Welcome to this lesson to help you learn English
with the news. We're going to read a news article together and you're going to learn a lot of
advanced vocabulary, complex sentence structure, advanced grammar, and even correct pronunciation
directly by reading this article with me. Welcome back to JForrestEnglish training of course I'm
Jennifer and this is your place to become a fluent and confident English speaker. Let's get
started. Welcome to our article, let me read the headline. Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter
CEO after securing successor now let me read the sub headline so this is the main headline and then
we have a sub headline which is designed to give you a little more information about the topic. The
billionaire posted a poll over the weekend asking Twitter users if he should step down. The majority
voted yes all right, going back to our headline resign. This is very important to the topic
of the article. So to resign This is a verb and this is a way of saying that you quit
you voluntarily leave your position it's just a more formal way of saying that. Let me
write this for you. So it is to voluntarily which means you chose to Nobody said you must
leave your job. That means you're fired. When you say I don't want to work here anymore.
That means you quit or again more formally resigned to volunteer to voluntarily leave
your employment your position so in this case, his position as CEO, which is of course
an acronym for Chief Executive Officer, which is the top ranking position in a
company now notice here grammatically, we have the word after which is a preposition
preposition. Now what do you notice right here we have our gerund verb, secure to secure, that's
the base verb to secure and because to secure this is the base. Now because I have after which is a
preposition, my verb that follows must be in the gerund form, which is the ing form. To secure in
this context is a more formal way of saying find to find a successor. Now, what is the successor
already we reviewed a lot in this headline here, a successor hopefully you can understand
based on context, which is why reviewing articles is so helpful because based on the
context, well the successor is the person who will replace Elon Musk as CEO. So it's
the person who comes after you as a leader. So you have old leader, so leader in the
sense of a employment within the company, it could be a boss, a manager, a supervisor, or
it could be a politician or president or prime minister. So you have your old leader and the
new leader, and the new leader is the successor, the successor, right up here and the old
leader is the predecessor predecessor. I don't think you need to worry about it
too much, but successor is more common. All right. So that's the headline here. So
basically, Elon Musk is leaving his position. He's resigning, but they need to find someone new the
person who will act as CEO and thus the successor. The billionaire posted a poll over the weekend
asking Twitter users if he should step down, the majority voted yes. All right. Let's look at this.
This is a nice phrasal verb to step down. Now again, based on the context, he's going to resign,
leave his position quit they all mean the same thing. So step down is the phrasal verb to mean
resign from a position. So to voluntarily leave a position now notice I included title title could
be for example, the coach of a sports team, or the leader of a community organization. And maybe in
that case, the leader of a community organization, maybe you're the leader of your church group,
or just a community group and you don't get paid for that. It's just a volunteer position,
but you could still step down you could leave it so I want to show you the grammar here
because we will say Musk Elon Musk musk. Step down assuming it's complete past simple set
down as CEO as CEO, so we use the preposition as and then we state the title as CEO as manager, as
Captain captain of a sports team, for example, is the leader so you can have the title there so in
our case, it CEO stepped down. This is our our phrasal verb, verb conjugated plus our preposition
and then we have as job title. Let's continue on. Elon Musk on Tuesday claimed he will resign as
CEO of Twitter once he has found a replacement. Now what's the alternative word for replacement?
The one we learned it right here in the headline, successor. So they're seeing the exact
same thing as this headline. They're just choosing to use different vocabulary
because we have resigned, well we use that before and now we have replacement instead
of successor. So you could say here successor and remember once a successor has been appointed,
Elon Musk will be the predecessor, the person who previously had the position. So replacement
can be successor. Okay, let's continue on. I will so notice it's in a quote which means
these words are coming from Elon Musk's mouth. He said these words, I will resign as CEO as soon
as I find someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I will just run the software and
servers teams the billionaire tweet it. Okay, so he tweeted this but it's still coming from
him directly. In this case. It's coming from his fingers instead of his mouth but it's still
a quote because it's reporting what he said. So resign as notice we're using the
preposition as with the job title as well. Now take the job. This is the same as finding
a replacement finding a successor. So again, it's just a different way to say the same thing.
