Reading Practice | Improve your Pronunciation in English

Welcome to this lesson to help you learn  English with the news. We're going to  

read a news article together. And you're  going to learn a lot of advanced grammar,  

natural vocabulary, correct sentence structure,  and even correct pronunciation directly from  

reading this article with me, of course,  iron Jennifer from JForrestEnglish.com.  

And this is your place to become a fluent  confident English speaker. Let's get started.  

Hello, and welcome to our article today,  you might recognize this man, he's an actor,  

and he was in The Avengers movies. So let's read  the headline, Jeremy Renner Avengers actor out of  

surgery but still in critical condition.  So unfortunately, I know that something  

happened to this actor and something terrible  happened. And I know that because he is still  

in critical condition and critical condition.  This means life threatening condition, life  

threatening conditions, so he is still severely  at risk. So life threatening condition,  

you might even just refer to it as severe  condition. In a medical context severe would  

be really bad if someone described your injuries  as severe. It means threatening, life threatening.  

Okay, and out of surgery, you go into  surgery, that's when you start your surgery,  

and then you get out of surgery, that's  when you end your surgery. So there's  

just another way of saying start and  finish or start and end. So this is  

surgery is over, finished, however you want  to think of it over finished out of surgery.  

So maybe if you know someone who's going in  to surgery, I'll just write that to go into  

surgery. This is when you start your surgery the  operation begins. So you might ask someone, when  

are you going in? For your let's say it's a I'll  just say operation operation is a type of surgery.  

I could say shoulder surgery, as well. When are  you going in for and then just your surgery,  

you could put the type of surgery or you could say  when are you going into surgery? Either one would  

be fine. This one is when you know this specific  type of surgery. When are you going in for your  

knee surgery, for example, if you knew the  specific type of surgery, and then this is  

just general, you don't know what type of surgery  they're getting. And then the opposite would be  

when did he get out of surgery? So  this is asking when did it finish?  

So very specific to surgery, but it will  help you understand this article at least.  

Okay, let's continue on. renter's suffered blunt  chest trauma and orthopedic injuries and is still  

in intensive care. So remember, well critical,  if you're in critical condition, the area of  

the hospital you would go into is intensive  care. And generally this is referred to as  

ICU. This is the acronym. The U  stands for unit intensive care unit.  

So if you hear for example, that Renner This is  the last name of the actor, Renner is still in  

ICU. That's bad because he's in intensive care.  And you only go into intensive care if you are in  

critical condition, which means you have some sort  of life threatening or severe injury or illness.  

All right. Let's continue on here. He  was airlifted to hospital on Sunday  

after an accident while clearing  snow outside his home in Nevada.  

Now this is very surprising because to me snow  and Nevada do not go hand in hand because Nevada  

is the desert. It is very hot in Nevada. So the  fact he was clearing snow just really surprises me  

to be airlifted, this is basically when you're  rescued by either an airplane or a helicopter,  

some sort of aircraft, it doesn't matter  which one. So you've seen this in movies,  

most likely documentaries, the news, there might  be a fire of a burning building or something,  

and you can't go in it. So a helicopter or  a plane has to come and they dropped someone  

from above and then pick that person up and  then take that person because it's either  

the safest way or the fastest way to rescue that  person. So maybe because there was so much snow,  

that regular ambulances it would have taken way  too long. The roads were completely blocked by  

snow. So they had to use either a helicopter  or airplane. That's what I would guess,  

to be airlifted This means to be rescued by an air  craft, which is just an airplane or helicopter.  

I can't think of any other aircrafts are there  just the two? I think so. Airplane helicopter.  

Okay aircraft a craft in this case is just a  vehicle but we don't call them vehicles in the  

air you would call it an aircraft and these are  the two types of aircrafts just like different  

types of vehicles you have a car a van or SUV or  a truck for example. Those are the different types  

of vehicles. So if you know a different type  of aircraft, let me know because I personally  

only know these two. Okay. He was airlifted  to hospital on Sunday after an accident while  

clearing snow in this case. Clear snow simply  means to remove snow remove snow. Remove snow  

so clear is another way of saying that while  okay but it is removed but let me put it in  

the correct verb tense because you notice  that we have a gerund here. Now why do we  

have a gerund? This is a great grammar point.  Because of the verb while so you could say while  

clearing not cleaning you don't clean  snow. You clear it while clearing snow.  

