Transcription
Today you'll learn English with the news. We'll read a news article together on the crisis in the Middle East. Welcome back to JForrest English. Of course, I'm Jennifer. Now let's get started.
Our headline: Nearly 700,000 displaced in Lebanon as Middle East crisis escalates. So here, notice nearly as a synonym, you could use almost as well. Around and approximately are also used to talk about an unspecific number. But what's the difference between these two pairs of synonyms? So these two are synonyms and these two are synonyms. But what's the difference? Nearly, almost. It could be less, but around, approximately. It could be less, it could be more. These synonyms can be used with numbers, with quantity, but they can be used in different ways. So you could say I nearly finished the report, I almost finished the report. They have the same meaning. They are synonyms. It means you didn't finish the report, but you're close. Maybe you're 90% done or 95% done.
Now if you wanted to use around, approximately in the context of finishing a report, maybe you could talk about what time you started or ended and say I started the report around 8 AM, 7:58 to 8:00 AM, around 8:00 AM. If you want to use approximately, you have to change the structure. I started the report at 8:00 AM at approximately 8:00 AM. So when you use around, you do not add the preposition at.
Nearly 700,000 displaced. So here, displaced. Notice they're not adding the noun displaced people, because displaced is actually an adjective. It describes the people. If you're displaced, it means you've been removed from your home or surroundings forcefully, what happens in a war or a conflict. Or it could happen because of a natural disaster like a fire or an earthquake, for example. So here, displaced is the adjective. They're not including the noun people because it's obvious. But you could say displaced people in Lebanon as Middle East crisis escalates.
So if something escalates, if a crisis, if a wildfire escalates, if a problem at work escalates, it means it becomes worse or it becomes more severe. Now notice there's an "es" here. That's because the subject is conjugated as singular. It escalates. So the Middle East crisis, it, it escalates. Don't worry about taking these notes. I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF. You can find the link in the description. Now let's continue with the article.
In Lebanon alone. So here adding alone, it means only in Lebanon, not other places, only in Lebanon. In Lebanon alone, nearly 700,000 people, including around 200,000 children, have been forced from their homes. So you could say have been displaced. Now if you use displaced, you don't need to say displaced from their homes because the word displaced includes that information. If you are displaced, it means you are forcibly removed from your home. So often the trace of a synonym maybe because you can summarize four words with one just by saying displaced.
Now have been forced, have been displaced because it's passive. The subject, children, the subject is not doing the action. The subject is receiving the action. So the thing doing the action would be the crisis. But here it's in the passive. Now here also notice they used around, which we discussed before. So around 200,000. It means it could be a little less, it could be a little more, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations.
So here we saw the word escalate as a verb. As a verb, it's conjugated. Here, it's in the present simple, and it's conjugated with third-person singular. However, here, escalations. What part of speech is this? It's a noun. You can tell by the sentence structure and also as you notice these things more and more, you notice patterns. Nouns tend to end in "ion," information, for example. Many other nouns end in "io," and you'll be noticing them now that I've referenced it. So escalations, this is a noun. It's simply viewing crises that are escalating or other things that are escalating. That is the verb form. It's viewing it as a thing, escalations.
Let's review the word uprooted. Uprooted. This also means displaced. If you think of a tree, a tree has roots and if it's planted in the ground, and if you want to move that tree that's been in the ground for a long time, it's very difficult because the roots are established, they're set. So you can imagine that same analogy that you're forcing people to lift up their roots, which would represent their connections, their patterns, and go somewhere else. So displaced. Now uprooted is also used in an everyday life context beyond a crisis, whether it's a war or natural disaster. For example, let's it's very common to use it in this context. I'm not going to uproot my entire life for my job or for my boyfriend, girlfriend, my spouse, whatever it is. So I'm not going to uproot my entire life. It means you're not going to change everything about your life.
Now, in this context, the word uproot sounds negative, but sometimes you want to change things in your life. You want to move abroad for a job opportunity. So if you're using it in a positive context, I'm open to moving abroad. You wouldn't use uproot because uproot sounds negative, just like displaced sounds negative. So just remember, if you see something like I'm excited to move abroad and start fresh, start fresh means new surroundings, new friends, new job, new daily routine. Fresh. In that context, you would not use uproot because uproot sounds negative.
