Read An Article From The NEWS With Me! (Learn Advanced English Vocabulary And Grammar)

Welcome to this lesson to help you learn English  with the news. We're going to read a news article  

together and you're going to learn a lot of  advanced vocabulary, complex sentence structure,  

advanced grammar, and even correct pronunciation  directly by reading this article with me. Welcome  

back to JForrestEnglish training of course I'm  Jennifer and this is your place to become a  

fluent and confident English speaker. Let's get  started. Welcome to our article, let me read the  

headline. Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter  CEO after securing successor now let me read the  

sub headline so this is the main headline and then  we have a sub headline which is designed to give  

you a little more information about the topic. The  billionaire posted a poll over the weekend asking  

Twitter users if he should step down. The majority  voted yes all right, going back to our headline  

resign. This is very important to the topic  of the article. So to resign This is a verb  

and this is a way of saying that you quit  you voluntarily leave your position it's  

just a more formal way of saying that. Let me  write this for you. So it is to voluntarily  

which means you chose to Nobody said you must  leave your job. That means you're fired. When  

you say I don't want to work here anymore.  That means you quit or again more formally  

resigned to volunteer to voluntarily leave  your employment your position so in this case,  

his position as CEO, which is of course  an acronym for Chief Executive Officer,  

which is the top ranking position in a  company now notice here grammatically,  

we have the word after which is a preposition  preposition. Now what do you notice right here  

we have our gerund verb, secure to secure, that's  the base verb to secure and because to secure this  

is the base. Now because I have after which is a  preposition, my verb that follows must be in the  

gerund form, which is the ing form. To secure in  this context is a more formal way of saying find  

to find a successor. Now, what is the successor  already we reviewed a lot in this headline here,  

a successor hopefully you can understand  based on context, which is why reviewing  

articles is so helpful because based on the  context, well the successor is the person  

who will replace Elon Musk as CEO. So it's  the person who comes after you as a leader.  

So you have old leader, so leader in the  sense of a employment within the company,  

it could be a boss, a manager, a supervisor, or  it could be a politician or president or prime  

minister. So you have your old leader and the  new leader, and the new leader is the successor,  

the successor, right up here and the old  leader is the predecessor predecessor. I  

don't think you need to worry about it  too much, but successor is more common.  

All right. So that's the headline here. So  basically, Elon Musk is leaving his position. He's  

resigning, but they need to find someone new the  person who will act as CEO and thus the successor.  

The billionaire posted a poll over the weekend  asking Twitter users if he should step down, the  

majority voted yes. All right. Let's look at this.  This is a nice phrasal verb to step down. Now  

again, based on the context, he's going to resign,  leave his position quit they all mean the same  

thing. So step down is the phrasal verb to mean  resign from a position. So to voluntarily leave  

a position now notice I included title title could  be for example, the coach of a sports team, or the  

leader of a community organization. And maybe in  that case, the leader of a community organization,  

maybe you're the leader of your church group,  or just a community group and you don't get  

paid for that. It's just a volunteer position,  but you could still step down you could leave it  

so I want to show you the grammar here  because we will say Musk Elon Musk musk.  

Step down assuming it's complete past simple set  down as CEO as CEO, so we use the preposition as  

and then we state the title as CEO as manager, as  Captain captain of a sports team, for example, is  

the leader so you can have the title there so in  our case, it CEO stepped down. This is our our  

phrasal verb, verb conjugated plus our preposition  and then we have as job title. Let's continue on.  

Elon Musk on Tuesday claimed he will resign as  CEO of Twitter once he has found a replacement.  

Now what's the alternative word for replacement?  The one we learned it right here in the headline,  

successor. So they're seeing the exact  same thing as this headline. They're  

just choosing to use different vocabulary  because we have resigned, well we use that  

before and now we have replacement instead  of successor. So you could say here successor  

and remember once a successor has been appointed,  Elon Musk will be the predecessor, the person who  

previously had the position. So replacement  can be successor. Okay, let's continue on.  

I will so notice it's in a quote which means  these words are coming from Elon Musk's mouth.  

He said these words, I will resign as CEO as soon  as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.  

After that, I will just run the software and  servers teams the billionaire tweet it. Okay,  

so he tweeted this but it's still coming from  him directly. In this case. It's coming from  

his fingers instead of his mouth but it's still  a quote because it's reporting what he said.  

So resign as notice we're using the  preposition as with the job title as well.  

