Read An Article From The BBC With Me | Advanced English Vocabulary Lesson

Are you ready to read an article from the BBC  with me? When you learn English with the news,  

it's a great way to understand advanced grammar,  complex sentence structure, natural vocabulary  

and even correct pronunciation in a very fun and  engaging way. And make sure you watch right until  

the end of this lesson because I'm going to  read the article in full at the very end. And  

I'll also share a link to a free lesson PDF that  summarizes everything we discussed in this lesson  

today. 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,  

as you can see we're talking about the new movie  Avatar, the way of water. So this is the title  

of the movie, Avatar, the way of water. Now let  me read the whole headline, Avatar the way of  

water passes $1 billion dollars of the global box  office. That's a lot of money, right? This is the  

short form for billion. So let me write that out  for you. billion. Now. Have you seen the original  

avatar movie? I have not seen the original and to  be honest, I probably won't see this one either,  

because I don't really like sci fi movies too  much. What about you? Let me know in the comments  

if you've seen the original, if you've seen this  one or you're excited to see this new movie.  

All right, let's continue on with our article.  Avatar the way of water has made $1 billion at  

the global box office in just 14 days, becoming  the fastest film to pass the milestone this year.  

Let's look at this here the milestone, this  is a noun and this is no this is an important  

event and it can be in business or in life  in general. So what can be a milestone for  

you and important events in your life? The  first one I think of is probably graduating,  

graduating from school, graduating from university  getting married having a baby those important  

events in one's life. So you can say grad  graduating was an important milestone for me.  

So notice here I'm starting my sentence with  what what is this romantically? I'm starting  

my sentence with a gerund a gerund and this  acts as the subject of my sentence. And we  

do this when we're making a general statement.  Graduating was an important milestone for me.  

Now you could use it in business as well,  we might say, let's set a milestone to  

double our profits this year. So in this case,  it's similar to a goal and the verb that we use  

with goal is you set a goal that's just simply  when you make a goal but we don't say make a goal  

we say set a goal. And you can set a milestone  as well. So pay attention to that verb choice  

and this is the same thing. As saying a goal.  And notice when you reach a goal, you can also  

pass a milestone which is another way of saying  exceed so they did more than $1 billion they  

passed it so the milestone for the film was $1  billion. And they passed it they went beyond it.  

All right, so obviously a very  successful film. Let's continue on.  

The long delayed sequel has proved a hit with  audiences despite wildly varying reviews.  

So a sequel is when there's the original  movie. I don't know if you remember,  

but there was an original avatar movie many  years ago. And a sequel is when they create  

another movie. So it's part one is the  original and then part two is the sequel,  

and in the sequel, they continue the story. So you  can think of it as easily I'll just say part two,  

or it could be two or more they can have more  than one sequel. And that is a continuation  

content when you ation of the original  movie, it could be a TV, a TV show, as well.  

Now notice here has proved has proved prove  is one of those birds that actually has two  

separate forms that are acceptable  in the third form the participle,  

you can also say proven has proven and both of  them are correct. So wherever congregations are  

to prove that's the infinitive and then  you have proof as the base of course,  

and then we have proved and then  you can have proved or proven.

Now although both of these are correct, I  would probably say that proved is more common.  

But I do hear proven anough that it's worse.  You knowing that both of them are acceptable and  

grammatically correct. But if you want to keep it  easy since proved is the past simple. You can also  

just remember proved as the participle as well.  Okay, so here to be a hit, has proven a hit I  

hit in this case is something that is very popular  or successful. So this is a really great idiom so  

you might say our party was a hit. Our party was a  hit. This means your party was very successful. It  

was popular, people enjoyed it. So ultimately it  was successful. Our party was a hit. You could say  

I hope our launch will be a hit. So notice  this is in the future because I'm using I  

hope I hope our launch will be ahead. So I don't  know yet. Launch is when you introduce something  

new into the market for example a new product or  service you launch it, so you introduce it for  

the first time. So here our expression is this  is a verb TO BE expression to be a hit. Now you  

need to conjugate your verb to be according to  the subject. And the time reference of course,  

like always, so let's say you had more than one  party or parties. Maybe you had an anniversary  

party, a birthday party and a retirement party  all in the same month. You could say our parties  

were because we have the past simple with  they the subject is that they were a hit.  

