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  • 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 inway 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 itSo 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 publicWhen 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 continueSome 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 CameronDoes 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 youIt'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. Sobelieve 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 missingNow 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 pastSo that's why we have here had suspected  

  • and had imploded. Let's continue onThe 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 communityThat'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 approachlamenting 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 behavioralthough 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 caseBut 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 meansFutile 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 wrongbecause 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 surprisedincluding 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 interviewsCameron 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 Trenchthe 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?

Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm  Jennifer. And today we're going to read  

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