Now take the job. This is the same as finding  a replacement finding a successor. So again,  

it's just a different way to say the same thing.  Notice how he says foolish or not foolish.  

When we describe something as bullish, this is a  negative adjective because foolish means unwise,  

stupid or not showing good judgment. So  this is a negative adjective. So Elon  

Musk is seeing that it isn't a wise decision  to become my successor to take over as CEO.  

You could say it was foolish of  me to step down as as captain.  

It was foolish on me it was unwise, stupid,  it didn't show good judgment. So I it's a way  

of saying I regret my decision. Now  a lot of students have this fear of  

speaking because they think that they're  going to sound foolish or look foolish.

I'm afraid of looking foolish when I speak.  Which means you're afraid of looking stupid  

to be honest, or people judging you negatively  because if you use the wrong vocabulary or your  

pronunciation isn't very good, then it  could look negative right? Now this is a  

fear that a lot of students have I'm afraid of  looking foolish when I speak. So a very common  

adjective but remember it is very negative as  well. All right, let's continue on. After that,  

I will just run the software and  servers teams, the billionaire tweeted.  

So the verb run in this context, and this is  what's important about learning with the news  

because you understand the context because  if you just see the word run, will does it  

mean to run? Or does it mean run the software  team, which is another way of saying leading  

to just lead to match the verb tends to just  lead, manage the software and servers teams  

so you could say, I ran the marketing team for  five for five years. Now notice my verb is in the  

past simple right? Run, ran, run. If I say I've  run the marketing team for five years, what's the  

difference between I ran the marketing team and  I've run the marketing team. Well, of course it's  

our verb tense because this is the past simple,  which means it's a completed action. I no longer  

do this action. Let me make this a little bit  smaller. I no longer do this. It's complete. It's  

in the past but if I say I run the marketing team  for five years, this is the present continuous,  

sorry, the present perfect, present perfect.  And it means this is an action that started  

in the past, but continues until now. So today,  I run the marketing team. The action is still  

in progress, but I use the present perfect simply  to show that it started in the past I see lots of  

mistakes with these two verb tenses, so pay  attention to this part of the lesson. Let's  

continue on. On Sunday, Musk posted a hole on  the social media platform, asking users if he  

should step down as its head and said he would  abide by the results. So we already learned this  

phrasal verb to step down to voluntarily leave the  position again, this same as resign or quit resign  

is more formal. And as its head so head of means  the leader we use the the word head to mean the  

leader the boss, the CEO, the head is is Twitter.  It's they're talking about the company Twitter.  

Okay, now a bye bye. This is a phrasal verb  because we have the verb to abide and then we have  

the preposition by and this simply means to follow  the rules to follow the rules or regulations.  

When you travel and a foreign  country you must abide by  

its its rules, its rules. It being the country  you're traveling to so if you go to the US  

a you have to follow the traffic rules  and all the other rules and regulations  

you have to abide by. So to follow, abide  by it's a more formal phrasal verb we tend  

to use it with rules and regulations from the  government or from a large company as a whole.  

So basically, Musk said that he will follow the  results of the poll. So if the majority say you  

should leave and he will follow that abide by  that and leave his position he will resign and  

find a successor replacement which will make Musk  the predecessor the old leader of the position.  

More than 17 point 5 million votes were cast.  Did you vote? I didn't vote because I didn't  

know about this. I don't really use Twitter. Do  you use Twitter? What do you think? Should Elon  

Musk resign as CEO share your opinion? In the  comments below? So you cast a vote. That's just  

the verb we use to cast. This is pretty specific  to voting. But if you want to talk about voting,  

then you can use this to cast a vote. Majority  57.5 voted yes. So of course majority is just  

plus 50%. Right? plus 50%. So 50.5% or more,  that's the majority if it's 5050. Well, then  

it's there. Isn't a majority it's even but the  second it becomes 50.5 then that is a majority.  

I'm sure you know what a majority means but  it is useful to have in your vocabulary. Let  

me give you an example of how we commonly use it.  The majority of people voted yes. The majority of  

employees want to work from home. So you can  use the majority of and then you have your now  

you have all plural noun people is plural person  is one, one person, one person two. People,  

people is plural. Employees has an ass. So  it's plural, because if it's the majority,  

the noun has to be more than one. So that's  our sentence structure. Let me be more space,  

the majority off and then you need a plural noun.  And then after that you can have many different  

verb tenses depending on depending on the sentence  structure so that can be flexible, but you want a  

plural noun with this. Okay, so that's a useful  sentence structure for you. Shortly after,  

what did we learn about after already? What  is it a preposition so we need our verb and  

ing. Shortly after posting the poll, Muscat said  he did not have anyone lined up to take over.  

