Read An Article With Me To Improve Your FLUENCY

Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm  Jennifer. And today we're going to read  

an advanced news article together so you  can learn the advanced vocabulary, grammar,  

structures and expressions so you can increase  your fluency in English. Let's get started. Let  

me read the headline James Cameron Slams Ocean  Gate Safety. Regrets not speaking up More.

First, let's talk about the verb slam in  this context. It's used in an informal way  

to say criticize, to criticize. So James  Cameron criticizes ocean gate safety,  

regrets, not speaking out More notice  our verb regret. This is a feeling of  

sadness or remorse for a mistake or a decision.

And in this context, the phrasal verb to speak  up, This means to express your opinion. So I might  

say, if you don't agree with the policy, please  speak up, please express your opinion. So James  

Cameron regrets he feels sadness because he didn't  speak up, and he feels like that was a mistake.

Now notice we have regret not speaking up, so not  is of course to make it negative. But what do you  

notice about the verb speak? You have the ING  form here because regret is a gerund verb. So  

you need regret plus gerund. I regret speaking up.  I regret not speaking up. In that case, negative.

Let's continue a catastrophic pressure  implosion. Listen to my pronunciation  

catastrophic. Catastrophic. Catastrophic is  an adjective that describes the implosion and  

it means causing sudden and very great  harm or destruction. A catastrophic.

Explosion. In this case it's an implosion. So  explosion is going outwards and implosion is going  

inwards. And this catastrophic implosion killed  all 5 passengers aboard the Titan submersible.  

This is the Titan submersible. Submersible  refers to the fact it can be submersed.

Underwater, it can go underwater, just  like a submarine is a submersible,  

the US Coast Guard said Thursday, somberly solving  a mystery that had captivated the public all week.

Somberly is an adverb, and it means in a  way that is serious or sad, without humor  

or entertainment. Now of course they're talking  about a catastrophic implosion that killed 5  

people. You're going to express this in a somber  way, in a very serious with some sadness as well.  

And it's a mystery because at first this  submersible disappeared and nobody knew.

Where it was or what happened to it?  So that was the mystery. But then the  

mystery was solved when they found out it  had imploded and killed everyone aboard.

Now it captivated the public.  When something captivates you,  

it holds your attention or interest. So you you  want to know what happened, What happened. You're  

constantly checking the updates to see if there's  any new information. It captivated you, so it held  

your interest or attention. Let's continue.  Some experts, however, weren't surprised.

So they weren't surprised when they  found out that the mystery was that  

the submersible imploded. That it wasn't  just lost or taking a detour. That's the  

reason why it couldn't be found. It couldn't  be found because it had, in fact, imploded.  

Some experts, however, weren't  surprised, including film director  

and deep sea explorer James Cameron.  Does this name sound familiar to you?

Do you know which famous film he  directed? Well, they say it right here,  

the Titanic director. So James Cameron  was the director of the Titanic. And if  

you didn't know this submersible Ocean Gate  Titan was exploring the Titanic shipwreck,  

and that's why they're interviewing  James Cameron for this article.

The Titanic director is criticizing the  safety of the vessel that was to have  

explored the wreckage of the Titanic  in the depths of the North Atlantic  

and comparing the cause of the accident  to the ocean liners historic disaster.  

So James Cameron is making a comparison  that this submersible ended in catastrophe.

Just like the Titanic did. And the submersible  was on its way to explore the Titanic,  

which makes it extremely unfortunate. Let's  take a look at the sentence structure because  

it's quite advanced. The vessel that  was to have explored this might look  

a little awkward to you, so let's  talk about this sentence structure.

There is a grammatical structure where we use  the verb to be plus the infinitive, and this  

is used for official arrangements or orders.  I could say I am to finish the report, I am to  

finish the report. This might look odd to you.  It's not a sentence structure that is used in.

Everyday speech we do use it more to suggest  more official arrangements or orders. But if  

officially my boss told me this, then I could  say I am to finish the report, which means  

I have the responsibility of finishing  the report. This is my responsibility.  

So this is the infinitive to finish.

The verb is the verb to be. I  am now. If I change this to she,  

of course I need to change my verb. She is  to finish the report. They are to finish the  

report. But you can put this in other verb  tenses right now. What verb tense is this in  

the present simple. So you could  put this in the past simple they.

