect.

So draw, drew drawn.

To flesh out this is to fully develop an idea, and you do that by providing more information,

details or explanations.

For example, the next chapter of the thesis will flesh out the theoretical framework.

If I read this then I know.

Know that the next chapter will provide more information about the theoretical framework.

I'll know that right now I don't really know what the theoretical framework is, but that's

OK, because the next chapter will flesh it out.

In the next chapter I'll have a lot more information, Perhaps there'll be some examples, there'll

be better descriptions.

So in the next chapter, all my questions about the theoretical framework framework will be

answered, because the author is going to flesh it out to bear on this means to be relevant

or applicable to a situation or an argument.

For example, these findings bear on the ongoing debate on educational policies.

So if these findings bear on the ongoing debate, it means that the findings are relevant to

the ongoing debate or that you can apply these findings to the ongoing debate.

So basically, they're useful.

It's useful information to have to bear on.

This is also an irregular verb, so the base verb is bare.

The past simple is bore, the findings bore on the ongoing debate, and the past participle

is born.

The findings have borne on the ongoing debate to back up.

This is when you provide evidence, support or validation for a claim or argument.

For example, the statistical data backs up the researcher's assertions about demographic

trends.

So here if.

The data backs up the researcher's assertions.

It means the data supports what the researcher said or thought.

It supports it, and generally, if you're making a claim, it's always useful to have the data,

the evidence, or the information to back that claim up to support that claim.

To build on this is when you develop or expand on existing theories, ideas or concepts.

For example, the new theory builds on previous research in cognitive psychology.

So if this new theory builds on previous research, it means that the new theory expands this

previous research so it provides more information, or perhaps new information, but on the same

topic as before, cognitive psychology.

To carry out this simply means to do or to complete.

Something for example, the research team carried out a study involving 100 participants.

This sounds more advanced than simply saying the research team completed a study.

They carried out a study.

It means the same thing, but by saying carried out you sound more advanced to touch on.

This means to briefly mention a topic or an idea without going.

Into the details.

For example, my presentation will touch on the key findings of our recent study.

So you can expect that this presentation will briefly discuss the findings of the recent

study, but it will not go.

Into the details, tails, so it won't flesh it out.

It won't flesh out the recent findings.

It will only touch on them.

So it will mention them briefly, or it will mention what the finding is, but it won't

explain how that finding was developed, or the implications of that finding, or what

they're going to do next because of that finding.

It will only touch on it.

To dwell on this is to focus extensively on a specific topic or idea or aspect.

For example, the author does not dwell on the importance of environmental regulation.

So this means that the the author doesn't focus extensively on environmental regulation

or the importance of environmental regulation.

So it's possible that the author touches on the importance of environmental regulation,

mentions it briefly, but it's not something that is discussed in detail.

Now you have 10 academic phrasal verbs that will help you sound very advanced, very fluent

when you're communicating in an academic environment or a business environment or even in an everyday

social environment.

So how about we quiz you to see how well you know these phrasal?

Verbs here are the questions.

Hit, pause, take as much time as you need, and when you're ready, hit play to see the

answers.

So how did you do with that quiz?

Well, let's find out.

Here are the answers.

Hit pause, compare your answers to mine, and when you're ready, hit play.

So how did you do on that quiz?

Make sure you share your score in the comments and leave an example sentence with your favorite

phrasal.

This article is on a completely different topic,

so you're going to learn completely different vocabulary, see different grammatical structures,

and you'll also keep improving your pronunciation as well.

So let's read the article together.

1st I'll read the headline Fred the pig caught after mischief rampage.

So in this picture it looks like this is Fred the pig and he was caught after mischief rampage.

First I want you to notice my pronunciation here.

Mischief.

Jeff Jeff Mischief.

So here you don't hear this E sound because we do have a word that you may be familiar

were with which is chief, chief.

Same spelling at this end, but this here is a long E sound EFF chief.

But here you don't hear that long E and it's just like if you were saying if mischief,

mischief.

So notice that pronunciation.

And what exactly is mischief?

Mischief essentially means bad behavior.

Bad behavior.

We use this a lot with children.

Of course, the children got into mischief while I was working.

Now let's talk about rampage.

Rampage.

What is this?

This is OK.

This is when you go through an area.

And you do that making a lot of noise and causing damage.

So this pig went through an area, and as he was going around, he was either making noise

or causing damage or doing both of those at the same time.

That would describe a rampage, A mischief rampage.

Now notice the sentence structure.

Fred the pig caught.

