Improve Your Reading and Listening Skills With This Strategy

You are going to love this lesson, because you are going to improve all areas of your

English at the same time in a fun and engaging way.

We're going to read a news article together Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer, now let's get started!

This is the sport we're discussing today do you know what sports this is?

Any ideas?

It's pickleball! and pickleball is America's fastest-growing

sport why is it so addictive and divisive

first have you heard of pickleball do you recognize this sport

if you have heard of it put yes I have and if you haven't

put no I haven't yes I have

no I haven't put that in the comments as for me

I just Learned about this sport a few months ago

and when I heard of it I said pickleball what's that remember to put your answer in

the comments I'm very interested to know

who has heard about pickleball and if it's common in your country

because as you can see here is America's fastest growing sport

and this article discusses why it's so addictive hmm as interesting

to describe a sport as addictive and divisive have you seen this adjective before divisive

notice that divisive divisive this means it causes divisions between

people so you can think of divisions as disagreements

some people really love it some people really hate it

I'm not sure maybe that's the division the thing that divides people

the disagreement so that's the adjective divisive and don't worry about taking these notes

because I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF

you can find the link in the description so let's learn about pickleball

and maybe you should know that although I heard about pickleball a few months

ago I've never played it

pickleball is now the fastest growing sport in the nation so notice the difference here

pickle ball is America's fastest growing sport but now

here we have the fastest growing sport in the nation

what grammatical structure is this do you recognize it it's the superlative

most students can recognise the superlative with best and worst

but sometimes students forget that article you need the because there's only one

it's unique so don't forget that article

when you're using the superlative pickleball

is now the fastest growing sport in the nation the nation being the United States

for the fifth consecutive year in a row this sentence is poorly worded because it's

repetitive do you know why what I've highlighted is repetitive

any ideas well consecutive means in a row

if something happens consecutively it means one after the other

so first second third fourth

fifth I just listed those numbers consecutively and that's also the same meaning as in a row

so you don't need both of them you can just get rid of in a row

there's absolutely no reason to have it because that's what consecutive means

so you can either say for the 5th consecutive year

or for the 5th year in a row but do not use both of them in the same sentence

and notice here fifth is an ordinal number so we use the before it the fifth

and you can recognize an ordinal number because it comes before whatever your noun

is in this case year that's how you can recognize

it and then you need the article

the let's continue with 48.3 so we verbalize this as point 48.3 million

US adults which is 19% of the adult population

so they're including this so you have context because what is this number

is this big is this small the 48.3 million you don't really know

you need to understand that in relationship to the total population

so that's why they include this information just to help you understand this significance

19% of the adult population now it's like wow

that's a lot having played at least one game in the last

12 months according to the association of Pickleball

Professionals had no idea this association existed

at least one game at least means a minimum so

the 19% of the adult population could have played two

three four or more times but at least one game

so you can say she's played pickleball once once means one time

one time once he's play pickleball at least 10 times

so this is the minimum amount maybe he's played 12 or 13 times

but at least 10 times now to use our ordinal number

and in a row you could say this is the 10th week in a row we've played

pickleball so remember in a row it means one after the

other so there were no weeks

in the last 10 weeks that you didn't play pickleball

you could also say this is the 10th consecutive so if you were to use consecutive you would

put it here consecutive

week but remember you wouldn't use both so it's either the 10th consecutive week

or the 10th week in a row one you can use one but not both

but notice the placement is different and just to quiz you what verb tens

do all these sentences use and why does it use that for intense

any ideas she's played he's played

we've played the present perfect she has played he has played

we have played and why does it use the present perfect because it's an unfinished time reference

it's still possible for these people to play pickleball

in the future so this number all these numbers can change

because it's an unfinished time reference did you get that quiz are you enjoying this

lesson if you are then I want to tell you about the

Finally Fluent Academy this is my premium training

program where we study native English speakers from

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so you can improve your listening skills of fast

