Get Fluent FAST With This Reading and Listening Method (It Works!)

Hello my wonderful students.

Today you're going to improve all areas of your English and you're going to do that by

reading a news article from the BBC.

And this news article is about Elon Musk and Neuralink.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First I'll read the headline.

Neuralink's first human patient able to control mouse through thinking.

Musk says now you shouldn't learn English grammar rules by reading the headline of news

articles because in order to be concise, they omit auxiliary verbs, articles and other unnecessary

words but that are required grammatically.

So in this headline, there are two words that are required grammatically.

Do you know what those two words are?

Neuralinks first human patient able to is able to because the structure is to be able

to.

But the verb to be is the main the auxiliary verb.

So it's OK to emit it in a headline.

But to be clear, it's required grammatically in all situations other than news article

headlines.

Neural links.

First human patient is able to control mouse through thinking there's a word missing.

Do you know what it is?

Control mouse is a singular countable noun, so you need an article in front of it.

Control a mouse.

Control the mouse.

If you're talking about a specific mouse or control his mouse, her mouse would work as

well.

And now the headline is grammatically correct.

So remember, you need to include this information outside of news article headlines.

So put gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Jennifer gotcha in the comments.

So I know you understand this very important point because gotcha.

Have you heard this before?

Gotcha combines the words I got you into one sound gotcha and I got you is an informal

but very commonly used way to say I understand you.

This is very common in spoken English and text messages or for informal messages.

Gotcha, I understand.

Gotcha.

So put that in the comments and 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 our lesson.

Look at this picture of Elon Musk.

He looks so serious, doesn't he?

He is missing something important from his face.

A smile.

Now, there are two words that someone taking a picture will say to encourage the other

person to smile.

Do you know what those two words are?

If you're taking your friend's picture and you want them to smile, what would you say?

Of course, the answer is say cheese.

Say cheese.

Because when you say the word cheese, that sound forces your mouth to open in a smile

position.

Cheese.

So put in the comments, Say cheese or put some cheese emojis.

Say cheese, Elon, say cheese.

Put that in the comments.

OK, let's continue.

The first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully

recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts.

So notice here now, because we're in the body of the article, we're not in the headline.

It will use proper grammar rules, including all the articles.

Ah, brain chip because it's a singular countable noun and auxiliary verbs like is able to.

The word implanted is when something is put into your body and this is done through a

surgical procedure.

So in this case it was a brain chip.

Now implant is a verb.

Notice here the structure is the past participle.

Because this is being used as an adjective to describe this action happening to the patient.

You can of course use this as an active verb.

For example, the doctor implanted a brain chip into the patient and notice you implant

something into someone.

That's the sentence structure.

And this verb is in the past simple because it's a completed past action.

Now, this could be commonly used in the passive voice as well.

So if I wanted to take this active sentence and put it in the passive voice, what would

the answer be?

What's the sentence in the passive voice?

Do you know?

Well, we'll start with the object, a brain chip.

Now we need to know our verb.

It's in the past simple.

So we need the verb to be in the past simple, conjugated with the subject, a brain chip.

Which is it?

A brain chip was implanted into the patient, and then if you want, you can include by the

doctor.

But in the passive voice, the subject of the action is not important, it's optional.

So now you have your adjective form, your active form, and your passive form.

The first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully

recovered.

MMM.

The use of this word is extremely important because when you say it appears, you're casting

some doubt on it.

You're saying it's not 100% certain.

It's very common to say the problem appears to be fixed.

Now if you say this, you're basically saying I think this is true, I think the problem

is fixed.

But it's possible it's not because generally you just need more time to know if the problem

has been fixed.

So very important because if you say the problem, if you put it as a certainty, it would be

the problem has been fixed.

So has been fixed in the present perfect has been fixed.

Or you could also say was fixed in the past.

Simple, both of those are possible.

Has been fixed.

This is a completed past action with a result in the present.

So now you can use the computer again because there is no problem.

And then the past simple is of course just for a completed past action.

Neuralink appears to have fully recovered.

The patient who received the implant appears to have fully recovered and is able.

We know that the verb to be is required and is able to control a computer mouse using

their thoughts, the startups founder Elon Musk said late on Monday.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

Nolan Arbo.

Now, to be honest, I'm not sure how to pronounce pronounce this because English pronunciation

does not follow spelling and there are different ways to pronounce this.

It could be bow, like I said, it could also be bow, or perhaps it's something else.

So This is why you should always confirm pronunciation when you're learning a new word in an audio

dictionary or imitate the pronunciation from a native speaker like we're doing now.

And if you're not sure of a proper name, the name of a person, you can look it up on YouTube

and listen to the pronunciation.

Or of course, just ask the person.

Well, that's a beautiful name.

How do I pronounce it?

