English Vocabulary Practice with News | C1 level

In this lesson, you're going to improve your fluency in English, and we're going to do

this by reading a news article together.

And this news article is at the C1 level, so you'll learn a lot of advanced vocabulary,

advanced expressions, advanced grammar, and advanced pronunciation.

And don't worry, because I explained all the complex concepts and make them very easy to

understand.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

1st I'll read the headline Is the Coliseum crumbling?

I'm sure you recognize the Coliseum in this picture of monument that is known around the

world.

Is the Coliseum crumbling?

Let's talk about crumbling.

The verb is to crumble, crumble, and that means to break one item, one thing, into smaller

pieces.

So this is commonly used with homes or structures or building, especially when they're made

of a material that can break into smaller pieces, like stone, like the Coliseum.

Now this is also commonly used in cooking.

So my example here, we crumbled some nuts over the pie.

So you take one whole nut, even though a nut is very small, and then you break it into

smaller pieces and then you can crumble it over the pie.

So you have small pieces of nuts on your pie.

So very common in cooking, and also very common for buildings, especially stone buildings.

And here it's in the present continuous is the Colosseum crumbling?

So our verb to be is simply because they're asking if this is taking place right now.

Now notice the Coliseum.

For the name of this monument, this structure you need the article the because there is

only one Coliseum.

It is unique.

The and Coliseum is capitalized.

You can't tell here because every first letter is capitalized in the title, but Coliseum

is always spelled with a capital C, so the, which does not have to be capitalized.

But Coliseum, the C is always capitalized because it's considered a proper noun, and

we use the because it's unique.

There's only one Don't worry about taking these notes because I summarize everything

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

I chose this article because I am going to Rome next week and the first thing I'm doing

in Rome is going to the Coliseum.

I already have my ticket booked, so you can write in the comments.

Have a great trip, Jennifer.

We also simply borrow the French expression.

Bon voyage.

Very commonly said bon voyage, which means have a great trip.

So you can say have a great trip, Jennifer or you can borrow the French expression and

say bon voyage.

I probably should know the Italian expression for that, but I unfortunately don't know it.

So if you know the Italian expression, put it in the comments as well.

And don't worry, I will share lots of pictures and videos as well of the Coliseum, so you

can experience the trip with me.

Let's continue with the article and learn more about the Coliseum.

The Coliseum.

So here notice capital C in this case, the T is capitalized because it starts a sentence

and we always capitalize the 1st letter that starts a new sentence.

Just like this is capitalized,  this is capitalized.

So that's why the T is capitalized.

But this C is always capitalized Coliseum.

The Coliseum is a giant amphitheater.

Don't let this long word confuse you.

This pronunciation is very simple.

Just say the word theatre, which you already know how to pronounce theatre, theatre.

Now for this Ampa PA PA.

So don't let this spelling confuse you.

PA, PA, ampa, ampa.

Now the syllable stress is on the 1st syllable, so let's combine the sounds together and we'll

emphasize the first syllable.

Amphitheatre.

Amphitheatre.

Very simple, right?

I wrote the phonetic spelling here for you now.

Giant.

Of course you know this word giant means very large.

But did you know that a synonym of giant, very large, is colossal?

Colossal.

So you could say the Colosseum is a colossal amphitheater because they look very similar.

So I think that's a nice pair to combine In the center of Rome, Italy.

It is one of the world's most iconic sites.

Listen to the pronunciation here.

Iconic, iconic, iconic.

So we pronounce this as an I sound iconic and the syllable stress is in the middle iconic

sites now because we have a superlative statement, one of the most iconic sites.

So it isn't the most iconic site, it's one of.

But we still have our superlative.

So we need the the most iconic sites, the world's most iconic sites and one of the new

7 Wonders of the world coming back to iconic.

Of course this means very famous or very popular.

Now I gave an example sentence here.

One of the most iconic sites.

Now notice you have to have plural for your noun sites in Ottawa is, but your verb is

conjugated with one, which means there's only one, right?

So you need your singular verb to be one of the most conic sites plural in Ottawa.

This is the city I live in.

Is your verb to be conjugated with the subject 1, which is singular.

Is, and then you can name that.

One of the most iconic sites is Parliament Hill, so I want you to practice this in the

comments.

Of course, instead of Ottawa you're going to put the name of your city and then you

can only choose one, so choose whatever in your opinion is the most famous or the most

popular.

So put that in the comments.

I think it will be really interesting to learn about these iconic sites around the world.

Let's continue.