He got into an accident while clearing  snow. He got into an accident. Okay?  

So you need a gerund verb after a while and this  means the action was in progress clearing snow  

shoveling and clearing snow and then something  happened as that action was in progress that's  

what while represents the sentence structure  is flexible because I could say he got into an  

accident while clearing I don't know why I keep  saying cleaning you would do not clean snow.  

That's weird. You clean clear snow while clearing  snow. I would say this is the more common sentence  

structure having your action your subject verb  your action and then using while to show the  

the other action by you can absolutely reverse  them. It's just what do you want to emphasize?  

This one emphasizes the clearing snow because  it comes first and this one more emphasizes  

the accident. So either one is correct.  So just remember while plus gerund verb.

Okay, while clearing snow  outside his home in Nevada.  

I think that's good. So this is the cause of  the accident. Something happened while he was  

clearing snow. Let's find out. The US has been  battered by snow storms killing dozens of people.  

Now you might not know what this verb To bad or  means, but I hope just by the context of this one,  

you can understand the emotion is it a positive or  a negative, and then well, it's negative, right?  

killing dozens of people, this isn't a positive  thing. So battered by snowstorm. So in this  

context, even if you don't understand what the  verb means try to understand the emotion of it.  

And it will least help you understand the overall  meaning. When you're battered by something,  

it means that something happens very  suddenly very quickly or in large quantity,  

and you weren't expecting it. So the US had  a lot of snow, it happened very quickly and  

very suddenly. Now, maybe they also weren't  expecting it, it's winter. So Snow is likely,  

but maybe not the amount of snow or  the location of the snow. Remember,  

I said Nevada is very hot, it's the desert. So it  was quite surprising that they would have snow.  

So to be battered by notice this is with the  verb be, which is just conjugated in our present  

perfect to be battered by that's because it is in  the passive form to be battered by. And then in  

this case, it's something the snowstorm now is in  the positive form, because we're not focusing on  

the subject doing the action, we're focusing on  the object receiving the action, the US people,  

the country receiving the snow storm, okay? To  be battered by something that's in the passive.  

Another verb that's very common has is the verb  hit to hit. So the US has been hit by snowstorms.  

Exact same meaning I would say hit is more  common. Honestly, I don't hear batter too much.  

You can use both of these specifically with  weather. And it's when it happens suddenly,  

which means quickly, or you can think of it in  large quantity as well large amount of snow.

So just to show you a different  example, we were hit by a tornado  

last year, so of course a tornado does happen  suddenly and quickly. But then there could also  

be that unexpected quality, large quantity.  And I'll also add unexpected, unexpected  

and again, this is in the passive because  I'm focusing on receiving the action,  

not the subject doing the action.  

Jeremy's family would like to express  their gratitude to the incredible doctors  

and nurses looking after him publicists,  Miss mast said in a statement. All right.  

So I like this because you can express an emotion.  So to express an emotion and in this case,  

the emotion is gratitude. We use this a lot  with gratitude, appreciation, you can also  

use it with love. I bought you this present to  express my love for you. I wrote you this song  

to express my love you. That's basically what a  lot of people do in their music in their songs,  

they express an emotion. So it's just  another way of saying to share and emotion.  

So write down that example I just gave.  I wrote you this song to express my love.  

So you might say this is more formal. Now in  perhaps a formal speech or presentation or even  

a staff meeting, your boss might say I'd like to  Take a moment to express our appreciation for all  

your hard work. So this is a boss or a manager, a  leader saying this to the staff to the employees,  

I'd like to take a moment to express and then  here is the emotion, our a priest appreciation,  

and then appreciation for because you  appreciate for something for all your hard work.  