Our parties were a hit Now notice  I don't say our parties were hits.  

Although I hit technically is singular, but I  changed my verb to be. I don't change my noun  

here. Our parties were a hit. I don't change  it to hips, okay. So you conjugate your verb  

to be to be ahead and let me just write out the  meaning to be successful or popular. So it makes  

sense. They're saying the movie was I hit? It was  successful. Well, why was it successful? Because  

it was popular, so they're seeing the same thing  really successful or popular. Let's continue on.  

It is one of only three films to surpass $1  billion this year, after Top Gun Maverick  

and Jurassic World domination. So this is another  example of a sequel because there was an original  

Top Gun movie from I don't know the 80s the  1980s or 1990s I'm not sure long, long time ago  

with Tom Cruise. And then this year they made a  Sequel A sequel. So Top Gun Maverick is a sequel.  

So Top Gun Maverick this movie is a sequel.  The original was made and I'm just going to  

say the 1980s I'm not sure if that's correct.  It might be the 90s the original was made in  

the 1980s Now notice, I added up because I have  80s in general when you have a year in general  

80s A decade 80s 90s You have to say the 80s but  the 90s What if I said in 1981 and I was specific  

or 80 or 87 then you don't use an article that  was made in 1987 Or was made in the 80s you can  

just put 80s or you can add 1980s If anyone knows  when the original was made. You can share that  

in the comments. Have you seen the original Top  Gun? Have you seen this sequel Top Gun Maverick?  

I have seen neither. But you can share in the  comments. I have seen Jurassic World domination.  

Okay, know what let's take a look at this. It  is one of three. Now notice here films, one of  

three films now the films is plural, because a  represents the three films so there are three  

films now one of those three films. So that's  why films is plural even though we have one.  

So you might say it was one of my favorite  movies, movies with an ass. When you have one  

off. It means there are more than one movies.  But you're talking about one specific but the  

noun is plural. Okay? But notice my verb is  conjugated as singular. It was because of  

the one so that's why the subject and the verb is  singular, but the noun is plural. So I might say  

she one of our best employ, okay, so do I  want employee or employees and do I want she  

is or she are? We this is pretty obvious to you  that we need she is one of our best employees  

and then I need plural. Because in the company as  a whole there are many employees. So that can be  

a tricky sentence structure but obviously  a very common sentence structure as well.  

So get comfortable with forming sentences  like that because you will use them a lot.  

Okay, so notice here they changed it to  surpass instead of pass. In this case,  

they're exactly the same. You can pass something  you can surpass something, I would say we  

generally use surpass when you're talking about  money specifically like a specific dollar amount.  

And then you can use pass because remember  before they were talking about milestones,  

so you pass a milestone, but you surpass a  specific dollar amount, and both of them just  

means you went beyond you exceeded. Okay, let's  continue on. However, director James Cameron has  

said his technologically innovative movie  needs to make 2 billion to break even. Wow.  

If you know what this means, you know why  I said Wow. To break even this is when your  

total cost is the same as your total profit.  So expenditures or costs and your profit are  

exactly the same. So what you put out and what  you get back are even even means the scene.  

So basically you seeing the movie costs $2 billion  to produce to create so they need to earn $2  

billion just to break even not to get any profit.  Profit is additional money after your expenses.  

So if the movie makes $3 billion, 2 billion is  the cost of the movie, and then 1 billion will  

be profit. So you This is generally used in  a business context break even why you can use  

this in your situation as well like more everyday  situations. Let's say you bought a house okay, so  

house price I'll just say  yeah, price you paid, let's say  

500,000 Okay, this was the cost of your  house 500,000. And then how sold 500,000

Or this case, you broke even you didn't  gain any money and you didn't lose any  

money you broke even. So you might say  we broke even on the sale of our house,  

we broke even now I took my verb break and I  put it in the past simple. Again, you might say.  