Notice how he says foolish or not foolish. When we describe something as bullish, this is a
negative adjective because foolish means unwise, stupid or not showing good judgment. So
this is a negative adjective. So Elon Musk is seeing that it isn't a wise decision
to become my successor to take over as CEO. You could say it was foolish of
me to step down as as captain. It was foolish on me it was unwise, stupid,
it didn't show good judgment. So I it's a way of saying I regret my decision. Now
a lot of students have this fear of speaking because they think that they're
going to sound foolish or look foolish. I'm afraid of looking foolish when I speak.
Which means you're afraid of looking stupid to be honest, or people judging you negatively
because if you use the wrong vocabulary or your pronunciation isn't very good, then it
could look negative right? Now this is a fear that a lot of students have I'm afraid of
looking foolish when I speak. So a very common adjective but remember it is very negative as
well. All right, let's continue on. After that, I will just run the software and
servers teams, the billionaire tweeted. So the verb run in this context, and this is
what's important about learning with the news because you understand the context because
if you just see the word run, will does it mean to run? Or does it mean run the software
team, which is another way of saying leading to just lead to match the verb tends to just
lead, manage the software and servers teams so you could say, I ran the marketing team for
five for five years. Now notice my verb is in the past simple right? Run, ran, run. If I say I've
run the marketing team for five years, what's the difference between I ran the marketing team and
I've run the marketing team. Well, of course it's our verb tense because this is the past simple,
which means it's a completed action. I no longer do this action. Let me make this a little bit
smaller. I no longer do this. It's complete. It's in the past but if I say I run the marketing team
for five years, this is the present continuous, sorry, the present perfect, present perfect.
And it means this is an action that started in the past, but continues until now. So today,
I run the marketing team. The action is still in progress, but I use the present perfect simply
to show that it started in the past I see lots of mistakes with these two verb tenses, so pay
attention to this part of the lesson. Let's continue on. On Sunday, Musk posted a hole on
the social media platform, asking users if he should step down as its head and said he would
abide by the results. So we already learned this phrasal verb to step down to voluntarily leave the
position again, this same as resign or quit resign is more formal. And as its head so head of means
the leader we use the the word head to mean the leader the boss, the CEO, the head is is Twitter.
It's they're talking about the company Twitter. Okay, now a bye bye. This is a phrasal verb
because we have the verb to abide and then we have the preposition by and this simply means to follow
the rules to follow the rules or regulations. When you travel and a foreign
country you must abide by its its rules, its rules. It being the country
you're traveling to so if you go to the US a you have to follow the traffic rules
and all the other rules and regulations you have to abide by. So to follow, abide
by it's a more formal phrasal verb we tend to use it with rules and regulations from the
government or from a large company as a whole. So basically, Musk said that he will follow the
results of the poll. So if the majority say you should leave and he will follow that abide by
that and leave his position he will resign and find a successor replacement which will make Musk
the predecessor the old leader of the position. More than 17 point 5 million votes were cast.
Did you vote? I didn't vote because I didn't know about this. I don't really use Twitter. Do
you use Twitter? What do you think? Should Elon Musk resign as CEO share your opinion? In the
comments below? So you cast a vote. That's just the verb we use to cast. This is pretty specific
to voting. But if you want to talk about voting, then you can use this to cast a vote. Majority
57.5 voted yes. So of course majority is just plus 50%. Right? plus 50%. So 50.5% or more,
that's the majority if it's 5050. Well, then it's there. Isn't a majority it's even but the
second it becomes 50.5 then that is a majority. I'm sure you know what a majority means but
it is useful to have in your vocabulary. Let me give you an example of how we commonly use it.
The majority of people voted yes. The majority of employees want to work from home. So you can
use the majority of and then you have your now you have all plural noun people is plural person
is one, one person, one person two. People, people is plural. Employees has an ass. So
it's plural, because if it's the majority, the noun has to be more than one. So that's
our sentence structure. Let me be more space, the majority off and then you need a plural noun.
