🎓 A2 Vocabulary Practice (Improve Your Fluency in English with the News)

In this lesson, you're going  to expand your vocabulary,  

and you're going to do that  by reading an article with me.

Now, this article is about the moon,  something we see every single day.

And you're going to have the vocabulary to  talk about the moon in your daily speech.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

1st, I'll read the headline  Why does the moon shine?

So Of course the verb shine is when  something sends out or reflects light.

I'm sure you know that the sun shines.

The sun shines.

Shine is an irregular verb.

So of course you have the verb to shine with  an S because the subject is the sun, ** *** it.

Now in American English in the past simple  we just add an Ed, so it's regular verb.

In the past simple the sun shined yesterday.

In British English they use  shown the sun shone yesterday.

Now in both American and British English  in the participle form it's shown.

So in the present perfect  the sun has shown all day.

So in American English you  can say shine shined shown.

Now notice how I said the sun.

And here in the headline we have the moon.

We'll talk about the other planets in a  minute, but for now, remember that for  

Moon and Sun you need the because there's  only one it's unique, the Moon, the Sun.

Don't worry about taking all these notes because  I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can look in the description for the link.

Let's continue.

You know that Earth would be a dismal place  without its bright shining neighbor, the Sun.

So as we talked about, notice  here the article The Sun.

But notice Earth.

Earth doesn't have an article in front of it.

For example, you can see Mars on a clear night.

It's not the Mars, it's just Mars.

You can see Mars on a clear night.

Earth is the third planet from the sun.

The because I already mentioned that Sun and Moon.

It's the sun, the moon, because they're unique.

Let's talk about dismal.

This is an adjective, and it means sad without  hope, or very bad depending on the context.

For example, you could say  the weather's been dismal.

So when I think of that, I probably think a lack  of sunlight, maybe cloudy, a little bit of rain,  

not very nice, the weather's been dismal  or my promotion was dismal this year.

So in that sense it sounds like very bad.

My promotion was very bad this year.

Earth would be a dismal place without  its bright shining neighbor, the sun.

But did you know that the moon would also be  just another dull orb if not for the sun's rays?

The rays are where the light comes from, the rays.

So you have the ball, which  can also be called an orb.

An orb is just an object in the shape of a ball.

And then the rays are the light  that's coming off of the orb.

That's for the sun now.

Dull.

That's the opposite of bright, dull.

You can also describe a day as, oh,  it was a dull day, not very bright.

So there wasn't a lot of sun.

It was cloudy, maybe a little rainy.

I think of the weather in London,  England when I think of Dull or Disney.

Let's talk about the sentence structure here.

Because notice this first sentence is you  know that but in this sentence we have did.

You know that when you add did, this is  to form a question in the past simple.

But in this case, because there is no did we  know that this is a statement, not a question?

So this is being phrased as a statement.

You know that, but this is a question.

Did you know that?

Let's review this example.

You know that I'm an English teacher.

This is a statement.

But did you know that I'm also a piano teacher?

So this is a question because I  know that this information is known,  

so I'm not forming it as a  question, it's a statement.

But I don't know if this information  is known so it's a question.

Now this is not true.

I'm not a piano teacher, that would be  really awesome if I were, but I'm not.

Is just an example to show you a  statement followed by a question.

So you can use this to give a  known fact, but then provide  

additional information in the form of a question.

Let's continue.

The moon shines because its surface  reflects light from the sun.

So again here we have our verb shine and the  

subject is moon and that's  why you have this S on it.

The moon shines, and despite the fact that  it sometimes seems to shine very brightly,  

the moon only reflects between 3 and  12% of the sunlight that hits it.

Okay.

So let's take a look at despite the fact that.

Notice how we have this additional information,  

the fact that this is only required  grammatically to form a sentence.

When you have despite and then a clause.

A clause is simply a sentence.

It has a subject and then a  verb and other information.

An object You can't say despite  it seems to shine brightly.

This is a mistake I see a lot from my students.

You have to include these three words  and they're only there for grammar.

They don't have any meaning.

Let's review these sentences.

This is the one I see from  students and it's incorrect.

Despite.

I'm busy.

I'm busy.

Is a clause.

We have a subject, a verb, and  then other information despite.

I'm busy.

I'll help you despite the fact that  because you have despite and a clause,  

you need these three additional world words.

Despite the fact that I'm busy, I'll help you.

So this is the correct one.

So remember that and the  only purpose is grammatical.

