Advanced English VOCABULARY lesson | Learn English with the News

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to  Advanced English lessons with Harry, where  

I try to help you get a better understanding of  the English language. I help you with vocabulary,  

grammar, expressions, phrasal verbs - whatever  it is that you need, we're here to help. In  

this particular lesson, we're going to take  a look at another news article. We tried this  

in a previous lesson and got a great reaction  from it. A lot of you said it was an easier way  

for you to learn English, so we've taken another  article. I'm going to read it a couple of times,  

highlight some words, and then give you the  meanings and examples of how you can use  

them. Now, this particular article is taken from The  Guardian newspaper and concerns one man called  

Mr. Elon Musk. You've all heard of him by now -  some of you might even be driving his wonderful  

cars. This man has been really successful. The  introduction of his cars has challenged the old  

industry and the introduction of electric vehicles  has made it a lot easier. He's also spent a lot of  

personal wealth sending space rockets into space  to carry out experiments. This particular article  

is all about a recent rocket that unfortunately  exploded shortly after takeoff. We also know Mr.  

Musk from his recent investment in Twitter where  he purchased all the shares, and now he owns that  

particular media site outright. We may have  different views; I have my own views, and I'm  

not so sure it's such a good idea to allow  such a powerful man to control that sort of  

information flow where it can be influenced and  can have an influence on people in big ways. But  

we all have our views and we can express them  whether we like it or not. Whatever you think,  

the man has been extremely successful - a bit  of a genius. And that's what the world needs:  

a few geniuses from time to time to shake it up a  little bit and get things a little bit different.  

So let's look at this particular article. As  I said, it's about these space rockets. I'll  

read the article twice and then focus on the  particular words that I've highlighted and  

give you my particular meaning. The article is  from The Guardian newspaper: 'The largest and  

most powerful rocket ever built has blasted off  from Texas but blew up within minutes in a test  

flight that its makers, SpaceX, hoped would  be the first step on a human journey to Mars.  

It appeared that the two sections of the  rocket system, the booster and cruise vessel,  

were unable to separate properly after takeoff,  possibly causing the spacecraft to fail.  

It was not immediately clear whether the  rocket exploded spontaneously or if the  

flight termination system was activated - a  failsafe that destroys the spacecraft to prevent  

it from veering too far off course. SpaceX had  previously cautioned that the chances of success  

were low and that the aim of the test flight  was to gather data regardless of whether the  

full mission was achieved. Employees at SpaceX  cheered even after the rocket disintegrated.  

The uncrewed sub-orbital test marked the first  fully stacked trial in which the starship cruise  

vessel, which is designed to eventually carry  up to 100 astronauts, was placed on top of the  

super-heavy booster rocket, whose 33 Raptor  engines provided the immense thrust needed.  

Almost as long as three passenger jets, the  mammoth spacecraft stands 10 metres taller  

than the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the  moon in 1969. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX,  

gained the necessary approval last week from the  Federal Aviation Administration for the launch  

to go ahead. Both the upper and lower segments  of the system are designed to power themselves  

safely back to Earth for a soft landing so that  they can be reused. Musk says the reusability of  

rockets makes spaceflight significantly cheaper  than what NASA could offer, unlike NASA which  

attempts to avoid risk, SpaceX has a record  of showing a willingness to have test flights  

explode, with Musk saying the private venture  benefits from understanding what goes wrong.  

SpaceX built its own spaceport named Starbase  on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas,  

to launch its rockets. Several other Starships  are already in production for future tests.  

Musk said he developed Starship, previously  named the BFR (heavily hinted to mean Big  

Fucking Rocket) so that humans can eventually  become an interplanetary species. To do this, he  

intends to begin the colonisation of Mars, which  he said is needed to preserve humanity in case  

a planet-destroying event, such as nuclear war  or an asteroid strike, wipes out life on Earth.

End of story.

So this is an article written and  produced in The Guardian newspaper,  

specifically about Mr. Elon Musk, but not about  his car industry, the Tesla brand, but about his  

space exploration and his willingness to spend  his own money to build certain space rockets in  

his attempt to help the space venture and to  find a place where we might be able to live.  

So I'll read it now the second time. Okay, so:

The largest and most powerful rocket ever built  has blasted off from Texas, but blew up within  

minutes in a test flight that its makers, SpaceX,  hoped would be the first step on a human journey  

to Mars. It appeared that the two sections of  the rocket system, the booster and cruise vessel,  

were unable to separate properly after takeoff,  possibly causing the spacecraft to fail.  