All right. So lined up this is a way of saying  that someone is ready and available for the  

position. Okay, it's a phrasal verb to line up.  Now. This is the difficult part I will say about  

vocabulary and especially phrasal verbs they have  more than one meaning depending on context. So to  

line up is when you get in a row of people to line  up the people lined up at the entrance but in this  

case, to line someone up means to have somebody  ready, able prepared available to do something.  

Okay, so you might say we use this a lot in a work  context. Do you have anyone lined up to present?

So this is what they're going to do present.  So do you have any one? Ready, available to  

present? That would be how I would translate it.  Do you have any one ready to present do you have  

any one available to present? You could also  say we have a great presenter lined up. Okay.  

So we have a great presenter ready. We have  a great presenter available we have a great  

presenter lined up Musk had said he does not  he does not have anyone ready to become CEO  

to take over is so Musk has the position now to  take over is when someone else becomes the CEO,  

so to take responsibility or something and in this  case, it's the position to take responsibility.  

We commonly use this in a employment situation,  but you could say can you take over this project  

while I'm on vacation, which means can you take  responsibility while I'm on vacation? All right,  

let's continue on. Musk appointed himself. CEO  less than two months ago, I didn't know that only  

two months. He's been in the position shortly  after finalizing his 44 billion takeover of  

Twitter at the end of October. That's a lot of  zeros 44 million. He immediately dissolved the  

company's board of directors fired top executives  and laid off around half the company's workforce.  

I created a nother lesson specifically on Learn  English with the news talking about Elon Musk  

becoming CEO of Twitter and I reviewed some of  the vocabulary right here. So I'm going to leave  

a link to that lesson in the description. And  you can learn more of this vocabulary in that  

separate lesson. I don't want to explain it again.  Alright, let's continue on. Since then, the self  

avowed free speech absolutist has made a long list  of our Radek changes to the company's policies,  

including those pertaining to content moderation,  suspended users and promotion of competitors. Let  

me explain this adjective. I think it's quite  useful, erotic, we use it enough. Now this means  

okay, erotica is an adjective adjective and  is is moving or behaving in a way that is  

not regular certain or expected.  So again, it's more of a negative  

adjective. We use it to describe one's behavior  or actions in a negative way. So you could say  

my boss is very erratic. Yesterday, he hired  a marketing firm, and today he fired them.  

So one day he wants them yeah, they're great.  Let's hire this marketing team. But then the  

next day after one day, he fired them. So yes,  no, yes. No. It's not the way you would expect  

him to behave. So his decision making can change  very frequently. You can describe that person  

as erratic. We often use this in specifically for  driving. My husband is an erratic driver. In this  

case, it might mean you know, if you're driving on  the highway, you expect the behavior to be certain  

expected, you're going to go straight, right,  but erratic with the earth. You go this way and  

then you speed up and then you slow down and you  change lanes, and then you change lanes. And then  

you drive slow, you drive fast. So it's constantly  changing is not what you would expect a driver to  

do. So we use that a lot with driving traffic.  The traffic was very erratic. It was very busy.  

One second and then no traffic and then and then  traffic and then no traffic, so it kept changing.  

So when something changes a lot, decision making  for behavior, we do it a lot with decision making.  

Then you can describe that person or that action  like driving as a Radek, which is the adjective.  

Okay, let's continue on. He has repeatedly made  and then reversed decisions seemingly on personal  

whims and enacted major changes on the platform  based on yes or no Twitter polls. Like right now.  

He's basing his decision to stay as CEO or  leave as CEO stepped down as CEO based on  

this poll. Maybe you could say that's very  erratic. Only two months ago, he became the  

CEO he paid $44 billion and now he's stepping  down as CEO that could be described as erratic.  

I really like this a whim a whim on  a personal whims. Let me explain what  

this means. This is an idiom on a whim.  Now, this means so a whim This is a whim  

a sudden wish or idea especially one  that can not be reasonably explained.  