Were to finish the report and that's  what you see here. The Titanic director  

is criticizing the safety of the vessel. So  the vessel was to have explored the wreckage.  

So this is what its official arrangement  was, but it didn't do it because it  

had the catastrophic implosion  along the way before it reached.

The wreckage. So that's an advanced sentence  structure. You can do some practice with that  

in the comments. Why don't you share one thing  that you are to do? But do remember that this is  

used more in official arrangements and orders  and it isn't as common in everyday speech.  

In a series of television interviews, Cameron  said he had suspected all week that the Titan.

Had imploded on Sunday. So the Titan that  is the name of this submersible. The Titan  

which imploded. Now notice here the past  simple. He had suspected that the Titan  

had imploded. That's because James Cameron  is talking about a past before another past.

So let's review the timeline of events. So  you always have to think about your actions  

on a timeline. So here is our timeline. So I  believe it was on Thursday that we found out  

about the implosion. So Thursday, I'll just  say Titan implodes. Thursday, Titan implos.

I'm not sure exactly when the Titan went missing  to be honest, but all I will just say Monday,  

Monday Titan goes missing, nobody knows where  it is or what happened goes missing and maybe  

we can say on Sunday Sunday Titan starts its  mission, starts mission so it begins to explore.

It starts its trip. It begins to explore  the wreckage. It goes on its way. So Sunday,  

Titan starts mission. Monday, Titan goes missing.  Now Thursday, Titan implodes. But here on Monday,  

Titan goes missing. Well, then, maybe  that same day. Or maybe Tuesday. Or  

Wednesday. James Cameron suspects it  implodes. So I'll just say Tuesday.

James Cameron suspects, which means he thinks  Titan imploded, but he doesn't have any proof.  

He just suspects it's what he thinks based on his  knowledge of of submarines and submersibles. OK,  

so This is why we're using the past perfect  because he's talking about he had suspected.

So the past event is that the Titan  imploded, but before that happened here.  

Now because this is a past in the past, this is  the past and this is an earlier past action. We  

use the past perfect. So we have our past simple  and for the earlier past action we have the past.

Perfect to talk about a past in the past.  So that's why we have here had suspected  

and had imploded. Let's continue on.  The Titanic director is no stranger  

to deep sea exploration. He has made  a whopping 33 dives. I really like  

this word. Whopping. Whopping. Whopping is  an adjective that means extremely large.

So it can be extremely large in degree or in  amount. So let's say Anna received a raise  

right now. I don't know if it was a big  raise or a small raise. Now my adjective  

goes right before the noun. So I could say  Anna received a whopping A whopping raise.

Now you know that Anna received a really  big raise, all whopping raise. So that's  

a fun adjective that you can add to your  vocabulary. So he has made all whopping 33 dives.  

They're using whopping to let you know  that this number of dives is quite  

large. Within the diving community.  That's a lot of dives. 33 dives.

To the shipwreck. So not dives  in his entire life. Dives to the  

Titanic shipwreck. So imagine going to the  Titanic shipwreck 33 times. That's a lot,  

right? A whopping 33 dives  to the shipwreck himself,  

even calculating that he's spent more time on the  Titanic than its own captain did a century ago.

So obviously, that's a whopping number of  dives and a whopping time spent on the Titanic.  

He also dove. Dove is the  past simple of the verb dive,  

past simple of dive, an irregular  verb. He also dove the Mariana Trench.

The deepest known point on earth? About three  times deeper than the Titanic wreck site in 2012.  

Wow, that sounds quite impressive. Cameron had  long been concerned about the vessel's safety, so  

notice here they use long been concerned instead  of saying he had been concerned for a long time.

They said he had long been concerned. Cameron  had long been concerned about the vessel  

safety and Ocean gates experimental approach,  lamenting that the company had ignored experts  

calls to undergo a standard certification  process. Let's take a look at lamenting.  

When you lament about something, it means you  express sadness or regret about that something.

But this word to lament is also used when you  complain about something. So I could say she spent  

all afternoon lamenting about her boss's  behavior. So that sounds to me like she  

was complaining about her boss's behavior,  although depending on context it could mean  

express sadness or regret. Now I'm letting  you know this because context is always key.

