GET FLUENT With This Reading and Listening Method

Today you're going to improve your English  fluency by reading and listening to English.

At the same time.

We're going to read a news article together.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

1st I'll read the headline McDonald's concept,  

Cosmics could win the coffee war  against Starbucks and Dunkin.

So did you hear that McDonald's opened a  new store and that store is called Cosmics?

I just learned this for the very first time  and that's what we'll discuss in this article.

So notice here Cosmics.

This is the name of the new  store owned by McDonald's.

At first I didn't understand the name Cosmics, but  then I realized, oh, it's the adjective cosmic.

Cosmic.

Cosmic as an adjective is when  things are relating to the universe.

So you could say, oh, there was a cosmic blast.

Those there's some sort of blast in space.

It relates to the universe.

Now notice here it says concept McDonald's  concept Cosmics, a concept store.

This is a store that tries to sell you more  of an experience rather than just a product.

So you don't go in and just  get your coffee, for example.

It's supposed to be a really interesting  experience while you get your coffee.

That's called a concept store, so it seems  like that's what Cosmics is trying to do now.

It could win the coffee war.

Of course, in this case,  war represents competition.

Competition against Starbucks and Dunkin.

If you're not aware, Starbucks  and Dunkin Dunkin' Donuts.

These are two coffee restaurants in  North America and they're the most  

popular in North America, Starbucks and Dunkin.

Now, don't worry about taking notes  because I summarize everything in a  

free lesson PDF so you can look in  the description to download that.

So let's learn about this new store Cosmics.

And it looks like this is what it will look like.

So in a way similar to the style of the McDonald's  brand, McDonald's has begun to open the first  

locations of its experimental retro coffee  drive through OK, let's take a look at retro.

Retro is an adjective, and it means  fashion or styles of the past.

For example, I love retro clothes, so  maybe clothes they wore in the 1980s,  

the 1950s, anytime in the past.

That isn't currently the style that people wear.

I know a lot of people like retro  cars, cars from the 40s for example.

And if you look at this  sign, the font of the sign,  

to me it does look a little retro, a  sign that you might find in the past.

And notice here they said  retro coffee drive through.

So drive through is of course when  you you don't go inside a store.

You stay in your car and you order in your car and  then you get your beverage in your car as well.

So you don't go into a physical store.

Cosmics is entering A crowded market,  but may have a playbook for success.

So a market in terms of coffee  would represent all the stores,  

all the brands that are currently selling coffee.

So as we know, there's already Starbucks  and Dunkin, but there's many others as well.

Now, Cosmics is entering that crowded market.

So if it's crowded, it means there's already a lot  of stores, a lot of brands in the coffee business.

Now let's talk about a playbook for success.

This is a sports reference.

Basically, you can think of it  as the instructions for success.

Success is a noun, so that's why you  have the preposition for success.

But if you want to use a verb, you would need the  infinitive, the instructions to become successful.

That would be a playbook for success,  a playbook to become successful.

And I hope my videos and my YouTube  channel are your playbook for success,  

meaning that they give you  the step by step instructions.

You just need to follow my lessons, follow my  advice and then you'll get the result you want.

Fluent English.

So if you think so, put I have the Playbook for  Success, which is my videos, my YouTube channel.

I have the Playbook for Success.

Put that in the comments.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

The promise of Galactic beverages drew hundreds  to a small Chicago suburb last Thursday.

Let's talk about Galactic.

Just like Cosmic relates to  the cosmos, the universe.

Galactic relates to the Galaxy.

So again the universe.

When I read this, this is when  I understood the name Cosmic.

Oh, it's cosmic like universe  because Galactic is Galaxy.

Now I'm not sure how their  beverages will be galactic,  

but I guess that's probably  part of their concept store.

Remember, they want it to be  an experience, So maybe you'll  

be served this very interesting  drink that somehow looks galactic.

I'm not sure, because I've  never been to a Cosmics.

We'll have to find out.

So the promise of galactic  beverages drew hundreds.

This means hundreds of people just drew hundreds.

It's implied hundreds of people.

Now, if it drew the people, it  means it attracted the people.

Here's an example.

The promise of a free lunch drew  all the employees to the meeting.

So maybe the meeting was on a boring topic,  

but the free lunch, that's  what attracted the employees.

That's what drew the employees.

So this is the past simple of the verb to draw.

Just like attract here you have attracted  and if you didn't know what a suburb is,  

it's an area of the city where there are many  homes and even schools, restaurants, stores.

But it's just an area that's outside of the  main city, but it's very close to the main city.

So because the cities are contained  spaces and as they expand,  

they have to build suburbs around the city.

So that's what a suburb is.

So this is where Cosmics launched their  first store in a small Chicago suburb.

Customers queued for hours.

Some offered bribes to shorten their wades.

