How to Learn English Vocabulary: American English Conversation Training | Free English Lesson

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What to know exactly how to pronounce the most important election-related vocabulary? I’ve got you covered!

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Today we’re going to study some vocabulary and some idioms together, watching a news clip on YouTube. It’s Anderson Cooper interviewing Bill Gates on Covid-19, some of the therapies that are being developed, and what the fall is going to look like, a very current topic, something that’s on a lot of people’s minds.

You’re going to hear some words that relate specifically to Covid-19, but also just some more advance vocabulary words that can help your English sound more sophisticated. I think learning English this way is a great way because when you learn a word in a context like this, I think it makes it easier to remember.

As always, if you like this video or you learn something new, please like it, give it a thumbs up, and subscribe with notifications, it really helps.

Let’s talk about the format of this video. You’re going to watch a clip, and onscreen, there will be white words with a red outline, those are the words that we’ll study after we watch the clip. Like this:

That’s always been the most promising therapeutic category. The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like Remdesphere has only had modest benefit–

Then after the clip, you and I will go over it in-depth, together looking at the pronunciation, the meaning, and the context of the word or phrase so that you’ll definitely understand it and remember it.

The first clip is the question that Mr. Cooper asked, it’s 45 seconds long, let’s take a look.

The coronavirus death toll in the United states is now more than 212,000 people in this country, total number of cases more than seven and a half million. Staggering numbers of course. There’s precious little sign of things slowing down. Add to that, president trump’s diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the white house, the overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s certainly a recipe for concern as the fall begins in the winter, Bill Gates is joining us he’s co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, has long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and for other global health crisis. He joins me now, Bill, thanks for being with us. Looking at where the US is right now in this pandemic, and during the fall in the winter, cases on the rise, not just in small clusters, but across most of the nation, how concerned are you about the months ahead?

Wow, okay, a lot of words there to learn there. The first was: death toll.

The coronavirus death toll in the United states is now more than 212,000 people in this country–

Death toll. This refers to the number of people who died in relation to a particular event. For example here, the coronavirus pandemic. Or it could be a natural disaster like an earthquake or a tsunami.

Death toll. We have an unvoiced TH, the tongue tip does have to come through the teeth there. Death– and then you’ll go right into a true T. Now the word ‘toll’ has the OH as in No diphthong, but when it’s followed by a Dark L like it is here, it’s not tow– towl– towl– but it’s toh– ohl– ohl– A little bit more rounded, tongue pulled back a little bit more, death toll. Let’s watch that clip again.

The coronavirus death toll in the United states is now more than 212,000 people in this country–

Let’s go on to the next clip.

Total number of cases more than seven and a half million.

Cases. This word has a couple of different uses. But in this particular case, it means an instance of something, an occurrence of something. In other words, one person who has the coronavirus. That would be a case. And all of the people would be a bunch of cases, people who have the coronavirus. Let’s listen again.

Total number of cases more than seven and a half million.

Let keep going.

Staggering numbers, of course.

Staggering means overwhelming, a huge amount, a very large number. Let’s watch again.

Staggering numbers, of course.

Our next clip.

There’s precious little sign of things slowing down.

Precious little, you might also hear the term ‘precious few’, this means very little, a very little amount of something, extremely low in number, let’s watch this clip again.

There’s precious little sign of things slowing down.

‘Precious little sign’ means really no sign at all. If anything, just a very, very small sign, but there’s precious little evidence that the pandemic is slowing down. Let’s go to our next clip.

Add to that, President Trump’s diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the White House.

A couple words here. First, diagnosis. This is when you figure out a problem or an issue, specifically by looking at the different clues. For example, in medicine. If someone is sick, you look at the different ways in which they’re sick. What hurts? What happened? What are their blood levels? This kind of thing. And you look at all of that information and you can make a diagnosis based on that information, you think you have this disease. Um, it can also be used for, for example, the word problem, we need to diagnose the problem. Let’s say something is wrong with my car, it’s not working, I don’t know why. I have to get in there and look at what specifically is happening. Well, it looks like nothing happens when I turn the key. Okay, I’m going to make a diagnosis that my car needs a new battery. Diagnosis. Let’s watch again.

