Los Angeles Fire - Improve Your English Vocabulary with the News

Today you'll learn English with the news.

We'll read a news article together  on the wildfires in Los Angeles,  

CA Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

Our headline California wildfires,  what we know about LA area fires,  

what caused them, who is affected, and more.

Let's review the language here  and look at the active form and  

the passive form because both are commonly used.

Is this the active form or the passive form?

What caused them?

Them being what is the them, the wildfires,  the LA wildfires or the California wildfires?

That's the them.

What caused them?

This is the active form to provide the answer.

You could say strong winds caused the fire.

So the subject strong winds is doing the action.

What would this be in the passive voice  You would start with the object the fires.

The wildfires were caused to be caused conjugated  

in the past and with our subject they  the fires were caused by strong winds.

This is the passive form.

Now our question what caused  them was the active form.

What would be the passive form of this question?

Do you know?

We still start with our question word what?

What were the wildfires?

This is the them.

What were the wildfires caused by?

That would be the passive form of the question.

What were the wildfires caused by?

The fires were caused by strong winds.

That would be the answer in the passive form.

Now let's look at this one.

Who is affected?

Is this the passive form or the active form?

Who is affected?

This is the passive form.

Who is affected to be affected now in  the past, if you could include the buy,  

but you don't have to buy the wildfires now what  would this be as an active form of the question.

The active form question is who  have the wildfires affected?

I put this in the present perfect have  affected have is conjugated with the wildfires.

They I put this in the present perfect  because there's a result in the present.

The action may be complete, the action of  someone's home being destroyed by the fire,  

but there is a result in the present.

Now to answer the question in the active form,  

you could say the wildfires  have affected 10,000 people.

Don't worry about taking 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.

Fueled by powerful winds and dry conditions,  

a series of ferocious wildfires erupted and  has been roaring across the Los Angeles area.

Notice the very strong language to  talk about a very devastating issue.

So let's review some of this vocabulary.

Our first very strong word is fueled by  the grammar of This is a participle phrase.

Fueled is in the past participle.

It talks about the cause or the reason.

So the ferocious wildfires  were fueled by powerful winds.

Instead of saying that, you can  start very dramatically by using  

this participle phrase fueled  by powerful winds, of course.

Fueled by, you can think of  fuel that powers your car.

So what powered?

What allowed the wildfires to happen?

What fueled them?

In our article, the cause  or reason is very negative,  

but you can use this expression in a positive  way, in more of a sense of motivation.

For example, fuelled by a passion to help others,  

she became a doctor or whatever  career choice you could have.

Now fuelled by you could have an another reason,  

another motivator other than  a passion to help others.

This starts with the participle phrase.

You can also use this in a full sentence.

Her career.

So this is a something it was fueled by.

So to be fueled by in the sentence form.

Her career was fueled by a passion to help others.

That sentence used to be fueled  by which is the passive form.

You could use this in the active form.

So you need the something,  a passion to help others.

This is the subject.

The something fueled her career.

So this is just in the past, simple.

You could say this is still taking  place now and say fuels her career.

It's taking place now.

So this is the active form,  and the verb is to fuel.

Now let's look at ferocious, an adjective that  describes the wildfires in a very powerful way.

Ferocious.

You can think of that as very fierce, very  intense, and it also has the meaning of violent.

We often use this word to describe  animals, wild animals mainly.

For example, lions are ferocious.

You can think of many different examples.

There is one use of this word in a positive way.

We say she has a ferocious appetite for learning.

This means she has an intense desire to  learn, but we use the word appetite for.

So if you say she has a ferocious appetite.

This sounds like she's extremely  hungry a lot of the time.

And when she eats, she eats very forcefully.

She eats a large quantity, perhaps quickly.

So she has a ferocious appetite.

You can absolutely say that.

But if you add on appetite for  and then something for learning,  

for playing guitar, for  exercise, that sounds positive.

It means she has a strong  desire for that activity.

She has a ferocious appetite for learning.

This is an expression we commonly use in English.

So does that describe you?

Do you have a ferocious appetite for learning,  learning English, improving your English?

I'm sure you do.

That's why you're here.

So put that's me, put that's me,  put that's me in the comments.

You probably know what erupted means,  because that's what happens to a volcano.

So to erupt is to happen suddenly and violently.

