The adjective here, critical, is really interesting, it can be used in a lot of different ways. One meaning is when someone is quick to judge or find fault in something. Parents who are too critical can make their children anxious. Critical thinking is a skill I wish we’d teach more of in schools. That’s when you learn how to judge the truth or merit of an idea, critical thinking. A different meaning, which is the one used in this news story, indicates a threatening or grave outcome. A critical shortage of lifeguards. There aren’t enough lifeguards, so swimmers face potential danger. You might also hear the phrase ‘critical acclaim’. This means critics have praised the work. For example, a movie, play, or restaurant can have critical acclaim. Critics are people who work for an organization, like a newspaper, who judge how good something is. For example, a restaurant critic would work for a newspaper, visit various restaurants throughout the city to rate them and write articles about certain dishes, and so on. A critic. There’s no substitute for safety. And the lifeguards are a part of the safety chain. If there’s no substitute for something, that means there’s no backup, no replacement, no stand-in. Nothing else that works to the same goal. Either we’re practicing safety or we’re not. I often hear this usage of substitute as a motivator: There’s no substitute for hardwork. This means there’s no other way to success. You have to put in the time and hard work. There’s no substitute for experience. There’s no substitute for safety. And the lifeguards are a part of the safety chain. Safety chain. He’s using the image of a chain metaphorically. Each link or piece of a chain holds onto the other. Lifeguards are part of the chain–along with EMS workers, police, other medical professionals, and even the general public. We all need to make smart decisions when it comes to swimming. You’ll hear the word “chain” used in other ways too: the food chain the supply chain They all reference several steps or parts that make up the flow of a process. There’s no substitute for safety. And the lifeguards are a part of the safety chain. Areas are not able to hire and certify lifeguards fast enough–just as more Americans are flocking to water-front destinations. Hire and certify. Hire is to be offered a job for pay. The process of someone becoming employed by you. If you hire someone, they become staff. Certified includes all the training, licensing, and approval you need to do a specialized job or task. I’m pretty good at excel, but I haven’t been certified. Some jobs might require some certifications. For example, to work at the daycare, she needed to be certified in CPR. So, she took a class to become CPR certified: watched videos, took tests, and demonstrated skills on a dummy and so on. She’ll need to renew her certification every two years. Areas are not able to hire and certify lifeguards fast enough–just as more Americans are flocking to water-front destinations. Flocking. I love this use of “flock!” It’s a verb or noun we typically associate with birds. A group of birds is a flock. And “flocking” describes their movement as a group. My neighbor throws peanuts on the street and the birds flock to it. So, if people are “flocking to water-front destinations,” that means large numbers are going there. Everyone wants it, kind of like hungry birds for peanuts. Areas are not able to hire and certify lifeguards fast enough–just as more Americans are flocking to water-front destinations. No fun in the sun at this pool in Lackawanna State Park in Pennsylvania. It closed due to staffing shortages. There’s our noun again–shortages. This time it’s “staffing shortages.” Not enough staff, not enough workers to safely open. No fun in the sun at this pool in Lackawanna State Park in Pennsylvania. It closed due to staffing shortages. In Ohio, notices like these on Facebook turning away eager pool-goers. What’s the Facebook notice doing?