Add to that, President Trump’s diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the White House.

Infection and numbers. The number of people that are infected. What does this mean? Well, infected just means sick, in this case, got the disease. Let’s watch that one more time.

Add to that, President Trump’s diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the White House.

Let’s go on to our next clip.

The overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s–

To lag means to fall behind. So this could be either a goal that you have, you’re falling behind your goal, you’re lagging, or it can mean compared to someone else. For example, in a race, maybe you’re winning the race, and you’re running right next to somebody, and then when you’re getting close again, you start to feel tired, you can’t keep up, you start to lag behind just a little bit. Let’s listen to this example again.

The overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s–

It’s a lag in widespread testing. What does widespread mean? It means something that many people are doing or feeling. For example, if a mayor is very popular of the town, you could say that mayor has widespread support. Most of the people, lots of people support that. So widespread testing means most people getting tested, many tests happening, in this case, we’re lagging behind, so that’s not happening, we’re not meeting the goal of widespread testing.

The overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s–

What is contact tracing? This is when someone is sick and you go back and you look at the window where they might have gotten sick. And you try to find out everyone that they were in contact with. Then you reach out to those people. You see are any of them sick? When you find somebody who’s sick, you think: okay maybe this is how that person got sick. So you’re going back to everyone that somebody was in contact with and you’re trying to find out who’s sick, who else might have gotten sick, and you find that path of how the infection was passed so you can understand how it’s spreading. Let’s listen one more time.

The overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s–

And let’s move on now.

It’s certainly a recipe for concern as the fall begins and the winter–

If something is a recipe for something, then that means it’s likely to lead to it. You may have heard the phrase ‘a recipe for disaster’ it’s a pretty common phrase, and it means what we’re seeing makes it seem like it’s very likely that a disaster will happen. Let’s say for example, you have little kids, um, your toddler skipped his nap, didn’t eat lunch, you can say, oh this is a recipe for disaster, your kid is probably going to have a meltdown and you’re going to have a difficult day. Let’s listen to how he used it again.

Certainly a recipe for concern as the fall begins and the winter–

A recipe for concern, so everything that’s going on is leading to a call to be concerned, it will likely make people concerned when they see that there’s not enough contact tracing, not enough testing. It’s a recipe for concern.

Certainly a recipe for concern as the fall begins and the winter–

Let’s go on to the next clip.

Bill gates is joining us he’s co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation–

Co-chair, this means he’s sharing the position of chair. He’s not the only chair of the foundation. And the chair of the foundation would be one of the people who leads it. You might have also heard the phrase co-pilot. So that means there’s more than one pilot, more than one person in charge of flying the plane. Let’s listen to this example again.

Bill Gates is joining us, he’s co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation–

And let’s keep going.

So long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and–

Fortune this means a lot of money, a lot of wealth, Bill Gates is certainly sitting on a fortune, he’s made a lot of money in his lifetime. Let’s listen to this example again.

So long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and–

Talent just means skill, something that you’re good at, he’s run a company and he runs a foundation, and now he’s using that talent, that skill, to try to help the world find a cure for Covid-19, coronavirus. And that takes me to cure. What does this word mean? It means to relieve the symptoms of a disease, you could say he’s cured of the disease he no longer has the disease. Let’s listen one more time.

So long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and–

And let’s keep going.

Health crisis and for other global health crises–

A crisis. It’s when things have gotten bad, it’s dramatic. We are desperate to find an answer. Let’s listen to how he uses it again.

Health crisis and for other global health crises.

So he calls what we’re in a health crisis. And then he goes on to say other global health crises.

Health crisis and for other global health crises.

So really, that probably should have been plural, and the plural isn’t crisis, it’s crises. So this is a word where the plural changes one of the vowel sounds in the word. So crisis, singular, crises is plural. So it’s not crisises, but crises. Let’s listen one more time again, the last time he says it, he probably should have used the plural crises.

