Learn English With News: Advanced Vocabulary & Phrases | Rachel's English

Hey, I’m Rachel from Rachel’s English  and today I’m going to teach you  

some of the more advanced vocabulary  and terms that were used in a CNBC  

story about what went wrong with the  Coronavirus vaccine rollout in the US.

When a vaccine for Covid-19  was designed and tested,  

many Americans thought that waiting for  life to return to normal would soon be over.  

Instead, there was more waiting to do.  Why? Let’s watch this 35-second news clip.

Here’s what went wrong with the  US Coronavirus vaccine rollout.  

And how a new White House plans to turn things  around. On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration  

launched “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate  development, production and distribution of  

Covid-19 vaccines. Its goal was to have 20  million Americans vaccinated by the end of  

2020. But once it came time to get shots into  people’s arms, the Trump Administration turn  

the reins over to the states. This meant state and  local health officials were left to piece together  

a massively complicated rollout operation.  Without federal guidance or additional resources.

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again.

Here’s what went wrong with the US Corona virus vaccine rollout.

Rollout is a noun, this means to introduce something such as a new product to the public.

The vaccine was ready and made to be distributed; it was time for the rollout.

As a verb, here’s a sample sentence: The cellphone company is getting ready to rollout 5G service.

Rollout is also a phrasal verb with  a completely different meaning. I  

rolled out of bed at 5AM this morning.  I was sleepy I could hardly stand up.

Or, the bus rolled out of the  parking lot at 2:30 sharp.  

The bus left the parking  lot, it departed, rolled out.

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again.

Here’s what went wrong with the US Coronavirus  vaccine rollout. And how a new White House  

plans to turn things around. On May 15th  2020, the Trump administration launched  

“Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate development,  production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

This bit tells us that the US federal  government was planning to oversee the  

whole process from start to finish. From  research, design, testing, mass producing  

and giving it to individual people, but that’s  not what happened. Let’s break this part down.

The Trump administration  launched “Operation Warp Speed”.  

Lauch is a verb meaning to start or set in  motion. We use it generally when starting a  

really big project or program. For example, I’m  launching my new book next week. That’s actually  

not true. I don’t have a new book but I do have an  old book. Check it out at RachelsEnglish.com/book.  

It’s also commonly used to mean to  throw forward or send of an object.

NASA is launching its newest rocket to Mars.

Operation Warp Speed. Warp speed is another space  Science reference. If any of you have watched  

part of the Star Trek TV series,  no doubt you’ve heard this term.  

It means faster-than-light travel of  the highest speed possible. Warp speed.

On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration  launched “Operation Warp Speed”  

to accelerate development, production  and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Its goal was to have 20 million Americans  vaccinated by the end of 2020. But once it came  

time to get shots into people’s arms, the Trump  Administration turn the rains over to the states.

The Trump Administration turned the  reins over to the states. So the federal  

government gave control of the rollout to the  individual states. It turned the reins over.  

I can think of 3 different meanings for the  same pronunciation and different spelling so  

be careful here. We have R-E-I-N-S. Reins,  these are the long leather straps or rope that a rider  

uses to guide an animal like a horse. Pull  back on the reins to slow the horse down.

We also have R-E-I-G-N-S, reigns. Royal  authority or governing power. The Queen  

reigns as a representative of  the state but not the ruler.

Then we also have the most common, R-A-I-N-S,  rains, water as drops falling from the clouds.  

It rains almost every day in April. All  three of these words are pronounced the same.  

R consonant, a diphthong, and z, [ɹeɪnz].

In this clip, we’re hearing the first spelling, to  turn the reins over. This means to give control or  

power to someone else. This idiom comes from  horses. To have the reins control the horse and  

you pass them to someone else to control. You  can also say: Take the reins, hold the reins,  

grab the reins, pass the reins. Of course,  this isn’t limited to riding an actual horse.

The CEO took the reins of the company last  month. Or: I need help with this project;  

I have too much other work to do.  Can I pass the reins on to you?

You know there are a lot of idioms  related to horses in English.  

Horses used to be the central part of our life.  They were our transportation. I actually thought  

of a bunch of idioms with horses one day when I  was dressed up as a horse and I made a video going  

over these idioms that you can watch at the end  of this video, it’s a classic. Let’s keep going.

State and local health officials were left  

to piece together a massively  complicated rollout operation.

State heads to piece together a massively  complicated rollout operation. Have you ever  

done a jigsaw puzzle? One with a thousand pieces  maybe more? Ilike this idiom “To piece together”  

to describe a very complex problem with lots of  parts and details that need to come together.

