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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 developedand 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 antiviralslike 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 andhalf 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 housethe 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 wintercases 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 moredeath 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 coronavirusThat 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 diagnosisthe 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 cluesFor example, in medicine. If someone is sick, you  

  • look at the different ways in which they're sickWhat 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 problemLet'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 diagnosisthe 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 diagnosisthe 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--

  • 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 happeningwe'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 somethingthen 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, umyour toddler skipped his nap, didn't eat lunch,  

  • you can say, oh this is a recipe for disasteryour kid is probably going to have a meltdown  

  • and you're going to have a difficult dayLet'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-pilotSo 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 crisisesbut 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 pandemicand 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 pronunciationwe'll hear Bill Gates use it later,