Let's say you bought a house during the  pandemic when prices were really high at  

least in North America. And you need to sell  your house today when prices are low. That's  

not a good situation for you. Right? So you  might say I hope we at least break even which  

means I hope we at least get the exact amount  of money we spent on the house. Now any more  

money than you would say we made we made.  So in this case, if you sold your house for  

I'm gonna put it up here. How sold? Let's  say 600,000. Then you can say we made we made  

100,000k is the short form 4000 And we  verbalize it 100k 100k. We made 100k 100,000  

on the sale of our house. All right now  I'll just cover all the bases. Because  

if the house sold for let's say 400,000 This is  not a good situation for you at all. 400,400k then  

you have to say unfortunately we lost 100,000 on  the sale of our house, which is very unfortunate.  

So hopefully you're in this situation and at the  very least, this situation. Let's continue on.  

This film picks up after the events of 2009 avatar  This is the oh the original avatar. Oh no, I asked  

when Top Gun was made. original avatar was made in  2009. Okay, so this is the original now in 2022.  

They're talking about the sequel. The film picks  up after the events of 2009 avatar which is the  

highest grossing film of all time. That's awesome.  With box office receipts of $2.97 billion.  

And remember, this is in 2009. So the value  of that money was more in 2009. All right,  

highest grossing gross. This simply is another  way of saying highest earning highest earning  

in more of a business talk context they use the  term gross gross profit, gross margin margins,  

gross sales, so that's just more of a business  term. But in more of an everyday context,  

you can use highest earning film of all  time. Okay, let's look at this pickup.  

Because of course you know the phrasal verb  to pickup. I just picked up a pen, or you can  

pick your kids up from school  which means to get your kids  

at school. But let's look at this because we're  not talking about picking something up and they're  

not talking about bringing someone from one  location to another. So what are they talking  

about? In this context? We'll remember they're  talking about the sequel which was filmed in 2022.  

It picks up after the events of 2009. In this  context, it means it continues it continues where  

the film left off. So when this case pick up you  can think of it as to continue where it left off.  

Now this is a useful phrasal verb because  we use it quite commonly in conversations,  

let's say you're in a meeting and you're  discussing your sales strategy for an upcoming  

product launch. Okay, but you have another meeting  you have to go to so you end your current meeting,  

but you're not done talking there's still more to  discuss. You can say let's pick this up tomorrow.  

Let's pick this up tomorrow. Let's pick this off  tomorrow. So this is our conversation. Let's pick  

our conversation up tomorrow. So in this context,  you can understand it means let's continue talking  

about the sales strategy. I don't remember what  I said. But let's get to here talking about our  

sales strategy. And we stopped talking about  this one point. So tomorrow when we continue  

our conversation, we're going to start talking  about the last topic of this meeting. So let's  

pick up our conversation tomorrow. So in  this specific context, it means continue.  

It's very useful when you're having any sort  of conversations or discussions. It doesn't  

have to be a business context. You could be  discussing your vacation plans with your wife,  

your husband, your friend, and then you have  to make dinner or you have to pick your kid up  

from school. Notice in that context, pickup is a  totally different phrasal verb. So you might say  

let's pick this up. Two more. Pick this up  after dinner and finalize our flights. So  

maybe you were discussing your flights, you have  to go make dinner. After dinner, you're going  

to pick up the conversation and finalize your  flights, which is what you were talking about.  

All right. Let's continue on. Analysts say  the new installment is unlikely to beat that  

figure. As cinema attendances  are still down post pandemic.  