Now, although gratitude means thinks it's the  same thing, I don't really hear express my thanks  

for the incredible doctors. So this means  Thanks, bye, we use the word gratitude. So  

I encourage you to use the word gratitude. So if  you want to express your gratitude to me, in the  

comment section for this video, you can do that  and say, you can copy this sentence structure,  

I'd like to express my gratitude. So notice  one's gratitude, my gratitude, their gratitude,  

because it's Jeremy's family, their gratitude.  In this case, it was our because it's the boss  

and all the managers the company as a whole hour.  So remember ones gratitude, I like to express my  

gratitude for your amazing lessons. And then  you can say thank you so much. So even though  

this technically means thank you, you can still  add on a thank you. Because remember, you don't  

say I'd like to express my thanks for I mean,  you can but I hear it way more with gratitude.  

Now, look at the sentence structure, I should say  this, because notice, it's gratitude. And then  

the preposition to, but I wrote gratitude for,  do you know why I used a different preposition  

is gratitude to some one. And it's for  something. Okay, so let me write that out.  

too. So I'll put express any emotion to  someone for something, and you can use one  

or the other or both. So I could add, I would  like to take a moment to express our appreciation  

to someone to all of you, and now  

four, and then something, all your hard work,  okay? So one or the other, or both. You don't  

have to use both. So practice that in the  comments, express your gratitude. It doesn't  

have to be to me, although I would appreciate  it. It could be for anything or to anyone.  

Let's continue on. The family also thanked the  local police and fire services and said they were  

tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the  outpouring of love and support from his Penn fans,  

from his fans. So I can say instead, the  family also thanked the local police,  

I could say the family also expressed their  gratitude to two because it's someone the  

local police, so you could say that as well.  Tremendously. This is a nice adverb here.  

It's a more formal way, or a stronger way.  I wouldn't say formal, I take that back,  

not formal, it's a stronger way of saying, really,  so really is like here, I was really overwhelmed,  

really being the amount of overwhelm. So I'll show  the amount of overwhelm is like this with really,  

but tremendously, it's more more overwhelmed. So  it's not that it's more formal, I take that back.  

It's that the amount is more so it's stronger  than really, I would say it's like really,  

really, is tremendously tremendously. So this  is an advanced advert verb to add to your speech  

okay adverb tremendously. Another one  you could add is incredibly, incredibly.  

They were incredibly overwhelmed, I would say the  amount of incredibly and tremendously is the same,  

but then really would be smaller, incredibly  overwhelmed, tremendously overwhelmed and  

appreciative of the outpouring of love. So  outpouring is just the emotion. The love is  

inside of me. And now I'm getting it out of me. So  I'm just showing my love and when it's pouring, it  

sounds like it's coming quickly. So the amount of  love and support from the fans came very quickly.  

That's what I would say. outpouring is outpouring.  The amount of love support came quickly. And  

large quantity is well, that's for  outpouring. So I added a large quantity,  

because it sounds like the amount of it was,  was a lot, outpouring. I don't think it's that  

common to add to your vocabulary, to be honest,  but just to help you understand what it means.  

So you can read this article without being  like, what does this mean? I'm so confused.  

Okay, let's continue on. Before the accident,  Renner was reportedly clearing a road outside his  

home in Reno, Nevada, using his personal Snowplow,  so his family could get out after a heavy storm.  

Okay, again, you can clear a road. So  

in this case, we're talking about snow. But  it could be for other things. So you could  

clear a road of any objects on that road. So  let's say there was a lot of garbage after a  

parade or a festival. And then some people came  to clear the road it would be to remove whatever  

objects are on the road, but in this case, they're  clearing it of snow, which means to remove it.  

So in this case, clear just means remove  the snow, I'll write that remove snow.

Now they use reportedly to express that this  is what we think happened, but we are not 100%.  

Sure. So journalists use this a lot because  if they state something as a fact, and then  

it turns out it wasn't true. They could get in a  lot of trouble. So they are the word reportedly as  

a way to let you know. We are not 100% Sure.  So you will see this a lot in the media was  

reportedly clearing so reportedly to say that  something is likely to be true. They have maybe  

a witness a family member of friends said Yeah, I  saw him clearing the snow, but not 100% Certain.  

So we use this outside of the media  

you might say the company  is reportedly closing their  

branch in Reno. Reno is the location where  this happens. That's why I'm using it. So the  

company is reportedly closing a branch in Reno.  Now if I did not have this word, reportedly,  

the company is closing their branch in Reno. This  sounds like a fact. So a fact is 100% true. It's  

happening. If I add the company is the company is  rigged. reportedly closing their branch in Reno.  