And we often use this and well, let me  give you an example sentence. I quit my job  

on a whim on a whim. We don't commonly use it  with personal I don't see this quite a lot because  

whims are personal. So I don't think it adds  anything to say personal because that's generally  

where they come from yourself. So I don't  think that word is needed. You can get rid  

of it. And notice on all whim, now they have  on they don't use the article off. Do you know  

why? In this example, because WIMS is plural, so  you don't use the article. If there's a plural,  

but it's more commonly used like this on a  whim, so I recommend adding it like this.  

So we use it, you do an action, I quit my  job. Now if you want to suggest that you  

didn't think about it very much, and you can't  even really explain why you quit. It's like I  

just had this feeling I was out work. And I  just, I decided suddenly, I can't even tell  

you why I don't have a good decision. I quit my  job on a whim. Some might consider that a good  

thing. Some might consider that a bad thing. It  just It depends on your preferences. I guess.  

For me, to be honest, I tend to travel on a whim.  So I can say I booked a trip to Germany on a whim.  

I don't generally think too much about the trips  I take. It's just one day I decide I want to go  

to Germany and the next day I booked a ticket. So  I tend to do that on a whim. So what about you do  

you do things on a whim more impulsively? Or are  you the type of person that really thinks things  

through? I'm sure it depends. It depends on the  situation, right? Maybe there are some things you  

would do on a whim. For example, let's say cake,  so I have long hair. Let's say one day I wake  

up and I say I want to cut my hair to here and I  get my hair cut. And then someone could say wow,  

oh my gosh, you cut your hair, and I can see ya.  I did it on a whim so I didn't think about it too  

much. I just I had the idea. I want to cut my  hair and I did it on a whim. So I think it's  

a really great expression. So remember, you do  an action, and then you can add on a whim. Try  

one in the comment section. Try an example. Okay,  finally, last week he attracted enormous backlash  

after Twitter suddenly and without explanation  suspended several prominent tech journalists  

who have reported on him he leader accused  them of effectively sharing his assassination  

coordinates by reporting on a Twitter account  that tracked his private planes flights.

All right, this an assassination is when  someone murders someone and it was planned.  

Like President JFK was assassinated. He  was murdered and somebody planned that. So  

Elon Musk is seeing that this journalist  gave his his flight plan. So basically,  

they posted Elon Musk is going to be in  Germany on this date at this time. So if  

somebody wanted to attack Elon Musk and  kill him, well, now they know where he's  

going to be when he's going to be there. So  it would be easy to plan that. So that's what  

it means by assassination coordinates. I'm just  explaining that because you're probably curious.

All right, so that is our article you  learned a lot from this article. Now  

what I'm going to do is I'm going to  read the article from start to finish  

so you can focus on my pronunciation  and you can imitate my pronunciation.

Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter CEO after  securing successor. The billionaire posted a poll  

over the weekend asking Twitter users if he  should step down. The majority voted yes.  

Elon Musk on Tuesday claimed he will resign as  CEO of Twitter once he has found a replacement.  

I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone  foolish enough to take the job. after that. I  

will just run the software and servers teams the  billionaire tweeted. On Sunday, Musk posted a  

poll on the social media platform, asking users  if he should step down as a tenant and said he  

would abide by the results. More than 17 point 5  million votes were cast. A majority 57.5% voted  

yes. Shortly after posting the poll must have  said he did not have anyone lined up to take  

over. No one wants the job. Who can actually keep  Twitter alive. There is no successor he tweeted.  

Musk appointed himself CEO less than two months  ago, shortly after finalizing his $44 billion  

takeover of Twitter at the end of October. He  immediately dissolved the company's board of  

directors fired top executives and laid off around  half the company's workforce. Since then, the  

self avowed free speech absolutist has made a long  list of erratic changes to the company's policies,  

including those pertaining to content, moderation,  suspended users, and promotion of competitors.  

He has recently made and then reverse decisions  seemingly on personal whims, and enacted major  

changes on the platform based on yes or no Twitter  polls. Last week, he attracted enormous backlash  

after Twitter suddenly and without explanation  suspended several prominent tech journalists  

who had reported on him he later accused them of  effectively sharing his assassination coordinates  

by reporting on a Twitter account that tracked  his private planes flights. Amazing job with  

this lesson. Now you can look in the description  or look in the comment section below to find the  

link where you can download the free lesson  PDF that summarizes everything we learned  

in this lesson. And if you found this helpful,  please hit the like button, share it with your  

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

JForrestEnglish.com and download your free  speaking Guide. In this guide I share six  

tips on how to help you speak English fluently and  confidently. And until next time, Happy Studying.