If You Can Understand This News Article, Your English is Excellent!

In this English lesson, we'll  read a CNN news article together,  

and as we read the article, you'll learn  advanced English vocabulary in context.

You'll learn the correct grammar and and  the correct pronunciation at the same time.

This is an advanced article discussing  the impact of Internet addiction.

If you can understand this  article, your English is excellent.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First, I'll read the headline how Internet  addiction may affect your teen's brain,  

according to a new study Who  is your teen or what is a teen?

Who or what is a teen and in this case your teen.

Do you know A teenager is a person  aged 13 to 19 so those are the teens.

The first teen is 13/12/13  and the last teen is 1920.

So this age range represents a teenager.

Now you can just say age 13 to 19.

This dash is verbalized as  213 to 19, two to to 19.

You can also say years old but  it's not required so it's optional.

Now teen is the shortened form of  teenager and is gender neutral.

So you could say my teenage  daughter or my teenage son  

and notice in that case teenage is an adjective.

My teenage daughter.

You could also say my daughter is a teenager.

It's a noun, so you need that article.

Ah, so in this article, the use  of your This article is speaking  

to a parent who has a teenage daughter or son.

So by saying your teen's brain, it means  your son's brain, your daughter's brain,  

and your son or daughter is a teenager.

Now let's look at the use of how in this headline,  

because in this case, it is not used  to ask a question, it's a statement.

The question would be how does how does  in the past simple, it would be how did.

So how does Internet addiction affect  your teen's brain or affect you?

And then?

Because it's a question now in this case,  how Internet addiction may affect your brain.

This is common when you generally are  going to provide different reasons,  

for example, how improving  your English can help you.

So this is a statement form.

And then underneath you might provide  reason one, reason two, reason 3.

So for example, you can find a better job,  

you can travel easily, and then  you can Add all the other reasons.

So if you're here to improve your English  

and you're excited to improve  your English, put that's right.

That's right.

Put that's right in the comments  and and don't worry about taking  

these notes because I summarize  everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can find the link in the description.

Now let's continue with the article teens.

So notice here teens  

is the short form for teenagers, but now  they're talking about teens in general.

They're not talking about your  daughter or your son who is a teenager.

They're talking about all teens, all teenagers.

Because remember, when you add that S to a  noun, you're talking about the whole group.

So teens, the entire group of  the entire category of teens,  

teenagers who spend lots of time, lots of time.

This is a more casual way of saying a lot of time.

So instead of saying a lot of, just saying  lots, it sounds more casual, more informal.

A lot of is still relatively informal.

If you want to sound more formal, more academic,  you could say a significant or a substantial.

So significant Substantial means a large amount.

But with these two, you  have to use the word amount.

So here you just say lots of time, a lot of time,  

but here a significant or a  substantial amount of time.

And this would sound quite formal.

Academic teens who spend lots of time on  social media have complained of feeling  

like they can't pay attention to more important  things like homework or time with loved ones.

Remember, with homework, you do homework.

I still hear students use the  wrong verb, the wrong Co location.

You do homework, which means complete.

And homework is a collective noun.

So you do not put an S on the noun.

So you would say I have so much homework to do.

You never say it with an S now instead of so much,  

you could also say lots of I  have lots of homework to do.

You could also say a lot of I  have a lot of homework to do.

You could say a significant  amount of homework to do.

But remember I said that sounds quite formal.

That sounds almost academic.

A teenager is not going to say that most likely.

Let's review loved ones because this is  very useful to have in your vocabulary  

with loved ones loved ones.

So notice how that those sounds linked together.

Repeat after me loved ones.

Loved ones are people you love.

So remember, people is the plural of person.

So it represents all the different  people in your life who you love.

Now you can use a gerund statement  which is starting with your verb  

in ING and you can say spending  time, you spend time with people.

So starting with a gerund verb, your verb and ING.

This is used to make a general statement.

Spending time with loved  ones is the key to happiness.

Key is the most important thing  that results in happiness.

Now you can make loved ones possessive and  say your loved ones, but that's not required.

And it's common to just say  spending time with loved ones.