Let's keep reading. The development follows a weekend of escalating Israeli and US strikes. OK, here, escalating. In this context, it's being used as an adjective because it's describing the strikes, escalating strikes, strikes that are escalating. So in that sense, you could use the verb form, strikes that are escalating, but you can take that and turn it into the adjective by describing the strikes. Weekend of escalating Israeli and US strikes against Iran. So notice the prepositions as we go through this lesson as well. Strike against a person or a country, strikes against Iran, counter strikes by. If it's by, it means they are the ones doing it. So just like this report was prepared by Maria, Maria is the one doing it, right? So Iranian forces are the ones doing the counter strikes. And a counter strike is the US strikes Iran, Iran strikes the US, so it's in response to an existing strike. So counter strikes by Iranian forces across Israel and explosions in several Gulf states, along with Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
So the article has this use of "and" and but then they changed to "along with." It's because they're more adding this point as an afterthought. They view it as somewhat distinct or unique from the other points. So when you use "and," you're seeing it more in succession. This weekend I watched a movie and I cleaned my house and I went grocery shopping. You're saying it in succession. But here because they changed to "along with," they view this just as slightly separate.
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Echoing the deep concerns across the international community. So here, a deep concern. You're intensifying the concern. You're saying it's a serious concern. I'm very concerned. Just like you would say I deeply care. I'm deeply sorry. You're intensifying it. In those examples, you're using it as an adverb. I'm deeply, really sorry. But here, deep concerns is an adjective. It describes concerns. Echoing the deep concerns across the international community, across at the impact of the ongoing war on civilians. The UN's top aid official, Tom Fletcher, warned of wider secondary impacts.
OK, so I'm stopping here because I want to explain this "echoing," but you can't understand it until you get to this part of the paragraph. Because if you echo something, it means that you think the same or you repeat the same. You agree, basically. So if I say, "It's too cold to walk outside in winter," and you say, "It's too cool to walk outside in winter," you just echoed what I said. But you could just say, "I agree. I echo that." So you can use "echo" in that context. So the information that is being echoed is this information, OK, this is what's being echoed. So Tom Fletcher warned of wider secondary impacts in countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan where needs were already great.
Now let's look at this structure here, warned of. So Tom Fletcher warned of wider secondary impacts. Now, wider, just you can imagine if there's a hole and the hole gets wider, it gets bigger. So it's just saying that the impacts could be more significant than they are now. That's what they mean by wider. You could also say bigger or more severe. Now, warned of. What do you notice grammatically? We have "warned" in the "ed" form, but then we have the preposition "of," and then here, "wider secondary." These are adjectives. So then you have to find what's next, which is a noun, because you warn of something. Now, you can use a noun. Now, if there's a verb, what type of verb would you use if you warn of doing something? Because "of" is a preposition. So you can use the noun or the gerund, which is your verb and "ing," which functions as a noun. It functions as a thing more so than an action. So you could say experts warned of, and then flooding would be the "ing" form, the gerund, or floods, which would be the noun, the thing after the storm.
Now, this is commonly used in the news, in research studies, in more formal speech. And more everyday speech, it's very common to use the verb "warn," because it's to provide advanced notice that something negative may happen. That's what it means to warn. So it's very common, but this isn't the most common structure in everyday spoken English. Do you know what it would be? You could say experts warned the community, the area, the people. Experts warned us that the area could flood. OK, here. So you warn someone or something, like a community, would be more a thing, but it's a group of people. Experts warned the community. That is optional. You don't have to include it. But then here, what? What is this grammatically? "The area could flood." Well, this is called a clause because it is a grammatically correct group of words on its own. We have a subject and a verb. That's technically all you need. You can include more information, you can include an object, adverb, adjective, but this on its own is grammatically correct. So when you use "warn someone," you need a clause, a complete subject after it. So "the area could flood" is what the experts warned. This is definitely an everyday phrase. You could say my teacher warned me, warned us, warned my class. My teacher warned me that the test will be difficult. So if I just say "the test will be difficult," that is a grammatically correct group of words. It's a clause. It's a complete sentence. So I'm telling you now in advance about something that could be potentially negative, dangerous, or difficult. My teacher warned me that the test will be difficult.
Let's keep reading. Added to that. So you're probably more familiar with "in addition to that," or "additionally." This isn't the most common phrasing to introduce another point that's related to a previous point, but there's always many different ways to see the same thing in English. So now you have another one, "added to that," the focus on existing crises. What do you notice here? Crises. Well, there's one crisis, so we know this is the singular. But to form the plural, we don't just add "es" because what's the difference here? There's only one "is." So this is just too difficult for pronunciation. Because of that, we form an irregular plural and we get rid of that extra "is." So the pronunciation is crises. Sees. Just like she sees, she sees the crisis. OK, maybe that can help you remember the pronunciation. So this is plural. So it'd be two or more. On existing crises such as Sudan, South Sudan, and Ukraine. So here we have at least three, right? Because they listed three places, we can assume they're unique crises. Each one is a crisis, crisis, crisis. So all three are crises. Is slipping even further down the list.
