Pronunciation ChallengeCNN10: COVID-19 Vaccine and Herd Immunity / Avalanche Survivor

【Transcript】

Hey folks, welcome to the show. As you know, The presidential inauguration was peacefully held on January 20, and Joe Biden is now the 46th president of the United States of America. Whoever the president is, let’s all hope he makes the nation better and the American people can come together to heal the country.

First off, we have an update on the COVID-19 pandemic.
A CNN medical analyst says the US might have passed the peak of new coronavirus cases. A few weeks ago, health officials said hospitalizations related to the disease were at about 132,000 per day. Now these hospitalizations are down to 124,000 per day, we’re seeing some improvement there. But a former commissioner from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, says there's a new variant, a new strain of COVID-19, that could cause another increase in coronavirus cases. Luckily, he says that the silver lining (or the advantage, the hope that we can find in bad situations) is that a lot of people will have already been infected with the disease and will be immune to it, while others will be getting a new emergency vaccine. And that brings us to an important topic, herd immunity. Herd immunity is when most of the population becomes immune to a disease. It can be achieved in two main ways. One, enough people have recovered from the illness and have developed immunity, or two, taking the vaccine or drugs that prevent people from catching the virus.

Scientists don't know yet if the two approved vaccines work against the new COVID variant. However, if you received the vaccine, but others around you haven't, you still have to follow precautions. And that's because we don't know yet whether the vaccine prevents you from being a carrier of coronavirus. Yes, you might not get the virus, but people can still get it from you. So, if you're meeting members of your family who are not vaccinated, make sure that everyone continues to follow precautions. See one another outdoors, with members of different households spaced at least 6 feet apart. Avoid being indoors together and wear masks if you must be. Some people who have received the vaccine might think that they can take on more risks than before, maybe they would want to go traveling or give their grandchildren a big hug and kiss. But remember that the vaccine is still not 100% effective, so it's important to follow other measures, put on a mask to reduce risks. You wanna be happy and healthy at the same time.


An avalanche, just like mudslide but with snow, is one of the natural disasters that take lives. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says people trigger about 90% of these disasters. For today’s CNN10 video, check out how a skier survived from a massive avalanche. It’s really quite impressive and terrifying at the same time. I can’t imagine how it feels, let me know in the comment section below if you’ve gone skiing before.

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Vocab-smoothie

Folks, for today’s vocab-smoothie, I have a challenge for you.
Choose three vocabulary words from our story today and make a sentence by yourself - you can find them in the transcript given in my comments down below. Impress me with your creativity, I can’t wait!

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And that’s all the time we have for today.
Keep up with the good work and I’ll see you guys again next week.

Bye!

1. I am immune to the coronavirus as I have already been vaccinated. 2. The government will subsidize every household for $10000 3. Those who are boarded from the UK may have high possibility to transmit the variant of coronavirus to the local people in Hong Kong.

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Thanks, Ken. Have a good one,everyone.

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