The Coliseum is the largest ancient.

Notice the pronunciation ancient Chint.

Ancient, Ancient.

And it's a very nasal a sound.

A a ancient ancient.

The largest ancient.

Now you know how to say this, right?

What is it?

Ampeceder.

Ampeceder is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built.

So here again we have the largest because it's the superlative, the largest ancient

amplitheater ever built.

It was completed it of course, the Coliseum.

It was completed over 2 millennia ago, in 8080.

Let's talk about millennia.

Millennia is the plural form of Millennium.

One Millennium 2 millennia and one Millennium is 1000 years.

So two millennia.

Remember, plural of Millennium 2 millennia is 2000 years.

So it was completed over 2000 years ago in AD 80.

To be honest, I can't even imagine that long ago in the past.

I don't know about you now ad perhaps you're familiar with this?

This is a calendar reference.

I'm not sure if this calendar reference is used all around the world, so let me know

in the comments if you're familiar with this calendar reference.

I personally did not know what ad stood for, so I googled it and it stands for Anno Domini.

Sorry if I pronounce that wrong.

This is a Latin phrase meaning in the year of the Lord which is used when referring to

a year after Jesus Christ was born.

Now you may also be familiar with seeing a time reference BC BC.

That means before Christ.

So BC is before Christ and AD is basically after Christ was born, ultimately a very long

time ago.

It is the place where gladiators fought during the time of the Roman Empire.

Notice this empire Pyre Empire.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

The Coliseum is huge.

Remember before it was giant is giant.

And what was the adjective that I taught you as well?

The Coliseum is colossal.

Colossal.

Not that you have to use that.

So we have giant, huge, colossal.

Those are all alternatives to very large.

The Colosseum is huge.

It could seat 50,000 people.

It covers around six acres of land and is 620 feet long, 512 feet wide and 158 feet

tall.

Notice how I read those numbers?

620.

You don't have to say 620, you can simply say 625 hundred 12158 feet tall.

It took more than 1.1 million tons.

Notice here I see this mistake a lot.

Notice the S is not on millions, it's on tons 1.1 million tons of concrete, stone and bricks

to complete the Coliseum.

So here this is where you finally see Coliseum not at the beginning of a sentence.

Because remember at the  beginning the is capitalized 

simply because it starts the sentence the

T in the But here lowercase T But we still need a capital C because Coliseum is always

capitalized and you always need the article the but the does not need to be capitalized.

The Italian government is trying to figure out if there is any truth to reports that

rock is falling from the Coliseum.

Remember, this goes back to the headline of our article, which was is the Coliseum crumbling?

So we have the whole Coliseum and if it's crumbling, it means it's breaking into smaller

pieces.

Well, how is that done?

It is when right here, rock or stone is falling from the Coliseum.

So you could also say any truth to reports that the Coliseum is crumbling.

Now here trying to figure out, figure out.

This is a very useful phrasal verb and you can think of it.

Said another way, it would be to determine is trying to determine.

So trying to know if this is true.

Trying to figure out if there is any truth to reports that rock is falling from the Coliseum.

Last week some visitors to the Coliseum said they saw some bits.

A bit is just a very, very small piece.

So if I saw a bit of stone, it is a very small amount of stone.

And here it's plural.

So they saw more than one.

They saw maybe 5 or 10 bits, small pieces of stone.

So last week some visitors to the Coliseum said they saw some bits of stone fall from

it.

An Italian environmental group says that exhaust fumes, exhaust fumes, Those are the fumes

that are produced from a gas powered vehicle.

So you see the fumes coming out of the back of the vehicle.

They're the dark cloud behind some cars, so that would be the exhaust fumes and vibrations

from cars.

I wrote down what exhaust is for you and a nearby subway.

So notice here a nearby subway.

Let's talk about nearby.

Nearby means that it's not far away.

Nearby can function as an adjective or an adverb, depending on how it's used in the

sentence.

Is the Coliseum nearby?

This could definitely be a question that I ask someone in Rome.

Maybe I'm trying to find the Coliseum and I don't know if I'm in the right place and

I can say, oh, excuse me, is the Coliseum nearby in this case?

Is it an adjective or an adverb?

It's an adverb.

An adverb because it modifies.

Is the Coliseum nearby?

It's modifying the verb.

Now how about this one?

Is there a cafe nearby?

This could be another question I asked someone in Rome.

Maybe I finally find the Coliseum.

I tour it and then I'm really hungry.