In Ohio, notices like these on Facebook turning away eager pool-goers. Turning away. A phrasal verb. In this case, to turn away means to refuse to let anyone enter. The notice turned people away. In Ohio, notices like these on Facebook turning away eager pool-goers. Someone who is eager wants to do or have something very much. Someone who is eager to learn really wants to learn. An eager pool-goer really wants to go to the pool. In Ohio, notices like these on Facebook turning away eager pool-goers. And in Austin, they’re struggling to stay afloat. Just 250 lifeguards this summer compared to 750 in a typical year. Struggling to stay afloat. He’s using a play on words here. We think afloat, we think water, and think lifeguards, we think water. Afloat means floating in water, not sinking. But actually, we can use ‘afloat’ with situations that have nothing to do with water. It’s used a lot with businesses that aren’t doing well, that may have to close. We would say ‘they’re struggling to stay afloat.” They’re struggling to make their business model work. During the pandemic, a lot of restaurants and local shops couldn’t stay afloat, they permanently closed. Or we could use it with ourselves: I’m working 45 hours this week and have two exams; I’m just struggling to stay afloat this week. And in Austin, they’re struggling to stay afloat. Just 250 lifeguards this summer compared to 750 in a typical year. We just don’t have the time to get the lifeguards trained and on payroll for this summer. Payroll is a list of a company’s employees and the amount of money they are to be paid. We often use the preposition “on” with this noun. The school has 150 teachers and staff on payroll. We just don’t have the time to get the lifeguards trained and on payroll for this summer. We’re seeing dangerous rescues and even fatal encounters in areas normally covered by lifeguards. Like along Lake Michigan, where over the weekend a 14-year-old girl had to be airlifted to the hospital in critical condition. It sounds like a wave struck them, and they ended up going into some deeper water and getting into problems. There were no lifeguards on duty. Instead, these towers stand empty. Let’s look at the grammar here. The voiceover said “a 14 year-old girl had to be airlifted to the hospital.” Then the person interviewed said “It sounds like a wave struck them, and they ended up going into some deeper water.” Them, they. ‘Them’ traditionally has been used to refer to a group, more than one person, but more and more it’s being used to refer to a single person if you don’t know the gender. For example, take this conversation: “I talked with someone at the insurance agency.” “What did they say?” At first I said someone, someone, a single person at the insurance agency. But in this conversation the person I’m talking to has no idea who that person is. Knows nothing about that person, so using ‘they’ would be very natural here. “They” for a single person, for one person can also be used if you want to use a more general term or don’t want to make assumptions about someone, and also, some people chose ‘they’ as their pronoun. In this case, the conservation officer may not have known the details of the person who was airlifted, or he may have simply chosen to use a more general term. It sounds like a wave struck them, and they ended up going into some deeper water and getting into problems. Earlier in that segment, we heard the word ‘critical’ again. Remember it has a couple definitions: it can mean the potential to become dangerous or disastrous, and it can mean judging disapprovingly. Which one is it here? Like along Lake Michigan, where over the weekend a 14-year-old girl had to be airlifted to the hospital in critical condition. 1. The girl was in a threatening or grave condition. She had almost drowned. The conservation officer said a “wave struck them.” “Struck” is the past tense of “strike.” A strong force that pushes against something. Some synonyms for this could be: it crashed over them

it knocked them down, it knocked them over it pummeled them it clobbered them It sounds like a wave struck them, and they ended up going into some deeper water and getting into problems. There were no lifeguards on duty. Instead, these towers stand empty. On duty: On the job, on the clock, at work, present at work. When you have a job to do, particularly a job where you’re responsible for taking care of other people or the security of something, you can say, “I’m on duty.” Or, “I’m off duty.” Actually, my husband and I use this to talk about which one of us is responsible for taking care of our kids. For example, “I’d like to go for a walk. Will you be on-duty?” Ok, let’s go to our final segment. People that think they don’t need lifeguards–that they’re probably overestimating their abilities. Our drone, now showing you the vantage point from one of those lifeguard stands. They have a better perspective because they’re elevated. And in many places, they’re now using drones in life-saving situations. Overestimating their abilities. Estimate is one of the academic words we studied in my “LEARN 105 ENGLISH VOCABULARY WORDS” series. Click here for that playlist. When you overestimate your abilities, you think you can do more than you can. You have more confidence than actual skill. That can be very dangerous when you’re swimming in the ocean. He also uses the word “drone.” You probably know this word as an unmanned aircraft or a flying robot, used to get aerial video footage as well as other tasks. Notice: unmanned, that is, without a human present, in the aircraft. A human might be operating it from a different location, but the drone itself is unmanned. The news crew has a camera attached to a remote-controlled drone that they’re using to get these aerial shots. But drone has a few other meanings too. A drone is also a stingless male bee. Maybe that’s why they decided to name this thing a drone. But it also means a tone, a sound, a buzzing, kind of like a bee makes! The drone of the A/C is ruining my audio track. Or you might hear someone talk about the drone of traffic in the distance. Continuous, low, humming sound. Now, if someone who is speaking is using sort of a flat, monotone, or talking for a long time about something very boring, you could say “He’s droning on about his stamp collection again.” Our drone, now showing you the vantage point from one of those lifeguard stands. Vantage point. This is a position from which you can see or consider something. Similar to perspective, point of view, or angle. In recent years, scientists have gained a new vantage point on Mars. Your vantage point is going to be completely different after you live abroad. Our drone, now showing you the vantage point from one of those lifeguard stands. Thanks for studying with me. If you want to go beyond learning and move into training your American voice, check out my online courses at RachelsEnglishAcademy.com. Keep your learning going now with this video, and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on on YouTube and Facebook. I love being your English teacher. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English. https://rachelsenglish.com/english-conversation-vocabulary-training/