I might also say, put together,  

figure out, carry out, piece together.  Another sample sentence: The police had to  

piece together reports from several witnesses  to get and accurate account of what happened.

Or: After we talked for a few minutes,  we pieced together our connections  

and realized we had met 5  years earlier at a conference.

Piece together, a great expression  to use here since the vaccine rollout  

involved so many details to make happen. On the  newsclip, a doctor explains some of these pieces.

That really requires an assembly line-like  setup, it requires several weeks of planning,  

requires to make sure complex storage is connected  to individuals that the other end of the process  

and for places that don’t have all of that  infrastructure and that expertise they really  

need more technical assistance from the federal  government and unfortunately operation won’t  

speed only really seem to focus on the Science  and ultimately the development and approval  

of these vaccines but not the logistics  around distribution and administration.

First he mentions and assembly line-like set up.  An assembly line, this is something that you might  

see in a factory, an arrangement of machines,  tools and workers that get a large quantity  

of a product put together quickly. The product  goes down the line and everyone does their step.

Another piece is complex storage. The vaccines  can’t be just shipped in a box. They have to be  

kept at a very, very cold temperatures. A typical  freezer won’t do the job for some of the vaccines.  

Let’s skip to another report. I’ll put links to  both of these news clips in the video description.

In this report, CNBC is talking about  how commercial airplanes were used to  

solve a piece of this rollout puzzle. Large  commercial aircraft were used to transport  

PPE. That is personal protective equipment  and vaccines in addition to FEDEX and UPS.

Normally US mail and Amazon packages and  

various other things from live animals  to electronics are all flying below us.

Because so many planes have been taken out,  airlines have been using especially their larger  

aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty  much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.

In March of 2020, airlines were even  transporting some cargo in passenger seats  

to help distribute PPE equipment  at the beginning of the pandemic.

Listen for 2 reductions with linking in  this clip. And. We very often drop the d.

US mail and Amazon packages. And Amazon.

US mail and Amazon packages--

And various other things. And  various. No d, linked together.

And various other things

Dropping the D in this word is more  common than pronouncing it. And Amazon.  

And various. Let’s look at  2 more common reductions.

Because so many planes have been taken out--

Because.

Because so many planes have been taken out--

Because. This word can be reduced to cuz,  without the first syllable. Here we do  

hear the first syllable but it’s said  very, very quickly. Because, because.  

You can think of there is being no vowel in the  first syllable just a quick b sound b’cuz, b’cuz.

Because so many planes have been taken out--

Dropping the H at the beginning  of certain function words is also  

really common on both casual  and professional speech.

Here we have an example where  the word have becomes ǝv.

Because so many planes have been taken out--

Other words where this might happen, had  becomes ǝd. Has becomes ǝz. Him becaomes im.  

Her becomes ǝr and he becomes I.

If you want some examples and  reductions like these interests you,  

I do have a whole course dedicated to them in  my online school, Rachel’s English Academy. I  

always tell people, if you want the most bang  for your buck, practice reductions like these.  

Bang for your buck means getting a lot for  what you put into something. Time studying  

on reductions and stress is really going to impact  how natural you sound speaking English. So visit  

Rachelsenglishacademy.com to see more. Okay,  let’s check out the final clip in this video.

Because so many planes have been taken out,  airlines have been using especially their larger  

aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty  much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.

In March of 2020, airlines were even  transporting some cargo in passenger seats---

Did you catch a reduction  of an adverb? Listen again.

especially their larger aircraft--

Especially. If you look it up in a dictionary,  you’re going to see that this is a four-syllable  

word with stress on the second syllable  but with the ly adverbial suffix,  

it’s really easy to drop the schwa right before  the suffix so especially becomes especially,  

especially. Four syllables become three. This  happens in other words too. Let’s take finally  

becoming fainly. Three syllables dropped to  two. That’s a more common pronunciation.

Necessarily. Necessarily becomes necessarly,  

necessarily. Five syllables becoming four.

It’s perfectly fine not to drop the  schwa to do the full pronunciation  

but you’ll hear these reductions by  native speakers in all sorts of contexts.

Reductions make our speech a little bit more  smooth and connected and that’s always a

top priority as you roll out your plan for  American accent training. Now, let’s get to  

this video from the past. A video from the vault  where I went over nearly 20 idioms relating to horses.

And that’s it for today’s lesson. Thanks  for watching and don’t forget to subscribe  

with notifications. I make new videos every  Tuesday and I love to be your English teacher  

so come on back. That’s it and thanks  so much for using Rachel’s English.