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

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.

Okay, let's get started.

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

Everything is burned down.

Let's look at the first paragraph.

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.

It's completely new or unique.

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

And this is Pacific Palisades.

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

And here are some before and after images.

It's truly devastating.

It's shocking to see those images.

Let's practice using unprecedented.

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.

Let's look at the meaning of flattened.

Some people say flattened.

So you can say flattened or flattened.

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

To flatten means to make flat or level.

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 short and the verb is what?

To shorten.

My dress is too long.

I will shorten my dress.

Soft becomes what?

Soften.

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

The butter softened after being left out of the refrigerator.

Sharp becomes what?

To sharpen.

I sharpened the knife.

I sharpened the pencil.

Wide becomes to widen.

Widen.

They widened the road.

I will widen my search to find a perfect job.

Hard becomes to harden.

Don't harden your heart.

His attitude hardened after the argument.

And bright becomes what?

To brighten.

To brighten.

The sun brightened the room.

Your smile brightened my entire day.

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

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

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.

Taking images of vast swaths of the sky.

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.

I was rendered speechless by the news.

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.

Let's look at the meaning of 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.

I love the restaurant's quaint decor.

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

It's so sad.

It's absolutely heartbreaking.

Let's look at the next word, whimsy.

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.

Her writing style is full of whimsy.

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

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

You might experience some feelings of quaintness, whimsy.

It's an imaginative little whimsy doodle.

It's for fun.

It is for joy.

Leipzig remembers its tough 20th century with a little whimsy.

Let's look at the meaning of the adjective lush.

The article says, the architectural whimsy and lush landscaping.

If something is lush, it's full of healthy green plants.

It's rich and abundant.

We can say, the garden was filled with lush flowers and trees.

After the rain, the countryside looked lush and vibrant.

And landscaping is the garden or the outdoor design.

It's carefully designed to be very lush.

We can say, the lush landscaping around the house made it feel like a tropical paradise.

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

The article says, reduced to burned out ruins with white smoke still billowing from the wreckage.

The smoke was still billowing.

To billow is to move in waves, often because of wind or air.

We can say, smoke billowed from the chimney.

The curtains billowed in the wind coming through the open window.

The sails of the ship billowed in the strong wind.

Let's look at the meaning of wreckage.

A wreckage is the broken parts of something that has been destroyed.

It could be a destroyed car or an airplane or a house or a building.

We can say, rescue workers searched through the wreckage of the plane crash.

The storm left a path of wreckage with houses and trees destroyed.

The wreckage of the car was barely recognizable.

Let's learn a few more words and after that we will read everything together so that you can practice your accent.

The scene was equally grim on Pacific Coast Highway where row after row of prized homes backing up onto the sand were incinerated and exposing direct views of the ocean to the road.

What does the adjective grim mean?

If you've been watching my vocabulary videos, then you know the meaning of this word.

The article states, the scene was equally grim on Pacific Coast Highway.

And grim means serious or unpleasant or gloomy, depressing, showing no hope or no cheerfulness.

We can say, the doctor gave him a grim prognosis.

The news was grim.

Or we can talk about something we see.

The sky looks grim and dark.

There are heavy clouds.

And before the storm, the sky looks grim.

Let's look at the meaning of the adjective prized.

The article says, where row after row of prized homes.

If something is prized, it's highly valued or it's considered very important.

We can say, this vase is one of my most prized possessions.

We often say prized possession.

That's a very common way to use it.

Let's look at to back up onto.

The article says, where row after row of prized homes backing up onto the sand.

To back up onto something is when something like a building or a house has its backside facing another area.

So backing up onto the sand means the house is directly next to the beach.

It's next to the ocean.

So they have an ocean view because the house backs up onto sand.

This house backs up onto a forest.

The apartment building backs up onto a busy highway.

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

The article says, homes backing up onto the sand were incinerated.

To incinerate means to burn something completely until it's turned to ash.

We can say, the trash was incinerated in the large furnace.

The wildfire incinerated hundreds of acres of forest.

And now let's practice your accent by reading the story.

I will read and then I will pause to give you a chance to repeat.

Pay attention to which words I'm stressing, how I'm pronouncing the individual words, and how I'm connecting the groups of words.

That's so important to having a good, natural sounding accent.

OK, let's get started.

Repeat after me.

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

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.

It will take a very long time for Los Angeles to rebuild.

There's a very difficult road ahead, but I'm hopeful that the neighborhoods will come back and they will rebuild and it will once again be a beautiful place to live.

Thanks for watching and keep practicing.