After mischief rampage, Now what do you notice about this part of the sentence?

Is this an active sentence or a passive sentence?

It might be difficult for you to identify this because in headlines of newspaper articles

or short stories, they often omit certain words that are only there grammatically.

So in this case, to identify the passive, you would normally see the verb to be, because

that's the correct grammatical structure.

Now correct grammar would be Fred the pig was caught after mischief rampage.

But native speakers understand the sentence structure without the auxiliary verb, and

headlines and short story titles always try to be as short as possible, and they do that

by omitting these words that are there for grammar.

But not essential to understand the meaning but the sentence structure.

If you were writing this in any other context, you in need was caught the past simple of

the verb to be.

Now that's our passive sentence.

If you wanted to turn this into an active sentence, what could you say?

Think about that.

Fred the pig was caught.

Well, we don't know who caught Fred the pig, but we could just say people, because I don't

know who the subject is, people.

Or maybe officials caught Fred the pig.

Now this.

Is our active sentence because the subject is doing the action where in this case Fred

the pig is receiving the action.

So this is our active sentence and this is our passive sentence.

I wrote that there for you.

And don't worry about writing all these notes down because I summarize everything in a free

lesson PDF so you can look in the description for the link.

Now let's continue and learn about Fred's mischief rampage After numerous complaints.

Numerous is another way of saying, many after numerous complaints, after many complaints.

And a complaint is when you see something negative.

So if you went to a restaurant and you didn't like the food and then you told.

The the server?

The waiter.

This isn't very good.

You are making a complaint, making a complaint.

So that's the verb that goes with the noun complaint.

I made a complaint about the food.

Now complain is the verb form, and this I'll complaint.

That's a noun.

As a noun.

Notice it has an article in our sentence here, after numerous complaints.

There's no article because you don't use an article when it's a plural noun.

But if you were to use the verb form, I complained about the food.

So when you dislike something or you have a negative experience and you make that known

to someone, you are making a complaint.

Or you are.

Complaining the noun form or the verb form.

After numerous complaints of mischief, we know what this means and the pronunciation.

Remember, mischief is simply bad behavior.

Mischief Jeff Mischief in the city of Aurora, a £400 LB.

This is the short form to identify pound a £400 culprit.

Culprit.

Well, what or who is a culprit?

Well, Fred the Pig is the culprit.

And a culprit is someone, or in this case, something a pig who has done something wrong.

A £400 culprit, Fred the Pig has finally been caught loitering outside a shopping center.

Now in this case it is still the passive voice because the culprit who is Fred the pig is

receiving the action.

And they're not.

The story isn't focusing on who caught Fred the Pig, which is why we don't even know who

caught Fred the Pig.

And that's why I had to just write people or officials, because that's not the purpose

of the story.

The purpose of the story is learning about how Fred the pig was caught.

A £400 culprit has finally been caught loitering outside a shopping center.

Let's talk about this verb to loiter.

Loiter is the verb.

Notice that pronunciation Oy oy, loy, loiter, loiter, loiter.

Now, when you loiter, you stay in a public place.

This could be a mall, a restaurant.

A school without an obvious reason to be there.

Well, what's the obvious?

Reason to be at a mall to purchase something.

But oftentimes younger people, and maybe older people as well, will go to the mall as a form

of an activity, but they have no intention of buying something.

They don't even have any money, but they're in the mall and they're just staying there.

So they're taking up space.

Maybe they're making noise, disturbing people and they're not actually customers because

they are not buying anything.

So in that case, those people are loitering.

And a lot of public places like malls, schools will have a sign that says no loitering, which

is telling you unless you're here to buy something.

I don't want you here and you shouldn't be here, which makes sense because you shouldn't

go to a location unless you plan to buy something, right?

From the mall's perspective.

Personally, I also go to the mall sometimes with friends without the intent of buying

something, so in that case I am loitering.

But this pig, Fred the Pig, has finally been caught loitering outside a shopping center.

So this looks like, perhaps it's the shopping center.

And obviously he has no reason to be there, so he's loitering.

Fred the Pig was loitering.

All right, let's continue.

Officials say Fred, who dodged them for several days.

Let's talk about the verb dodge.

This is a great verb to have in your vocabulary.

When you dodge, dodge, odge.

When you dodge something or someone you avoid, you avoid that something.

I'll add or someone, because it's very common to dodge someone.

And why do you avoid that?

Something or someone, usually because.

If you get.

That something or that someone, it will be unpleasant in some way.

So Fred the pig dodged them.

So in this case, it's officials.