Okay, the new installment, this simply means  this SQL, the SQL is it's not the most common  

way of saying it. I would just ignore this, I  don't think is that useful. Analysts say this  

SQL. That's the easiest way of saying it. Analysts  say this equal is on likely so in this case, maybe  

we'll say less than 50% chance so maybe a 40%  chance 30% Chance it's unlikely to beat that  

figure. So the figure in this context, if they  don't define a now you have to look back at the  

last referenced figure the last reference number  and in this case, it's 2.9 7 billion. So that is  

the figure 2.9 7 billion. Never b n is the short  form of billion. You could even just do billion  

with a B, I'll just put the end. So that's the  figure $2.97 billion dollars. So beat in this  

case means exceed, so to make 3 billion, 3.5  billion, 4 billion that would all be exceed or  

beat to do more. So it's unlikely there's less  than a 50% chance and at this time, it's made 1  

million right? That's the no sorry, 1 billion,  that's the milestone. It passed $1 billion.  

So it has 2 billion more than it means to  make on before it beats its original movie.  

So before the sequel beats the original movie,  but remember, it needs to make 2 billion to  

break even to be at that point. All right, let's  continue on. But based on current performance,  

the bill is likely to overtake Top Gun Maverick  as the biggest film of 2020. To overtake means  

again this is another way of saying exceed  so Top Gun was in the lead. It was performing

very well but then avatar right now  maybe avatar is even but oh avatar  

just over took top gun. It is now  in the lead. So to become the leader  

to overtake to become the new leader  talk on was the was the leader.  

Avatar overtook notice I just conjugated when  I said that out loud over tuck because our verb  

is take you need to conjugate take. So in this  case, in the past it is over took. So we can  

say avatar over took top gun as the biggest  film of 2022. If this has in fact happened  

in this case, it hasn't happened because  they're saying it's likely likely means  

there is more than 50% chance that's likely  more than 50% chance. Let's continue on.  

That news may come as a surprise to critics,  some of whom can the way water as a lumbering,  

humorless, damp squib of a movie in which  nothing meaningful happens. And the story is  

really pretty stupid. So some negative adjectives  you can add to your vocabulary if you choose.  

To come as a surprise. This is simply a  way of saying the news may seem unexpected.  

So critics critics are the people  that do not like the movie. Okay,  

those are the critics. They don't like the  movie. So for them, it would be unexpected that  

avatar is the most common most popular  movie of 2022. It came as a surprise.  

So this is a great expression. Our verb  is calm, so you need to conjugate it based  

on your verb tense. So you might say I  was promoted and it came as a surprise,  

which means you were not expecting the  promotion. You were not expecting the promotion.  

Now we also use this in the negative form to  say you were expecting it because if I say  

and it didn't calm because here, this is my past  simple right cane, but if I'm adding my negative,  

the negative is didn't in the past simple and  now I need my base verb calm. I was promoted.  

And it didn't come as a surprise, which means you  were expecting the promotion. So we use both you  

can say it came as a surprise. It didn't  come as a surprise. Both are very common.  

Let's continue on. Water. Oh, sorry. That's  the way of water and we read that part. All  

those negative adjectives. Okay, all other so  others it we were talking about the critics,  

the other people would be the ones that enjoyed  the film. So I guess we could call them the fans,  

the fans that would be the opposite.  You have critics and then you have fans.

So fans, opposite of critics,

so fans like the film, critics don't like the film  

I have critics as well and I also have fans. I  hope you're one of my friends, fans and critics.  

Okay. Others The fans were more enthusiastic,  calling the film and eye popping jaw dropping  

spectacle and a fully immersive waking dream. So  I just kind of acted it out because imagine you  

you're watching this movie and your eyes open. Why  generally that happens when were very engaged or  

were surprised in a good way when something  is really beautiful. Your eyes open wide,  

so that's where this comes from an eye  popping or jaw dropping. So you might say,  

seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time was  jaw dropping, or you could say was eye popping.  

So when I saw it, I went in awe and beauty so  art and beauty. What about you have you had a  

jaw dropping experience and eye popping experience  a place you saw something you saw that was just  

so beautiful, unique? Interesting? Share it in the  comments if you have practice your new vocabulary.  

