Name: Los Angeles Fire -- Vocabulary You Should Know - from the news
Uploaded: 2025-01-13T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 13 min 12 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

You probably know that I live in Los Angeles.

First, I would like to thank all of you who have messaged me asking me if I and my family are okay.

Basic passive voice

We are fortunate that our neighborhood was not affected by the fires, but our hearts break for many of our friends and for the thousands and thousands of LA residents who have lost their homes.

In this video, I will teach you some vocabulary from the news about the Los Angeles fire disaster, and then at the end of the video, you will have a chance to practice your pronunciation and your accent.

By reading parts of the article, I will pause to give you a chance to repeat.

In case you are interested in reading the entire article, I have put the link in the description below.

The title of the article is, Los Angeles has never seen this level of destruction.

The unprecedented scale of the destruction in Pacific Palisades came into horrifying focus Thursday from a fire that flattened a large swath of the community, rendering it unrecognizable.

Let's look at the meaning of unprecedented.

It comes from the word to precede, which means to come before.

So if something is unprecedented, it has never happened before.

The article states that the scale of destruction in Pacific Palisades was unprecedented.

It's a beautiful neighborhood in Los Angeles near the beach.

And here are some before and after images.

We can say, the company's success this year was unprecedented in its 50-year history.

The pandemic caused an unprecedented number of people to work from home.

The storm brought unprecedented amounts of rain.

The article says, a fire that flattened a large swath of the community.

To reduce something so that it's no longer raised.

We can say, the workers flattened the ground to prepare it for building the new house.

After the storm, the strong winds flattened many trees in the forest.

He accidentally flattened the box when he sat on it.

Flat is an adjective and to flatten is a verb.

Let's follow the same pattern with other adjectives and verbs.

We can say, she softened her voice when she was speaking to the child.

The butter softened after being left out of the refrigerator.

I will widen my search to find a perfect job.

His attitude hardened after the argument.

Let's look at the meaning of the noun a swath.

A swath is a strip or a section of something and it's often used to describe land.

And a large swath is a large area or section of land or people or even things.

We can say, the fire destroyed a large swath of the forest.

The new law will affect a large swath of the population.

Farmers cleared a large swath of the land to grow crops.

Let's listen to how some other people used it.

This left a lasting impact on large swaths of the country.

And what I really want you to notice here is these large swaths of blue.

Let's look at the meaning of the verb to render.

The article says, a fire that flattened a large swath of the community, rendering it unrecognizable.

To render is to cause something to become.

To make something change into a specific condition.

So rendering it unrecognizable means making it unrecognizable.

We can say, the flood rendered the roads unusable for days.

The strong heat rendered the metal soft and easy to bend.

Let's continue reading to learn some more words.

Entire swaths of the residential district, from its quaint village to the shores of the Pacific Ocean were completely gone.

The architectural whimsy and lush landscaping reduced to burned out ruins with white smoke still billowing from the wreckage.

Let's learn the meaning of the adjective quaint.

The article says, from its quaint village, the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades had a little center that was really charming.

It was a little downtown area for the residents of that area and it was very quaint.

Something that is quaint is charming or old-fashioned or unusual in a pleasant way.

We can say, the quaint little village had cobblestone streets and small cottages.

She loves the quaint teapot that she found in the antique shop.

And unfortunately, this little quaint area of Pacific Palisades is now gone.

The noun is whimsy and the adjective is whimsical.

And the article says, the architectural whimsy.

And whimsy is a sense of playfulness or imagination or fun, something unusual or amusing.

We can say, the park was designed with whimsy, including colorful sculptures and winding paths.

And we can say, she writes with a whimsical style.