Learn English With News | Learning English With CBS News Rachel's English 16:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMBm75dFfXo

Learn English With News | Learning English With CBS News https://rachelsenglish.com/learning-english-with-cbs-news/

Learn English With News | Learning English With CBS News https://rachelsenglish.com/learning-english-with-cbs-news/ Video Text: https://rachelsenglish.com/learning-english-with-cbs-news/ Today we’re studying English with news. We’re looking at how people speak so quickly and so smoothly while still being clear. Two news hosts. One doctor, who’s being interviewed and we are going to study their beautiful voices to find tips that can help you with English fluency. Let’s start right off with Gayle King’s first sentence. This morning we’re looking at increased screen time during the pandemic is affecting our vision. Increased screen time. So, right away she’s giving us an example of one of the main points that Americans do for smoothness changing T pronunciations. In this case, the ED ending of increased is a T sound. Increased. Increased, tt. But she said increased screen time with no T. Listen. I’ll slow that down for you. No T, no ED ending. One of the rules of pronunciation of T is that we often drop the sound between two other consonants. In this case, S and S. So the past tense, increased sounds just like the present tense increase because we dropped the T. And we’ll hear T pronunciations dropped or changed all the time. Why? Let’s look at the pronunciation of T. T, a stop of air, a release, it’s a sharp sound. But the character of American English has a lot of smoothness. No sharp points. We value linking and smoothness from word to word. So by dropping the T here, it’s a smoother link. With the T, increased screen time. Increased screen time. Not that smooth. Let’s drop the T. Increase screen time. More smooth. More sloppy, more lazy, more drunk sounding. Maybe that’s what it feels like to you if your native language is very sharp and clear. Embracing this sloppiness can help you find your American voice as you speak English. You know, the rules for how Americans pronounce ED endings are actually pretty complicated. I’ll put a link to the playlist that covers that topic in the video description. Let’s listen to Gayle again. But first, if you like this video or you’re learning something new, please like and subscribe with notifications, continue your studies with me every Tuesday. No T in increased. Just in time. It’s important that as you study a tip like this, you also practice it. We’re going to play it again. Twice in slow motion, say it with her the second time. Then twice at regular pace, say it her out loud the second time. This morning we’re looking at how increased screen time during the pandemic is affecting our vision– Let’s keep going. Since this pandemic first hit the average screen time per person has spiked more than thirteen hours a day that’s a lot. One of the ways thirteen is different from thirty is the T. Thirteen. That’s a true like what Gayle did. Thirteen Thirteen. She did first syllable stress, thirteen. You’ll hear it both ways. Thirteen and thirteen. Thirty always has first syllable stress and always has a flap T. Let’s keep going. According to Eyesafe Nielsen estimates of 60 percent of people in one recent survey say they were worried about how this will affect their eyes. Affect their eyes. Looking at the text, what do you notice about the T in affect? It comes between two other consonant sounds. The K sound before it and the TH sound after it. The T may have been dropped, was it? Let’s listen. affect their– Affect their. No T. Affect their eyes. Try that with me. Affect their eyes. Affect their eyes. Let’s keep going. Doctors also say they’re seeing uptick in vision issues like dry eye yup, I got that. Doctor Christopher Starr, he was an ophthalmologist said, while Cornell medical in, medicine rather in New York. Did you hear how she corrected herself? She misspoke, she corrected it and then she said rather. So the word she meant wasn’t medical rather it was medicine. While Cornell medical in, medicine rather in New York. Let’s keep going.

