Welcome to this lesson to help you learn English with the news. We're going to read a news article
together so you can learn Advanced vocabulary, Advanced grammar, and correct pronunciation in
a fun and engaging way. Let's get started. Let me read the headline of article, 3 things that
relieve stress and boost your happiness. Now first, let's talk about relieved and stress.
Is relieved is a verb and we use this verb specifically with something like
a symptom and illness and ache or a pain and relieve means to either
eliminate or reduce. So if I have a headache which would be an ache or a
pain,
then I could take a pill to relieve my headache. Relieve my sore throat, relieve my stress.
Fee nose. For example,
now notice the pronunciation here. This beginning part is our schwa sound. Ra ra
relieved
relieved. The emphasis is on the second syllable and
it's pronounced like the word leave leave. So I just add a
quick
raw, it's unstressed. So it sounds more like row
and then this is my stress sound relieved, relieved stress. So
Let me write my other example, sentence this
pill
will help
relieve your headache, for example.
Okay, and boozed, boost means to increase to increase and you can use this in a more General
context. For example, you might want to boost your vocabulary. I hope this lesson will help
you boost your vocabulary, boost, your speaking skills, boost your pronunciation increase.
Let's continue on and talk about these three things.
Number one, claim more time for yourself
fitting. Even one more thing into an already over packed day can feel like an impossible task.
Let's take a look at this overpacked. So we have our noun day and then overpacked is are
adjectives which describes our day. Now I could just say into an already packed day.
Packed as an adjective is another way of saying busy. So if you have a packed day, if you look in
your calendar, you have a lot of different appointments, tasks meetings things to do.
That's a packed day. Now, over when we add over to our adjective, it means more than desirable
you might say.
I over slept. So, in this case, I'm adding over to my
verb.
Slept, I slept, I overslept, which means more than desirable, I slept too much. I slept
Too much which can be a bad thing. I don't know about you, but for me when I oversleep,
I actually get a headache, so I might need to take a pill to remember, relieve my headache,
you might over work, which means work too much. I overworked I overworked and now I'm exhausted
so you can add it to a
Verb or here, you can add it to and adjectives. So it means more busy than desirable than want it.
So of course, fitting one more thing is impossible but if you're constantly
doing for everyone but yourself, so if you're constantly doing doing things for everyone,
but yourself, it's time to reclaim space in your own life.
All right, so there are saying you need to take time for yourself reclaim space in
your own life. Take time for yourself. This means taking a hard look at your to-do list
now, a to-do list, I think this is pretty obvious but it's a list of everything you need to do and
those things you need to do. They could be tasks appointments meetings, a list of everything.
You need to do. But notice here to do, is being used as an adjective to describe your list. Now,
I always keep a to-do list and I've tried using apps and different ways, but for me,
the most effective is just writing it down on a piece of paper and notice how this is
crossed off. So you write your task and then for me, oh the best part. The best part is cry.
All singing off that task. So when you finish it you cross it off. I don't know about you. Do
you keep a to-do list? I love Crossing off those tasks. Okay, and overflowing we're seeing this,
again over means more than desirable, but let's see what the context is and
overflowing workload. So that's saying your workload is just too heavy. That's a good.
Good adjectives, because we describe workload. We don't use the adjective big or small. I have
a big workload. We don't say that. You could say, I have a heavy workload. Now first,
if you don't know, we're glowed is the term to describe the amount of work you do in a
day. So heavy means you have many many tasks to do that day or that week that
Now, the opposite of heavy is I have a light workload today, so you might tell a colleague. Oh,
I have a light workload today. So, if you need any help, let me know. Or if
your colleague asked you for help? You can say, oh sorry, I have a really heavy workload today,
or you can say, oh sorry, I have a long to-do list. You wouldn't say a heavy to-do list.
You could say, I have a long to-do list. I have
a long to-do list and this adjectives makes sense. Right? Because right now,
I only had two items on my to-do list and that short, but if I have this entire page that would
be long long, long short, right? Okay, so heavy workload, light, workload long, to-do list,
short to-do list. I created a free lesson PDF that summarizes all the notes from this
lesson. You can find that in the description and in the comments section, let's continue
So an overflowing workload. That's just another way of saying heavy workload
is not a badge of honor, a badge of honor is if I was awarded something and I wear it
with pride, I wear it with pride, but a lot of people use their to-do list
as a sense of Pride. Oh, I have a heavy workload. I must be very
Important that's like a badge of honor. Something that tells people
that
they should be proud of you, because you have a long to-do list or a heavy workload,
but this article is saying it's not a badge of honor. It's not something to be proud of, and
it doesn't mean you're productive more often than not is just a precursor to exhaustion and burnout.