But I don't want to walk very far, so I can say, oh, is there a cafe nearby?

What's this adjective or adverb?

It should be pretty easy.

It's the exact same as the sentence above.

It even uses the same verb.

So this is an adverb.

How about this one?

We had lunch at a nearby cafe.

We had lunch at a nearby cafe so I could be at the Coliseum.

Remember, I'm tired.

I don't want to walk very far.

So I find a cafe nearby and then later I tell someone, oh, we had lunch at a nearby cafe.

Is this an adverb or adjective?

In this case, it's an adjective because it describes the location of the noun, so in

this case nearby subway.

It's an adjective, so you can use it as both the adverb, the adjective very commonly used

and a nearby subway are.

Notice the verb are because we have multiple things.

The exhaust fumes, the vibrations, and a nearby subway are causing damage to the Colosseum.

This is what the environmental group thinks is causing the falling rock.

The director of the Coliseum.

Again, the Coliseum has denied these reports.

If you deny something, you you say no, that isn't true.

That isn't accurate.

That isn't correct.

That's how you deny it.

So the director of the Coliseum has denied these reports of falling stone, although she

said that sometimes small stones.

Remember we could say bits of stone, but bits is very small.

So if you just say small stone it sounds like larger and then a bit is just tiny.

Very small small stones have been known to fall from the ancient building due to rain,

wind or birds.

So due to this is the reason why you can also say because of because of rain, wind or birds.

Due to rain, wind or birds, the outside of the Coliseum is made from travertine.

Travertine Tyne.

To be honest, I've never seen this word before.

Perhaps if you were a builder or an architect this is common for you.

Is made from travertine, a type of limestone.

So notice how they even they put the definition of travertine Travertine because it is not

something that a native speaker would instantly know what it is.

So they let me know.

Oh, it's a type of limestone.

So now I understand what this is.

If they didn't have a type of limestone, I would understand that it's some sort of building

material because they said the Colosseum is made from.

So I understand the context, but I wouldn't know exactly what it is.

The Colosseum is made from travertine, a type of limestone.

The interior is made from brick and tufa.

I have no idea what tufa is, but it's a fun word to say tufa, another variety of limestone.

So again, notice they did the same thing.

They know that I would not know what tufa is as a native speaker because it's not very

commonly used.

But I do know what brick is.

So they don't define what brick is, but they define what tufa is and travertine because

those are not common words.

Another variety of limestone.

So I just learned 2 new words from this article.

I learn new things and I also learned what AD was because although I knew what the expression

meant, I didn't know the actual name of it.

I had no idea, No idea.

All right.

The tourist attraction, the Coliseum.

So you can describe something as a tourist attraction.

It's where tourists go.

Tourists are attracted to certain locations.

The tourist attraction is slated to get a $33 million facelift beginning in March.

Now face, of course, your face, right?

So if I see facelift referring to a building, I know that work is going to be done on the

exterior of the building.

So you might say, oh, my house, my apartment, my condo, my home, Whatever style of home

you have, my house needs a facelift by saying that you're seeing something on the outside

of your house needs to be repaired.

Maybe it's the paint, maybe it's the brick, the stone, the tufa.

Maybe it's the gutters.

But something on the outside, It isn't on the inside, it's the outside.

That would be a facelift.

So something on.

They're spending money on the outside of the Coliseum, beginning in March.

Now, when something is slated, Let's talk about this.

The sentence structure here is to be slated.

Now we have to do something.

So the infinitive to and then your verb or something can be slated for, and this simply

means expected to happen or plan to happen.

So the Coliseum getting a $33 million facelift in March is planned.

It's expected to happen.

So we can say it's slated.

It is slated.

Now if you have a specific date, you can say whatever The thing is, the tour is slated

for Wednesday, okay for Wednesday, for next March, for next year.

But if you have a verb, you use 2 two base verbs, So the infinitive to be slated infinitive

or to be slated for, and then a specific date.

The Coliseum represents the power, brilliance, and brutality of the Roman Empire.

That's a very powerful statement.

I like this three things,  The power, the brilliance.

Brilliance, of course, is extremely smart, showing high intellect, brilliance, and brutality.

Brutality is related to cruelty, punishment, death, which I'm sure you are well aware is

what took place at the Coliseum.

So the Coliseum represents the power, brilliance and brutality of the Roman Empire.

The sheer size of the Coliseum is architectural.

Design and its function are still marvels to behold.

Today, let's take a look at sheer.

The sheer size of the Coliseum sheer has no meaning on its own.