The officials who were trying to catch him.

Fred the pig dodged.

Officials avoided officials.

Why?

Because if the officials caught him, he would be in danger.

Potentially.

Of course, that's what the pig would think.

Now, this is a very common word that you can use in your speech.

For example, I've been dodging my boss's phone calls.

So this is the exact same thing as saying I've been avoiding avoiding my boss's phone

calls.

So my phone rings.

I look at it, it's my boss, and I press silence or decline.

Or I just let it ring.

That's how I dodge my bosses phone calls.

Why would I do that?

Because if I talk to my boss something unpleasant is going to happen.

Maybe I did a bad job with the report and I know my boss is mad about the report, so

if I pick up that call he's just going to say Jennifer, why did you do that report like

that?

And is going to be unpleasant for me, so obviously I want to avoid.

That I want to dodge that.

Officials say Fred, who dodged them for several days, is always hungry and loves his belly

scratches.

So this is scratch and then his belly.

I don't know if you have any pets.

Do you have any pets?

So notice that's how you would ask that.

Do you have any pets?

I'll write this for you.

Do you have any pets?

A very common question to ask and to answer.

You can say I have and then whatever your pets are, I have two cats, a dog, a bird and

a £400 pig for example.

Or you can simply say no I don't.

Or you might talk about a pet you had in the past.

I had a dog.

But now I don't have any pets.

Technically, you don't even need to say this because if you said I had a dog because this

verb is in the past.

I know now you don't, but I'm just showing you if you wanted to expand on your answer.

So share your answer to this question in the comments below.

Do you have any pets?

And this is true for me.

I have two cats.

I have two cats.

What about you?

What about you?

Share that in the comments below.

It took about 8 people and five hours to capture him.

Capture is another way of saying catch, capture, catch.

And you can use capture specifically with animals.

They now hope to find his forever home, his forever home.

So in this case, forever is being used as an adjective to describe the type of home.

And you see this a lot now when animal shelters are trying to to find homes for their animals.

They might have these really adorable pictures of a cat or a puppy or a pig apparently, and

say.

Fred is looking for his forever home, which means that they want someone to adopt Fred

permanently.

Notice how adopt is used with animals.

You're probably familiar with the verb adopt for children.

You can adopt A child if you're unable to have children of your own or simply because

you want to.

You can adopt A child, but you can also adopt A pet.

And obviously when you adopt A child is a permanent situation.

So that's why they're using this verb as well, 'cause they want you to know that when you

take this dog home with you, that's a permanent situation.

That dog now has his forever home.

Let's continue.

City officials first became aware of Fred on September 24th when they received a call

about a pig that was tearing up a person's yard.

All right, let's talk about the phrasal verb to tear.

Up In this context, tear up means cause damage to because they're talking about a person's

yard.

A yard is the area in front of one's house or behind one's house where there's grass,

trees, flowers.

That's your yard.

You can have your front yard or your backyard, or you can simply say yard.

So yard, grass, flowers, trees, bushes and then if he was tearing it up maybe he was

digging a hole.

He was eating the flower so he was causing damage to that person's yard.

Now a tear up can also be used with a piece of paper.

Right now I'm tearing up this piece of paper.

I'm taking a whole piece of paper and it's going into smaller pieces, so that's to tear

up in the sense of a piece of paper.

Now look at this sentence and notice my pronunciation.

First notice is the exact same spelling as we just saw here for tear up a person's yard

or tear up a piece of paper.

But listen to the pronunciation, I teared.

Up ear.

So I wrote it out phonetically for you ear.

So that long E sound I teared up when I watched the sad movie, I teared up.

Oh so when you tear up you get tears in your eyes.

I tear it up when I watched the sad movie.

I always tear up when I watch sad movies.

You don't want to watch a sad movie with me because I.

Always tear up.

OK, so notice that same exact same phrasal verb, but different pronunciation and different

meanings.

But the context will make it obvious.

It's not possible that tears were produced in this person's yard, so it doesn't make

sense that this would be tear up.

So it's always the context that will make it obvious.

So a pig that was tearing up, causing damage to a person's yard, the area in front of their

house or behind their house with grass, trees, flowers, bushes, shrubs, a fence.

But when animal officers arrived on the scene, they were not able to find him.

More calls came in the next day.

Notice you need the for next day, the next day.

Sometimes I see students forget the and they just say next day more calls came in the next

day, this time about a pig in.

Then another call about a pig that was ruining someone's landscaping.

Landscaping is what you do to a yard to make it beautiful.