Health crisis and for other global health crises.

Let’s keep going.

He joins me now, bill, thanks for being with us. Looking at where the US is right now in this pandemic, and during the fall and the winter, cases on the rise, not just in small clusters but across most of the nation–

A cluster is a group of something. So for example, a cluster of bananas it grows in a tight bunch a group. So when the coronavirus is in little clusters, then that means it hasn’t really spread too far and wide yet. This group of people has it. This group of people has it. And you hope that that’s how it stays. You hope it doesn’t spread further than that. But in this case, he’s talking about how it has.

Cases on the rise, not just in small clusters but across most of the nation–

Not just in small clusters. Unfortunately, but it’s really spread. Let’s listen one more time.

Cases on the rise, not just in small clusters but across most of the nation–

Let’s keep going.

How concerned are you about the months ahead?

Now I want to talk about the pronunciation of the word months. He dropped the TH sound and instead made a T sound. Months. Months. Months. Months. And this is a common pronunciation, we’ll hear Bill Gates use it later, so it’s not months, that’s a little bit more work and effort, and most native speakers will not put the tongue tip through, we’ll make a t instead months. Let’s listen again.

How concerned are you about the months ahead?

One of the things we talked about there was the pronunciation of the word months. And that got me thinking about pronunciation. I know if you’re watching this video, if you follow this channel, pronunciation is something you care a lot about. And I’m excited to announce that I have a partnership with an app called ELSA Speak. This is an app that uses AI, artificial intelligence, to give you feedback on your pronunciation.

So you speak into your phone and you get a score.

Pretty cool! I’ve been looking for an app for a while now that uses AI, and I’m so glad I partnered with ELSA speak. Yes, you will find my videos from my YouTube channel right there in their app as you learn and work on some of the sounds. All my videos are free on ELSA, but if you want even more lessons, they are offering a deal to all of my Rachel’s English students who want to unlock a premium experience, including 80% off a lifetime pass. If you get this in the next 72 hours, you can even give three months free to a friend.

Isn’t that exciting? You can speak into your phone and get a score back. I love this idea. Download the app. Do one of the lessons and then put the score you get in the comments below. I’m hoping you get a really great score that you’re happy with, if not, the materials are right there to practice with. Now let’s get back to this interview, we have the answer. Mr. Gates speaks for 45 seconds, answering the question.

Well, I’m very concerned. The forecast showed that the deaths are going to go back up, almost to the level they were in the spring. And, you know, it’s people are going to be indoors more, uh, the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas that never got super good in some areas, and so except for the innovative tools that I’m sure we’ll talk about, this is going to be a very difficult fall because people, you know, the economic effects, the uh, tiredness, the kids not being able to go to school, this continuation is a very difficult thing.

Well, I’m very concerned–

So concerned means worried, feeling anxious about something, let’s listen again.

Well, I’m very concerned– very concerned–

Let’s keep listening to see what is bill gates very concerned about.

The forecast showed that the deaths are going to go back up, almost to the level they were in the spring.

Forecast means predictions, what we think will happen, what the experts think will happen based on what they know. Let’s listen again.

The forecast showed that the deaths are going to go back up, almost to the level they were in the spring.

Let’s keep going.

And, you know, it’s people are going to be indoors more, uh, the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas–

Compliance means following the rules. Are people doing what they’re supposed to be doing? If so, then they’re compliant. If not, then we have a problem with compliance.

And, you know, it’s people are going to be indoors more, uh, the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas–

Distancing. Now, this is a word that I didn’t hear or use very much prior to the pandemic. Distance as a noun, so it just means the amount of space. Distancing. And you’ll hear the phrase social distancing, and that refers to what we’re being told to do, which is six feet apart, maintain six feet apart from other people when indoors, if you’re not wearing a mask especially. Distancing. Let’s listen again.

And, you know, it’s people are going to be indoors more, uh, the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas, it never got super good in some areas, and so except for the innovative tools that I’m sure we’ll talk about–

Innovative means creative, something that wasn’t there before, something very new, and so an innovative tool would be starting from scratch, not with what we already have established, but something brand new. Innovative.

