Learning English words with Cnn

Student News: Topic 1 – Volcano

1. Listening

A. Listen for the Big/General Ideas

At first, you should resist the impulse to try to understand every single word
people are saying. It’s more important to keep up with the conversation and try to
understand the main ideas.

B. Listen for the Details

After you’ve focused on the big picture, now look for specific details that will help
you understand better.

When listening for details, you’re interested in very specific information such as a
name or a number. Ignore anything else that doesn’t sound relevant to what

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you’re listening for. This way, you’ll be able to zoom in your search and get the
details you need to understand the message.

2. Reading

PART 1

Great to see you watching as we kick off (start) a new week of CNN 10. Our
season runs through Friday, June 1st. So, we have three weeks left on the air,
starting today.

• Kick off (phrasal verb): start

• Run through (phrasal verb): to look at, examine, or deal with a set of things,
especially quickly

And we start today with a by-the-numbers look at the dangerous situation on

Hawaii`s big island. That`s where the notoriously active Kilauea volcano has
been erupting again for about a week and a half now.

• Notoriously(adv) /nəʊˈtɔː.ri.əs/: famous for something bad

The first number we have is almost 2,000. It`s how many residents have
been evacuated since the volcano started this eruption. Dozens of homes have
been destroyed by lava.

• Evacuate (v) /ɪˈvæk.ju.eɪt/: to move people from a dangerous place to

somewhere safe

Next, 12. That`s the distance in miles away from the crater that ash
plumes could cover if an explosive eruption occurs. Scientists expect more of
those in the days ahead and new lava flows are also possible.

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 • Crater /ˈkreɪ.tər/: the round hole at the top of a volcano, or a hole in the ground
similar to this
• Ash(n) /æʃ/: the soft grey or black powder that is left after a substance

Two-point-nine million is the estimated cost in dollars that Hawaiian officials

expect will be needed to protect residents affected by the eruption and that`s for
the next 30 days. U.S. President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in
Hawaii on Friday. What does that is free up federal money and resources to
help those affected?

Eighteen is the number of fissures, cracks on the ground where lava is seeping
or spewing out, all caused by this eruption. Some of the fissures are miles away
from Kilauea`s crater itself.

• Fissure (n)/ˈfɪʃ.ər/: a deep, narrow crack in rock or the earth

• Seep(v) /siːp/: spread slowly out of a hole
• Spew(v) /spjuː/: If something spews liquid or gas, or liquid or gas spews from
something, it flows out in large amounts

And that last number here is 1924. That`s the year when the Kilauea Volcano last
behaved like this, according to some scientists. It was active for about three
weeks then, sending ash high into the air and blasting blocks, weighing as
much as 14 tons.

Now for a scientific look at how this eruption is playing out beneath the surface.

• Beneath(preposition) /bɪˈniːθ/: a lower position than someone or something

• Play out (phrasal verb): it happens and develops

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PART 2

IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is the layout here of Leilani

Estates. There`s the evacuation zone. There are closed roads. The new
fissures have impacted the eastern area. So, we`ll continue to monitor that, but
this whole area, folks have been taken out of the way with good reason as you
can imagine, as these things continue to pop out just every few hours, every day
or so.

• Folk(n) /fəʊk/: people, especially those of a particular group or type

• Pop out (phrasal verb): suddenly come out, if words pop out, you say them
suddenly without thinking about it first (example: I didn’t mean to say that – it just
popped out.)

This is the lake, of course. This is the account that I`ve been showing you the last
few days, noticing that as the lake drained its lava, it went underground and
that`s the lava that`s coming up to the fissures. I think again, that`s going to be
the main threat.

• Drain(v) /dreɪn/: to let liquid flow away from something

Notice as this continues to go down over the last several days, and one of our
last pictures here, we can`t see the lava anymore. That`s an infrared camera, so
the red you`re seeing there, that basically just heats signature here.

• Infrared(adj) /ˌɪn.frəˈred/: Infrared light is a type of light that feels warm but
cannot be seen

So, as that lava drops into the crater and into the basically a water table, let`s
talk about what could potentially happen as far as this explosive eruption here as
we check in with our volcano. There`s the lava and again what happens is, you
get these rocks that will continue to fall down and that will create a blockage.
And I don`t have to tell you what happens with the kinds of temperatures we`re

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seeing in here. We`re talking about temperatures well into 1,500 to 2,000
Celsius, right?

• Water table(n): the level below the Earth’s surface where water is found
• Blockage (n) /ˈblɒk.ɪdʒ/: something that stops something else passing through
• Well(n): a deep hole in the ground from which you can get water, oil, or gas

Those rocks blocking that passageway at some point are going to give and once
that goes into the water tables as you see there, we`re going to have watch out
— quite an explosion here.

• Passageway(n) /ˈpæsɪdʒweɪ/: a long narrow area with walls on each side that
leads from one room or place to another

But again, I`m really not too concerned about this. It`s going to be a spectacular
eruption when it happens, but I think, Cyril, because they have evacuated
people out of the way, these boulders sometimes can be the size of a school
bus are not going to be impacting many folks. This is going to be within a few
meters of the crater here and before that happens, you must imagine people will
be getting out of the way, and that`s why they
closed the National Volcano Park there on the big island.

• Boulder(n) /ˈbəʊl.dər/: a very large rock

3. Vocabulary

1. Kick off (phrasal verb): start

2. Run through (phrasal verb): to look at, examine, or deal with a set of things,
especially quickly
3. Notoriously(adv) /nəʊˈtɔː.ri.əs/: famous for something bad

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4. Evacuate (v) /ɪˈvæk.ju.eɪt/: to move people from a dangerous place to
somewhere safe
5. Crater /ˈkreɪ.tər/: the round hole at the top of a volcano, or a hole in the ground
similar to this
6. Ash(n) /æʃ/: the soft grey or black powder that is left after a substance
7. Fissure (n)/ˈfɪʃ.ər/: a deep, narrow crack in rock or the earth
8. Seep(v) /siːp/: spread slowly out of a hole
9. Spew(v) /spjuː/: If something spews liquid or gas, or liquid or gas spews from
something, it flows out in large amounts
10. Beneath (preposition) /bɪˈniːθ/: a lower position than someone or something
11. Play out (phrasal verb): it happens and develops:
12. Folk(n) /fəʊk/: people, especially those of a particular group or type
13. Pop out (phrasal verb): suddenly come out, if words pop out, you say them
suddenly without thinking about it first (example: I didn’t mean to say that – it just
popped out.)
14. Drain(v) /dreɪn/: to let liquid flow away from something
15. Infrared(adj) /ˌɪn.frəˈred/: Infrared light is a type of light that feels warm but
cannot be seen
16. Water table(n): the level below the Earth’s surface where water is found
17. Blockage (n) /ˈblɒk.ɪdʒ/: something that stops something else passing through
18. Well(n): a deep hole in the ground from which you can get water, oil, or gas
19. Passageway(n) /ˈpæsɪdʒweɪ/: a long narrow area with walls on each side that
leads from one room or place to another
20. Boulder(n) /ˈbəʊl.dər/: a very large rock