But if you want, you could say I spent  time with my loved ones if you want.

Let's continue.

Almost half of teenagers.

So again, the category of teenagers,  people between 13 to 19, almost half.

So 40 percent, 45%, forty, 8%, we don't  know, but it's close to close to half.

Almost half of teenagers have said  they I feel addicted to social media,  

according to a survey this year.

Now notice with according you need this  preposition and then you have a someone,  

a person, according to Jessica, according  to my teacher, according to a survey.

So it can be someone or something like  a survey, a report, a news article.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

A new study has possibly  captured that objectively.

So here the that what does that represent has  possibly captured that, that being the fact  

that teenagers are addicted to social media and  have problems paying attention to their homework.

All of what we previously discussed is  

summarized as that a new study has  possibly captured that objectively.

Objectively means there is now facts or evidence.

But notice it says possibly has possibly  captured without this word possibly has captured.

It sounds like fact, but because they  add possibly is just a possibility.

So there is also a possibility that there is  no evidence, no objective evidence of this.

A new study has possibly captured  that objectively finding that for  

teens diagnosed with Internet addiction,  signaling between brain regions important  

for controlling attention, working  memory and more was disrupted.

OK, so finding in this case that is  optional, it doesn't represent anything.

So sometimes the word that can  represent a lot of information  

and other times it's literally  meaningless and can be omitted.

Finding for teens diagnosed.

It's like when you say, I think, I  think that there's no meaning for that.

It's just a connecting word and it's optional.

So finding that for teens  diagnosed with Internet addiction.

So we're talking about teens, but specifically  teens with Internet addiction signaling.

So this means when you signal in your brain,  

it means that you can imagine there are  wires in your brain like this image up here.

So to signal is when this  connection talks to this connection.

So they talk to each other,  they have a connection.

So that would be signaling, signaling.

So that's how that word is being used here.

So signaling between brain regions  and then which brain regions?

The ones that are for controlling  attention, memory and more was disrupted.

So the signaling was disrupted,  which means that your brain cells,  

the different regions of your brains,  had a hard time, had a difficult time,  

or had problems communicating with each other,  connecting with each other, and here disrupted.

You can think of it as negatively  impacted or simply not working properly.

Now said another way, teens  with Internet addiction have  

a hard time or have a difficult time focusing.

So what do you notice here?

You need the verb and ING.

This is a very common gerund expression  that I hear a lot of mistakes with.

So just remember when you have have ah,  

and then there's an adjective hard,  difficult, and then the word time.

You could even use a positive adjective.

We had a great time preparing  for the party, for example.

So it's have a adjective time.

That's a gerund expression.

Now you could also use have trouble  and then you use the gerund.

So teens with Internet  addiction have trouble focusing.

So both of these are very common gerund  expressions that you can start using today.

Let's continue.

The findings are from a review.

So the findings represent the  information they found in the study.

So the findings the findings are from  a review of 12 neural imaging studies.

So neural imaging imaging means X-rays to take  pictures of and then neural represents your brain.

So pictures of your brain.

Review of 12 neural imaging  studies of a few 100 adolescents.

Adolescents repeat after me Adolescence.

Adolescence.

This means young people and  here they define that for you.

Aged 10 to 19.

Now they had to change the word from teenager  to adolescent because teenager starts at 13.

So from 10/11/12 you are not a teenager.

That is not the definition.

So because it started at 10, they  had to use a different word choice  

instead of teenager and they used adolescence.

And remember, by adding the S, you mean the entire  

category of adolescence aged  10 to 19 and then from 2013.

So this is the date range for the study.

So there was an age range and  a date range from 2013 to 2022.

And a few, 100.

We don't know how many that is.

A few is more than two because if  it were two they'd say a couple.

100 so I don't know how many it is, but I  know it's 300 or more, so maybe 3 or 4500.

That would be my guess based  on what this word means.

Let's continue the behavioral addiction  brought on by excessive Internet use.

So here this phrasal verb brought on  brought is the past simple of bring,  

bring, brought, brought on by.

If something is brought on by, it  means that it caused it to happen.

Let's review this example.

The fire was brought on by old  paint cans in the basement.