And so except for the innovative tools that I’m sure we’ll talk about, this–

The innovative tools for treating this disease, tools that were not there before. Let’s listen one more time.

And so except for the innovative tools that I’m sure we’ll talk about, this–

And let’s keep going.

This is going to be a very difficult fall because people, you know, the economic effects, the, uh tiredness, the kids not being able to go to school–

The economic effects. What are the impacts that are being felt on the economy? Well, a lot of businesses have shut down. Lots of people have lost their jobs. It’s a very serious situation. The economic effect, the economic impact of covid-19.

This is going to be a very difficult fall because people you know, the economic effects, the, uh, tiredness, the kids not being able to go to school–

Let’s keep going–

Uh, this continuation is a very difficult thing–

Continuation. Extension. The fact that this is still happening. You know, a lot of people thought back in march, when we first had our shutdown here in philadelphia, that it was only going to be a few weeks. So it’s kind of mind-blowing that here in the fall, we’re still talking about it, we have this continuation of the problem, and it’s starting to be harder for people to follow the rules.

Uh, this continuation, is a very difficult thing.

Let’s keep going.

You’ve talked about the, some of the sophisticated tools, the therapeutics that, that are coming, and that some some are here–

Sophisticated. Altered by education, experience, it might mean more complex, its opposite would be basic, something a little lower level versus higher level, the higher level of sophistication. And here, he’s talking about sophisticated therapeutics. Well, a therapeutic is something that can help someone feel better, get better, recover from a disease. Let’s listen again.

You’ve talked about the, some of the sophisticated tools, the therapeutics that, that are coming, and that some some are here–

Let’s keep going.

Can you just talk a little bit, I mean, let’s talk about, uh, regeneron, you’ve been optimistic about it–

Regeneron is one of the companies who’s making a drug that we hope will treat coronavirus. And he also used the word optimistic. This means takes a positive view of things, feels good about how things could turn out. The opposite is pessimistic, where you take a negative view on things, and you think things won’t turn out. Let’s watch this clip again.

Can you just talk a little bit, I mean, let’s talk about, uh, Regeneron, you’ve been optimistic about it–

Optimistic about it, means he’s hopeful, he thinks that it really could work. Let’s keep going.

It got, obviously, a big endorsement from President Trump because he was able to, to receive it, he’s calling it a cure.

Endorsement. This is like an approval or recommendation for something. Let’s listen again.

It got, obviously, a big endorsement from president trump because he was able to, to receive it, he’s calling it a cure.

He received it. He felt the benefit. He endorses it. Let’s keep going.

Uh, he’s calling on regulators to give an emergency use authorization.

Regulators. These are the people in charge of the regulations, the rules around something, how we’ll do it, in this case, drugs, how were they tested? How are they rolled out to the public? Emergency use authorization. So this would say, okay, this is an emergency case, we’re in a pandemic so even though we have these rules and these regulations about how we normally do things, because we’re in this emergency, we’re going to give authorization to do it differently this time, probably more quickly. Emergency use authorization. Let’s listen to this clip again.

Uh, he’s calling on regulators to give an emergency use authorization.

Let’s keep going.

Do you support the idea of the emergency use authorization? And I assume it’s not a cure.

To assume it means to think something is true based on what else you know, without actually knowing for sure that it’s true. Let’s listen again.

Do you support the idea of the emergency use authorization? And I assume, uh, it’s not a cure. Let’s keep going.

Let’s hear the answer from Mr. Gates.

No, the, well, the word cure uh, is a bit of an over promise, you know, that makes it sound it looks like works for everyone and the whole concern about this disease should go away and that’s the last thing we want people think about. The monoclonal antibodies, which is what regeneron is, that’s always been the most promising therapeutic category. The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like Remdesphere has only had modest benefit, there may be one more of those you know plasma or hyperimmune globulin, is still unproven and, that looks like it’ll be a fairly slow track and so the the most exciting thing, uh, that for many months, uh, our foundation, others have been uh working on and talking about, are these monoclonal antibodies.