There's no meaning in those words,  so make sure you remember that.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

The perceived brightness of the  moon from Earth depends on where  

the moon is in its orbit around the planet orbit.

This is used specifically in space and it  just means a path, but a path in space.

So the path that the moon follows.

The moon travels once around  Earth every 29.5 days,  

and during its journey it's lit  from varying angles by the sun.

In this case you could say orbit instead of  journey, because when you're on a journey  

you're following a specific path, and  in this case the path is in space.

So you could say orbit.

This movement of the moon around the Earth.

Do you notice something here?

The moon?

We talked about this, but  I said that planets in our  

solar system don't take articles,  but right here we have the Earth.

Now for the rest of this article you'll  notice that sometimes the article says  

the Earth and sometimes the article says Earth.

Why is that?

Without an article, Earth represents  just a planet in our solar system.

For example, Earth is the  third planet from the sun.

When you add the article, it represents  the planet we live on, our home planet.

We need to protect the Earth in this sentence.

This movement of the moon around the Earth.

You can think of it around the Earth, our home  planet and the simultaneous orbiting of Earth.

Earth being just a planet in  the solar system around the sun.

Remember the sun and the  moon always take articles.

If you're ever in doubt and you're confused,  

I would say always add an  article for the moon, the sun.

But other planets don't take articles  because it is acceptable to just say Earth,  

but it's also acceptable to say the Earth.

But it sounds odd to say the Mars and  add the in front of other planets.

So just remember that accounts  for the moon's different phases,  

so the different phases of the moon.

That is the shape of the moon when you  look at it, when you see the full orb.

Remember an orb is a round  shape when you see the full orb.

We of course call that a full moon.

Oh wow, look, there's a full moon tonight.

1/4 Moon is when you just see 1/4 of the  moon, and then they have other phases, etc.

At any given point in the Moon's trajectory,  trajectory is the path that the moon is following  

the Moon's trajectory at any given point  in the Moon's trajectory around the Earth.

Now, I'll be honest, I think in this case it  doesn't necessarily represent our home planet,  

and I'm not sure why the article is  switching between the Earth and Earth.

I find it a little confusing because in my mind,  

in this case it sounds like we're just  talking about a planet in the solar system.

We're not necessarily talking  about our home planet.

So if you're a little confused why at this exact  moment they chose to use the Earth, and in this  

case they didn't, I also don't find it follows  a lot of logic, so don't let that confuse you.

At any given point in the Moon's  trajectory around the Earth,  

only half of its surface is facing the Sun,  and therefore only half of the Moon is lit up.

In this case, because it's  lit up, it means it's visible.

Is visible because there is now light on it.

So only half of the moon is visible,  only half of the moon is lit up.

The other half of the surface faces  away from the sun and is in shadow.

Because it's in shadow, it means you can't see it.

To you it's invisible because it's not lit up,  

although it is the same shape of course in the  sky, you just can't see a specific part of it.

The moon is at its brightest when  it is 180 degrees away from the sun.

From our perspective, picture the Sun,  earth and Moon in a straight line.

So when you picture they want you to imagine it.

So the Sun, earth, moon, all in a straight line.

Sun, Earth, Moon.

That is when it's the brightest.

This time, the full half of the moon's  surface facing the sun is illuminated.

Illuminate is when you make  something brighter with light.

So we use this a lot in  festivals, holidays, parties.

You could say the streets were illuminated.

In this case to be illuminated, the  streets were illuminated for the festival.

So I imagine walking down the street and  there are lots and lots of lights hanging.

So even if it's night time, the streets  are still bright because of the lights,  

because the streets were illuminated.

Let's continue.

This is what's known as a full moon.

I'm sure you're familiar with a full  moon when the entire moon is visible.

Personally, I think my favorite moon is  the Crescent moon shape because I find  

it looks so magical in the sky,  this little sliver of the moon.

So what about you?

Are you more of a full moon?

A Crescent moon?

Put that in the comment.

You could just put the emoji or  you can put the full word as well.

I'm sure probably more people want the full moon,  

but who knows, maybe other people  like the Crescent moon just like me.

So put that in the comments.

OK, At New Moon, on the other hand, this  is a stage of the Moon called New Moon.

At New Moon, on the other hand,  

the Moon isn't even visible from our  vantage point, our vantage point.

This is another way of saying our perspective,  because of course the moon is visible.

It's visible in the sky, but we can't  see it because of our perspective.

