Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm Jennifer. And today we're going to read an advanced news article together so you can learn the advanced vocabulary, grammar, structures and expressions so you can increase your fluency in English. Let's get started. Let me read the headline James Cameron Slams Ocean Gate Safety. Regrets not speaking up More. First, let's talk about the verb slam in this context. It's used in an informal way to say criticize, to criticize. So James Cameron criticizes ocean gate safety, regrets, not speaking out More notice our verb regret. This is a feeling of sadness or remorse for a mistake or a decision. And in this context, the phrasal verb to speak up, This means to express your opinion. So I might say, if you don't agree with the policy, please speak up, please express your opinion. So James Cameron regrets he feels sadness because he didn't speak up, and he feels like that was a mistake. Now notice we have regret not speaking up, so not is of course to make it negative. But what do you notice about the verb speak? You have the ING form here because regret is a gerund verb. So you need regret plus gerund. I regret speaking up. I regret not speaking up. In that case, negative. Let's continue a catastrophic pressure implosion. Listen to my pronunciation catastrophic. Catastrophic. Catastrophic is an adjective that describes the implosion and it means causing sudden and very great harm or destruction. A catastrophic. Explosion. In this case it's an implosion. So explosion is going outwards and implosion is going inwards. And this catastrophic implosion killed all 5 passengers aboard the Titan submersible. This is the Titan submersible. Submersible refers to the fact it can be submersed. Underwater, it can go underwater, just like a submarine is a submersible, the US Coast Guard said Thursday, somberly solving a mystery that had captivated the public all week. Somberly is an adverb, and it means in a way that is serious or sad, without humor or entertainment. Now of course they're talking about a catastrophic implosion that killed 5 people. You're going to express this in a somber way, in a very serious with some sadness as well. And it's a mystery because at first this submersible disappeared and nobody knew. Where it was or what happened to it? So that was the mystery. But then the mystery was solved when they found out it had imploded and killed everyone aboard. Now it captivated the public. When something captivates you, it holds your attention or interest. So you you want to know what happened, What happened. You're constantly checking the updates to see if there's any new information. It captivated you, so it held your interest or attention. Let's continue. Some experts, however, weren't surprised. So they weren't surprised when they found out that the mystery was that the submersible imploded. That it wasn't just lost or taking a detour. That's the reason why it couldn't be found. It couldn't be found because it had, in fact, imploded. Some experts, however, weren't surprised, including film director and deep sea explorer James Cameron. Does this name sound familiar to you? Do you know which famous film he directed? Well, they say it right here, the Titanic director. So James Cameron was the director of the Titanic. And if you didn't know this submersible Ocean Gate Titan was exploring the Titanic shipwreck, and that's why they're interviewing James Cameron for this article. The Titanic director is criticizing the safety of the vessel that was to have explored the wreckage of the Titanic in the depths of the North Atlantic and comparing the cause of the accident to the ocean liners historic disaster. So James Cameron is making a comparison that this submersible ended in catastrophe. Just like the Titanic did. And the submersible was on its way to explore the Titanic, which makes it extremely unfortunate. Let's take a look at the sentence structure because it's quite advanced. The vessel that was to have explored this might look a little awkward to you, so let's talk about this sentence structure. There is a grammatical structure where we use the verb to be plus the infinitive, and this is used for official arrangements or orders. I could say I am to finish the report, I am to finish the report. This might look odd to you. It's not a sentence structure that is used in. Everyday speech we do use it more to suggest more official arrangements or orders. But if officially my boss told me this, then I could say I am to finish the report, which means I have the responsibility of finishing the report. This is my responsibility. So this is the infinitive to finish. The verb is the verb to be. I am now. If I change this to she, of course I need to change my verb. She is to finish the report. They are to finish the report. But you can put this in other verb tenses right now. What verb tense is this in the present simple. So you could put this in the past simple they. Were to finish the report and that's what you see here. The Titanic director is criticizing the