It was not immediately clear whether the  rocket exploded spontaneously or if the flight  

termination system was activated - a failsafe  that destroys the spacecraft to prevent it from  

veering too far off course. SpaceX had previously  cautioned that the chances of success were low,  

and that the aim of the test flight was  to gather data regardless of whether the  

full mission was achieved. Employees at SpaceX  cheered even after the rocket disintegrated.  

The uncrewed suborbital test marked the first  fully stacked trial in which the Starship cruise  

vessel, which is designed to eventually carry  up to 100 astronauts, was placed on top of the  

super-heavy booster rocket, whose 33 Raptor  engines provided the immense thrust needed.  

Almost as long as three passenger jets, the  mammoth spacecraft stands 10 metres taller  

than the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the  moon in 1969. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX,  

gained the necessary approval last week from the  Federal Aviation Administration for the launch  

to go ahead. Both the upper and lower segments  of the system are designed to power themselves  

safely back to Earth for a soft landing so that  they can be reused. Musk says the reusability  

of rockets makes spaceflight significantly  cheaper than what NASA could offer. Unlike NASA,  

which attempts to avoid risk, SpaceX has a record  of showing a willingness to have test flights  

explode, with Musk saying the private venture  benefits from understanding what goes wrong.  

SpaceX built its own spaceport named Starbase  on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas,  

to launch its rockets. Several other Starships  are already in production for future tests.  

Musk said he developed Starship, previously  named BFR (which heavily hinted to mean Big  

F***ing Rocket) so that humans can eventually  become an interplanetary species. To do this, he  

intends to begin the colonisation of Mars, which  he said is needed to preserve humanity in case  

a planet-destroying event, such as nuclear war  or an asteroid strike, wipes out life on Earth.

Okay, so that's the end of the particular article.  So I'm going to now go through the words I've  

highlighted and explain what they mean. So  we've got 13 particular words and phrases,  

some of them are phrasal verbs,  and I'll explain what they mean.

So the first one to blast off so when something  blasts off like a space rocket, it leaves the  

ground and the blast is that explosion or  the when the petrol or the fuel is ignited,  

and you hear the countdown 10 Nine, eight  87654321 blast off and then that's when  

the rocket finally leaves the earth. So to  blast off means to get that thrust that boost  

to push the rocket up into space, blast off. Second blow up. Okay, now in this particular  

article, what we mean by blow up is that the  rocket failed and there was a massive explosion  

within four seconds of leaving the earth so the  the whole rocket blew up and was destroyed. Yeah,  

so blow up is about fuel or powder, gunpowder,  exploding or igniting and causing a massive  

explosion and everything is destroyed. So in  this case, it blew up. But you can also use blow  

up when you talk about, let's say, your bicycle  tire. If you have a flat tire, and there's no air,  

you have to blow it up. Don't mean you explode  it, but you pump air into the tire so that you  

can cycle home. And also if you're celebrating  a party and you're getting the balloons ready,  

you have to blow up the balloons. Put the air  into the balloons to celebrate the birth. Yeah,  

so to blast off number one, number two blow up. Number three, the word we have here is  

spontaneously just be careful with the  pronunciation spontaneously, spontaneously,  

spontaneously, spontaneously. And when something  happens spontaneously, it happens without being  

planned. So in this case, the rocket exploded  spontaneously. It's it just happened nobody  

was expecting it. So when something happens very  suddenly, without being planned that it can be  

spontaneous a spontaneous reaction spontaneously.  So of course, adverbs spontaneously. 

Number four, another phrasal verb to veer  off now make sure it's veer off not fear.  

It's that sound to veer off and when you veer off,  you leave the direction of the track in which you  

are going so you alter your course. Yeah, so to  veer off. So if you're driving on the motorway  

for for example, you might veer off to the left or  veer off to the right to avoid an accident on the  

motorway to veer off to go on to another lane so  that you can make the exit a little easier. So to  

veer off course in which we're talking about here  in the rocket, they try to avoid veering off so  

they wanted to go on a certain trajectory into the  air but if there's some explosion, it might veer  

off left or right and then cause more problems.  Okay, so to veer off means to change direction. 

Number five disintegrated so the rocket  disintegrated. So when something disintegrates,  

it breaks up into 1000 pieces. So there was the  explosion and the followed by a great fire and the  

whole rocket disintegrated. So very few parts and  pieces left. So there were scattered everywhere,  

presumably in the ocean, but it totally  disintegrated. So when something falls apart,  

it disintegrates, it falls into pieces. Good. Number six, fully stacked. Now, fully stacked  

means everything in place on this case, they  were using the rocket strapped to the backer  

attached to the back of another rocket. So this  is what they mean stacked one on top of the other.  