All right, let's move on. The original  avatar was essentially a science fiction  

version of Pocahontas following the story  of greedy colonialist humans stripping the  

resources of a distant planet called Pandora.  Greedy you probably know what this means, but  

it's very common. So I'll just share it  just in case this is an adjective and it  

describes somebody who is not generous. is the  opposite of generous. For example, my sister  

got a huge box of chocolates for her birthday, but  she wouldn't share with anyone she's so greedy.  

So we can be when somebody doesn't want  to share their possessions, their money,  

their food, we use this commonly with food. I  know probably you instantly think about money,  

but we use it a lot with food as well.  So if somebody doesn't want to share  

their food with you, you can say stop  being so greedy. Stop being so greedy.  

So notice stop and I have my gerund. Stop is  a gerund verb or verb is the verb to be. She  

is this is the con contraction form. She  is she's she is so greedy. So my verb is  

the verb to be in the gerund form. I mean being  stop being so greedy. That could be something  

someone says to you if you don't want  to share hopefully you're not creating  

this equal is sent several  years later, as Solly and nigiri  

I don't know how to say this name because I did  not see the original avatar and this is not an  

English name. So I will lose say nigiri  solely and knights theory head underwater  

to protect their planet. From another human  invasion while attempting to raise a family.  

Okay, all let's just look at this head. This is a  pretty common verb so this is a verb. Now to head.  

This is used as a way of saying to go to go so  head underwater, so they're they live on the  

surface on the ground. Now they're going  underwater, they're heading underwater.  

We use this a lot when talking about going to a  specific location. So for example, what time do  

you want to head to the mall? What time do you  want to head to the mall? This simply means go  

or let's say you were at your friend's party,  and another friend could ask you what time did  

you head home? What time did you go home?  What time did you leave the party but go  

home is another way of saying leave. So the verb  doesn't replace leave the verb replaces go. But  

we use it in a very specific context not go in  any context. We use it very to go to a specific  

location. That's how I would use it even in a  business context. Very common. What time are you  

heading to the conference, for example? So you can  add this to your vocabulary to sound very natural  

but also you'll probably hear it a lot from  native speakers and now you know what it means.  

So that's the end of our article. Are you excited  to watch the sequel of Avatar or maybe even the  

original if you haven't seen that the sequel  yet? Now what I'll do is I will read the article  

in full from start to finish so you can practice  along with my pronunciation. So let's do that now.  

Avatar the way of water passes $1  billion at the global box office  

Avatar the way of water has made $1 billion at the  global box office in just 14 days, becoming the  

fastest film to pass the milestone this year.  The long delayed sequel has proved a hit with  

audiences despite widely varying reviews. It is  one of only three films to surpass $1 billion this  

year, after Top Gun Maverick and drastic world  domination. However, director James Cameron has  

said his technologically innovative movie needs  to make $2 billion to break even the film picks  

up after the events of 2019 avatar, which is  the highest grossing film of all time with box  

office receipts of $2.97 billion. Analysts  say the new installment is unlikely to beat  

that figure as cinema attendances are still down  post pandemic, but based on current performance,  

the film is likely to overtake Top Gun Maverick as  the biggest film of 2022. Now that news may come  

as a surprise to critics, some of whom panned  the way of water as a lumbering, humorless,  

damp squib of a movie in which nothing meaningful  happens, and the story is really pretty stupid.  

Others were more enthusiastic, calling the  film and eye opening jaw dropping spectacle  

and a fully immersive waking dream. The original  avatar was essentially a science fiction version  

of Pocahontas, following the story of greedy  colonialist humans stripping the resources of a  

distant planet called Ken Dora. The sequel is set  several years later, as Sully and nine TierI head  

underwater to protect their planet from another  human invasion while attempting to raise a family.  

Amazing job with this lesson today. Think of  all the advanced grammar the complex sentence  

structure, the natural vocabulary that you learned  today. Now you can look in the description below  

for the link to download the free lesson PDF  that summarizes everything we covered today.  

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

and of course subscribe. And before you go,  make sure you head on over to my website,  

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