Learn English With News Exploring English Vocabulary Idioms and Phrases With Bill Gates
Hi! I’m Rachel from Rachel’s English and
today I’m going to teach you some of the
more advanced vocabulary and idioms that were
used in an interview early this year. Anderson
Cooper interviewing Bill Gates on innovation and
global warming. Some pretty interesting phrases
came up. As a non-native speaker, learning
these words, phrases and idioms will help
you sound more sophisticated in your everyday
English. We’ll help you express yourself better.
So helpful in English conversations but also
preparing to take the IELTS or TOEFL exam.
Let’s learn these vocabulary
words and phrases together today.
To start, Bill Gates is talking about what
needs to happen to stop global warming.
You’ll see on-screen texts like this:
This will highlight words or phrases that we’ll
learn about at the end of this 13-second clip.
And it needs a level of cooperation
that would be unprecedented.
That doesn’t sound feasible.
No, it’s not easy but hey,
That sounds impossible.
In 30 years, we have more
educated people than ever,
we have a generation that’s
speaking out on this topic.
Unprecedented is a great vocabulary word.
It’s an adjective and it means never done
before, never known before. Gates thinks to
stop global warming it’s about cooperation.
And a level of cooperation around the world
that we’ve never seen before that’s never
happen before. Unprecedented cooperation.
And it needs a level of cooperation
that would be unprecedented.
That doesn’t sound feasible.
No, that’s not easy.
That doesn’t sound feasible. What do you
think this word means? It’s another adjective
and it means possible to do easily
or conveniently, likely or probable.
Anderson Cooper doesn’t think this
kind of cooperation will be easy
and he’s right. I mean we just heard Bill Gates
describe it as unprecedented. But not feasible
doesn’t necessarily mean it
can’t happen. It just means
very hard to make happen.
Will we be able to do it?
That doesn’t sound feasible.
No, it’s not easy.
We’ll, Gates points out that we have a
generation that’s speaking out on this
topic. Speaking out is a phrasal verb and
it means to express your feelings or opinion
usually publicly. If you don’t like
to policies of government, speak out.
This is similar to speak up. Speak up has
2 different definitions and one of them
is this one. Just like speak out. To express one’s
opinions frankly and openly. But more frequently,
we use speak up to mean speak louder. Speak up.
I can’t hear you. The opposite of that is not
speak down, it’s quiet down. Quiet down, you’re
being way too loud. Gates said a generation is
speaking out, is voicing their opinions that
we need to do more to address global warming.
We have more educated people than ever, we have
a generation that’s speaking out on this topic.
Let’s keep going.
You know I got to participate in the miracle
of the personal computer and the internet.
Participate in the miracle. I love
this way of describing his life.
He’s not taking credit. He’s saying
he participated in what happened.
He’s saying he got to take part in it. In
the amazing creation. The miracle of personal
computers and the internet. 2 things that
absolutely changed, transformed human life.
You know I got to participate in the miracle of
the personal computer and the internet and so
yes, I have a bias to believe
innovation can do these things.
Bias has a couple of different definitions.
Here it means prejudiced. In favor of or
against something usually considered to be
unfair. For example, as a parent I have a
bias to think of my kids are the cutest kids
on Earth. I’m not neutral. I have a bias. Bill
Gates has a bias to believe that innovation
is the answer because of his background.
So I have a bias to believe
innovation can do these things.
Now we’ll skip ahead in the
interview. To see the whole interview,
see the link in the video description.
This next clip we’ll study is 15 seconds long.
He supports President Biden’s decision
to rejoin the Paris climate agreement
but is asking the administration to
massively increase the budget for
climate and clean energy research
to 35 billion dollars a year.
You’ve said that government need to do the hard
stuff but not just go after the low-hanging
fruit. Massively is an adverb and it means on
a vast scale, a very great extent extremely.
Massively increase the budget. This
means you can’t just add a little bit
more money to this project. It has
to be greatly, extremely increased.