English expand your vocabulary with natural expressions

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or you can go to my website and click on finally Fluent Academy now let's continue with our

lesson that's welcome news for picklers

or self proclaimed addicts well if you play pickleball

I guess you can call yourself a pickler I'm a pickler doesn't describe me

maybe in the future I'll be a pickler that's welcome news so notice to be welcome

and then something so I could say I'm going to publish videos

every day and then you could say that's welcome news

for me or maybe for all students

so for someone but that someone could be you but notice to be welcome that is welcome news

you don't have to use news you could use that's a welcome change

now notice here you need an article you don't have an article here

because news is in the plural form so you don't need an article

but change is a singular countable noun so you need that article

because welcome is functioning as an adjective that's a change it is

well what type of change positive negative

and then you could add in your adjective that's a welcome change

and native speakers will commonly use the contraction

especially in spoken English so do you agree that this is welcome news

if you do then put that in the comments welcome news welcome news

you could put the full sentence that's welcome news or just simply welcome

news put that in the comments

that's welcome news for picklers or self proclaimed addict

if someone is a self proclaimed addict it means that they gave that title to themselves

a doctor did not say you are addicted to pickle ball

they gave that title to themselves self proclaimed

but many others not so much so to understand this

remember that's welcome news for picklers but remember

the article said that pickleball is divisive it creates disagreements so it's welcome news

for some not welcome news for others

so you could put this expression in the negative

and say that's not a welcome change

or you could say that isn't a welcome change because there are two different ways to form

the contraction with the verb to be that's not

or that isn't the contraction in the negative form

so move that over for you okay but hopefully you use it in the positive and

say that's welcome news over the last few years

in response to courts popping up everywhere so in this case courts they're talking about

the area where you play pickleball is referred to as a court

so you play soccer football on a field and you play pickleball

tennis on a court so the surface here this is called a court a pickleball court

so in response to courts pickleball courts popping up everywhere

when something pops up it means that it is now available

but it happens quite suddenly or unexpectedly as you're watching this video

advertisements are going to pop up they're going to appear suddenly and unexpectedly

I know I know they're annoying but they are the reason why

I'm able to create this free content for you so I apologize in advance for the ads popping

up I hope they don't bother you too much so in

this case in response to courts pickleball courts

popping up everywhere and bringing the noise that comes with the

game I didn't know pickleball was a noisy game

hmm the noise that comes with the game

communities around the country have been fighting sometimes through ugly legal battles

now this is interesting because where does a legal battle take place

in a court a court so you play pickleball on a court

that's the vocabulary term used to describe the area where you play

but they're fighting these legal battles in a court

in this case a court of law so often this happens in English

where you have one vocabulary term that used in totally different context

but I understood that this was a pickleball court

because of the context of the article whereas now if I saw a court

but we're talking about legal battles I would know we're talking about a legal court

so always look for context to understand meaning in English

and these ugly legal battles are to restrict pickleball play

some simply find the game off putting hmm this is a very interesting trace of words

to describe a sports game off putting off putting is an adjective

it means unpleasant it causes a negative emotion and that negative emotion want

causes you to not want to do whatever that activity is

we commonly use this with food actually so last night I was watching Top Chef

a chef competition and there was a beef challenge and a lot of people made beef tartar

beef tartar so that's the spelling of it pronunciation beef tartar which is raw beef

but for me I find the thought of eating raw beef off

pudding so for me just thinking about it makes me

have like a negative emotion

and makes me want to stay away from raw beef I've never ordered it and I don't want to

eat it I find it off putting but

you can also use this to describe a characteristic of someone

I generally wouldn't describe an entire person as off

putting but some quality of that person

for example his competitive nature is very off putting

it makes me not want to spend time with that person

because of that one quality I find it off putting off putting

all right and competitive I use this because in sports

when someone really wants to win and really cares about the performance

you would describe that person as competitive I'm very competitive if I play pickleball

