Learn English with the News (Advanced English Reading Lesson)

Welcome to this lesson to help you learn English  with the news. We are going to read a news article  

together and you're going to learn a lot of  advanced vocabulary, complex sentence structure,  

advanced grammar, and even correct pronunciation  directly by reading this article with me. 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 Welcome to our article we have a very  

interesting topic we're talking about Brit coin  that's right, not Bitcoin but Brit coin. So first,  

I'm going to read the article in full and you  can follow along with my pronunciation. red  

coin could arrive in the second half of the  decade. The United Kingdom is pushing ahead  

with plans to create a digital pound issued by  the Bank of England that would offer a stable  

alternative to Bitcoin or ether. While cash  is here to stay, a digital pound issued and  

backed by the Bank of England could be a new  way to pay that's trusted, a sensible and easy  

to use. UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt said in  a statement, the Bank of England and the Treasury  

said the decision about whether to roll out a  digital pound, which has been nicknamed Brit coin  

will be made around the middle of the decade.  Central banks around the world are considering  

whether to issue digital currencies, as  more parts of the economy move online.  

Unlike cryptocurrencies that are currently  available, these coins would have official  

backing which would result in a stable value  and need they can be used for everyday spending.  

Central Bank digital currencies could make  online spending more convenient, ease cross  

border transactions and boost competition  among providers of digital financial assets.  

In his speech in November, Sir John Cunliffe  Deputy Governor of the Bank of England for  

financial stability, said that without a digital  pound, a few big players could dominate and  

perhaps control innovation in payment services.  But major details of digital currencies still need  

to be hashed out. critics worry that the rollout  by central banks could cause enormous disruption  

if people raise to swap cash for a digital  alternative. Another fear is privacy since  

digital currencies would give government's new  insights into how people are spending their money.  

Now let's look at the article in more detail  and I'll explain some advanced vocabulary and  

grammar topics. So let's start with our headline.  Brick coin could arrive in the second half of the  

decade. So the second half of the decade that  would be 2025 or after so not too long from now  

we could have brick coin. The United Kingdom  is pushing ahead with plans so to push ahead  

with something usually plans or a project or a  proposal is another way of just saying advancing  

with plans going ahead with plans through seeding  with so many different ways you could say this,  

all of them are honestly quite common. One I  hear a lot is going ahead with I probably hear  

this more than pushing ahead with but then we also  have is proceeding with. So our preposition would  

be with proceeding with you don't see proceeding  ahead with in this case is just proceeding with  

and then a plan a policy a change something  like that. So let me give you an example.  

You could say my company is pushing ahead with the  conference. So notice here I used a now you can  

push ahead with something specific. So it means  they're proceeding with the conference. They're  

going to have the conference and they're going  to create more plans for it. Now in our example  

here with plans plans is a verb I plan to attend  the conference. It's a verb but it can also be a  

noun. Do you have plans tonight, for example? And  in this case, is it a verb or a noun pushing ahead  

with plans? It's a noun. And I know that because  grammatically the sentence requires a noun or  

a verb but the verb would be in the gerund form  because with is a preposition. So grammatically,  

this can't be a verb because it would be  incorrect. We need the gerund verb. My company  

is pushing ahead with and then I could say with  planning the conference, so I need a Jaren verb.  

Let's continue on so pushing ahead with plans  to create a digital pound issued by the Bank  

of England that would offer a stable alternative  to Bitcoin or ether ether is just another type of  

cryptocurrency. Okay, let's continue on. This is  a quote from the UK finance minister, while cash  

is here to stay. So something is here to stay. I  think this is probably obvious, but it means it's,  

it's not going to disappear anytime soon. I  could say working from home is here to say at  

the beginning of the pandemic, everybody thought  out working from home was going to be temporary.  

But now it's here to stay maybe not 100% of the  time, but it's definitely changed the way that  

people work. So it's a great expression to have in  your vocabulary. I think you'll use it a lot and  

notice you need the verb to be with the expression  to be here to stay. While cash is here to say a  

digital pound issued and backed by the bank. Of  England to be backed by just means that the Bank  

of England supports it. The Bank of England is  responsible for it that's backed by backed by  

the Bank of England could be a new way to pay  that's trusted, and it's trusted because it's  

backed by the Bank of England trusted assessable  assessable means it's available to many, many,  

many people so widely available and easy to  use. UK finance minister said in the statement  

the Bank of England and the Treasury said the  decision about whether to roll out a digital  

pound to roll out this is a phrasal verb we  have our verb and a preposition. And this is  

when you introduce introduce something when  you make something available so to roll out  

to make something available and that something is  usually a service or a product. So in this case,  

the digital pound that would be a product  and you're making it available. You're  

introducing it for the first time you're making  it available for the first time which is where  

the introduce it comes from. Let me give you  another example. This is commonly used by the  

government when they introduce a new policy or  regulation. You could say they rolled out so our  

government just rolled out a new tax incentive.  They introduced it for the first time and roll of  

course is our verb so you need to conjugate  that verb here. It's in the past simple.  