To ‘over promise’ means to say you can do more than you actually can. One thing you don’t want to do is over promise and under deliver. That means say you’ll be able to do more, but when it comes to actually doing it do less, because that’s going to leave people disappointed, over promise.

So, Bill Gates is optimistic. He thinks that this could really be good for people, but he says it’s an over promise to call it a cure, because it’s probably not going to be all the way to curing everybody of this issue.

The monoclonal antibodies, which is what Regeneron is–

Monoclonal antibodies, now, no, I cannot claim to know what this means, it’s just part of the, what’s in the drug, but let’s listen to the pronunciation of it.

The monoclonal antibodies, which is what Regeneron is–

Antibodies, antibodies, did you notice he didn’t say the T? Antibodies, it’s pretty common to drop T after N and that’s what he does here. Let’s listen one more time.

The monoclonal antibodies, which is what Regeneron is–

And let’s keep going.

That’s always been the most promising therapeutic category.

If something is promising, then it really looks like it could be good. We really hope that it’s what will work in the long run, or that it will be fantastic. You could also use it for example with a young pianist. Learning to play the piano, looks like he’s going to be very, very good, you could say this kid has a lot of promise. Let’s listen again.

That’s always been the most promising therapeutic category.

It’s a promising therapeutic category. It shows a lot of hope. He feels very positive about it, that it could work out. Let’s keep going.

The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like Remdesphere, has only had modest benefit.

Modest benefit. That means not a huge benefit, not as big maybe as had been hoped. You might hear modest also applied to something like a house. He lives in a modest house. That means it’s small, it’s not very showy. Let’s listen to this clip again.

The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like Remdesphere, has only had modest benefit.

Modest benefit. Not a large benefit. Let’s keep going.

Uh, there may be one more of those, you know, plasma or um, hyper immune globulin is still unproven.

Plasma, the liquid part of the blood. The other word we saw up there, I’m going to be honest with you, it’s very medical, I don’t know what it means, but I wanted to put it up there in case you couldn’t catch it. Now, the last word we have is unproven. Now this means we don’t have the results, we don’t know that it works. Let’s listen again.

Uh, there may be one more of those, you know, plasma or um, hyper immune globulin is still unproven and–

Still unproven, we still haven’t tested, we still don’t know that those therapies could work to help cure or alleviate the symptoms of covid-19. Let’s keep going.

Uh, that looks like it’ll be a fairly slow track.

Slow track. It will take time to test and prove that these therapeutics could potentially help. So it’s not something we’re going to know soon or quickly. Let’s listen again.

Uh, that looks like it’ll be a fairly slow track.

Let’s keep going.

And so the, the most exciting thing, uh, that for many months–

Again that pronunciation of months as months, months, let’s listen.

And so the, the most exciting thing, uh, that for many months–

Many months. Let’s keep going.

That for many months, our foundation, others have been working on and talking about are these monoclonal antibodies.

A foundation is an institution that’s funded by donations, in this case, bill gates’s money, and also maybe other donors and the foundation works to give money to other organizations that help with education, maybe environmental issues, or health care, or whatever, this kind of thing, and Bill Gates has the gates foundation that has done a lot of work in things like vaccines. Let’s listen again.

Our foundation, others have been working on and talking about, are these monoclonal antibodies.

Let’s keep going. Mr. Gates continues to explain the drug possibilities.

There are several companies, Eli Lilly, Regeneron, are going to be two of the first, later, AstraZeneca and Vir, and so the supply will go up. The early data looks quite good. Uh, you know, we saw uh in the lilly data that uh over 60% of the people who got it early, uh, there was a reduction in the number that that needed to be hospitalized. Now as we get to larger numbers, our confidence in that, uh, will go up.

The supply. The amount of the drug will go up as more people are making it. The supply.

There are several companies, Eli Lilly, Regeneron, are going to be two of the first, later, AstraZeneca and Vir, and so the supply will go up.

Let’s keep going.