We use this in a metaphorical way to  describe someone who becomes extremely angry,  

usually suddenly and extremely in  the sense of violently, not violent  

in physical, harming someone physically,  but just violent in the intensity.

So for example, my boss  erupted in the meeting today.

So it sounds like perhaps the boss got  very angry loud, maybe started shouting.

My boss erupted in the meeting today.

And then the reason why when we  missed the deadline or because  

we missed the deadline, both of those would work.

So we do use this to describe someone who  becomes very angry very suddenly as well.

And now let's look at the  verb to roar has been roaring.

So this is in the present perfect,  

continuous because the fire started in  the past and it continues until now.

And we don't know when it will stop.

Unfortunately, to roar specifically  with fire means to burn strongly.

So inside, if it's a cold day, you  can say, oh, the fire is roaring.

And that sounds like a positive thing.

It's a strong fire and you want it for warmth.

But of course, it can be used  very negatively with a wildfire.

So again, very strong language.

Given the severity of the situation.

Let's continue.

At one point there were close to 200,000 people.

So that's how you would verbalize this number.

200,000 people under evacuation orders  as crews tried to battle back the fires.

I vocalize this number for you because a lot of  

times students will put an S on  the number which is incorrect.

200,000 There's no S because the plural is  with the noun people is the plural of persons.

So the noun is there.

200,000 people $200,000 and the S is on dollar  if you were talking financially 200,000 people.

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Now, let's continue with our lesson.

By Tuesday morning, the number had dwindled.

So remember previously they were talking about  the number of people under evacuation orders.

If you're under an evacuation order, it  just means you are ordered to evacuate.

The order to evacuate to leave  your home applies to you.

That would be under evacuation orders.

So remember, it was 200,000 people, but then  it had dwindled to around 88,000 people with  

another 84,800 in evacuation warning  zones throughout Los Angeles County.

This is a great verb to have in your vocabulary.

It means to steadily and  gradually decrease or reduce.

So  

a steady and gradual goes like this, rather than  from here to here instantly, it's just steady.

And gradually, you could say my passion  dwindled as my workload increased.

Remember, originally you were fueled  by your passion to help others.

You were, your career was fueled  by your passion to help others.

But then as you started working stress,  deadlines, workloads, your passion dwindled.

It gradually but steadily decreased.

Or we use this with a specific number,  a specific quantity, the guests.

This should be plural the guests.

So maybe this is at a wedding  or a party or even a conference.

The guests had dwindled to around 50 by midnight.

So maybe there were originally 200  people, but then as time went on  

gradually and steadily decreased, so the  guests had dwindled to around midnight.

So this means that there were approximately  50 guests remaining at midnight because the  

number of guests had dwindled as the night  went on, which is a normal thing to happen.

Let's review the pronunciation of LALA loss.

So just like the opposite of win loss loss.

Now this I phonetically spelled  it as an so the female name  

an the female name Jill J Jill and then  is because it's unstressed at the end.

Now I have an in all caps  because this is the stress sound.

Angelus Angelus Angelus Angelus  Angelus Los Angeles Los Angeles.

If you're ever in doubt, you can simply say LA.

Let's continue.

On Thursday,  

officials announced limited repopulation for  some areas evacuated amid the fire zones.

When you add re in front of a  word, it means to do it again.

So to populate those areas  again so people live there.

Then they're under an evacuation order.

They're told to evacuate, so they leave,  

evacuate, they leave, and now they can  repopulate so they can populate again.

They can go back.

Limited repopulation for some areas,  evacuated amid amid means between.

So you have a Fire Zone here and a Fire Zone here.

And then the people who are amid that Fire Zone,  

who are living between the Fire Zone,  those are the ones that can repopulate.

Well, limited repopulation.

If there's limited, it means  it doesn't apply to everyone.

It applies to certain people  under certain conditions.

Amid can also mean during.

So it's the same as in the middle of.

So you can think of if you have a timeline,  

amid can be during that timeline or in the  middle of in progress of that timeline.

So it can be more geographical.

So there are fire zones and people live amid  in the middle of or it can also mean during.

This is a very advanced way to use it.

You can say amid something, amid the chaos,  amid the destruction of the wildfires.

So something negative chaos represents a  strong sense of uncertainty, confusion,  

stress, a lot of different negative  emotions happening all at the same time  

or different negative situations  happening all at the same time.