Talk about precursor. This is a noun and this simply means it happens before. So,
let me write that definition for you. A precursor is something that happened or
existed before another thing. So, in this case, they're saying that
you're heavy workload, that existed, and then it existed before your exhaustion.
So it's saying that's what caused it. So you can say,
she is exhausted because of her heavy workload.
Now notice I just said she is exhausted. And let's compare that to here, which is exhaustion.
Exhaustion is the noun form and to be exhausted with our verb to be. I have she is if it if I
Change the subject to they, it would be, they are exhausted. So, I'll just change
it back to. She is exhausted, because she has a heavy workload. I could say she is
burned
out because she has a heavy workload as well. So here you could also use
it as that adjective form. I'm burned out, I'm she's burned out and burn out,
Is the noun form?
Okay, let's continue on. Go down that list. So again, remember we're talking about our to do
list. So if I'm here at the top and I have a task right here, will I'm going down my to do list,
that's what I'm doing right now. I'm going down my to-do list and start asking
questions. What else can you delegate? So if I delegate, let's say I have a task right here.
That did nothing. Let me create a task right here. So if I delegate this,
it means I am not going to do it. I'm going to ask someone else, my assistant, A co-worker,
a colleague. I'm going to delegate it. So that's when you assign responsibility to
someone else. You give it to someone else. In simple terms, let me write that here
to assign responsibility. Okay? That's to delegate.
Eight. Now what can you defer to a later date? So defer, that's another way of saying postponed. So
let's say I delegate this task. Now this one is supposed to be do today at 2:00 p.m. but because
my workload is so heavy because my to-do list is so long, I can say, well, you know why today
at 2:00? That's not possible. That's going to create a lot of stress. So I'm going to defer this
Capone this to two days from now next week so postpone. You do it at a later date. Now you can
say defer or postpone interchangeably. Honestly I hear postponed more commonly but defer is
common as well. Postpone, so to do at a later date at a later date that's postpone or defer
and finally you can delete it entirely. So delete is when I have a crush.
Task and I just crossed it off. I get rid of it. I eliminate it. I delete it. Few things in life,
are truly urgent. So what's your actual level of accountability release some tasks and reclaim that
time for yourself? So obviously if I had this very long to-do list, I delegate some, I delete
some and I defer other tasks, all of a sudden, my long to-do list is going to become short.
And I'm going to have all this additional time that I can spend on myself, which will help me,
relieve stress, and boost happiness is what the article is saying,
Okay, so let's take a look here at our number two, which is increase your energy. Now, I made
a note here because increase is in our imperative and the imperative verb tense is when you just
use the base verb. So right here, if I said to increase, this is the infinitive. And if I
get rid of two, well, then I just have increase and this is the base verb. Now, the imperative
is used for instructions, directions, orders and commands. So if I tell you stop talking,
that's a command an instruction in order and I'm putting it in the imperative.
Just the base verb, increase your energy. Let's continue on. Lightening your load. Now,
this makes sense, right. Lightening your load to lighten, your load. It makes sense.
It should at least because we already talked about the adjective light to describe your
workload and here load. Well, this is short for workload. I can shorten it to just load.
Because it's obvious based on context, I already know, we're talking about workload so it's okay
to shorten it to Simply load to lighten. Your load means to reduce your workload, to
eliminate some of your tasks right now, lightening. Your load goes a long way toward
reducing fatigue. Let's talk about this to go. A long way toward something else. This is a good.
Expression and is simply means to greatly help. So this lightening your load,
this greatly helps and then it greatly helps to do what
to reduce your fatigue. Let me show you an example. Speaking out loud goes a long way
toward. This is our expression goes a long way toward boosting your confidence. So,
speaking out loud, this could represent.
X greatly
helps and then the
result is y. So X goes a long way toward greatly helps why.
Now my verb is the verb. Go right now is
conjugated with third person singular. Because speaking out loud
is represented by the
subject. It it goes a long way,
if I had more than one thing and I said those things, well, then that would be the
Subject. They and
I would have to change my verb to go. So, you have to conjugate your verb,
I'll just put it back to speaking out loud.
It goes a long way to work. So that's a great expression.
Reducing fatigue. In fact it probably it's probably the most
important way to begin
follow that with small steps, toward your health and wellness goals, grab that extra 15 minutes of
sleep.
Now, here the verb grab, which is in our imperative because it's giving
you it as an instruction, as a command grab that extra 15 minutes of sleep.
Grab is an informal way of
Of saying have or take. So here I could say, I'm going to grab
a coffee, we commonly see this. Even at restaurants, if the person asks you, oh,
what would you like? And I can say, oh, I'm going to grab a coffee. I'm going to have a coffee or
take a coffee. Both of them can be used. Its informal is not slang but it is informal. Now,
I gave another example. Can I grab a pen again, this could be have or
So if your coworker has three pens on her desk and you need a pen. Oh hey. Can I grab a pen?