So some people, some of the customers who  were waiting, who were queued for hours,  

they tried to offer bribes, which would mean  they went up to someone closer to the front of  

the line and maybe said, hey, I'll give you $100  if I can take your place, That would be a bribe.

So that's pretty funny.

I wrote that definition for you.

Now let's continue lines of cars sneaked around.

So just imagine you have the store  here, but the line can't be in a  

straight line because likely there are  other buildings, there are other roads.

So if the line snakes, it  just means it goes like this.

Just like that's the movement of a snake, because  it's not possible just to go in a straight line.

So lines of cars snaked around the  suburb of fewer than 80,000 residents,  

all in pursuit of one thing.

A specialty sip from Cosmics,  McDonald's new beverage concept store.

So we already know what a concept store it's  a store that's trying to sell an experience.

And remember, because they  use this galactic beverages,  

perhaps the experience they're trying  to sell is these really interesting  

beverages that seems like they're  from outer space, from the Galaxy.

And that relates to the name of the  store being cosmics, A specialty sip.

So the verb to sip is what I'm doing right  now, Not from cosmics, from my own kitchen.

So this is sip.

But a sip is just a noun.

It's the noun form.

So I took a sip of my coffee.

So that would be the noun.

And then in that case, the verb is take.

You can take a sip or you can  simply sip, which would be the verb.

Let's continue.

The restaurant, which was announced only a  day before its soft opening on December 7th,  

is rooted in beverage exploration.

OK, so that means all these people in Chicago  

who were cued for hours and trying to  offer bribes to shorten their weight.

They only found out that Cosmics  was opening the day before it opens.

So on December 6th they found out.

Now a soft opening is when a store opens.

But just like in this case, they don't open  everywhere, they just open in one location.

And stores will do this to have a  soft opening just to see if it's  

successful or not, just to see if  people want the product or not.

So if this one store doesn't do very well,  

if the soft opening isn't successful, then  cosmics might not exist in the future.

So you can think of soft opening as a limited  opening or a test opening to judge the success.

Now I commonly hear launch  because when you launch something,  

it means you start it for the first  time and that's used for businesses.

So the the people who work at Cosmics,  they might say our soft launch went great.

There were cars sneaked around the  suburb and people were queued for  

hours waiting for their specialty  sip of their galactic beverage.

OK, now it's rooted in beverage exploration.

This means that it's deeply  connected to beverage exploration.

So trying different things, experimenting with  types of beverages, galactic beverages apparently.

So you can think of it as this  is the reason why cosmics exists.

It exists to explore beverages, which is  another reason why it could be considered  

a concept store where they're selling  you more of an experience because you  

could get this very interesting, creative  beverage that you've never tried before.

Unlike a standard McDonald's storefront,  Cosmics is drive through only, so only,  

meaning You can't go into the physical store.

It doesn't exist.

Drive through only.

The new approach also leans into what the company  calls bold and unexpected flavor combinations.

Let's talk about this phrasal  verb to lean into something.

When you lean into something, it  means you embrace it or you accept it.

So Cosmics is embracing really  unexpected flavor combinations.

What's the first unexpected flavor  combination that comes to your mind?

The first one that came to my mind  is, let's say, ginger vanilla.

I don't think ginger and vanilla necessarily  pair together like traditionally,  

so maybe that's an unexpected flavor  combination you could find at Cosmics.

I just made that up.

What about you?

What's an unexpected flavor combination?

OK, so they name some examples.

Think so.

They want you to think when you hear  bold and unexpected flavor combinations.

Think specialty lemonades.

So maybe a lemonade with ginger and vanilla.

MMM, does that sound delicious?

Specialty lemonades, cold coffee  concoctions and signature slushes.

A concoction.

This is when something is made by  combining many different things.

So a cold coffee concoction.

So what could you combine?

Well, you have your coffee, you have your milk.

Maybe you have, what did  I say, Ginger and vanilla.

And let's throw in some mango as well.

And that can be a cold coffee concoction.

Do you want to try that?

And then how about signature slushes?

A slush is a thick cold  drink made from crushed ice.

And I put thick here because it's important  because a cold beverage, you could just drink it,  

but a slush, generally you would you would almost  eat it with a spoon because it's very thick.

So that's a slush.

So those are the beverages  you can find at Cosmics.

McDonald's plans to open approximately 10  pilot locations in the US by the end of 2024.

A pilot in terms of a business  means they're just testing it.

It's a test location.

So again, it's like the soft, the soft opening,  

They're testing it to see, do people like  this, is it profitable, is it successful?

If it is, well, then they'll expand and they'll  

open more locations in other  parts of the world as well.

So that would be a pilot  location, a test location.

Now if Cosmics opened in your city,  

let's imagine they did open wherever you  are in the world and they opened a Cosmics.

Would you go, would you want to try it?

Let us know in the comments.

I definitely would.

I'm not a fan of McDonald's to  be honest, but I like beverages.

