Learn English With News Advanced Vocabulary Phrases Rachels English

Hey, I’m Rachel from Rachel’s English 
and today I’m going to teach you  

some of the more advanced vocabulary 
and terms that were used in a CNBC  

story about what went wrong with the 
Coronavirus vaccine rollout in the US.

When a vaccine for Covid-19 
was designed and tested,  

many Americans thought that waiting for 
life to return to normal would soon be over.  

Instead, there was more waiting to do. 
Why? Let’s watch this 35-second news clip.

Here’s what went wrong with the 
US Coronavirus vaccine rollout.  

And how a new White House plans to turn things 
around. On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration  

launched “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate 
development, production and distribution of  

Covid-19 vaccines. Its goal was to have 20 
million Americans vaccinated by the end of  

2020. But once it came time to get shots into 
      people’s arms, the Trump Administration turn  

the reins over to the states. This meant state and 
local health officials were left to piece together  

a massively complicated rollout operation. 
Without federal guidance or additional resources.

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again.

Here’s what went wrong with the US Corona virus vaccine rollout.

Rollout is a noun, this means to introduce something such as a new product to the public.

The vaccine was ready and made to be distributed; it was time for the rollout.

As a verb, here’s a sample sentence: The cellphone company is getting ready to rollout 5G service.

Rollout is also a phrasal verb with 
a completely different meaning. I  

rolled out of bed at 5AM this morning. 
I was sleepy I could hardly stand up.

Or, the bus rolled out of the 
parking lot at 2:30 sharp.  

The bus left the parking 
lot, it departed, rolled out.

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again.

Here’s what went wrong with the US Coronavirus 
vaccine rollout. And how a new White House  

plans to turn things around. On May 15th 
2020, the Trump administration launched  

“Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate development, 
production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

This bit tells us that the US federal 
government was planning to oversee the  

whole process from start to finish. From 
research, design, testing, mass producing  

and giving it to individual people, but that’s 
not what happened. Let’s break this part down.

The Trump administration 
launched “Operation Warp Speed”.  

Lauch is a verb meaning to start or set in 
motion. We use it generally when starting a  

really big project or program. For example, I’m 
launching my new book next week. That’s actually  

not true. I don’t have a new book but I do have an 
old book. Check it out at RachelsEnglish.com/book.  

It’s also commonly used to mean to 
throw forward or send of an object.

NASA is launching its newest rocket to Mars.

Operation Warp Speed. Warp speed is another space 
Science reference. If any of you have watched  

part of the Star Trek TV series, 
no doubt you’ve heard this term.  

It means faster-than-light travel of 
the highest speed possible. Warp speed.

On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration 
launched “Operation Warp Speed”  

to accelerate development, production 
and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Its goal was to have 20 million Americans 
vaccinated by the end of 2020. But once it came  

time to get shots into people’s arms, the Trump 
Administration turn the rains over to the states.

The Trump Administration turned the 
reins over to the states. So the federal  

government gave control of the rollout to the 
individual states. It turned the reins over.  

I can think of 3 different meanings for the 
same pronunciation and different spelling so  

be careful here. We have R-E-I-N-S. Reins, 
these are the long leather straps or rope that a rider  

uses to guide an animal like a horse. Pull 
back on the reins to slow the horse down.

We also have R-E-I-G-N-S, reigns. Royal 
authority or governing power. The Queen  

reigns as a representative of 
the state but not the ruler.

Then we also have the most common, R-A-I-N-S, 
rains, water as drops falling from the clouds.  

It rains almost every day in April. All 
three of these words are pronounced the same.  

R consonant, a diphthong, and z, [ɹeɪnz].

In this clip, we’re hearing the first spelling, to 
turn the reins over. This means to give control or  

power to someone else. This idiom comes from 
horses. To have the reins control the horse and  

you pass them to someone else to control. You 
can also say: Take the reins, hold the reins,  

grab the reins, pass the reins. Of course, 
this isn’t limited to riding an actual horse.

The CEO took the reins of the company last 
month. Or: I need help with this project;  

I have too much other work to do. 
Can I pass the reins on to you?

You know there are a lot of idioms 
related to horses in English.  

Horses used to be the central part of our life. 
They were our transportation. I actually thought  

of a bunch of idioms with horses one day when I 
was dressed up as a horse and I made a video going  

over these idioms that you can watch at the end 
of this video, it’s a classic. Let’s keep going.

State and local health officials were left  

to piece together a massively 
complicated rollout operation.

State heads to piece together a massively 
complicated rollout operation. Have you ever  

done a jigsaw puzzle? One with a thousand pieces 
maybe more? Ilike this idiom “To piece together”  

to describe a very complex problem with lots of 
parts and details that need to come together.

