Advanced Vocabulary and Fluency Practice from the Presidential Debate

0:00 let's continue the series of advanced vocabulary from the news this is your chance to take your English to the next level you will also have a chance to practice pronunciation and the American accent I will read parts of the article and I will pause to give you a chance to repeat after me let's learn some Advanced English vocabulary from a recent article about the American presidential election do you you know the meaning of the verb to hurl and how about the noun enity and how about the phrasal verb to take someone on you know the meaning of the phrasal verb to take someone out right to take someone out on

0:47 a date but to take someone on has a very different meaning phrasal verbs can be so confusing there are so many of them to take on to take up to take out to take over and on and on we will look at a news article that talks about the recent presidential debate this article was posted in the New York Times just one day after the debate a lot of people have very strong opinions about what's going on in American politics right now it's a difficult topic to discuss without angering people and my job is to teach you the vocabulary only so that you can talk about a wide variety of subjects including politics let's look at the headline of the article the mess in Atlanta first let's look at the

1:34 pronunciation of Atlanta we hold the first T and the second T is generally silent we say it like this Atlanta Atlanta most people don't say Atlanta I would say around 90 or 95% of Americans say Atlanta and this generally happens when the t is between an n and a vowel other words with the same pattern include interview International or Santa as in Santa Claus or Santa Monica and let's look at these words I want it most people don't say I want it they say I want it do you want it yes I want it or I want uh most people say I want to I

2:20 want a glass of water let's look at one of the paragraphs I will read it first they hurled insults and invective in strikingly personal terms calling the other the worst president in US history each said the other would start World War II they accused each other of seeking retribution against their political opponents let's look at the verb to hurl the article said they hurled insults they hurled insults and invective let's look at the pronunciation of the word hurl first let's look at the spelling of these words the vowel sounds are different but the pronunciation of the vowels is exactly the same have you struggled to pronounce them correctly let's practice

3:06 them now repeat after me and make sure that you don't change the pronunciation of the vowel sound it's always like this just as in HL girl pearl World curl the spelling changed but the pronunciation didn't change we say Earl Earl so we say to herl and how did I pronounce the r and l we add a short schah sound before the L so it sounds like this Earl Earl or Earl whatever helps you visualize it so we say hurl hurl to hurl means to throw something with a lot of

3:54 force especially because you're angry and in this case it means to shout insults to attack someone verbally we often use it this way to hurl abuse or to hurl accusations or to hurl insults but the literal meaning is to throw something very hard for example he hurled the brick through the window but we can also say she hurled insults at him during their argument and now let's look at the word invective the article said they hurled insults and invective in strikingly personal terms invective is a pretty formal word it's it's not so common it means rude and insulting words that someone says when they're very angry abusive or highly critical

4:41 language and it's an uncountable noun so we can use it this way the politician's speech was filled with invective against his opponents the coaches invective demoralized the team or they resorted to sarcasm irony and invective do you know the meaning of the adjective striking and of the adverb strikingly if something is striking it's noticeable it attracts attention it's noticeable because it's extreme or it's unusual the article said they insulted each other in strikingly personal terms we can say the painting is strikingly beautiful or the resemblance between you and your brother is striking and the

5:26 article said they hurled insults and invective in strikingly personal terms that means people were shocked about how personal it got it was striking and do you know the meaning of the word retribution the article States they accused each other of seeking retribution against their political opponents retribution means Vengeance or retaliation severe punishment for something very serious that someone has done to you for example we can say the victims of the horrible crime are demanding retribution or he feared retribution from his enemies or we can say the company faced retribution from consumers for its unethical practices and now

6:13 let's read the paragraph again so that you can practice your accent I will pause to give you a chance to repeat repeat after me they hurled insults and invective in strikingly personal terms calling the other the worst president in US history each said that the other would start World War I they accused each other of seeking retribution against their political opponents let's look at the next sentence the shakiness of Biden's