safety of the vessel. So the vessel was to have explored the wreckage. So this is what its official arrangement was, but it didn't do it because it had the catastrophic implosion along the way before it reached. The wreckage. So that's an advanced sentence structure. You can do some practice with that in the comments. Why don't you share one thing that you are to do? But do remember that this is used more in official arrangements and orders and it isn't as common in everyday speech. In a series of television interviews, Cameron said he had suspected all week that the Titan. Had imploded on Sunday. So the Titan that is the name of this submersible. The Titan which imploded. Now notice here the past simple. He had suspected that the Titan had imploded. That's because James Cameron is talking about a past before another past. So let's review the timeline of events. So you always have to think about your actions on a timeline. So here is our timeline. So I believe it was on Thursday that we found out about the implosion. So Thursday, I'll just say Titan implodes. Thursday, Titan implos. I'm not sure exactly when the Titan went missing to be honest, but all I will just say Monday, Monday Titan goes missing, nobody knows where it is or what happened goes missing and maybe we can say on Sunday Sunday Titan starts its mission, starts mission so it begins to explore. It starts its trip. It begins to explore the wreckage. It goes on its way. So Sunday, Titan starts mission. Monday, Titan goes missing. Now Thursday, Titan implodes. But here on Monday, Titan goes missing. Well, then, maybe that same day. Or maybe Tuesday. Or Wednesday. James Cameron suspects it implodes. So I'll just say Tuesday. James Cameron suspects, which means he thinks Titan imploded, but he doesn't have any proof. He just suspects it's what he thinks based on his knowledge of of submarines and submersibles. OK, so This is why we're using the past perfect because he's talking about he had suspected. So the past event is that the Titan imploded, but before that happened here. Now because this is a past in the past, this is the past and this is an earlier past action. We use the past perfect. So we have our past simple and for the earlier past action we have the past. Perfect to talk about a past in the past. So that's why we have here had suspected and had imploded. Let's continue on. The Titanic director is no stranger to deep sea exploration. He has made a whopping 33 dives. I really like this word. Whopping. Whopping. Whopping is an adjective that means extremely large. So it can be extremely large in degree or in amount. So let's say Anna received a raise right now. I don't know if it was a big raise or a small raise. Now my adjective goes right before the noun. So I could say Anna received a whopping A whopping raise. Now you know that Anna received a really big raise, all whopping raise. So that's a fun adjective that you can add to your vocabulary. So he has made all whopping 33 dives. They're using whopping to let you know that this number of dives is quite large. Within the diving community. That's a lot of dives. 33 dives. To the shipwreck. So not dives in his entire life. Dives to the Titanic shipwreck. So imagine going to the Titanic shipwreck 33 times. That's a lot, right? A whopping 33 dives to the shipwreck himself, even calculating that he's spent more time on the Titanic than its own captain did a century ago. So obviously, that's a whopping number of dives and a whopping time spent on the Titanic. He also dove. Dove is the past simple of the verb dive, past simple of dive, an irregular verb. He also dove the Mariana Trench. The deepest known point on earth? About three times deeper than the Titanic wreck site in 2012. Wow, that sounds quite impressive. Cameron had long been concerned about the vessel's safety, so notice here they use long been concerned instead of saying he had been concerned for a long time. They said he had long been concerned. Cameron had long been concerned about the vessel safety and Ocean gates experimental approach, lamenting that the company had ignored experts calls to undergo a standard certification process. Let's take a look at lamenting. When you lament about something, it means you express sadness or regret about that something. But this word to lament is also used when you complain about something. So I could say she spent all afternoon lamenting about her boss's behavior. So that sounds to me like she was complaining about her boss's behavior, although depending on context it could mean express sadness or regret. Now I'm letting you know this because context is always key. Because the article already talked about James Cameron expressing sadness or regret, then is likely. That's what Lament means in this case. But he's also criticized them, so he could have been complaining about the fact that they didn't follow the safety protocols. So it could be either one lamenting that the company had ignored experts calls to undergo a standard certification process. When you undergo something, it means