So landscaping is when you add flowers, a garden, trees in specific areas, some decorative

rocks and other decor to make your yard beautiful.

That is called landscaping.

Now, this pig, Fred the pig.

Oh, that Fred the pig.

He was ruining to ruin.

Ruin is also when you cause damage too.

But if you describe something as ruined, it means that the damage was permanent and you

can't save it, so it's no longer useful.

So permanent damage to something so tear up to me sounds less severe.

The amount of damage is about here, but ruin the amount of damage is here.

So to cause permanent damage to something, I'll write that for you.

Let's continue.

He was then spotted again.

When you spot something or someone, it means you identify them.

You identify them by seeing that person or that something visibly.

So let's say you're at a conference and there are many, many people, but then all of a sudden

you spot your colleague.

Oh, I spotted Joan.

My colleague Joan.

I spotted Joan.

So you were able to identify Joan in this large area of many other people.

Here's another example with SPOT.

Can you spot the mistake in this report?

So again, can you identify the mistake?

Can you see it?

Can you notice it?

But the important part is, and I wrote it here for it for you, it's because you're trying

to.

So I was trying to identify Joan in the crowd.

I was trying to spot Joan.

And you're reading a report carefully because you're trying to identify to spot the mistake.

So you're trying to do this.

It's not just things you see because they're around you.

You have to be trying to identify it to use Spot.

He was then spotted again three days later on September 27th.

So this makes sense because they're trying to see Notice identify Fred the Pig in the

early morning hours.

This time Fred was in a position where he could be captured, captured again.

Remember, we can use caught, which this article has used quite a lot as well, where he could

be captured, caught, Miss Allen said.

Still, it was no easy task.

Notice the sentence structure here, because to make this negative, generally we don't

just add no before something in English.

Generally you need an auxiliary verb.

Still, it's wasn't an easy task.

This is the standard way to make something negative.

Was not was not an easy task.

And then the contraction of was not which native speakers very commonly used.

Is wasn't.

It wasn't an easy task.

This to say, it was no easy task.

This is an alternative structure that we use mainly to emphasize the negative, so I wanna

make it sound stronger.

If I just say, oh, it wasn't an easy task.

It was no easy task.

It's more forceful to emphasize that no, it wasn't an easy task.

It was no easy task.

So you could say maybe learning English was no easy task until I found Jennifer's videos.

Learning English was no easy task until I found Jennifer's videos.

And now hopefully it is an easy task.

Was no easy task, was not an easy thing to do.

So feel free to put this in the comments if you agree that now it's easier because you

have my lessons to help you.

And by putting this in the comments, you're practicing this alternative sentence structure,

so put that in the comments.

Learning English was no easy task until I found Jennifer.

'S videos, all right.

Let's continue.

He was, he just wasn't ready to give up his holiday of running around the city and eating

what he wanted to eat, she said.

So of course the he is Fred the Pig and this is talking about the fact how he didn't want

to be captured, caught and it was no easy task.

Well, and remember, before the pig, Fred, the pig was dodging, was dodging them, which

made it no easy task to capture him.

Dodge is a void now.

Why?

Because he wasn't ready to give up his holiday.

This is a useful phrasal verb to give something up.

In this case, the something is his holiday, and when you give something up, you simply

stop doing it.

You stop doing the something or you stop using the something.

So a lot of people use this when they quit smoking.

Oh, I need to give up smoking.

I need to stop smoking, stop doing the activity or using the activity, so in this case, stop

his holiday.

He wasn't ready to give up his holiday of running around the city and eating what he

wanted to eat, she said.

Of course, he wasn't ready to give it up.

After he was captured, staff affectionately gave him the name Fred.

So when you do something affectionately, you do it with love, love, friendliness, oh, admiration

and affectionately.

This is an adverb and it modifies the verb Gave him the name because at the beginning

the story sounded like, oh, this pig is causing damage, this pig is ruining yards, this pig

is loitering.

So these negative things about the pig.

But the staff feel affection towards the pig, so they affectionately gave him the name Fred.

To show that they're not mad at the pig, they are.

They feel friendliness or love towards the pig.

So the staff affectionately gave him the name Fred and he has been staying at the Aurora

Animal Shelter ever since.

So because this isn't in the present perfect continuous Burton's, I know the pig is still

there now.

The pig, Fred, the pig is still at the Aurora Animal Shelter now, Miss Allen said.

He is an unusual addition to the shelter animal shelter.

This is an area where they they care for abandoned pets or pets without homes.