Joins us with some solutions and whether he thinks products like blue-like glasses can help. Good morning to you doctor, good to see you. What a nice greeting she gave him. Good morning to you doctor, good to see you. Let’s talk about that phrase “Good to see you”. This is a phrase I use quite a lot when I spend times with friends or family. It’s so good to see you. Do you see we have one letter T here in the word “to”? To is a word that reduces and that means we change a sound. We almost always change the vowel to the schwa and sometimes, we change the true T to a flap T. The flap T sounds like the D in American English. The D between vowels. So here it comes after a D and guess what? She just attaches the schwa to good. Goodto, goodto, good to see you. Take a listen. good to see you. Now since this is a common phrase, let’s practice it. You’ll hear it in slow motion twice, say it out loud the second time. Sing that song. Good to see you. Then you’ll hear it at regular pace twice, say it with her the second time. Let’s keep going. Hi Gayle, how are you? I’m alright with my dry eyes sitting up here but a lot of people are looking at their screens more than ever. A lot of. This three-word phrase is very common. The T comes between two vowels and pretty much all the time, a native speaker will make this a flap T. You won’t hear a true T. A lot of, a lot of. It’s a flap T linking, smoothing things out. A lot of. A lot of. You can say that V sound or not. A lot of or a lot of. She drops the V, that’s a reduction and of is a word that we usually reduce. A lot of. A lot of. That phrase begins and ends with a schwa. You want it to be as fast and simple as possible. A, a. A lot of. A lot of. Let’s listen to just that in slow motion a few times. And now let’s hear it at regular pace. Changing that T, smoothing out English. Let’s keep going. Can you explain why it’s such a bad, why it’s bad for your eyesight to begin with? Yeah, it’s multifactorial. We call it the “Computer Vision Syndrome”. And it uh, it combines– It combines. We’ve studied a drop T, a flap T and now Dr. Starr is giving us an example of another way we change the T, the true T sound. It’s a stop T. For this we stop the air. It. But we skipped that T release. Instead, we’re going to the next word. So there’s really a quick stop of air and that’s the stop T. That’s not actually a sound rather it’s an abrupt stop of sound. It combines. It combines. Let’s look back at that stop. Here, I slowed down the clip to just twenty five percent and you can see the volume of the voice below. Let’s just listen to this clip once. This gap here is the stop T. Let’s take just this part here and listen to it by itself so we can see is it really silent, is there really a stop of air of sound. So I’ve isolated just that spot let’s listen to it. Sort of strange isn’t it? It’s just the room noise really. He hasn’t really engaged his voice here. Let’s go back to the original clip. There’s another spot over here where we see something similar and guess what that is. It’s the B on combines, combines, bb, B is also a stop consonant. Let’s listen to this phrase again. So it becomes ihh, ihh. And then a little stop of air, and then the next word. So, true True T, tt, Flap T, [flap] drop T and now stop T. These are our four T sounds. Let’s listen again to this stop. It combines– Actually there’s one more kind of T. Let’s see if we can find it. Both eyes strain from just staring at the computers which are right in front of you. Okay there we had it. Eye strain. When we have a T followed by R like in train, try or in this case, strain. It’s pretty common for that T to become a CH. S-CH-rain. Strain. It’s not very strong but it’s not a T, a T either. T,t, train. It’s more common to hear ch, ch train.. It’s light. C h,ch, strain. We’re going to listen to just strain in slow motion. You won’t hear T but you will hear CH. strain– So when do you do a true T? T. Let’s keep listening and I’ll tell you.