Chaos amid the chaos or  destruction of the wildfires.

But then perhaps you can contrast  that with something positive.

Communities came together.

So to come together, to join each  other, to unite, to support each other.

But you don't have to have a contrasting point.

You could have two negatives or two positives.

Here's 2 negatives since our  topic is on the negative side.

Amid the stress of studying  for my exams, I became sick.

So in the middle of Oregon during.

It's a very advanced, very powerful way,  

one that would certainly help you  sound advanced on your language exam.

Let's continue.

The fires have destroyed.

Notice this present.

Perfect because it's a past action  with the result in the present,  

and it can also be an unfinished time reference  because the fire is still taking place,  

so it's possible for more houses and  more neighborhoods to be destroyed.

The fires have destroyed entire  neighborhoods and blocks.

So a block would be a geographical area  similar to a neighborhood, a block of homes.

So you can think of it as there are streets  that represent the geographical area,  

and then between those streets there are homes  that could be called a block of homes and blocks,  

leaving an unknown number of people homeless.

The insured Lawsons from last  week's fires may exceed $20 billion.

So remember I talked about how you add  the S to the noun, in this case dollars,  

even though you don't see the  word is represented by this$.

You verbalize it with the word dollar,  but then you put it at the end and you  

add an S if it's more than one,  $1.00 to dollars, so 20 billion.

And then you add the word  dollar or plural $20 billion.

Notice here, insured functions as an adjective.

It describes the losses, the losses as a noun.

These represent the things that you have lost.

It could be your home, your car, your  furniture, your jewelry, all of those things.

Those would be the losses.

Now, insured means that those  losses are covered by insurance.

Insurance means that I pay a certain  amount of money per month or per year  

to a company in the case of an accident or a fire,  

and then they will give me the money for  the value of those items if I am covered.

So the loss is covered by insurance.

That's the insured losses from last week's fire.

And the word exceed means more than so it could be  more than $20 billion and total economic losses.

So these are the losses  for the economy as a whole.

So economy, economic economy, economic economy  is the noun and economic is the adjective.

If you use the noun, which is very  common, you could say end total losses  

to the economy, to the economy because the  economy is the one receiving the losses.

So it'd be to the economy, and that's the noun.

Could reach $50 billion again  with this dollars at the end.

According to estimates published  by JP Morgan on Thursday,  

the official cause of the fires has not  been determined, has not been determined.

This is another way of just  saying they don't know.

So it is a more formal way, a more  official way of saying we don't know.

We don't know what caused the fires.

The official cause of the  fires has not been determined.

Also, notice that this is in the passive.

They're not focusing on who is doing the action.

They're talking about the result.

Now if you put it in the active form, you would  need some sort of subject doing the action.

So perhaps experts, experts have not  determined the cause of the fire.

So this, the official cause of the fire,  that's the object has not been determined.

So to be determined, and this  makes sense that it's in the  

passive because you want the focus to be  on the official cause, not that experts.

It's the 'cause that's what people want to know.

The combination of drought like conditions.

Notice this pronunciation that GH is silent.

It's just like the word out,  out with a drought drought.

The combination of drought like conditions.

Now they're going to tell you more information  about these drought like conditions.

Southern California has had less than 10%  of average rainfall since October 1st.

But because this is between dashes, it  means I can remove this entire part.

And the sentence must be grammatically correct  

so you can read it like the combination of drought  like conditions and powerful offshore winds.

Because when you have the word  combination, we need two or more things.

So the first thing is drought like conditions.

I instantly want to know the second thing,  

powerful offshore winds that hit the region  last week prompted fire weather that was in  

the words of the National Weather  Service, about as bad as it gets.

Let's review prompted fire weather that was  about as bad as it gets, which means in terms  

of how bad something can be zero to 10, it was  a 10 as bad as it gets 10 out of 10 in severity.

So prompted is another way  of saying caused or LED to.

So if you use the verb to lead, you also need  that preposition to lead to fire weather.

But with caused and prompted you don't  use that preposition caused fire weather,  

prompted fire weather lead to.

But notice all of them are in the past form.

Now the verb to prompt is commonly used.

Let's review some examples.

The price increase prompted me  to find a new insurance policy  

caused me led me to find a new insurance policy.

So another way, you could say I found  a new insurance policy because of the  

price increase, so you could flip the  order around and use the word because.

