Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (cheerful music)

  • - Hello, this is Jack

  • from tofluency.com and welcome to this lesson

  • where we're going to look at an article

  • in English, a new story,

  • and you're going to learn some words

  • and phrases from this article.

  • So I'll leave the link to the newsource

  • in the description so you can go read it yourself

  • but you can see it on your screen

  • and the title is this,

  • solar eclipse enthrals huge crowds in South America.

  • So solar eclipse,

  • this is when the moon covers the sun

  • and to enthrall means to completely fascinate.

  • So people are just amazed by something.

  • They are really fascinated and interested in something.

  • It's not used that much in everyday English

  • and that's one thing when you're reading new stories,

  • it's important to know that you're not always going

  • to use that type of vocabulary, okay?

  • So solar eclipse enthrals huge crowds in South America.

  • And in the subtitle,

  • dry weather, crystal-clear air

  • and low light pollution provided a stargazer's paradise.

  • So a stargazer is somebody who looks at the sky.

  • They had dry weather and crystal-clear air

  • which is fantastic.

  • So it means that it made things all the better.

  • So now what's interesting is it says

  • hundred of thousands of people flocked.

  • To flock somewhere means to go there in big numbers, okay?

  • So hundred of thousands of people flocked

  • to go somewhere

  • and it suggests that people are going there

  • all at the same time to see some type of event.

  • And they went to the northern Coquimbo region near

  • the Atacama Desert.

  • Now I've been to the Atacama Desert.

  • I was there in 2007 and it's a fascinating place.

  • I was only there for a few days.

  • Now I just want to read some of the quotes.

  • So Betsy Clark, an Australian tourist,

  • "I don't believe there's a better place in the world to see

  • "an eclipse than La Silla."

  • And this is La Silla Observatory.

  • So an Australian tourist either went there purposefully

  • or was lucky enough to be there at the time.

  • "It was an experience to last several lifetimes,"

  • said Chilean tourist Rene Serey.

  • So an experience to last several lifetimes.

  • This just means obviously it was the best experience.

  • An experience to last several lifetimes.

  • So you can use this several lifetimes

  • just to really emphasize that something is amazing.

  • Let's read some more quotes down here.

  • "Oh my God, it's incredible!" shouted some,

  • while others chanted "more, more, more!"

  • Many remained silent,

  • enchanted and moved by one of nature's spectacles.

  • So enchanted just like completely in awe

  • and moved, to be moved, in this sense,

  • means to feel some emotion towards it

  • or to have a lot of emotion about it in a positive way.

  • So usually you cry because somebody has done something nice

  • if you are moved

  • and then it goes on to say

  • "The truth is that even if one knows what's going on,

  • "it is shocking the minute that the shadow of darkness

  • "begins to come and that silence begins,"

  • Okay, I like this.

  • Even if you know that it's going to happen,

  • it's still an amazing experience

  • and it's shocking the minute that the shadow

  • of darkness begins to come and that silence begins.

  • So the minute that.

  • This is used a lot in English

  • and it just means at that moment, okay?

  • The minute that he saw me he looked away.

  • Okay?

  • That's a strange example

  • but the minute that the shadow of darkness begins to come

  • and that silence begins.

  • So the moment, the minute that, the moment that.

  • "Very seldom has it happened that the whole of an eclipse

  • "is seen over an observatory,

  • "the last time this happened was in '91

  • "at the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii,

  • "said Matias Jones, an astronomer at La Silla."

  • Very seldom.

  • Now seldom means rare.

  • Very seldom means very very very rare

  • and seldom is one of those terms

  • that isn't used that much in everyday English

  • but it's used in formal English, okay?

  • So a more informal way

  • or a more common way to say it is

  • it hardly ever happens.

  • So seeing an eclipse at an observatory hardly ever happens.

  • Hardly ever.

  • That's a little bit more common in everyday English.

  • Over the border in Argentina,

  • people massed, people flocked to look, massed to look.

  • That's used in like a religious term

  • whereas flocked you think of a flock of birds.

  • That's more a nature term.

  • So over the border in Argentina,

  • people massed to look into the sky

  • in the western Cuyo region,

  • which had the country's longest exposure

  • to the eclipse.

  • However little could be seen

  • in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires,

  • where overcast weather blocked the view.

  • So overcast weather, cloudy.

  • If it's overcast, it means the sky is covered in clouds.

  • So people in Buenos Aires couldn't see the eclipse

  • because it was overcast

  • but going back to the subtitle,

  • in Chile, dry weather,

  • crystal-clear air and low light pollution provided

  • a stargazers' paradise.

  • So those are some words and phrases

  • that you can learn from this article.

  • I'll leave a link to the article

  • in the description and the question of the day

  • is have you ever seen a full or a partial solar eclipse?

  • Let me know in the comments section below.

  • Thanks for watching.

  • Bye-bye.

  • (cheerful music)

(cheerful music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it