For all those hours as you said thirteen hours of more, but it also when we’re on the computers, when we’re staring and fatiguing our eyes– There were several true Ts there. Thirteen hours with a true, ttt teen. Thirteen. Also fatiguing, tt, fatiguing. In these cases, the T sound begins a stressed syllable. Thirteen, fatigue. So a T that starts a stressed syllable is a true T. Unless it’s part of the TR cluster then it’s probably a CH. Fatigue. Fatiguing. A T is usually a stop T when it’s at the end of a thought group or followed by another consonant. For example “It combines “or “what”? End of the thought group stop T. A T is usually a flap T between vowels like ‘a lot of’ [flap] a lot of. But not if that starts a stressed syllable. Look a t fatiguing. The T sound there is between two vowels but it starts a stressed syllable so it’s a true T. A T is also a flap T after an R before a vowel like in party. Rarara, party. A T is often dropped between two other consonants like “Affect their”, affect their eyes and there’s also one other time where we often drop the T. We’re going to skip ahead to find an example. Uh taking breaks we recommend every twenty minutes or so. Twenty. Dropping the T after N, that’s a common pronunciation. Internet, twenty, I want another. Internet. Drop T. Twenty. Drop T. I want another. Drop T. The doctor said twenty several times. Sometimes a true T but most of the time it’s dropped. Let’s listen. Uh taking breaks we recommend every twenty minutes or so. Take a break, look away, look into the distance at an object that’s twenty feet away of further. Looking out the window is actually perfect for twenty seconds or more. That’s what we used to call the 20-20-20 Rule– There’s another broadcaster in on this interview. Let’s hear what he’s doing with his Ts. It can be a really hard to take a break from this. Hard to take a break. Hard to. This is just like when Gayle said good to, good to see you. Hard to, hard to take a break. Taking the word to, making it just the schwa, attaching it to a word that ends with a D. Hard to. Hard to. Say that with me. Hard to, hard to. Hard to take a break. It can be a really hard to take a break from this. Oh you know, I thought of one other time we usually have a true T. When it’s part of a cluster. Looking at a window is actually perfect. Perfect. Perfect, ttt. True T release. But you know what? If that links in to another word that starts with a consonant like ‘It’s the perfect place’. then we’ll usually drop the T because it comes between two consonants. Perfect place, no T. Or at the end of a thought group “It’s perfect!”. A true T release. Are you feeling confused? The more you study spoken English, now that you know the rules, the more you’ll notice this and the more natural it become for you to do this. Now where going to skip around in the interview. If you want to watch the full interview, I’ll put a link to that in the video description. But we’ll skip around here for a short quiz. I’ll play a snippet and I’ll highlight in red the T to listen for. You tell me if it’s a true T, flap T, stop T or if it’s dropped. You’ll hear each example three times. Eight blinks. Eight blinks. That’s a stop T. Listen again. Try this one: Did you hear T? I did. That’s a true T. A T at the end of the word at the end of a thought group, that could also been a stop T. But he did a true T. What about this one? Computer [flap]. Computer, flap T. T between vowel sounds, doesn’t starts a stressed syllable, that’s a flap. This next one is tricky. You’ll be listening for three Ts. Irritated. Irritated. The first T is a true T because of this mark. This is the mark of secondary stress. Stressed syllable even if it’s secondary stress that will be a true T. But the second sound there, T between vowels, not starting a stressed syllable, that’s a flap T. Same with gritty. Irritated and gritty.