Can you teach me how to pronounce it correctly?

I use this all the time, so I'll just say Arbo.

I could be wrong.

Noland Arbo the 29 year old patient.

So notice here the 29 year old, this is describing the patient.

So this is functioning as an adjective and This is why there's no S on on this the 29

year old patient because adjectives don't have a singular or a plural form.

Of course, as a noun you would conjugate it with singular or plural.

The patient who received the Neuralink implant is 29 years old.

So of course you put the *** on years.

Nolan Arbo, the 29 year old patient who was paralyzed.

Notice the pronunciation paralyzed, paralyzed below the shoulders.

So this means that below his shoulders he's unable to move, that is to be paralyzed.

Who was paralyzed below the shoulders after a diving accident?

Was playing chess on his laptop and moving the cursor using the Neuralink device.

Let's take a look at this.

Was playing What verb tenses?

Is the past continuous?

Was playing our verb to be in the past simple?

Now the verb to be in the past simple has to be conjugated with the subject.

So what's the subject of this sentence?

Most commonly you would look to immediately before to find the subject, but in this case,

because we have these two commas, all of this is considered additional information which

doesn't impact the grammar of the sentence.

So grammatically you would not include this information when you're conjugating your verb.

So the subject is Nolan Arbo.

Nolan Arbo was playing chess on his laptop and moving the cursor using the Neuralink

device.

So when you delete this information, the rest of the sentence is grammatically correct and

complete.

Just keep that in mind.

It has to be a complete sentence for this structure to work, but it's a very advanced

way to add to your writing to make it more complex.

You can use this in speech as well now.

Was playing chess here.

They aren't specifying when this action took place, but it would have been taking place

at some time in the past, maybe.

When we talked to Nolan Arbo, he was playing chess on his laptop, and that happened in

the past.

You're probably quite comfortable with the structure.

He was playing chess on his laptop when the phone rang, which is usually how you learn

to use the past continuous, which is absolutely common and useful, but you can use it in other

more advanced ways.

Let's continue.

This surgery was super easy, Arbo said in the video streamed on Musk's social media

platform X.

Remember, Nolan is 29 years old, the 29 year old patient.

Super easy is a very natural way of speaking for native speakers, especially younger native

speakers.

I'm still young, so I use it a lot in my speech.

And of course, it's used to intensify the adjective similar meaning as very, extremely

or really.

So if I ask you, was this lesson helpful?

You can say super helpful, super helpful, Jennifer, it was super helpful.

But you can just say super helpful in the short form.

So put that in the comments.

Was this video helpful?

Super helpful, super helpful.

Jennifer put that in the comments to practice using this and you will sound very natural,

very youthful as well.

Referring to the implant procedure.

OK, so he said it was super easy.

Referring to the implant procedure.

I literally was released from the hospital a day later.

Literally is another word that young or young at heart native speakers love using and often

it can just be deleted because it doesn't have any meaning.

It really is more of a word.

Filler.

Literally is used to emphasize that what you said happened actually happened.

It happened the way you claimed, so maybe someone asked you.

Did it take long to recover because you told your friend you're having a chip implanted

into your brain?

That sounds like a serious procedure, so I'm concerned.

Did it take long to recover?

And then you can say no, not at all, which means it did not at all take long to recover.

Very natural expression right here.

No, not at all, not at all.

And then you want to emphasize that it did not take long to recover.

So you can say I was literally released the next day and this just emphasizes it.

But again, like I said, it truly is not required because if you say I was released the next

day, adding literally just makes it sound a little stronger.

It's an intensifier, but ultimately not required.

Now the speaker said I literally was released.

This is a little awkward in terms of placement.

It sounds better to say I was literally released.

You put literally before the thing that you're intensifying.

I was literally released the next day.

Next, he says I have no cognitive impairments.

Cognitive refers to your mental processes, thinking, remembering, processing, judging

information.

And then an impairment is when something is damaged or weakened.

But thankfully he's putting in it in the negative.

I have no This is also a very common way that native speakers turn something in the negative.

What would be the more common way to make have negative have in the present?

Simple.

How would you make that negative?

This standard way is to say I don't have, I don't have, but you have to use any.

You can't say I don't have no impairments because in English we don't like double negatives.

So that would sound very awkward.

You have to change no to any.

I don't have any impairment impairments.

Now I have no is commonly used, but in very specific situations to emphasize the lack

of something.

So for now, I recommend you use it with money, time, or idea because those are the most common.

I have no money, I have no time, I have no idea.

Which means I don't know.

If someone asks you what's 362 * 24, I have no idea.

I don't know.

So very common with these three things and it really emphasizes it.

Let's continue.

Progress is good and the patient seems to have made a full recovery.

In this case, seems is exactly the same as appears where I think this is true, but I'm

not 100% certain.