This is now maybe it goes from a fact to a maybe  or a possibility, because I think it's going to  

happen. I heard from other people I saw it  in an email. But there's still some doubt.  

So probably you'll use this more in  a business context and you will see  

it a lot in a in the media in the news. All right.  

Let's continue on. The 51 year old was  the only person involved in the incident,  

the Washoe County Sheriff's Office said,  adding that it was being investigated.  

All right, I think that's pretty clear incident  

here is just another way of saying  accident. The incident, the accident.  

Let's continue on. UI celebrity  news site. TMZ reported that Renner  

was aided by neighbors at the scene,  one of whom was a doctor. All right,  

so one of his neighbors was a doctor and the  doctor helped him so was aided by was helped by  

now notice the sentence structure. What do you  notice about this? Renner was aided by neighbors.  

This is again in the passive form. The passive  is incredibly common in the news and the media,  

because a lot of times they want to focus on the  person receiving something receiving an action  

receiving something specific and the person doing  the action the subject is not as important This  

article is about Renner this article is not  about the neighbor's. So by putting it in the  

passive form, it keeps the focus on Renner. So if  I had this in an active form, what would it be?  

What do you think? So put that in the comments.  If you'd like to practice you can pause the video  

now put in the comments. The active form  is the neighbors helped or aided? renter  

so this is in the past simple, helped or aided,  the neighbor has helped the neighbors aided runner  

to be honest, I would say Help is definitely  way more common. So just understand what to  

aid someone means but I would still for my  own vocabulary, I would use the verb help.  

The scene I think you understand what this  means just from movies plays but the scene  

is where something happens. So in this event,  the scene was Rayner's driveway or the road  

outside of his house because that's where he  was clearing the snow with the snow plow. I  

didn't define it. And if you live in a tropical  climate, you probably don't know what a snow plow  

is. For me since I live in a cold climate,  it's obvious plow. Notice the pronunciation  

plow plow snow plow. This is a machine  that removes snow so instead of doing  

it with a shovel, that's what we call the  object to remove to clear snow a shovel,  

you use a machine and the machine clears  removes the snow. So a machine to remove snow.  

Now there are large snow plows that you drive  and it removes the snow but there are also  

for for individual homes. You can buy a snow  plow that you push and so you're not driving  

it you just push it and it removes the  snow so it could be a big machine that  

you drive or it could be something that  you you push All right, where were we? We  

were talking about oh, yes, this  scene. The scene is where he was  

clearing the snow with his snow plow, which  is the machine to remove snow. All right.  

Let's continue on. A day after the accident, news  emerged that rally driving champion Ken Block was  

killed when his snowmobile flipped at his ranch  in Utah. Oh, so another accident involving the  

snow. Remember, I said up here that incident  means accident? Well, I could say a day after  

the incident because that's what they originally  used. And now they're changing it to accident, but  

it doesn't matter because in this context, it has  the exact same meaning. Incident a day after the  

incident, news emerged that this car driver was  killed. Okay, a snowmobile. Again, if you live in  

a hot climate or tropical climate, you might not  know what this is a snowmobile. They're actually  

really fun. They can be dangerous, unfortunately.  So let me show you a picture of a snowmobile.  

So here we are on Google images. So this is  a snowmobile. It's a vehicle that you drive  

on the snow. It's really fun. I had one when I  was a kid. But I haven't gone snowmobiling in  

years. I don't know. It can also be a little  bit dangerous, to be honest. But it is very  

fun. Have you ever been snowmobiling.  So now you know what a snowmobile is.  

And I said they can be very dangerous. And  that's because they can flip. So the verb flip,  

right? You might flip a pancake when  you're cooking or flip your eggs  

while cooking, for example, but if you're driving,  you can flip. So that's when the snowmobile will  

either go on the side, or it could go entirely  over. Now, of course, it's not just snowmobiles,  

it could be a motorcycle, a car can flip a  boat, something on water can flip as well.

So let's continue on. 1000s of homes experience  power cuts and travel was severely disrupted.  