So the fire was caused by.

This is the passive form because the active  form, the subject is the old paint cans.

The old paint cans, where are they located?

In the basement.

The old paint cans caused  the fire brought on the fire.

You could say as well using  brought on in the active form.

Now in our sentence, notice  that there is no verb to be.

That's because it's using that  information as more descriptive.

So the fire brought on by old paint  cans in the basement destroyed the home.

So I could remove this entire part.

The fire destroyed the home, but I'm  describing I'm giving more information,  

the fire brought on by old  paint cans in the basement.

Sometimes you see this information  between two commas, which lets you  

know that this entire part can be removed.

But if you don't see it by  commas when you read it,  

you just have to understand  where the information is.

So the behavioral addiction brought  on by excessive Internet use.

Excessive Internet use caused the addiction  has become a rising source of concern.

So here you could say the behavioral addiction  has become a rising source of concern.

And then this is just the additional information  telling you where the addiction came from.

What was it caused by has become a rising  source of concern since the last decade.

The author wrote.

The authors, excuse me, the authors,  plural, the authors wrote in the study.

Let's review this.

Since the last decade, we use  sense for a starting point in time.

So even though they wrote the last decade,  

the only way this is grammatically correct  is if it represents a starting point in time.

So the last decade is a period  of 10 years, so 2015 to 2025.

Assuming the year right now is 2025  S The only way this is correct if  

it's since 2015 because sense is only  used with the starting point in time.

Because of that, it would sound better to say  since 2015, the actual start of the last decade.

Or you could say since the  beginning of the last decade,  

because the beginning of sounds more specific.

It sounds like, well, what's the beginning?

It's 2020, It's 2015.

That's the beginning of the last decade.

So using either one of these sounds  better with sense because to me the  

last decade sounds more like a date range and we  

only use four with ranges for the last  decade, which represents 2015 to 2025.

Remember sense plus specific point in  time for plus a range, a time range.

Let's continue the criteria for  clinical diagnosis of Internet  

addiction in the included studies were once  persistent preoccupation with the Internet.

So preoccupation with means you're distracted by,  you're constantly thinking about the Internet.

Now, persistent is another  way of saying constantly.

So if it's persistent, it means it happens  again and again and again and again.

So it's constant.

So that's one persistent  preoccupation with the Internet.

Withdrawal symptoms went away from the Internet.

A withdrawal symptom means that you  either feel something physically,  

your hands might start to shake.

For example, that could be a withdrawal symptom  of someone who's trying to quit smoking.

Their hands might start to shake.

Or it can be more emotional.

You just feel really anxious or frustrated  when you're away from the Internet.

So when you're not using the Internet.

And another criteria is sacrificing  relationships to spend time on the Internet.

So sacrificing your relationship means that you're  

neglecting it in order to  spend time on the Internet.

Your relationship suffers.

So you're choosing the Internet  over your relationship.

So you're sacrificing your relationship  to gain time on the Internet.

And remember that spend time is a gerund verb,  

so if you had an action you would need the  verb and ING spend time surfing online.

Now, online is the alternative to on the Internet.

But if you use online, just know it's  one word online, on the Internet online.

So spend time surfing online, spend time watching  videos online, spend time posting online.

Whatever the actions are, they're in the verb ING  the gerund because spend time is a gerund verb.

But you spend time on the Internet.

You could also simply say spend time on line  instead of on the Internet because remember  

online is the replacement to these 3 words on  the Internet, said one author of the study.

The pattern of behavior results in significant  impairment or distress in the individual's life.

So the pattern of behavior.

This would be spending too much time online,  

so the addiction to the Internet,  so the pattern of behavior.

Spending too much time online  results in significant impairment  

or distress in the individual's life.

So distress, this represents negative  emotions and then impairment.

This sounds like negative effects.

So if your vision is impaired, it  means you're not able to see clearly.

So if your life is impaired, it means you're  not able to function properly in your life.

So the examples they gave of not being able  to do their homework because they can't focus,  

that could be an example of  how their life is impaired.

Let's continue.

When participants, So participants, these  are the people who participated in the study.