OK. So I'm just going to get a piece of paper, which I always have beside me. So you have 1, 2, 3 in level of importance. So we would say, I'm just going to list them. Sudan, so Sudan, Ukraine. But now we have a new one, which is Middle East. So all the other ones are going down. That's the down. But it makes them less important. So now Ukraine is #4 whereas before it was #1, just as an example. But if you can consciously move something down, if I have my list of tasks, my priorities for the day, I might consciously say, you know what? This is actually more important. I'm going to move #3 to #1 and I'm going to move #1 to #3. So I'm consciously changing the order of importance. So we would use, "I'm going to move this task up to make it more important." "I'm going to move this task down to make it less important." But if something slips, it means it's unintentional, it's accidental, it's not conscious. We use this with a very common expression. We often say that slipped my mind. That slipped my mind. That slipped my mind. So if someone asks you, "Oh, hey Jennifer, did you file the report?" And I say, "Oh, no, I'm so sorry. It completely slipped my mind." Which means I forgot. It's another way of saying I forgot, but you can think of it more of I didn't do it because I unintentionally didn't prioritize it. So it has a similar meaning here in the slip meaning unintentionally reducing the importance because something is more important in a sense of urgency or unexpectedness.
As I was writing that, I thought of an idiom that uses the word slip. Hopefully you don't have to use it too often, but the idiom is "to slip through the cracks." So it always has to be the "you can't change it to 'a'" and it always has to be "cracks." It can't be "crack" because idioms have to be used in a very specific way. So you can conjugate your verb "slip," and then "something slips through the cracks," so the "something" would also change. Now, if something slips through the cracks, it means you forgot it. So the idiom means to forget, to miss, or to ignore something. So we often use this with tasks or responsibilities. If you're, if you asked your spouse to pick up milk on the way home and then they get home and you're like, "Honey, where's the milk?" And then they say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, it slipped through the cracks." So they forgot to do it or they just ignored it. But it was accidental, not on purpose. So "I'm so sorry that slipped through the cracks." You could say the same thing if your boss asked you, "Where's the report?" So you could say, "It slipped my mind. I forgot because I didn't, you know, I didn't remember," which is the alternative. Or "it slipped through the cracks. I just, it was on my to-do list, but I didn't see it. I missed it. It was unintentional, but I didn't do it." So those are two great expressions that you can add to your vocabulary.
The emergency relief chief noted, along with continued disregard for international law and institutions, including the UN, that were created to prevent conflict. So the same thing here we had. So the focus on current crises is slipping, and there is a disregard, which means people aren't being respectful. They aren't taking it seriously. They're ignoring it, basically, for institutions like the UN that are there to prevent conflict. So again, we're using this "along with" more to introduce a secondary point, because this is the main point. Existing crises are slipping in terms of priority, but this is a secondary point that they want you to know is still happening. But it sounds as it's less important because they used "along with."
Let's keep reading. As rapidly rising fuel prices at the pump. So at the pump means at the gas station. It's just an expression because you pump gas, the hose that you put in your vehicle, the action is to pump, and then the device that holds the gas, that's called the pump. So "at the pumps" means at the gas station. So as rapidly rising fuel prices at the pump on Monday, linked to higher oil barrel costs. So if it's linked to, it means that it's connected to. So we have two things, higher oil barrel costs, and then rising fuel prices. They're not just two things that are happening at the same time, they're connected. So that's linked to. Reflected deep economic uncertainty caused by the war. UN agencies also highlighted. So if they highlight something, just like a highlighter, just like right now, I just highlighted this word, I want you to pay more attention to it. So if they highlight this information, they want to make it more noticeable or sound more, something you should pay attention to. UN agencies also highlighted severe global supply chain disruptions affecting shipping, energy and fertilizer markets. So here, all affecting. This is the verb form. Students often confuse "affect" and "effect" because the pronunciation is very subtle, but it's affect, effect. So the verb is affect. The noun is effect. And here we see "deep" again. Remember what that means? Reflected serious economic uncertainty because you're intensifying it. So you could, in this case, if I were to change the word, I would use "serious economic uncertainty."