I might also say, put together,  

figure out, carry out, piece together. 
Another sample sentence: The police had to  

piece together reports from several witnesses 
to get and accurate account of what happened.

Or: After we talked for a few minutes, 
we pieced together our connections  

and realized we had met 5 
years earlier at a conference.

Piece together, a great expression 
to use here since the vaccine rollout  

involved so many details to make happen. On the 
newsclip, a doctor explains some of these pieces.

That really requires an assembly line-like 
setup, it requires several weeks of planning,  

requires to make sure complex storage is connected 
to individuals that the other end of the process  

and for places that don’t have all of that 
infrastructure and that expertise they really  

need more technical assistance from the federal 
government and unfortunately operation won’t  

speed only really seem to focus on the Science 
and ultimately the development and approval  

of these vaccines but not the logistics 
around distribution and administration.

First he mentions and assembly line-like set up. 
An assembly line, this is something that you might  

see in a factory, an arrangement of machines, 
tools and workers that get a large quantity  

of a product put together quickly. The product 
goes down the line and everyone does their step.

Another piece is complex storage. The vaccines 
can’t be just shipped in a box. They have to be  

kept at a very, very cold temperatures. A typical 
freezer won’t do the job for some of the vaccines.  

Let’s skip to another report. I’ll put links to 
both of these news clips in the video description.

In this report, CNBC is talking about 
how commercial airplanes were used to  

solve a piece of this rollout puzzle. Large 
commercial aircraft were used to transport  

PPE. That is personal protective equipment 
and vaccines in addition to FEDEX and UPS.

Normally US mail and Amazon packages and  

various other things from live animals 
to electronics are all flying below us.

Because so many planes have been taken out, 
airlines have been using especially their larger  

aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty 
much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.

In March of 2020, airlines were even 
transporting some cargo in passenger seats  

to help distribute PPE equipment 
at the beginning of the pandemic.

Listen for 2 reductions with linking in 
this clip. And. We very often drop the d.

US mail and Amazon packages. And Amazon.

US mail and Amazon packages–

And various other things. And 
various. No d, linked together.

And various other things

Dropping the D in this word is more 
common than pronouncing it. And Amazon.  

And various. Let’s look at 
2 more common reductions.

Because so many planes have been taken out–

Because.

Because so many planes have been taken out–

Because. This word can be reduced to cuz, 
without the first syllable. Here we do  

hear the first syllable but it’s said 
very, very quickly. Because, because.  

You can think of there is being no vowel in the 
first syllable just a quick b sound b’cuz, b’cuz.

Because so many planes have been taken out–

Dropping the H at the beginning 
of certain function words is also  

really common on both casual 
and professional speech.

Here we have an example where 
the word have becomes ǝv.

Because so many planes have been taken out–

Other words where this might happen, had 
becomes ǝd. Has becomes ǝz. Him becaomes im.  

Her becomes ǝr and he becomes I.

If you want some examples and 
reductions like these interests you,  

I do have a whole course dedicated to them in 
my online school, Rachel’s English Academy. I  

always tell people, if you want the most bang 
for your buck, practice reductions like these.  

Bang for your buck means getting a lot for 
what you put into something. Time studying  

on reductions and stress is really going to impact 
how natural you sound speaking English. So visit  

Rachelsenglishacademy.com to see more. Okay, 
let’s check out the final clip in this video.

Because so many planes have been taken out, 
airlines have been using especially their larger  

aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty 
much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.

In March of 2020, airlines were even 
transporting some cargo in passenger seats—

Did you catch a reduction 
of an adverb? Listen again.

especially their larger aircraft–

Especially. If you look it up in a dictionary, 
you’re going to see that this is a four-syllable  

word with stress on the second syllable 
but with the ly adverbial suffix,  

it’s really easy to drop the schwa right before 
the suffix so especially becomes especially,  

especially. Four syllables become three. This 
happens in other words too. Let’s take finally  

becoming fainly. Three syllables dropped to 
two. That’s a more common pronunciation.

Necessarily. Necessarily becomes necessarly,  

necessarily. Five syllables becoming four.

It’s perfectly fine not to drop the 
schwa to do the full pronunciation  

but you’ll hear these reductions by 
native speakers in all sorts of contexts.

Reductions make our speech a little bit more 
smooth and connected and that’s always a

top priority as you roll out your plan for 
American accent training. Now, let’s get to  

this video from the past. A video from the vault 
where I went over nearly 20 idioms relating to horses.

And that’s it for today’s lesson. Thanks 
for watching and don’t forget to subscribe  

with notifications. I make new videos every 
Tuesday and I love to be your English teacher  

so come on back. That’s it and thanks 
so much for using Rachel’s English.