So a power cut is when the power stops working,  the power stops working and power is electricity  

stops working so that's what it means. Now,  let me share a very useful expression for you.  

My power went out because of the storm. Okay,  so here, once power to go out to go out,  

so when your power goes out, it means you don't  have electricity, your electricity stops working.  

So it's the exact same thing. Electricity stopped  working my power went out because of the storm.  

So let's say there's a lot of  snow, a lot of rain, a lot of wind,  

whatever it might be in your in your location,  you might say I hope my power doesn't go out.  

While I'm presenting while I'm presenting while  remember, you can just use the gerund verb while  

presenting. We talked about while before so you're  presenting there's a lot of snow a lot of rain,  

a lot of winds. I hope my power doesn't go out.  So that means I hope my electricity doesn't stop  

working. But no native speaker would say my  electricity stopped working. That's a literal  

translation. We would say my power went out. So  that's a very useful one because it happens to  

everyone. Your power goes out from time to time,  right. So when was the last time your power went  

out? Share it in the comments just to practice  that expression to time Oscar nominee Renner  

is best known for his role as Clint Barton  Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,  

starring in several Avengers films and in  the spin off television series Hawkeye okay.  

So Renner, they're just giving some background  information on Renner just to let you know who  

he is his accomplishments. If you didn't know  you're probably wondering what a spin off is.  

A spin off television series. A spin off  is when you have a movie like The Avengers,  

and then they take one part of that movie,  and they take it out and they create an  

entire movie. Or show TV show from that one  part of that movie. So that's a spin off.  

So for example, right now, I heard I saw and  on Netflix or something like that, that they're  

creating or they have created I think it already  exists. I'll say they have created a spin off  

television series called I  think it's called Wednesday.  

Called Wednesday, and the spin off is that  Wednesday. This is the name of a person Wednesday  

was a character in the movie The Addams Family  so they took that whole movie The Addams Family,  

they took one piece of that movie the character  Wednesday they took it and they created an entire  

television show series from that one part of  the movie. So that is called a spin off Have  

you heard of this series Wednesday? Have you  seen it? Have you seen the movie Addams Family?  

So that is what a spin off if some people really  like spin offs because they get to keep watching  

is like you're still watching the Avengers.  A lot of people don't like spin offs because  

it's not the same as the movie. So I don't  know. What about you? Do you like spin  

off? You can share that in the comments as  well just to practice your new vocabulary.  

All right, so that is the end of the article.  I hope you learned lots from this article and  

found it very interesting. What I will do now is I  will read the article from start to finish so you  

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

Jeremy Renner adventures actor out of  surgery but still in critical condition.  

Runner suffered blunt chest trauma  and orthopedic injuries and is still  

in intensive care surmount the man said in a  statement to US media on Monday night. He was  

airlifted to hospital on Sunday after an accident  while clearing snow outside his home in Nevada.  

The US has been battered by snow storms killing  dozens of people. Jeremy's family would like to  

express their gratitude to the incredible doctors  and nurses looking after him, publicists Ms. Mast  

said in a statement. The family also thanked the  local police and fire services and said they were  

tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of  the outpouring of love and support from his  

fans before the accident Runner was reportedly  clearing a road outside his home in Reno, Nevada,  

using his personal snowplow so his family  could get out after a heavy storm. The 51  

year old was the only person involved in the  incident. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office  

said adding that it was being investigated. USA  Liberty news site TMZ reported that Renner was  

aided by neighbors at the scene, one of whom was  a doctor. The day after the accident news emerged  

that rally driving champion Ken Block was killed  when a snowmobile flipped out his ranch in Utah.  

1000s of homes experienced power cuts  and travel was severely disrupted.  

Two time Oscar nominee Renner is best known  for his role as Clint Barton Hawkeye in the  

Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in several  Avengers films and in the spin off television  

series Hawkeye amazing job with this lesson. Now  you can look in the description below and you'll  

see a link you can download the free lesson PDF  that summarizes everything you learned in the  

lesson. And if you found this lesson helpful,  please hit the like button, share it with your  

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tips on how to speak English fluently. And  confidently and until next time, Happy studying.