Because the article already talked about James  Cameron expressing sadness or regret, then is  

likely. That's what Lament means in this case.  But he's also criticized them, so he could have  

been complaining about the fact that they didn't  follow the safety protocols. So it could be either  

one lamenting that the company had ignored experts  calls to undergo a standard certification process.

When you undergo something, it means you,  

you participate in it. So they have this  certification process. So if you undergo it,  

it means you participate in it, you  do it, you take the necessary action  

to become certified. But James Cameron was  lamenting because Ocean Gate didn't undergo.

The standard certification process which experts  had recommended, so an experts call to undergo  

here. The call is really a recommendation you  should undergo. You should participate in this.  

You should do it basically. So you could say  participate in in the sense of participate  

in in the sense of a process or more simply you  can just think of it as to do to do the process.

To undergo a standard certification process,  

Cameron said it was difficult to watch the  frantic search. Frantic is an adjective,  

and it's when you're almost out of control  because of extreme emotions such as worry.  

So let's say you're a parent and your child was  supposed to be home at 5:00 o'clock, and it's.

5:15, 5:30, 6 o'clock and your child is not  home yet. You are going to become frantic  

or you're going to search frantically to use an  adverb, search frantically for your child. You're  

going to call everyone you know Frantically. I  frantically called the schools, the hospitals.

My kids friends trying to find my child. So  a parent would become very frantic if they  

couldn't find their child. You can use this  in less extreme examples. If I can't find my  

wallet or my cell phone, a possession that is very  important to me, I might become frantic. Where is  

it? Where is it? Where is it? Or if you're at  the airport and you can't find your passport.

You're going to become very frantic. Where  is it? Where is it? Where is it? And you'll  

start looking everywhere, throwing things out  of your purse, trying to find it. Frantically,  

frantically So We use this both as  adverb and the adjective very commonly  

Camera said it was difficult to  watch the frantic search play out,  

play out. In this case, when something plays  out, it simply means it happens. It happens.

Over the next few days, knowing  it was futile because remember.  

Well, first let me explain what futile means.  Futile is mean to say that your actions will  

have no impact, no influence, no  benefits. So something's futile.  

In this case, it's futile. Your  actions, your action of searching for.

These survivors is futile because there are no  survivors. The there was a catastrophic implosion,  

so the the ship is gone, the submersible  is gone. That's why the search was futile.  

So futile is when your actions or your  efforts have no effect. You could say  

trying to change his mind is  futile, which means you could.

Give this person every logical reason  why they should change their mind,  

but it's not going to have any effect. That  person is not going to change their mind. No  

matter what you say. It's futile. Trying  to change someone's opinion is futile.  

Knowing it was futile. The  search was futile. But hoping.

He was wrong. And of course he wanted to be wrong,  because if he's right, it means that everybody  

died, and if he's wrong, it means there's a  chance that they survived. But unfortunately,  

that isn't what happened. So that's the end of  our solemn article. Now what I'll do is I'll  

read the article from start to finish, and  this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

James Cameron slams ocean gate safety regrets  not speaking up more A catastrophic pressure  

implosion killed all 5 passengers aboard  the Titan submersible, the US Coast Guard  

said Thursday, somberly solving a mystery  that had captivated the public all week.

Some experts, however, weren't surprised,  including film director and deep sea explorer  

James Cameron. The Titanic director is  criticizing the safety of the vessel  

that was to have explored the wreckage of the  Titanic in the depths of the North Atlantic  

and comparing the cause of the accident  to the ocean liners historic disaster.

In a series of television interviews,  Cameron said he has suspected all week  

that the Titan had imploded on Sunday. The  Titanic director is no stranger to deep sea  

exploration. He has made a whopping  33 dives to the shipwreck himself,  

even calculating that he's spent more time on the  Titanic than its own captain did a century ago.

He also dove the Mariana Trench,  the deepest known point on Earth,  

about three times deeper than  the Titanic wreck site in 2012.  

Cameron had long been concerned about the vessel  safety and Ocean Gates experimental approach,  

lamenting that the company had ignored experts  calls to undergo a standard certification process.

Cameron said it was difficult to watch the  frantic search play out over the next few days,  

knowing it was futile but hoping he was wrong.  

We covered a lot today, so make sure you  download the free lesson PDF. You can look  

for the link in the description to download that  so you can review everything we learned today.

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every single week. And now why don't  you get started with your next lesson?