you, you participate in it. So they have this certification process. So if you undergo it, it means you participate in it, you do it, you take the necessary action to become certified. But James Cameron was lamenting because Ocean Gate didn't undergo. The standard certification process which experts had recommended, so an experts call to undergo here. The call is really a recommendation you should undergo. You should participate in this. You should do it basically. So you could say participate in in the sense of participate in in the sense of a process or more simply you can just think of it as to do to do the process. To undergo a standard certification process, Cameron said it was difficult to watch the frantic search. Frantic is an adjective, and it's when you're almost out of control because of extreme emotions such as worry. So let's say you're a parent and your child was supposed to be home at 5:00 o'clock, and it's. 5:15, 5:30, 6 o'clock and your child is not home yet. You are going to become frantic or you're going to search frantically to use an adverb, search frantically for your child. You're going to call everyone you know Frantically. I frantically called the schools, the hospitals. My kids friends trying to find my child. So a parent would become very frantic if they couldn't find their child. You can use this in less extreme examples. If I can't find my wallet or my cell phone, a possession that is very important to me, I might become frantic. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Or if you're at the airport and you can't find your passport. You're going to become very frantic. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? And you'll start looking everywhere, throwing things out of your purse, trying to find it. Frantically, frantically So We use this both as adverb and the adjective very commonly Camera said it was difficult to watch the frantic search play out, play out. In this case, when something plays out, it simply means it happens. It happens. Over the next few days, knowing it was futile because remember. Well, first let me explain what futile means. Futile is mean to say that your actions will have no impact, no influence, no benefits. So something's futile. In this case, it's futile. Your actions, your action of searching for. These survivors is futile because there are no survivors. The there was a catastrophic implosion, so the the ship is gone, the submersible is gone. That's why the search was futile. So futile is when your actions or your efforts have no effect. You could say trying to change his mind is futile, which means you could. Give this person every logical reason why they should change their mind, but it's not going to have any effect. That person is not going to change their mind. No matter what you say. It's futile. Trying to change someone's opinion is futile. Knowing it was futile. The search was futile. But hoping. He was wrong. And of course he wanted to be wrong, because if he's right, it means that everybody died, and if he's wrong, it means there's a chance that they survived. But unfortunately, that isn't what happened. So that's the end of our solemn article. Now what I'll do is I'll read the article from start to finish, and this time you can focus on my pronunciation. James Cameron slams ocean gate safety regrets not speaking up more A catastrophic pressure implosion killed all 5 passengers aboard the Titan submersible, the US Coast Guard said Thursday, somberly solving a mystery that had captivated the public all week. Some experts, however, weren't surprised, including film director and deep sea explorer James Cameron. The Titanic director is criticizing the safety of the vessel that was to have explored the wreckage of the Titanic in the depths of the North Atlantic and comparing the cause of the accident to the ocean liners historic disaster. In a series of television interviews, Cameron said he has suspected all week that the Titan had imploded on Sunday. The Titanic director is no stranger to deep sea exploration. He has made a whopping 33 dives to the shipwreck himself, even calculating that he's spent more time on the Titanic than its own captain did a century ago. He also dove the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on Earth, about three times deeper than the Titanic wreck site in 2012. Cameron had long been concerned about the vessel safety and Ocean Gates experimental approach, lamenting that the company had ignored experts calls to undergo a standard certification process. Cameron said it was difficult to watch the frantic search play out over the next few days, knowing it was futile but hoping he was wrong. We covered a lot today, so make sure you download the free lesson PDF. You can look for the link in the description to download that so you can review everything we learned today. And if you like this video, make sure you subscribe, because I post lessons like this every single week. And now why don't you get started with your next lesson?
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