against you I would want to win haha

some simply find the game off putting saying it can feel like a cult

that's interesting a cult is where there is a group of people

and they all have a very similar belief but they're very devoted to that belief

and that belief is generally not widely accepted by society

so kind of odd to describe Pickle Ball as a cult

but okay feel can feel like a cult while others are finding

it's not as risk free as originally believed as game related injuries are

on target to cost Americans upwards of $500 million in medical cost next

year okay on target 2

so this is next year it's in the future so they don't know what the medical cost

related to pickle ball are but if they're on target too

it means like based on the analysis today I can predict that the cost will be $500 million

next year if it keeps increasing by this amount per

month and we have this many months in the year

so that would be on target too this is very common in a work context

because you have deadlines so you could say where on target

so to be on target and then your infinity so let me highlight the R

because that is part of the expression to be on target infinity

we're on target to complete the project by next week

now if your boss asks you how's the project going

are we still going to make the deadline you can say we're on target

we're still on target to be on target so you can use just that without the Infinity

as well so on target to cost Americans upwards of

this is also a minimum amount so upwards of 500 million

500 million or more so remember we learn before at least

so you know now you have at least $500 million or upwards of $500 million

at least is the more common of the two let's continue invented in 1965 by three dads

as a way to entertain their kids during summer vacation the cross genres sport

so this is pickleball the cross genre sport combines tennis

badminton and ping pong so this is why it's cross genre

genre means one type so what genre of movies do you like

what genre of food do you like what type and then in sports

there are different types of sports so it's a cross genre it combines different

types tennis

badminton and ping pong and can be played in singles

so me versus you bring it on I'm very competitive or doubles

you and me versus two other people and we will win

right singles or doubles

is also relatively inexpensive and simple to start

now notice how they use the term relatively because you can only understand the cost of

something is this pen expensive or cheap

I guess I should show you a pen is this beautiful sparkly pen expensive or

cheap well I can only answer that when you compare

the cost of this pen to other pens

and then you understand the cost but just knowing the amount of this pen

you don't know if it's expensive or cheap so that's why they're saying relatively inexpensive

because it's in comparison to the cost of playing other

sports to and simple to start

so a paddle balls and pickleball size net can be had

to be had this is an interesting way of saying can be

purchased can be bought

can be had for well under $200 in total so to be had

just think of it as you can have these items and then they just changed the word order

to make it more succinct but it would be more common to say

can be purchased or can be bought and you could only use this in very specific

context and structures to make it sound correct

so to be safe just say purchased or bought for well under $200 in

total so notice well under

so this is less than well under $200 in total and tennis and basketball courts

so this is also the vocabulary term you use for basketball

tennis and basketball courts are often converted for pickleball use

making it easily accessible so converted means you take one object

and then you change it into another object so this was a basketball court

but we converted it into a pickleball court we changed it to a pickleball court

making it it being pickleball playing pickleball making it easily accessible

if something is accessible it means that it's available to a large audience

the general public by the 1990s so when you have us in front of a decade 1990

if you didn't have the s it would mean the year 1990

but by the 1990s and notice you have the when you have s in

front of it but if it were just 1990

you wouldn't have the so by 1990 is the year 1990

by the 1990s means any time from 1990 to 1999 so it's within that entire decade

pickleball was played regularly in schools and retirement communities

given that it's easy to play and enjoyed by people of all ages

from kids to seniors so here given that you could replace that

with because but not because that is just because it's

easy to play given that it's easy to play

but you could also just say given without that

so that is optional that's why it's in parentheses given it's easy to play and enjoy by people

of all ages from kids to seniors

so this supports that it's accessible remember

available to a large audience or the general public

its popularity really took off during the Covid 19

pandemic so here its popularity took off so it's popularity increased

increased very substantially or quickly so to a large degree

so hopefully you say my fluency took off increased significantly to a large degree