By changing so many ttt, sharp true Ts were able to smooth out the sound of English. In coming weeks and months, we’re going to study more ways to smooth out your speech to sound more natural and fluent when speaking English. Keep your learning going now with this video and be sure you subscribe and have notifications turned on for the channel so you’ll know when something new is coming your way. Also, be sure to check out my online school at rachelsenglishacademy.com to train your body and your voice for more comfortable English speaking. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English. —— Learn English With News | Learning English With CBS News https://rachelsenglish.com/learning-english-with-cbs-news/

Learn English with News: ADVANCED English Conversation + Vocabulary Training | Free English Lesson Rachel's English 18:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBU9ZWY8gCU

Learn English with News: ADVANCED English Conversation + Vocabulary Training | Free English Lesson https://rachelsenglish.com/learn-english-with-news-2/ Learn English with News: ADVANCED English Conversation + Vocabulary Training | Free English Lesson Rachel's English 18:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBU9ZWY8gCU

Learn English with News: ADVANCED English Conversation + Vocabulary Training | Free English Lesson https://rachelsenglish.com/learn-english-with-news-2/ Learn English with News: ADVANCED English Conversation + Vocabulary Training | Free English Lesson Rachel's English 18:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBU9ZWY8gCU Video Text: I did some sledding recently and it got me thinking about winter sports. So let’s learn some new vocabulary today as we learn English with News. Watching a story about three weird winter sports. The sports are obscure, but the vocabulary isn’t. We’ll learn 29 words, phrases, and idioms, in this news story. I just used the word “obscure”. It’s an adjective that means not well-known, not known to most people. These sports are obscure. If you’re listing every sport you can think of, you might not even be on your list. This is also a verb that means to try to hide something or make something hard to understand. They tried to obscure the truth about the scandal. Now let’s check out this first part of this news clip. Hurtling along snow or ice on metal blades isn’t insane enough? Check out these other weird winter sports. Hurtling. Hurtle is a verb that means to move rapidly or forcefully. An object might be hurtling through space. On a roller coaster you’re hurtling through the air. Hurtle and hurtling sound just like the word with a D, hurdling, which we also associate with racing. A hurdle spelled with a D is this, And Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle. We have a related idiom here. When there are hurdles involved in a situation, that means there is some difficulty. For example, there were some hurdles involved in getting my son signed up for summer camp. Maybe I had to prove his age, that he’s gotten his vaccines, maybe I had to list any allergies, and so on. Extra things to do. So hurdling with a D, jumping over something. Hurtling with a T, moving very very fast. Hurtling along snow or ice on metal blades isn’t insane enough? That isn’t insane enough? This is a dramatic way to say that you think something is crazy, dangerous, or scary. It’s insane to ski a double-black diamond if you’re not an expert skier. We also use ‘insane’ to describe something that’s hard to believe. “I can’t believe you got a perfect score on the SAT. That’s insane!” Hurtling along snow or ice on metal blades isn’t insane enough? Check out these other weird winter sports. Let’s start with horse skijoring. Skijoring is putting a skier behind a horse with a 30-foot rope. Asking the skier to go around 16 to 20 gates, a few jumps, and the horse to go wide open. Here in Pennsylvania, this is not a winter activity I’ve seen, so I did some reading, and yes, I had to look up the pronunciation, and I found that the word “skijoring” comes from a Norwegian word meaning “ski driving.” It’s said to have originated as a mode of winter travel with a horse, dog, or motor vehicle pulling a person on skis through the snow. Now, skijoring is mostly a competitive sport. Let’s hear that word again. Skijoring Skijoring. Three syllables with stress on either the first or second syllable. The narrator puts stress on the second syllable here, “jor” Skijoring The man being interviewed put stress on the first syllable, “ski” Skijoring is putting a skier behind a horse with a 30-foot rope. Asking the skier to go around 16 to 20 gates, a few jumps, and the horse to go wide open. Wide-open. This means open all the way, like a door. “The door wasn’t cracked; it was wide open.”