GRAMMAR

VOCAB
Advanced Reading Lesson:
COLLOCATION
CNN News Article
lay off (phrasal verb)
= to stop employing someone because
there’s no work for them to do

‘BE’ + to-infinitive
= formal way to announce that
something is planned to happen in the
future

Note: we often omit ‘BE’ in the title of

Sony to lay off 900 at PlayStation as tough times
news articles
for the video games industry persist
tough times
= a difficult economic situation

persist (verb)
= something bad continues to exist or
happen

giant (noun)
= a large, successful company that is
well-known in its industry

Future Continuous
WILL BE + verb-ing

workforce (noun)
= the group of people who work in a
particular company

Electronics giant Sony announced on Tuesday that it

press release (noun)
will be cutting 900 jobs, or 8%, in PlayStation’s
= a company’s official statement that
gives information to newspapers, tv
programs, and radio stations global workforce.
in-house (adj./adv.)
= created by the employees in the offices
of a company The layoffs will impact all regions for Sony
Interactive Entertainment, according to the
immensely (adv.)
= very, very much, a lot PlayStation press release, with its in-house London
future-ready (verb) studio, responsible for the competitive singing video
= to make or plan something so that a
company can quickly identify changes game “Singstar,” closing entirely.
and respond to future challenges

set up (phrasal verb)

= to prepare
set (something) up for (something)
“These are incredibly talented people who have
been part of our success, and we are very grateful for
lie ahead
= to exist in the future their contributions,” wrote Jim Ryan, president and
slash (verb)
CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “However,
= to greatly reduce an amount or a price
the industry has changed immensely, and we need to
forecast (noun) future-ready ourselves to set the business up for
= a prediction of what will probably
happen in the future, based on current
information or data
what lies ahead.”
latter (adj.)
= close to the end of a time period
The workforce reduction follows the company
Past Perfect slashing sales forecasts for the year and Naomi
HAD + past participle verb
Matsuouka, Sony senior vice president, saying the
take the reins
PlayStation 5 console was approaching the latter end
= to take control of an organization or a
government
of its life cycle, according to Bloomberg.
interim (adj.)
= temporary, only until something final

Ryan had already announced in September plans to

can be made

to face (verb) retire in March as Sony Group Corporation president.

= to deal with a problem in a direct way
Hiroki Totoki, the chief operating officer and chief
sector (noun)
= a specific area of an economy
financial officer, will take the reins as interim CEO.

upheaval (noun)
= a major change that causes a lot of
problems, anger, and confusion
The new CEO will be facing an entire tech sector in

alone (adverb)
upheaval, as industry giants laid off 5,500 workers
= without including anything else
within the first two weeks of 2024 alone.

Present Perfect Continuous

HAVE/HAS BEEN + verb-ing
Specifically, the video game industry has been
hemorrhage (verb) seeing jobs hemorrhage from 2023 into this year as
= a prediction of what will probably
happen in the future, based on current
information or data
well, with Epic Games cutting 830 jobs last
September and Tencent’s Riot Games laying off 11%
to echo (verb)
= to be very similar to something that of its workforce in January.
happened before

step back (phrasal verb)

= to stop doing something so you can Echoing the leadership of those other game
think think about it clearly and make a
better decision
companies, Ryan wrote in his email to employees:
holistically (adverb)
= considering someone or something as
“We had to step back, look at our business
one whole, not as separate parts
holistically, and move forward focusing on the long-
long-term (adj.)
= considering what will happen in the
term sustainability of the company and delivering
very distant future
the best experiences possible for our community.”
sustainability (noun)
= the ability to continue for a long time

to deliver (verb) Sony Group Corporation (SONY) stock fell less than
= to do something that you promised, or
do something that other people 1% following the news on Tuesday.
expected or wanted

stock (noun)
= the percent of a company that
someone owns

Original CNN article:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/te
ch/sony-playstation-lays-off-900

See you in the next lesson!

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Teacher Gina