It is only there to emphasize whatever comes next.

So I could say the sheer power of the Roman Empire.

I'm making power sound a lot stronger.

The sheer brilliance of the gladiators, I'm emphasizing the brilliance, the sheer brutality

of the Coliseum.

I'm emphasizing the brutality.

It has no meaning on its own.

The sheer size of the Coliseum is architectural.

Design and its function are still Marvel's to behold.

Today, let's talk about marvels.

This is a noun, and it's plural because they're talking about the size, the architectural

design, and the function.

So there are three separate things, and these are the marvels.

Now, the marvels or a marvel is simply something to admire.

So we could say the the sheer size, the design and its functions, its function are something

to admire.

Or are things because there are more than one are things to admire are marvels.

So you can summarize that with just one word.

Are still Marvel's to behold today.

When you behold something, it simply means you look at it.

So that's it.

To behold means to look at, to view, to, to see, to observe.

So it has to be with your site.

And of course that's what people do.

They go to the Coliseum and they look at it, they observe it, they take pictures of it.

So that's why they used to behold, because it means with your eyes.

However, what took place on stage, so on stage, meaning at the Coliseum, it was considered

a stage, right, because it's a theater, people were sitting all around, and then the floor

of the Coliseum was the stage.

What took place on stage with the systematic killing of hundreds of thousands of animals

and people?

This is the brutality, right?

The brutality.

Hundreds of thousands of animals and people bears a grim reminder.

Let's talk about bears.

A grim reminder.

If it bears a reminder, it means it represents that reminder.

It holds it, it keeps it.

And grim.

Grim is unpleasant.

So when you look at the Coliseum as a tourist, you see, wow, this is an amazing architecture

design.

But there's also a lot of brutality in that, and that is the grim reminder, and it reminds

you of something unpleasant.

Bears a grim reminder of the violence and cruelty that is core to the history of the

Coliseum and the Roman temper.

If something is core to something, so to be core to something else means it is the most

important part.

It you can't separate it, so you can't separate the violence and cruelty from the Roman Empire.

It was the important part.

It represented the Roman Empire.

It's the core to the history of the Coliseum and the Roman Empire and that's the end of

the article.

So unfortunately we're ending on a very negative note here remind remembering the the cruelty

and brutality but that's history right.

And all we can do is learn from those lessons and try to improve.

And when I go to the Coliseum, I will bear these as a grim reminder, but I'll also admire

the Coliseum for the architecture and the beauty that it represents at the same time.

So a little bit of a a contrast there, I'll say.

So now what I'll do is I'll go to the top of the article and I'll read it from start

to finish.

And this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Is the Coliseum crumbling?

The Coliseum is a giant amphitheater in the center of Rome, Italy.

It is one of the world's most iconic sites and one of the new 7 Wonders of the World.

The Coliseum is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built.

It was completed over 2 millennia ago in a D80.

It is the place where gladiators fought during the time of the Roman Empire.

The Coliseum is huge.

It could see 50,000 people.

It covers around six acres of land and is 620 feet long, 512 feet wide, and 158 feet

tall.

It took more than 1.1 million tons of concrete, stone and bricks to complete the Coliseum.

The Italian government is trying to figure out if there is any truth to reports that

rock is falling from the Coliseum.

Last week, some visitors to the Coliseum said they saw some bits of stone fall from it.

An Italian environmental group says that exhaust fumes and vibrations from cars and a nearby

subway are causing damage to the Coliseum.

The director of the Coliseum has denied these reports of falling stone, although she said

that sometimes small stones have been known to fall from the ancient building due to rain,

wind or birds.

The outside of the Coliseum  is made from travertine, 

a type of limestone.

The interior is made from brick and tufa, another variety of limestone.

The tourist attraction is slated to get a $33 million facelift beginning in March.

The Coliseum represents the power, brilliance and brutality of the Roman Empire.

The sheer size of the Coliseum is architectural design and its function are still marvels

to behold today.

However, what took place on stage with the systematic killing of hundreds of thousands

of animals and people bears a grim reminder of the violence and cruelty that is core to

the history of the Coliseum and the Roman Empire.

Did you like this lesson?

If you did and you want me to make more lessons just like this, then put have a great trip

in the comments.

Put that because I'm going to be reading this as I'm flying to Italy to see the Colosseum.

So put have a great trip in the comments and of course, make sure you like this video,

share it with your friends and subscribe.

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

And if you want to keep improving your vocabulary, I recommend this lesson right now.