So this was the first time that the rocket  had been fully stacked. Previously, they had  

used bits and pieces but not fully stacked.  In this case, they had everything together  

attached to each other. So fully stacked means  complete and ready to take off fully stacked. 

Number seven is an adjective immense, something  of immense means really great, really big. Yeah.  

So an immense occurrence. So for example, a an  earthquake could be an immense occurrence. So  

a huge thunder and lightning storm could be  an immense meteorological experience. Okay,  

so something immense means really, really big  here. So something having an immense impact  

on your life, not just one impact, but something  significant, something great. So passing the exam,  

failing an exam, the death of a parent, whatever  it might be, can have an immense impact on your  

life. So here, this explosion had an immense  impact on the plans. And another adjective that  

means big is mammoth. So mammoth like the the big  elephants from the prehistoric ages, they're there  

the mammoth, yes. Something mammoth means  really, really big huge, yeah, ok. So, a mammoth  

task means a very, very big task, a task that  perhaps you will not be able to achieve. Mammoth. 

To gain an approval or to gain approval for  something. So he went to the the aviation  

authorities to gain approval to get approval to  launch his rocket. So when you gain approval,  

you get the permission to do it. Okay.  So you gain their approval, you gain  

that trust means to get to get something  you didn't have before to gain approval. 

And number 10 venture a venture is something  that you haven't tried before. A new venture  

could be a new business, for example that you  set up. This is a venture into space. So the  

space rockets going up to see how far it can go.  And could it eventually take astronauts to the  

planet Mars will that's a new venture that hasn't  been tried or tested. So ventures, something new,  

something interesting, something never tried  before something risky here, a risk venture. 

And then number 11 hinted and we had in the in the  article heavily hinted when we hint at something,  

we give some information to try and get people to  take an interest, he hinted that he would retire,  

he didn't say that he was actually going to  retire. But he hinted that perhaps he's tired,  

and perhaps it will be time for  somebody else to take over the  

business. So he hinted that some changes  might take place. Okay. So when we hint,  

we give a little bit of information that might  suggest what we are planning for the future.

Number 12. To intend when we intend to do  something, it's our plan, we intend to take this  

further, we may not. But that's our plan is to  take it further. So we intend doing this, I intend  

writing to the school to complain. That's my plan.  When I get home, I might think differently about  

it. I intend lodging a complaint to the police  department about the way they treated me when  

they stopped me at the traffic lights. So it's  your intention? Yeah, you intend to do something.

And then finally, number 13. To wipe out? Well,  it says a couple of meanings. So you know,  

if the was as they talk in the article about a  nuclear strike, that would wipe out lots and lots  

of people over a huge, vast area. So that would be  to wipe out to destroy, okay, but we can simply,  

you're right on the blackboard in school, and then  the teacher wipes out what you wrote, okay, so  

just uses a cloth, so just simply cleans the green  or the blackboard in the schoolroom, but if you  

want to wipe out the population of generations,  then you drop an atom or some other type of  

nuclear bomb explosion, and that will certainly  wipe out millions of people. So that's quite  

drastic, but if you just want to wipe out the  writing on the blackboard, you use a cloth, you  

might want to wipe out the records of your email  so you delete some of your emails. To wipe out.

Okay, so there are words taken  from the article blast off,  

blow up spontaneously, just be careful with the  pronunciation spontaneously to veer off means to  

change direction, disintegrated fall into lots of  little pieces, fully stacked mean everything on  

top of each other as as needed. Immense, something  huge mammoth again a huge task mammoth task to  

gain approval. So to get something that you hadn't  received before in this case, approval to launch  

the rocket, a venture Yes, some risk some some  achievement you some new venture that you want  

to try in this case, sending a rocket to Mars  hinted heavily hinted. So to tell people Yeah,  

I really am going to retire or hinted that  something might happen next week. To intend  

what your intention is I intend doing this. I  intend doing that I intend going to bed early. You  

might not get there early, but you intend doing  that. And then finally to wipe out wipe out the  

population by dropping a nuclear bomb or exploding  a nuclear rocket or to wipe out what's written  

on the blackboard. Then you just use a cloth and  you clean the blackboard so it's not so serious.

Okay, so that's our article and those are  the words that I highlighted. Hopefully,  

you get an understanding of the meaning from  how I read it, what you should do if you can  

just read the article a couple of times again,  make sure you understand the word to make sure  

you understand how they use and also listen out  for intonation and pronunciation in relation  

to the words. And if you've enjoyed  this and you want to get some more,  

please let me know and I'll happily record  other articles for you. So this is Harry  

thanking you and if you need to contact me you  can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.  

Always happy to hear from you. And as always  remember to join me for the next lesson.