He supports President Biden’s decision to
rejoin the Paris climate agreement but is
asking the administration to massively increase
the budget for climate and clean energy research.
Low-hanging fruit. This idiom
has nothing to do with fruit or
food. See if its definition becomes
clearer as they discuss it further.
You’ve said that the government
need to do the hard stuff
but not just go after the low hanging
fruit. What’s the low-hanging fruit?
Passenger cars, part of the electric generation with
renewables. The things that everybody knows about
that’s getting almost all the money not the
hard parts which is the industrial piece
including the steel and cement. Those
pieces we’ve hardly started to work on.
Low-hanging fruit. The things that are the easiest
to do first. The things you’ll be able to get with
little effort. Gates says we have to go beyond
that. Not just do the easy things but tackle the big
difficult parts of carbon emissions as well.
We’ll skip ahead again as they discuss
the research Gates is funding.
It kind of blows my mind, you know
what’s the cost of making that stuff?
Gates regularly consults with a funds
team of top scientists and entrepreneurs
which so far invested in 50 companies with
cutting edge ideas to reduce carbon emissions.
Blows my mind. Ouch! Do you know this
phrase? It basically means to amaze someone.
If you blow someone’s mind, it’s like
Wow! They never thought of that. They had no idea
that was possible. It’s usually a good thing.
It kind of blows my mind, you know
what’s the cost of making that stuff?
We also heard Gates regularly consults. To consult
is a verb. It means to ask the opinion of advice
of someone usually an expert. I’m going to consult
a lawyer before I sign this contract. For example.
Gates regularly consults with a funds
team of top scientists and entrepreneurs
which so far invested in 50 companies with
cutting edge ideas to reduce carbon emissions.
In the clip, we also heard the phrase “cutting
edge ideas.” Cutting edge means the most advanced.
Cutting edge ideas, notice that flap T in cutting.
Cutting, cutting edge. These are ideas that are
at the forefront, ahead of everything else, the
most advanced ideas on how to solve this problem.
Gates regularly consults with a funds team of
top scientists and entrepreneurs which so far
invested in 50 companies with cutting
edge ideas to reduce carbon emissions.
Cutting edge ideas. Sometimes, they are far-flung.
What’s like to most far-flung idea you’ve backed?
Far-flung means distant or remote. He’s moving to
some far-flung town and I’ll never see him again.
A far-flung idea is one that seems so crazy. We’re
just not sure it could work. You could also say
far-fetched. A far-fetched idea or an outlandish
idea. Let’s see how they talk about it.
What’s like to most far-flung idea you’ve backed?
There’s one that’s so crazy
it’s even hard to describe.
(laughing) Wait a minute. It’s so crazy it’s hard to describe.
Yeah.
How do you pitch that to investors?
How do you pitch that to investors? Pitch is a
word with a lot of meanings but the one that’s
most known is the US is probably the verb.
Pitching a baseball to a batter. But we also
use it to pitch an idea. To introduce an idea
that we hope someone will like. Let’s say you’re
renovating your house. The contractor ran into a
problem. There was a pipe where it wasn’t expected
and you’re trying to figure out what to do. You’ve
looked at a couple of options and your designer
could say “Let me pitch another option to you.”
If you pitch investors that means you’re telling
them about a business you hope they want to invest
in. Have you ever seen the show “Shark Tank”? In
each episode, several small business owners pitch
their businesses to a panel of investors hoping
that someone will think their business is good
enough to invest in. When you invest in
something, you’re backing it. Listen to
how that verb, to back a company is used.
But forming the vegetables used to make
many meat alternatives emits gases as well.
So Gates is also backing a company that’s
created an entirely new food source.
If you back a company, you’re investing in that
company. You’re giving it money to help it grow
and you hope to make money from that investment.
is also backing a company that’s
created an entirely new food source.