Let's keep reading. Attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have practically halted trade. So halt is another word for stop. It's not really used in an everyday context. You wouldn't say, "I halted work at 5:00 PM." You would not say that, it would sound very unnatural. But a police officer might say "halt" to tell you to stop with authority, or in this case, it makes complete sense and sounds natural. Instead of thinking of it as simply "stop," which is just an easy way to think of it, the more precise definition would be to bring to an end, and it sounds like completely or forcefully. So maybe you could say something like, "Floods halted train service." So the service is going and then just entirely stops because of something. So it's more of an outside force, an external force. But here, "I stopped working on the project." You would absolutely use "stop" every time. Have practically halted. So practically means not entirely, maybe it's 90%, 95%, but it isn't 100%, but it means almost completely, almost entirely halted trade along the narrow channel.
So here, the narrow channel is the Strait of Hormuz, which carries nearly 1/5 of global oil shipments, along with large volumes of commercial goods. So again, they're using this "along with" a lot. Remember, it's just to provide additional detail because the main point, they were talking about fuel oil, oil. So you can think of this just as a secondary point, but they want you to have this information, but also just know it's secondary information. So here you're learning a new synonym because we already know that nearly or almost could have the same meaning as practically. Almost completely would be how I would define it. Almost completely, nearly completely. So around 95%. So you can say, for example, "Don't stop now." Just to use an example using "stop." "Don't stop now, you're practically finished. Why would you quit now? You're practically finished." You can use this with an assignment, a marathon, baking cookies, anything. If they're 90% done, why would you turn off the oven? Just let those cookies go 30 more seconds and then take them out. You're done. You're practically finished. But you could also use "nearly," "you're almost finished."
Faced with longer transit times and knock-on delays to humanitarian deliveries, the UN agency and partners have increasingly used suppliers and transit corridors through Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan. So here, the UN agency and partners are using different suppliers, different transit corridors. So just a different path, a different direction because they're faced with longer transit times. So they started with the reason why this is often done in the news or more persuasive writing, because you want them to understand the reason why. It can often add interest rather than just stating it in a more factual base. You understand the consequence first, and then you understand the parties involved or the subject.
Let's review knock-on delays. This isn't a phrase that's too common, to be honest, so don't feel like you have to add it to your vocabulary. But a knock-on delay, maybe depending on the industry you're in, you might use it more, but it means that the delay was only caused by other things. So it's more of a chain reaction. So this happened, and as a result, the delays happen. So they're knock-on delays, they're caused by something else.
Let's keep reading. While making greater use of overland routes between the United Arab Emirates and the Eastern Mediterranean coastal region. So here they're talking about transit corridors, and then now they're also saying they're making greater use. So greater use, they're using it more. So in a more formal context, someone might say, "You need to make greater use of the marketing department. You need to use the marketing department more." So it's just an alternative phrasing. It sounds a little more formal simply because it's not as commonly used in everyday speech. It would be more common to say, "You need to use something more," not "You need to make greater use of." So notice the difference is it's more complicated to say that because "make" is the verb, "greater" is the comparative, and then "use" is the noun and "of" is a preposition. And then you have something rather than saying "you need to use," that would be the verb. "Overland routes more." So it's a lot easier to say it the second way, which is why it's more everyday English. I wrote the two sentence structures so you can review them and try your own example sentences as well.
And that's the end of the article. So now I'll read the article from start to finish and you can focus on my pronunciation.
Nearly 700,000 displaced in Lebanon as Middle East crisis escalates. In Lebanon alone, nearly 700,000 people, including around 200,000 children, have been forced from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations. The development follows a weekend of escalating Israeli and US strikes against Iran, counter strikes by Iranian forces across Israel and explosions in several Gulf states, along with Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Echoing the deep concerns across the international community at the impact of the ongoing war on civilians, the UN's top aid official Tom Fletcher warns of wider secondary impacts in countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan where needs were already great. Added to that, the focus on existing crises such as Sudan, South Sudan and Ukraine is slipping even further down the list, the emergency relief chief noted, along with continued disregard for international law and institutions, including the UN, that were created to prevent conflict. As rapidly rising fuel prices at the pump on Monday, linked to higher oil barrel costs reflected deep economic uncertainty caused by the war, UN agencies also highlighted severe global supply chain disruptions affecting shipping, energy and fertilizer markets. Attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have practically halted trade along the narrow channel, which carries nearly 1/5 of global oil shipments along with large volumes of commercial goods. Faced with longer transit times and knock-on delays to humanitarian deliveries, the UN agency and partners have increasingly used suppliers and transit corridors through Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, while making greater use of overland routes between the United Arab Emirates and the eastern Mediterranean coastal region.
Amazing job with this lesson. Do you want to keep learning English with the news? If you do, put "Let's go, let's go, put, let's go" in the comments. And of course, make sure you like this lesson, share it with your friends, and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson. And you can get this free speaking guide where I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description. And here's another lesson I know you'll love. Watch it now.