And then after that you can have many different verb tenses depending on depending on the sentence
structure so that can be flexible, but you want a plural noun with this. Okay, so that's a useful
sentence structure for you. Shortly after, what did we learn about after already? What
is it a preposition so we need our verb and ing. Shortly after posting the poll, Muscat said
he did not have anyone lined up to take over. All right. So lined up this is a way of saying
that someone is ready and available for the position. Okay, it's a phrasal verb to line up.
Now. This is the difficult part I will say about vocabulary and especially phrasal verbs they have
more than one meaning depending on context. So to line up is when you get in a row of people to line
up the people lined up at the entrance but in this case, to line someone up means to have somebody
ready, able prepared available to do something. Okay, so you might say we use this a lot in a work
context. Do you have anyone lined up to present? So this is what they're going to do present.
So do you have any one? Ready, available to present? That would be how I would translate it.
Do you have any one ready to present do you have any one available to present? You could also
say we have a great presenter lined up. Okay. So we have a great presenter ready. We have
a great presenter available we have a great presenter lined up Musk had said he does not
he does not have anyone ready to become CEO to take over is so Musk has the position now to
take over is when someone else becomes the CEO, so to take responsibility or something and in this
case, it's the position to take responsibility. We commonly use this in a employment situation,
but you could say can you take over this project while I'm on vacation, which means can you take
responsibility while I'm on vacation? All right, let's continue on. Musk appointed himself. CEO
less than two months ago, I didn't know that only two months. He's been in the position shortly
after finalizing his 44 billion takeover of Twitter at the end of October. That's a lot of
zeros 44 million. He immediately dissolved the company's board of directors fired top executives
and laid off around half the company's workforce. I created a nother lesson specifically on Learn
English with the news talking about Elon Musk becoming CEO of Twitter and I reviewed some of
the vocabulary right here. So I'm going to leave a link to that lesson in the description. And
you can learn more of this vocabulary in that separate lesson. I don't want to explain it again.
Alright, let's continue on. Since then, the self avowed free speech absolutist has made a long list
of our Radek changes to the company's policies, including those pertaining to content moderation,
suspended users and promotion of competitors. Let me explain this adjective. I think it's quite
useful, erotic, we use it enough. Now this means okay, erotica is an adjective adjective and
is is moving or behaving in a way that is not regular certain or expected.
So again, it's more of a negative adjective. We use it to describe one's behavior
or actions in a negative way. So you could say my boss is very erratic. Yesterday, he hired
a marketing firm, and today he fired them. So one day he wants them yeah, they're great.
Let's hire this marketing team. But then the next day after one day, he fired them. So yes,
no, yes. No. It's not the way you would expect him to behave. So his decision making can change
very frequently. You can describe that person as erratic. We often use this in specifically for
driving. My husband is an erratic driver. In this case, it might mean you know, if you're driving on
the highway, you expect the behavior to be certain expected, you're going to go straight, right,
but erratic with the earth. You go this way and then you speed up and then you slow down and you
change lanes, and then you change lanes. And then you drive slow, you drive fast. So it's constantly
changing is not what you would expect a driver to do. So we use that a lot with driving traffic.
The traffic was very erratic. It was very busy. One second and then no traffic and then and then
traffic and then no traffic, so it kept changing. So when something changes a lot, decision making
for behavior, we do it a lot with decision making. Then you can describe that person or that action
like driving as a Radek, which is the adjective. Okay, let's continue on. He has repeatedly made
and then reversed decisions seemingly on personal whims and enacted major changes on the platform
based on yes or no Twitter polls. Like right now. He's basing his decision to stay as CEO or
leave as CEO stepped down as CEO based on this poll. Maybe you could say that's very
erratic. Only two months ago, he became the CEO he paid $44 billion and now he's stepping
down as CEO that could be described as erratic. I really like this a whim a whim on
a personal whims. Let me explain what this means. This is an idiom on a whim.