Okay, which has been nicknamed Brit coin. So this  isn't the official name. I know that because they  

use a nickname. A nickname is an alternative name.  So my name is Jennifer. My family calls me Jenny.  

So that could be my nickname is Jenny but it's  not my official name. So an alternative name.  

An alternative name for someone or something.  And we use this a lot with people we have a close  

relationship with your family or significant  other your friends. You probably call them a  

nickname more than their real name. So what's  your nickname? Do you have a nickname? Share  

in the comments below. And just so you know, I  don't actually like the name Jenny. I tolerate  

my family calling me Jenny but I actually don't  like that. Name. So don't call me It's alright,  

let's continue on which has been nicknamed  Bitcoin. So again, not the official name, but it's  

possible they do take that as the official name  would be made around the middle of the decade.  

Central banks around the world are considering  whether to issue digital currencies as more parts  

of the economy move online. All right, so right  now they're just considering it. They're deciding  

if we should do it. So of course, this is an  excellent time to use our present continuous  

because it's taking place right now. Right now  they're considering whether to do this. So maybe  

your country is having the same conversation as  well about having a digital currency that's going  

to be backed by your government or your central  bank. Remember backed by is supported by unlike  

cryptocurrencies that are currently available,  these coins would have official backing we already  

talked about that to be backed by to have official  backing, which would result in a stable value and  

mean they could be used for every day spending.  Let's talk about starting a sentence with unlike  

because this is a great sentence structure  to have in your vocabulary. I could say on  

like the United States, Canada has free  health care. So this is a way of saying  

Canada has free health care. Okay, so that  part does not change, but the US doesn't.  

So these two sentences mean the same thing.  Now I could reverse this. And I could say  

the US doesn't have free health care.  

But Canada does. I could also say that just as  an alternative they mean the exact same thing.  

But I learned starting with unlike because notice,  it's the most concise which means the short is out  

of all options. So when you use this, you can use  less words, but communicate the exact same message  

which is always preferred. And this is a great  way but remember when you use this, unlike the  

US you're saying the US does not have or does not  do whatever your second sentence is so remember,  

the Brit coin would have official banking, but  all their cryptocurrencies don't because they  

used unlike so that's a really great sentence  structure. I encourage you to practice that.  

Now the result of that is they'll have a stable  value because it's backed by the Bank of England,  

and that can be used for everyday spending. Let's  talk about every day. Now notice it's one word,  

as one word is an adjective, adjective and it  means common, or typical. So common spending, what  

would that be things like things you buy everyday,  like gas, groceries, expenses for your kids. Those  

are everyday spending, your mortgage, your cell  phone bill, things like that everyday spending.  

Now compare that to our adverb of frequency,  which would be I buy milk every day,  

every day. This as an adverb of frequency means  seven days a week, right? Every day. That's a lot  

of milk. I don't know what you're doing with all  milk. I buy milk every day. Milk is an every day  

purchase. So here in this case, because  it's one word, I know that this is the  

adjective it describes purchase and it just  means typical or common. Let's continue on  

central bank. digital currencies could make  online spending more convenient is cross  

border transaction. So cross border would be from  Canada to the US, US to Mexico, Mexico to France,  

that's cross border and personally I think that  is the best advantage of cryptocurrencies is  

the cross border transactions. What about you?  And boost competition boost is another way of  

seeing increase. It's a very common way of seeing  increase, increase competition among providers  

of digital financial assets. So these are all the  advantages of cryptocurrencies digital currencies.  

Continue on in his speech in November, Sir  John Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of the Bank  

of England for financial stability, said that  without a digital pound, a few big players could  

dominate and perhaps control innovation in payment  services. So this just talks about his point here.  