6:59 overall performance is already giving rise to Urgent questions from Democrats about whether he's really the right candidate to take on a figure he has cast as so dangerous to the country let's look at the meaning of to give rise to the article says the shakiness of Biden's overall performance is already giving rise to Urgent questions from Democrats to give rise to means to cause something to happen for example we can say the heavy rains gave rise to flooding her innovative ideas gave rise to a new approach in marketing so Biden's performance is causing Democrats to ask urgent questions about Biden his performance is giving rise to those

7:46 questions giving rise to Urgent questions from Democrats about whether he is the right candidate to take on a figure he has cast as dangerous to the country let's look at the meaning of that let's look at the phrasal verb to take on to take on means to challenge or to fight for example I can say I'm ready to take you on in a game of chess or the young boxer decided to take on the reigning champion in the upcoming match to take on is a phrasal verb and phrasal verbs can be so confusing for example we have to take on to take up to take in and to take off has four different meanings to Take On on is in video

8:34 number 19 in my course phrasal verbs for fluent English where I teach you the most common and the most useful phrasal verbs that you need to know in order to speak fluently and in order to sound like a native speaker the course contains 21 video lessons and downloadable audio of the entire course plus lots of conversation practice exercises and quizzes to test your progress in almost 1,000 sample sentences of the various phrasal verbs so that you can truly Master the nuances of the meanings to get the phrasal verbs for fluent English course go to Accurate english.com let's look at the word figure figure has a lot of different meanings and let's learn the meaning

9:20 that is used in this article it states urgent questions from Democrats about whether he is really the right candidate to take on a figure what is a figure in this case a figure is a person especially an important or notable person so to take on a figure means to challenge Donald Trump we can also use figure this way he is a controversial figure in the medical community or the CEO is a key figure in the tech industry Shakespeare is an iconic figure in English literature and let's look at the verb to cast you might know the other meaning of to cast for examp example to cast an actor in a film he was cast for

10:05 that role but let's look at how it's used in this context it states whether he is really the right candidate to take on a figure that he has cast as so dangerous to the country to cast someone as something means to portray or to describe someone in a particular way for example we can say she felt unfairly cast as the Troublemaker in the group the media often and cast him in a negative light the defense lawyer cast the witness as unreliable and dishonest so a figure he has cast as so dangerous to the country means that President Biden has described Trump as dangerous to the country let's read the paragraph again and this time I will pause to give

10:52 you a chance to repeat and practice your accent repeat after me the shakiness of Biden's overall performance is already giving rise to Urgent questions from Democrats about whether he is really the right candidate to take on a figure he has cast is so dangerous to the country let's look at another sentence from the article but the Deep enity on display and the messiness of the night may have damaged them both let's look at

11:38 the word emnity it means hatred towards someone or feeling intense hostility this word comes from the same Latin root as enemy we can say he felt deep enity toward his former friend after the Betrayal the annity between the two countries led to a prolonged conflict let's look at another sentence from the article by the end of the night his group was calling for Biden to step aside let's look at the phrasal verb to step aside it means to move out of the way or to withdraw from an important job for example we can say she stepped aside from her role to focus on her health he decided to step aside and let someone

12:24 else take the lead the manager stepped aside to allow fresh ideas to be brought to the company so his group was calling for Biden to step aside means that Democrats were asking Biden to no longer be the presidential candidate to put another person in his place at this point we don't know if Biden will step aside we don't know what will happen between now and November 4th which is the date of the election a lot could happen but you do know how to use a lot of new words and expressions I suggest that you make your own sentences using these words and make sure that you say them out loud that's such an important part of practice and that way you're much more likely to remember them and then use them in conversations and I

13:11 recommend that you keep reading in English that's so important that way you will continue to expand your vocabulary you will be able to talk about a wide variety of subjects whether it's politics or the economy or something personal in your life that's true fluency thanks for watching and keep practicing your English take your English to the final level of fluency with my online courses the American accent course the 400 Advanced words you must know for fluent English course and the phrasal verbs for fluent English course go to Accurate english.com