So I really want to know what these  cosmic galactic interesting beverages are.

So I would definitely try.

It is entering A crowded and  growing market of fast coffee.

Heavyweights, heavyweights.

This is a sports term, I  believe specific to boxing.

If you watch boxing maybe you already know this.

But in this context heavyweights relates to the  most important companies or brands in the market.

So in North America the fast coffee heavyweights  are Starbucks and Dunkin Dunkin' Donuts.

According to data the branded coffee market  currently stands 7% above is pre pandemic size.

So this simply means that since the pandemic,  

Starbucks and Dunkin's and other  coffee stores, they've grown 7%.

So they're sharing this information just to show  you that the market is already very crowded.

There are already heavyweights in the market  with market leaders Starbucks and Dunkin.

Remember, they're the heavyweights projected  to reach 16,144 and 9434 US stores.

Wow.

There are 16,000 Starbucks in the US alone, and  Cosmics is launching with 10 pilot locations.

So those 10 pilot locations have  to compete against 16,000 existing  

Starbucks in the US but that's probably  why they're doing something different.

They have this concept store with these  galactic beverages in 2024 respectively.

Now, when they add respectively and you see  numbers or information, it means that this number,  

the first number, relates to the first noun and  the second number relates to the second noun.

That's what happened when you use respectively.

Let's continue.

These numbers may be daunting for a new player  

in the fast coffee space if you  describe something as daunting.

So daunting is the adjective.

The verb is be.

It means that something,  it makes you feel slightly,  

which means just a little slightly  worried about your ability to succeed.

So again, when Cosmics sees that there are  17, almost 17,000 stores, Starbucks stores,  

and they're opening 10, it might make them  worried about their ability to succeed.

So that number is daunting for you.

I know a lot of students feel  that learning phrasal verbs is  

daunting because there are so many of  them you can't guess their meaning.

The meaning changes depending on the context,  and native speakers love using phrasal verbs.

But you might say learning phrasal verbs  was daunting, which means in the past.

Because remember, you need your verb to  be, and then you conjugate your verb to be.

Daunting is the adjective.

Learning phrasal verbs was daunting,  but now I have the playbook for success.

Remember?

What's that playbook?

My videos?

My channel.

Because I teach you so many phrasal  verbs and you learn them in context,  

which makes them less daunting.

So that's why you're putting this in the past.

Hopefully you feel that way.

These numbers may be daunting for a  new player in the fast coffee space,  

so a new player is a new company  that has entered the market.

But experts say Cosmics may be poised to carve out  its own place in the highly competitive landscape.

Let's look at Be poised, too.

When you're poised to do something  so you need the infinitive after.

When you're poised to do something, it  just means you're ready to do something.

You're prepared to do something.

I'm poised to take my Ielts because  I have the playbook for a success.

So I Cosmics may be poised to carve  out its own place in this context.

When they carve out their own place, it  means they successfully get their place.

So they can carve out a share of the coffee  market, so they can establish themselves as a  

player, a heavyweight in the coffee market, their  own place in the highly competitive landscape.

Landscape simply means market or you can refer to  it as marketplace, because I believe I said that.

So let me add or marketplace and remember  marketplace that represents all the companies  

that are already in the coffee industry  and that is the end of our article.

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

and this time I want you to  focus on my pronunciation.

McDonald's concept Cosmics could win the  coffee war against Starbucks and Dunkin.

McDonald's has begun to open the first  locations of its experimental retro coffee  

drive through Cosmics is entering A crowded  market but may have a playbook for success.

The promise of galactic beverages drew hundreds  to a small Chicago suburb last Thursday.

Customers queued for hours.

Some offered bribes to shorten their weight.

Lines of cars snaked around the  suburb of fewer than 80,000 residents,  

all in pursuit of one thing, a specialty sip from  Cosmics, McDonald's new beverage concept store.

The restaurant, which was announced only a  day before its soft opening on December 7th,  

is rooted in beverage exploration.

Unlike a standard McDonald's storefront,  Cosmics is drive through only.

The new approach also leans into what the company  calls bold and unexpected flavour combinations.

Think specialty lemonades, cold coffee  concoctions and signature slushes.

McDonald's plans to open approximately 10  pilot locations in the US by the end of  

2024 is entering A crowded and growing  market of fast coffee heavyweights.

According to data, the branded coffee market  currently stands 7% above its pre pandemic size,  

with market leaders Starbucks  and Dunkin projected to reach  

16,144 and 9434 US stores in 2024, respectively.

These numbers may be daunting for a  new player in the fast coffee space,  

but experts say Cosmics may be poised to carve out  its own place in the highly competitive landscape.

So did you enjoy this lesson?

Do you want me to make more lessons  where we review news articles?

If you do, then put cosmics.

Put Cosmics in the comments and of  course make sure you like this video.

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