And notice that sentence structure is the same because we have the verb seem or appear

conjugated with the subject, in this case the patient.

That's why there's the S and then you need the infinitive.

The patient seems to have made a full recovery with no I'll effects.

You're probably familiar with the word I'll, which means oh I feel ill, I feel sick.

But in this case I'll is describing effects and it means negative and it has a similar

meaning, right?

Because oh I feel ill, that's a negative.

I feel negative with no I'll effects.

You could also say with no negative side effects.

But side effects, there can be positive side effects.

So you would have to specify the word negative with no I'll effects that we are aware of.

Oh, this is an important one as well that we are aware of because they're suggesting

that it's possible the patient has an I'll effect, but we're not aware of it.

So This is why these words like seems, appears, they communicate a lot of meaning because

in the future if something negative does happen to this patient.

They didn't say with certainty that the patient had fully recovered.

They did say it seems so.

It is very important with the meaning it conveys.

The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking how amazing is

that?

Just think this patient was paralyzed and now thanks to this device, this patient can

can, can get some of their movements back.

That's pretty amazing.

The patient is able, remember we need that verb to be conjugated with the subject.

If the subject was plural, the patients then you would say are the patients are able to

move a mouse.

And remember, mouse is also singular countable nouns.

So you need that article because we're in the body of the article.

The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking, Musk said in

a Spaces event on his social media platform.

X remember, formerly known as Twitter, now X?

Musk said.

Neuralink is now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.

Here we have our present continuous is trying.

You should always look for keywords to tell you what the verb tense needs to be in this

case now, because now is a keyword for the present continuous.

Get has so many different meanings in English.

In this case it means receive or obtain, which is a very common meaning of the word get to

get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.

I guess this is a way of testing if the procedure was successful or trying to understand how

successful the procedure was.

Now here is trying.

Of course you need to conjugate your verb to be in the present continuous.

So what's the subject of this sentence?

What do you think?

What's it being conjugated with neural link?

Because it's not Elon Musk, he's just saying this.

But neural link is now trying to get Musk said.

So you could put Musk said right at the end as well.

Neural link is now trying to get Musk set.

So that placement is flexible.

I wrote that other structure here for you.

Let's continue.

Neuralink did not immediately reply to Reuters request for further information.

This is included to say that the the author of this article, which is the media company

Reuters, tried to get information from Elon Musk, but he did not reply to their request

and notice it's further.

Further in this case means more when we're talking more about information or ideas, but

farther, which a lot of students confuse further or far farther.

Farther is with physical distance.

We need to go farther.

So remember, farther has the word far and near far with physical distance.

Further is used with information request to mean more.

Let's continue the study uses a robot to surgically place a brain computer interface implant Remember

implanted.

So an implant is the noun form.

It's something that is being inserted into you by a surgical procedure in a region of

the brain that controls the intention to move.

Don't worry, because I don't really know what a brain computer interface is either.

You would have to be involved in this area of study or be a doctor to truly understand

what that means, Neuralink has said, adding that the initial goal is to enable people

to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts.

Because remember this, this device, Neuralink, is intended for people who are paralyzed.

Paralyzed, unable to move.

Enable means to make possible.

This is a more formal word choice.

The more everyday word choice would be allow or let.

The initial goal is to let people allow people.

Musk has grand ambitions for Neural Link, saying it would facilitate speedy surgical

insertions of its chip devices to treat conditions like obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia.

Facilitate is another more formal word.

It has the same meaning as enable, enable, facilitate.

In this case, the everyday choice could be allow as before, or help.

And speedy means fast.

I'm sure you got that just from the word speed.

Speedy, fast.

And that's the end of our article.

So it'll be really interesting to see what happens with Neuralink.

So now what I'll do is I'll read the article from start to finish, and this time you can

focus on my pronunciation.

Let's do that now.

Neuralink's first human patient able to control mouse through thinking Musk says The first

human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered

and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startups founder Elon

Musk said late on Monday.

Noland Arbo, the 29 year old patient who is paralyzed below the shoulders after a diving

accident, was playing chess on his laptop and moving the cursor using the Neuralink

device.

The surgery was super easy, Arbo said in the video streamed on Musk's social media platform

X, referring to the implant procedure.

I literally was released from the hospital a day later.

I have no cognitive impairments.

Progress is good and the patient seems to have made a full recovery with no I'll effects

that we are aware of.

The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking, Musk said in

a Spaces event on his social media platform X.

Musk said Neuralink is now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from

the patient.

Neuralink did not immediately reply to Reuters request for further details.

The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain computer interface implant in a region

of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neural Link has said, adding that the

initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their

thoughts.

Musk has grand ambitions for Neural Link, saying it would facilitate speedy surgical

insertions of its chip devices to treat conditions like obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia.

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