When participants clinically  diagnosed with Internet addiction.

So these are participants who have an addiction  

to the Internet and they've  been clinically diagnosed.

This means a doctor or a researcher has  formally said you have Internet addiction,  

you have Internet recognition addiction.

So clinically diagnosed means I didn't just  say I think I'm addicted to the Internet.

Someone with authority, a doctor or a researcher  said this when participants clinically diagnosed,  

so formally diagnosed by an expert,  clinically diagnosed with Internet  

addiction engaged in activities governed  by the brains executive function network.

Now they're going to define what the executive,  

the brain's executive function network  is because this is not common knowledge.

I do not instantly know what this is.

So what is it?

It's behaviours requiring attention,  planning, decision making and impulse control.

So that is your brain's  executive function network.

Those brain regions showed substantial disruption.

Remember previously I said substantial  is a more formal way of saying a lot of.

So you could say showed a lot of disruption, much  disruption, negative effects would be disruption,  

but substantial or significant is  the more formal academic choice.

Those brain regions showed  substantial disruption in  

their ability to work together compared to  those in peers without Internet addiction.

So all this to say the participants, so people  who have Internet addiction when they did certain  

behaviors, so engaged in activities governed by  is a very formal way of saying did activities.

So when they did activities  requiring their attention, planning,  

decision making or impulse control,  those were the type of activities.

So when someone formally diagnosed with  Internet addiction, try to pay attention,  

they had disruption in those brain regions.

So they had negative effects in those  brain regions compared to other people.

So that's their peers, other people in the  same category without Internet addiction.

Let's continue.

The authors think such signaling changes.

So remember, signaling is just how those wires in  your brain connect or communicate with each other.

And the changes for the people with Internet  addiction is they those connections were impaired,  

they weren't working as well,  they weren't working properly.

The authors think such signaling changes  could suggest these behaviors can become  

more difficult to perform, potentially  influencing development and well-being.

So these behaviors can become  more difficult to perform.

The behavior is being decision making, paying  attention, planning, controlling your impulses.

So those behaviors could be  more difficult because of this  

impairment in your brain signals  because of Internet addiction.

And this all of this might because  potentially is just the possibility.

So you could replace that  with the modal verb might.

If you did, you would have to use the base verb  might influence because modal plus base verb might  

influence development and well-being, potentially  influencing development and well-being.

And that is the end of the article.

So what I'll do now is I'll read  the article from start to finish.

And so I also recommend that you read this  article again because there is a lot of  

complicated language, but you can summarize  it in an easy to understand everyday term.

So that could be a great exercise for  you to read a paragraph and then try  

to summarize it in everyday language as  if you were explaining it to a teenager.

So someone who has a lower reading level.

So that's a great activity to do.

So now I'll read it from start to finish.

How Internet addiction may affect your  teens brain According to a new study,  

Teens who spend lots of time on social media  have complained of feeling like they can't  

pay attention to more important things,  like homework or time with loved ones.

Almost half of teenagers have said  they feel addicted to social media,  

according to a survey this year.

A new study has possibly captured  that objectively, finding that for  

teens diagnosed with Internet addiction,  signaling between brain regions important  

for controlling attention, working  memory and more was disrupted.

The findings are from a review  of 12 neuro imaging studies of  

a few 100 adolescents aged 10  to 19 from from 2013 to 2022.

The behavioral addiction brought on  by excessive Internet use has become  

a rising source of concern since the last  decade, the authors wrote in the study.

The criteria for clinical diagnosis of Internet  addiction in the included studies were once  

persistent preoccupation with the Internet,  withdrawal symptoms went away from the Internet  

and sacrificing relationships to spend time  on the Internet, said one author of the study.

The pattern of behavior results in  significant impairment or distress  

in the individual's life when participants  clinically diagnosed with Internet addiction  

engage in activities governed by the  brain's executive function, network  

behaviors requiring attention, planning,  decision making, and impulse control.

Those brain regions showed  substantial disruption in  

their ability to work together compared to  those in peers without Internet addiction.

The authors think such signaling changes  could suggest these behaviors can become  

more difficult to perform, potentially  influencing development and well-being.

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