Now, this means so a whim This is a whim a sudden wish or idea especially one
that can not be reasonably explained. And we often use this and well, let me
give you an example sentence. I quit my job on a whim on a whim. We don't commonly use it
with personal I don't see this quite a lot because whims are personal. So I don't think it adds
anything to say personal because that's generally where they come from yourself. So I don't
think that word is needed. You can get rid of it. And notice on all whim, now they have
on they don't use the article off. Do you know why? In this example, because WIMS is plural, so
you don't use the article. If there's a plural, but it's more commonly used like this on a
whim, so I recommend adding it like this. So we use it, you do an action, I quit my
job. Now if you want to suggest that you didn't think about it very much, and you can't
even really explain why you quit. It's like I just had this feeling I was out work. And I
just, I decided suddenly, I can't even tell you why I don't have a good decision. I quit my
job on a whim. Some might consider that a good thing. Some might consider that a bad thing. It
just It depends on your preferences. I guess. For me, to be honest, I tend to travel on a whim.
So I can say I booked a trip to Germany on a whim. I don't generally think too much about the trips
I take. It's just one day I decide I want to go to Germany and the next day I booked a ticket. So
I tend to do that on a whim. So what about you do you do things on a whim more impulsively? Or are
you the type of person that really thinks things through? I'm sure it depends. It depends on the
situation, right? Maybe there are some things you would do on a whim. For example, let's say cake,
so I have long hair. Let's say one day I wake up and I say I want to cut my hair to here and I
get my hair cut. And then someone could say wow, oh my gosh, you cut your hair, and I can see ya.
I did it on a whim so I didn't think about it too much. I just I had the idea. I want to cut my
hair and I did it on a whim. So I think it's a really great expression. So remember, you do
an action, and then you can add on a whim. Try one in the comment section. Try an example. Okay,
finally, last week he attracted enormous backlash after Twitter suddenly and without explanation
suspended several prominent tech journalists who have reported on him he leader accused
them of effectively sharing his assassination coordinates by reporting on a Twitter account
that tracked his private planes flights. All right, this an assassination is when
someone murders someone and it was planned. Like President JFK was assassinated. He
was murdered and somebody planned that. So Elon Musk is seeing that this journalist
gave his his flight plan. So basically, they posted Elon Musk is going to be in
Germany on this date at this time. So if somebody wanted to attack Elon Musk and
kill him, well, now they know where he's going to be when he's going to be there. So
it would be easy to plan that. So that's what it means by assassination coordinates. I'm just
explaining that because you're probably curious. All right, so that is our article you
learned a lot from this article. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to
read the article from start to finish so you can focus on my pronunciation
and you can imitate my pronunciation. Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter CEO after
securing successor. The billionaire posted a poll over the weekend asking Twitter users if he
should step down. The majority voted yes. Elon Musk on Tuesday claimed he will resign as
CEO of Twitter once he has found a replacement. I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone
foolish enough to take the job. after that. I will just run the software and servers teams the
billionaire tweeted. On Sunday, Musk posted a poll on the social media platform, asking users
if he should step down as a tenant and said he would abide by the results. More than 17 point 5
million votes were cast. A majority 57.5% voted yes. Shortly after posting the poll must have
said he did not have anyone lined up to take over. No one wants the job. Who can actually keep
Twitter alive. There is no successor he tweeted. Musk appointed himself CEO less than two months
ago, shortly after finalizing his $44 billion takeover of Twitter at the end of October. He
immediately dissolved the company's board of directors fired top executives and laid off around
half the company's workforce. Since then, the self avowed free speech absolutist has made a long
list of erratic changes to the company's policies, including those pertaining to content, moderation,
suspended users, and promotion of competitors. He has recently made and then reverse decisions
seemingly on personal whims, and enacted major changes on the platform based on yes or no Twitter
polls. Last week, he attracted enormous backlash after Twitter suddenly and without explanation
suspended several prominent tech journalists who had reported on him he later accused them of
effectively sharing his assassination coordinates by reporting on a Twitter account that tracked
his private planes flights. Amazing job with this lesson. Now you can look in the description
or look in the comment section below to find the link where you can download the free lesson
PDF that summarizes everything we learned in this lesson. And if you found this helpful,
please hit the like button, share it with your friends and of course subscribe. And before you
vote, make sure you head on over to my website, JForrestEnglish.com and download your free
speaking Guide. In this guide I share six tips on how to help you speak English fluently and
confidently. And until next time, Happy Studying.