About having competition and remember increasing  competition. That's one of the benefits of having  

a bank digital currency, a digital currency backed  by the bank. Let's take a look so that without a  

digital pound, now notice our sentence structure  because we have without and then we have a now  

which is great. That's very common. You can also  have without and then a verb, but you would need  

a gerund verb because without is a preposition.  So I could say the exact same thing. But I need  

a verb instead of a noun. So I could simply  say said that without having a digital pound.  

That could be an easy verb to add there. Without  having a digital patent. Just remember without is  

a preposition. So if you have a verb, it needs  to be the gerund verb, which is verb plus ing.  

A few big players could dominate and perhaps  control innovation in payment services. So a  

payment services service is just how you pay  credit card, debit card Pay Pal cryptocurrency.  

Those are all payment services. And our last  paragraph, the major details of digital currencies  

still need to be hashed out. This is a great  phrasal verb. When you have something else,  

you discuss the details of the plan. So let's  say we want to have a conference. Okay, but we  

need to hash it out. When is it going to take  place? Who are the speakers going to be? Who is  

going to attend how many people will attend? What  will the price be? So those are all the details  

you need to make decisions on. So the process of  making those decisions the conversations back and  

forth that is hash out to hash out. So to hash out  this is a phrasal verb to hash something out this  

something is the details and this is to decide on  the details of a plan or project or a proposal.  

Now you could do this when you're planning a  vacation so you can use this in an everyday  

context, everyday context. So we typical a  normal context such as planning a vacation,  

you need to hash out where you're going to stay  your itinerary and your travel arrangements and  

everything else. So let's say you are planning  a vacation with your family. You could say Let's  

meet tonight and hash out the details. Now notice  here that the sentence is in the passive form  

to be hashed. Out. So let's use an example  and combine it with another phrasal verb we  

learn to roll out which means to introduce to make  available for the first time so the government is  

rolling out a new tax incentive, but this specific  details need to be hashed out. Okay, the details  

need to be hashed out this is still the passive  sentence. If it were an active sentence, it would  

be the government is hashing out the details.  So let me write that. The government is hashing  

out the Present Continuous because it's taking  place now. The government is hashing out the  

details for its new tax incentive. Now hopefully  you would hash out the details before you roll  

something out. But this is just an example to  use both of the phrasal verbs in one sentence.  

Okay critics so people who don't think there  should be a digital currency backed by the central  

bank the Brit coin the critics worry that their  roll out. So notice here, it's the same meaning,  

but it's a now and I know it's a noun because it's  there. For one, you possess something. You don't  

possess a verb so I have my possessive and the  spelling as well. It's one word so I know this is  

a noun. And it's similar to say their introduction  how I could use introduce as a verb or a noun.  

So this is a noun, their rollout by central  banks could cause enormous disruption IT people  

raised to swap cash for digital alternatives for a  digital alternative. Okay to swap. So I have cash.  

And this is the cryptocurrency. I'm going to  swap. So I'm going to give you cash and then  

get a digital currency. I'm going to swap them  that's what it means. So it's when you replace one  

thing or another thing, I might say. Just a silly  example I have this blue pen. I want to swap it  

for this pink pen. So I'm going to replace my blue  pen with my pink pen. That is to swap to swap.  

Let me write that definition to replace one  thing with another and in this case, cash and  

digital currency. Now to raise it means that just  well you know what a race is you go really fast,  

right? So once this digital currency is available,  lots of people might say I want it I want it and  

then they're going to swap their cash. That's  what they think could happen and that will  

cause disruption disruption is a negative  thing is when everything is going smoothly,  

but then there's some sort of issue that causes  problems. And that could happen if people raise  

to swap it. So race to this means to move very  quickly. move quick quickly, to achieve something.  

Now you might say just to use race to the  government is racing to roll out their new  

tax incentive. So maybe they're trying to do this  very, very quickly. Maybe they have a deadline.  

They publicly announced that it has to be done  by the end of the week. So now they're racing to  

do it. They're moving very quickly to accomplish  it to achieve it. Another fear is privacy since  

digital currencies would give governments new  insights into how people are spending their money.  

So this talks about some of the potential  drawbacks the negatives of the cryptocurrency  

and that is the end of our article. So what  do you think if there was a government backed  

cryptocurrency digital currency available in your  city, your country? Would you be interested in it?  

I don't think I definitely would. And mainly for  the reason of cross border transactions. I think  

it would make it so much easier. So feel free to  share your comments on the topic as well. Amazing  

job with this lesson. Now you can look in the  description or look in the comment section below  

to find the link where you can download the free  lesson PDF that summarizes everything we learned  

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