my fluency took off after I subscribed to J

Forest English make sure you subscribe if you haven't already

to make sure your fluency takes off so his popularity really took off during the

Covid 19 pandemic as people were in need of safe

socially distanced outdoor exercises folks across the country

so notice here notice my pronunciation Oak oak folk folk

so that L is not pronounced it's silent

the word folks is very commonly used especially in North America

it refers to a group of people so if you're starting a presentation

you could say hi folks it's a little more informal but is extremely

common so you should know the pronunciation

it's the same pronunciation as the vowel in oak

oak tree or joke whatever word you know the pronunciation of

you can use that as an anchor word folk no L

silent L and this is the same as a pronunciation of

yolk no L silent L

as in egg yolk how do you like your egg yolks I like mine runny

now remember with legal court and pickleball court

it depends on the context well my folks

this means my parents so folks can also mean parents

but it depends on the context and also if you used it folks

with parents you would have a possessive or something in

front of it but here as a group of people

you generally wouldn't say my folks so context and grammatical structure can tell

you my folks love playing pickleball

my parents love playing pickleball folks across the country have been in an uproar

over the noisiness the noisiness so before we heard noise

now noisiness notice that pronunciation students pronounce this wrong

noise noisiness noise and noisiness have different meanings

because if you just say over the noise the noise just means the sounds that you hear

but it's not positive or negative it's just neutral there's some noise

I hear noise is it a positive or negative doesn't we don't know

but if you say noisiness it's a negative thing because noisiness means

the fact that the sport is noisy and describing something as noisy means too

much noise a bad amount of noise so it's negative

and we know that it's negative because they also used an uproar

the country folks across the country have been in an uproar over the noisiness

an uproar is a situation when a lot of people are really

angry and ironically they actually make a lot of

noise usually in like yelling or screaming or booing

boo so if you're at a sports game and the team

the home team loses the crowd will be in an opera

they'll boo they'll yell oh this sucks

they'll get angry upset they'll be in an opera and it's ironic

because they're angry because the sport is noisy

but then they're in an uproar which means they cause a lot of noise themselves

so it's kind of ironic choice of words here described by some as loud

popping sounds that can be jolting so imagine you're trying to work at your computer

and outdoors out your window there's a pickle ball court and you're trying

to work and all you hear is I guess it would be like

a of the ball hitting the paddle

and as you're working and it jolts you it causes you to suddenly

move that's a jolt so

that's the image you can have of why the sound could be jolting

I don't know why it would be any different from the sounds

you would hear at a tennis court for example but I don't play pickleball

so if you play pickleball you can let me know

often taking the fights into courts of law ah so now we know that will

they specified the context of law but you could say also into courts

just into courts or into the courts the courts being specific courts like the

Supreme Court for example so you could just say courts in

general the courts or you can specify of law

which normally isn't done because it's the context

that makes it obvious that it is a court of law

so generally we don't specify that because of the context

quite an advanced article for a simple topic like pickleball so

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

and this time you can focus on my pronunciation pickleball is America's fastest growing sport

why is it so addictive and divisive pickleball

is now the fastest growing sports in the nation for the fifth consecutive year in a row

with 48.3 million US adults 19% of the adult population

having played at least one game in the last 12 months

according to the association of Pickleball Professionals

that's welcome news for picklers or self proclaimed addicts

but many others not so much over the last few years

in response to courts popping up everywhere and bringing the noise that comes with the

game communities around the country have been fighting

sometimes through ugly legal battles to restrict pickleball play

some simply find the game off putting saying it can feel like a cult

while others are finding it's not as risk free as originally believed

as game related injuries are on target to cost Americans

upwards of 500 million in medical cost next year invented in 1965 by three dads

as a way to entertain their kids during summer vacation

the cross genre sport combines tennis badminton

and ping pong and can be played in singles or doubles

is also relatively inexpensive and simple to start

a paddle balls and a pickleball sized net can be had for well under $200 in total

and tennis and basketball courts are often converted for pickleball use

making it easily accessible by the 1990s pickleball was played regularly

in schools and retirement communities

given that it's easy to play and enjoy by people of all ages from kids to seniors

is popularity really took off during the Covid 19 pandemic as people were in need

of safe socially distanced outdoor exercises

folks across the country have been in an uproar over the noisiness

described by some as loud popping sounds that can be jolting

often taking the fights into courts of law do you want me to make more lessons just like

this if you do then put pickle ball

put pickle ball pickle ball in the comments below

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