Now someone might ask, what prompted her to quit?

Why did she quit?

What caused her to quit?

What led her to quit?

Her passion had dwindled,  remember, gradually decreased.

Her passion had dwindled and her stress  had increased amid the tight deadlines.

So she has a lot of tight deadlines.

And during those tight deadlines were in the  middle of her passion started going down,  

her stress started going up, and  that's what prompted her to quit.

Let's continue.

The agency issued a red flag warning indicating  

an increased risk for fire  danger to 19 million people.

Wind gusts topping 70 mph MPH, mph, mph were  recorded at several locations across the region.

Wind gusts, you have your surrounding wind,  

just the background wind and then all  of a sudden you have stronger wind.

That would be the gust of wind.

So you can use gust of wind or wind gusts.

Now topping, if 70 mph is the  the speed or reference point,  

then topping means either reaching or exceeding.

So it might just reach, it might just  get to 70, but it might also exceed.

So 71 to even 5 or more.

Climate scientist Daniel Swain  pointed to the weather whiplash.

California has experience.

So whiplash is when you move strongly in One  Direction but then strongly in the other.

So it's something that happens to  people when they're in car accidents.

If you're in a car accident and your head strongly  moves one way and then back the other way,  

that is called whiplash and it  can result in in severe damage.

So my image of weather is  doing that so real strong  

in one way and then real strong in another way.

Now what are those two ways?

I'm not sure.

So let's see.

So whether whiplash pointed to  the weather whiplash California  

has experienced in recent years lurching between.

OK, so here's the whiplash  drought and heavy rainfall.

So it's going back and forth really quickly.

Drought, rainfall, drought,  rainfall and said such swings.

So the swing is from one side to the other.

So they're extreme drought is  almost the opposite of rainfall.

So that could be the swings are a key element  of the fire weather gripping the region.

Let's review this verb to grip.

So in this context, the fair weather  gripping the region is taking place.

Now it's in our participle form.

This is very commonly used to grip  means to take hold of, to affect.

It can also be used to mean to  dominate 1's attention or life.

Now, in this case, certainly this  fire is dominating L as attention  

and North America and the world's attention.

But it can also be used in a positive way.

Something can dominate your  attention in a positive way.

For example, the mystery novel was so gripping.

So in this case, you're  describing the novel as gripping.

Gripping means it dominated your attention.

It captivated your attention, so you  might say I couldn't put it down.

This means that you couldn't stop reading it.

So the book is in your hands and  it was hard for you to put it down.

That's a expression we use to  say you couldn't stop reading.

I couldn't put it down.

Or you could say the novel  gripped my attention all night.

So this is the active form.

The novel is doing that action.

The novel gripped my attention all night.

So it captivated, it held, it  dominated your attention all night.

So it's a very common verb and  you can use it in a negative,  

which is commonly done with world events,  but you can also use it in a positive way.

And that's the end of the article.

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

to finish and you can focus on my pronunciation.

California wildfires, what we know about LA area  fires, what caused them, who is affected and more.

Fueled by powerful winds and dry conditions,  

a series of ferocious wildfires erupted and  has been roaring across the Los Angeles area.

At one point, there were close to 200,000 people  

under evacuation orders as crews  tried to battle back the fires.

By Tuesday morning, the number  had dwindled to around 88,000,  

with another 84,800 in evacuation warning  zones throughout Los Angeles County.

On Thursday, officials announced  limited repopulation for some areas  

evacuated amid the fire zones.

The fires have destroyed entire  neighborhoods and blocks,  

leaving an unknown number of people homeless.

The insured losses from last week's fires  may exceed $20 billion and total economic  

losses could reach $50 billion, according to  estimates published by JP Morgan on Thursday.

The official cause of the  fires has not been determined.

The combination of drought like conditions,  

Southern California has had less than 10%  of average rainfall since October 1st and  

powerful offshore winds that hit the region  last week prompted fire weather that was,  

in the words of the National Weather  Service, about as bad as it gets.

The agency issued a red flag warning indicating  

an increased risk for fire  danger to 90 million people.

Wind gusts topping 70 mph were recorded  at several locations across the region.

Climate scientist Daniel Swain pointed  to the weather whiplash California has  

experienced in recent years lurching  between drought and heavy rainfall,  

and said such swings are a key element  of the fire weather gripping the region.

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