Where we physically are and the angle  at which we're trying to see it.

It's impossible, but it's still there.

Of course, this is when the moon  is between the sun and the Earth,  

so that the side of the moon reflecting  sunlight is facing away from Earth.

And this is the reason why we can't see the  moon when it's in the moon phase, new moon.

So if my hands were people, right  now they're facing each other.

They're facing each other.

Now this person is facing away from this person,  facing each other, facing away from this person.

Let's continue.

In the days before and after a  new moon, we'll see a sliver.

I used this word before when I  was describing Crescent moon.

A sliver is a very small amount,  so let's look at this example.

Would you like some cake?

So you have a whole cake and someone  can say just a sliver, A sliver.

So they're telling you just  a very small amount of cake.

So not even a normal portion of cake, just  a sliver, a small amount of that cake.

In the days before and after a new moon, we'll  see a sliver of the moon reflecting sunlight,  

and during those times, the faint  brightness of the rest of the moon.

Let's talk about faint.

Faint means not strong, not  clear, so faint brightness.

The brightness was not very  strong, not very clear.

So let's imagine that the color  is this bright, bright red.

But all you see is this color.

You would say, oh, the color is very faint.

It's supposed to be bright red.

But this is all I see.

The color is very faint, not strong, not clear.

We also have a very common  expression using this word, faint.

I haven't the faintest idea.

I haven't the faintest idea.

This means I have no idea.

So if someone asks you how large  is the moon, you could say, oh,  

I haven't the faintest idea because I don't know.

I have no idea, I haven't the faintest idea.

Very common expression.

The faint brightness of the rest of the  moon, the part not brightly lit as a sliver.

Remember, the sliver is The small amount of is  a result of what scientists call earthshine.

I've never heard this before.

It's the technical term in which the moon's  relatively dark disc is slightly illuminated.

Remember, we know what illuminated is when it's  

becomes brighter because of light  and slightly means a small amount.

You could also say faintly  illuminated because it would  

be not strong or not clear,  so I'll write that for you.

You could say faintly, faintly  illuminated, slightly illuminated  

by sunlight that reflects off of Earth,  then off the moon and back to our eyes.

So this is the process of earth shine.

I've never heard that before.

So if you don't quite understand  what this means, don't worry.

It's quite a technical term.

I personally don't quite understand it  either, so we could say together, oh,  

I haven't the faintest idea what earth shine is.

If I read this a more a few more times and think  about it, I'm sure it will become clearer to me.

But right now I can say I haven't the  faintest idea what earth shine is.

And that's the end of our article.

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

and this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Let's do that now.

Why does the moon shine?

You know that Earth would be a dismal place  without its bright shining neighbor, the sun.

But did you know that the moon would also be  just another dull orb if not for the sun's rays?

The moon shines because its  surface reflects light from  

the sun, and despite the fact that it  sometimes seems to shine very brightly,  

the moon reflects only between 3 and  12% of the sunlight that hits it.

The perceived brightness of the  moon from Earth depends on where  

the moon is in its orbit around the planet.

The moon travels once around  Earth every 29.5 days,  

and during his journey it's lit  from varying angles by the sun.

This movement of the moon around the  Earth and the simultaneous orbiting  

of Earth around the sun accounts  for the moon's different phases.

Full moon, quarter moon, etcetera.

At any given point in the Moon's  trajectory around the Earth,  

only half of its surface is facing the Sun,  and therefore only half of the moon is lit up.

The other half of the surface faces  away from the Sun and is in shadow.

The moon is at its brightest when  it is 180 degrees away from the sun.

From our perspective, picture the Sun,  Earth and Moon in a straight line.

At this time, the full half  of the moon surface facing  

the Sun is illuminated and is visible from Earth.

This is what's known as a full moon at New Moon.

On the other hand, the moon isn't  even visible from our vantage point.

This is when the moon is  between the sun and the Earth,  

so that the side of the moon reflecting  sunlight is facing away from Earth.

In the days before and after a new moon, we'll  see a sliver of the moon reflecting sunlight.

And during those times, the faint  brightness of the rest of the moon.

The part not brightly lit as a sliver is a  result of what scientists call earthshine,  

in which the moon's relatively dark disk  is slightly illuminated by sunlight that  

reflects off of Earth, then off  the moon and back to our eyes.

Did you enjoy this lesson?

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Put new Moon, New Moon, New Moon in the comments.

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