The early data looks quite good.

The early data. The facts that we know from the research that has been done into these drugs. Data is actually one of the words that we learned recently in our academic word list vocabulary videos, so check that out, you can see the playlist here for all those academic word list vocabulary words.

Now ‘early data’ means in the early phase of testing, they haven’t done a ton of research, but they have some data back, that’s their early data, so they’re making some conclusions based on what they know now, even though the research isn’t complete. Let’s listen again.

The early data looks quite good.

And let’s keep going.

Uh in the Lilly data, that over 60 percent of the people who got it early, there was a 60% reduction in the number that that needed to be hospitalized. Now as we get to larger numbers, our confidence in that will go up.

Confidence in, trust in something, belief that it will work. So before he said something, they had some early data, that had promised, so a little bit of research had been done, the results looked good. Now he’s saying as they do even more research, they’ll have even more confidence, this is going to be something that can help people.

Now for the whole interview, you can see the link in the video description. It was quite long, and so I only took a little bit of it to learn with here. What do you think? Will we see a vaccine for the coronavirus in the next few months? Let me know in the comments below.

Now we’ll look at all the clips of the interview that we’ve studied, still with that on-screen text to reinforce what you’ve learned.

The coronavirus death toll in the united states is now more than 212,000 people in this country, total number of cases more than seven and a half million. Staggering numbers of course. There’s precious little sign of things slowing down. Add to that, president trump’s diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the white house, the overall lag in widespread testing, contact tracing, it’s certainly a recipe for concern as the fall begins in the winter, Bill Gates is joining us he’s co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, has long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and for other global health crisis. He joins me now, Bill, thanks for being with us. Looking at where the US is right now in this pandemic, and during the fall in the winter, cases on the rise, not just in small clusters, but across most of the nation, how concerned are you about the months ahead?

Well I’m very concerned. Uh the forecast showed that the deaths are going to go back up, almost to the level they were in the spring. And you know, it’s people are going to be indoors more, uh, the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas, that never got super good in some areas, and so except for the innovative tools, that I’m sure we’ll talk about, this is going to be a very difficult fall because people, you know, the economic effects, the uh, tiredness, the kids not being able to go to school, this continuation is a very difficult thing.

You’ve talked about the, some of the sophisticated tools, the therapeutics that uh that are coming, and that some, some are here can you just talk a little bit, I mean, let’s talk about uh regeneron, you’ve been optimistic about about it. It got obviously a big endorsement from President Trump, because he was able to to receive it, he’s calling it a cure. Uh, he’s calling on regulators to give an emergency use authorization, do you support the idea of the emergency use authorization? And I assume uh it’s not a cure.

No, the, well, the word cure uh is a bit of an over promise, you know. That makes it sound it looks like works for everyone, and the whole concern about this disease should go away, and that’s the last thing we want people think about.

The monoclonal antibodies, which is what regeneron is, that’s always been the most promising therapeutic category. The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like remdesphere has only had modest benefit, there may be one more of those, you know plasma or hyperimmune globulin is still unproven, and that looks like it’ll be a fairly slow track.

And so the the most exciting thing, uh, that for many months, our foundation, others have been uh working on and talking about are these monoclonal antibodies. There are several companies, Eli Lilly, Regeneron, are going to be two of the first, later, AstraZeneca and Vir, and so the supply will go up.

The early data looks quite good. You know, we saw in the lily data that over 60 percent of the people who got it early, there was a 60% reduction in the number that that needed to be hospitalized. Now as we get to larger numbers, our confidence in that will go up.

There was a lot to learn there, and Mr. Anderson really does speak quickly, did anyone else notice that?

If you like this format of video, please let me know in the comments below, and let me know of a news topic that you would be interested in. Maybe, I can make a video on that next. If you’re new to Rachel’s English, I make videos on the English language every Tuesday, and I welcome you to subscribe and come back here regularly to check them out. They help non-native speakers of English feel more confident and comfortable using English. I also have an academy, rachelsenglishacademy.com where you can find all of my courses. That’s it guys, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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