So how does Gates decide what companies to back,
what companies to pitch to other investors.
So 15 years ago, Gates started
educating himself on climate change,
bringing scientists and engineers to his office in
Seattle for what he calls learning
sessions. He also reads voraciously. Books
and binders full of scientific research.
He knows by educating himself by reading
voraciously. Voracious is an adjective
that means having a huge appetite. A kid going
through a growth spurt might eat voraciously.
But we also use it for books. He’s a voracious
reader, always in a middle of several books.
He also reads voraciously. Books and
binders full of scientific research.
He describes new technologies
that he’s helping fund.
Here, he’s talking about a new kind of nuclear powerplant.
Nuclear power can be done in a way
that none of those failures of the past
would recur because just the
physics of how it’s built.
Recur is a verb that means to come up again, to
occur again in an interval of time. For example,
my online school, Rachel’s
English Academy is a subscription.
That means every month you pay. Unless you cancel
of course. It’s a recurring payment. Gates says
problems of the past would not
recur, would not happen again.
none of those failures of the past would recur
In the meantime, how is Gates solving the
problem of his own gigantic carbon footprint?
And so I’m offsetting my personal emissions.
Those are called carbon offset.
Right. You know, so it’s causing $400
a ton, it’s like seven million dollars.
So you’re paying seven million dollars
a year to offset your carbon footprint?
Yup.
Offsetting and offset. Offset has a couple
of different meanings. Here it means
a counterbalance. To counteract something
with an opposing force or effect. He puts
all those carbon into the atmosphere by for
example, flying in a plane and he offsets that
by doing things that reduce carbon in the
atmosphere by planting trees. Offset can also mean
to bring something out of line.
For example, this mark is offset.
So you’re paying seven million dollars
a year to offset your carbon footprint?
Yup.
Of course, most people can afford to offset
their carbon footprint. Where does that leave us?
It just seems overwhelming if every
aspect of our daily life has to change
It can seem overwhelming.
But you were optimistic.
Yeah. There are days when it looks very hard.
If people think it’s easy, they’re wrong. If
people think it’s impossible, they’re wrong.
It’s possible.
It’s possible but it’ll be the most
amazing thing mankind has ever done.
If something is overwhelming, that means there’s
so much of something, you can’t really deal with it.
There’s an overwhelming amount of sick people
needing care. The hospitals are overwhelmed. That
happens driving Covid-19. Many hospitals
where overwhelmed. There were more patients
than the hospitals could really handle. It’s used
a lot with your emotions too or state of mind.
I have so much work to do, I am overwhelmed. I’m
having problems starting any of my projects.
In this case, it can be overwhelming. Thinking
about all the things we needed to do to change,
to reduce carbon emissions. There
are so many things to change,
it can be hard taking it all in and
figuring out what specifically to do.
It just seems overwhelming if every
aspect of our daily life has to change
It can seem overwhelming.
But you were optimistic.
Yeah.
If you’re optimistic, you’re hopeful
and confident about the future.
In this case, Bill Gates does think that we can
do, what we need to do to stop global warming.
It’s possible but it’ll be the most
amazing thing mankind has ever done.
That’s what it has to be.
Yeah, it’s an all-out effort. You know, like a
world war but it’s us against greenhouse gases.
All-out means using all of one’s strength
or resources. In an all-out effort,
you use everything you have, every resource,
you don’t hold anything back. You don’t
save anything or reserve anything.
It’s an all-out effort. You know, like a world
war but it’s us against greenhouse gases.
I appreciate the optimism that Bill
Gates has and the investment he’s
making by researching and backing companies
who are looking into far-flung ideas that may
transform our future. I hope you learn
some new vocabulary and enjoyed this lesson
learning English through interviews,
through news. This is from the news show
“60 Minutes” and you can find the link to
the whole interview in the video description.
I make new videos on the
English language every Tuesday,
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right now with this video, I love having
you as my student. That’s it and thanks so
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