They call that a shelter to the shelter, which more commonly houses cats and dogs.

Of course, they don't get many pigs at animal shelters in cities.

Of course, staff are not sure how he ended up on the streets of Aurora.

When you end up to use the phrasal verb, it talks about your your final state or your

final decision.

So he's on the streets of Aurora, but they have no idea how that became his final location.

How did he get there?

How did he end up there?

So you can use that.

This is a very common phrasal verb.

For example, I might say I ended ended up staying home last night.

This implies that my final decision or action was to stay home, but because I used ended

up.

It implies that I was considering other options, but I ended up staying home.

So this was out of all the option options I was considering.

This is my final option.

I ended up staying home last night.

I ended up adopting a pig named Fred, which I don't think I'll end up doing, but I guess

it's a possibility 'cause I do love animals, but I don't think I can take Fred home for

his forever.

Home staff are not sure how he ended up on the streets of Aurora, how that became his

final position.

They have speculated that he may have been a backyard pet.

Remember I explained backyard already?

A backyard pet that grew to be a much bigger size than expected?

You're probably wondering about the verb speculate.

It has the same meaning as the verb guess.

When you guess an answer, for example, it means you're not 100% certain what the correct

answer is, but you're just going to guess.

So when you speculate, you don't know 100% what the answer is, but you're just you're

guessing.

You're using the information that you have to provide an explanation, but you're not

100% certain.

So they're guessing that he was a backyard pet that grew to be much bigger than expected,

but they're not 100% sure if this is correct.

They probably got him as a little piglet.

So a baby pig is called a piglet, Baby pig, just like a baby cat is a kitten, a baby dog

is a puppy.

So this is a baby pig is a piglet, a little piglet.

And he just continued to grow.

Miss Allen said nobody has claimed Fred, so this means nobody has said Fred is my pig.

If someone said Fred is my pig, then that person claimed Fred.

But unfortunately nobody has said that and he seems to like his new home for now.

But staff are hoping to find a farm for him where he can play and be at ease, at ease,

At ease.

You need the preposition at.

This would be another way of saying be relaxed, relaxed.

If you're at ease it means you're relaxed.

There's no tension and they're looking for a farm that can be.

Remember the expression we we learned as well.

That can be his forever home.

His forever home.

I don't know about you, but I love animal stories.

I love animals.

I always tear up when I hear about animals.

So let's all say in the comments, good luck Fred, good luck Fred.

And hopefully Fred will find his forever home.

So put Good luck Fred in the comments.

And that was the end of the article.

So what I'll do now is I'll read the article from start to finish and this time you can

focus on my pronunciation.

So let's do that now.

Fred, the pig caught after Mischief rampage.

After numerous complaints of mischief in the city of Aurora, a £400 culprit has finally

been caught loitering outside a shopping center.

Officials say Fred, who dodged them for several days, is always hungry and loves his belly

scratches.

It took about 8 people and five hours to capture him.

They now hope to find his forever home.

City officials first became aware of Fred on September 24th when they received a call

about a pig that was tearing up a person's yard.

But when animal officers arrived on the scene, they were not able to find him.

More calls came in the next day, this time about a pig in traffic.

Then another call about a pig that was ruining someone's landscaping.

He was then spotted again three days later on September 27th in the early morning hours.

This time Fred was in a position where he could be captured, Miss Allen said.

Still, it was no easy task.

He just wasn't ready to give up his holiday of running around the city and eating what

he wanted to eat, she said.

After he was captured, staff affectionately gave him the name Fred and he has been staying

at the Aurora Animal Shelter ever since.

Miss Allen said he is an unusual addition to the shelter, which more commonly houses

cats and dogs.

Staff are not sure how he ended up on the streets of Aurora.

They have speculated that he may have been a backyard pet that grew to be a much bigger

size than expected.

They probably got him as a little piglet and he just continued to grow, Miss Allen said.

Nobody has claimed Fred yet and he seems to like his new home for now, but staff are hoping

to find a farm for him where he can play and be at ease.

Amazing job today.

Now did you like this lesson?

I know it was long but my hope is that you'll take all weekend to review this lesson or

you'll review it over multiple days as well.

Because practice, practice, practice, repetition is the key to learning.

So if you like this lesson and you want me to make more lessons like this, then put weekly

lesson.

Put weekly lesson in the comments and I'll keep creating these.

Weekly lessons just for you.

And of course, make sure you like this video, Share it with your friends and subscribe so

you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently

and confidently.

You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description.

And you can keep improving your English with this lesson.

Right now.