Just a casual way of seeing it. So grab that extra 15 minutes of sleep. Do some food prep now prep.
This is short for preparation. Preparation food prep is when you prepare food in advance. So
This is a very common, time-saving activity, let's say every day for lunch, you have a solid. Well,
instead of chopping up your vegetables, every day at lunch will, you could do food prep on Sunday,
cut up all your vegetables on Sunday and then throughout the week you can just take your cut
vegetables and put them in a bowl and have a salad so that would be food prep, do some food prep that
Sure. So you're feeling your body in healthy ways, allow yourself a walk around the neighborhood,
slow down, breathe, and drink your water, you'll be surprised how all these little changes lead to
higher energy levels across the board. Now I highlighted this one, I really like this
expression across the board. This simply means in all categories. So as an example I could say we
Increased or I could use boosted because we already learned that we increase. We
boosted our sales across the board. So if I have product a product B product C, well those could
be the different categories of products. So it's saying all products increased sales. We increase
our sales across the board or another example, more specific to you. I scored a level eight.
Ross, the board. So if you're doing your, I else, you have a category for speaking for
writing for grammar. Now, if all those categories across the board, so that's a great expression,
okay? Step 3 improve your mindset. Again, this is in the imperative form, improve your mindset
mindset also affects energy levels Optimus tend to get less.
S bogged down by challenges. Alright, first, let's talk about Optimist. You've probably
heard the classic question. You take a glass and then, what do you say? Is this glass half full
or half empty? You've probably heard that question before, right? Is this
glass half-full or half-empty an optimist will look at this glass and say it's half full.
Because Optimus see the positive in situations. Now, what's the opposite of an optimist?
The opposite of an optimist is a, pessimist a pessimist. We'll look at this glass and
say it's half empty because pessimists see the negative in situations. So let me summarize that
here often miss, see the positive in situations and pessimists. See the negative in situations,
I'll just add in, as there should be situations, all situations now I
I see this a lot with my students, I have a lot of pessimistic students,
but I will tell you it is always my Optimist, my optimistic students to
use the adjective. It's my optimistic students who see results because they look at getting a
six out of ten as. Wow, I got six. Correct. That's amazing. I'm improving a pessimist.
I can't believe I got four wrong. I'm an idiot. I'm so dumb. I'm never going
to learn and then they quit because they see the - but an optimist, they are motivated to
keep improving because they see the positive. So that's a little side bonus lesson for you
on Optimist and pessimist. Okay, now let's talk about this expression to be bogged down by this.
This is when you're so involved in something and that something is usually difficult or
complicated, but you can't do anything else. So all of your attention is on that one thing. Now,
in this case, it's negative, because if you're bogged down by challenges, it means
you're so focused on that one challenge that you just, you can't do anything else. So, your
Not effective in other areas. Now, you can get bogged down or you can simply be bogged down. So,
remember that get is for the transition from not bogged down to bog down, and then be is
to describe your current state. So often is tend to get less bogged down by challenges,
which means they generally experience less stress and can manage it more effectively. When
It's unavoidable. So keep a positive attitude and surround yourself with people who do the same.
Now, here is our imperative again, so notice how the sentence starts with the base verb.
This is the imperative. It's the base verb imperative and they're doing that starting
with the base verb because they're providing a direction or instruction, they're telling you.
Keep a positive attitude. So that's the instruction or the direction to you and
surround yourself with people who do the same. Now, this is also in the imperative because when
we have and the verb tenses need to match. So if this were in the present, continuous then the
verb tense after and would also be in the present continuous. So because this is in the imperative.
And is also in the imperative imperative again, which means it's just the base verb and that was
the end of the article. So I hope you learned a lot of new vocabulary, grammar pronunciation and
you also had three tips to help you reduce your stress, which is awesome. So, now, what I'll do
is, I'll read the article from start to finish and this time, you can focus on my pronunciation.
Three things that relieve stress and boost your happiness.
Number one, claim more time for yourself
fitting. Even one more thing into an already over packed day can feel like an impossible task.
But if you're constantly doing for everyone but yourself, it's time to reclaim space in
your own life. This means taking a hard look at your to do list. An overflowing workload is not
Badge of honor and it doesn't mean you are productive more often than not is
just a precursor to exhaustion and burnout. Go down that list and start asking questions,
what can you delegate to someone else? What can you defer to a later date,
and what can you delete entirely few things in life? Are truly urgent. So
once your actual level of accountability release some tasks and reclaim that time,
For yourself number to increase your energy,
lightening, your load goes a long way toward reducing fatigue. In fact, is probably the most
important way to begin. Follow that with small steps, toward your health and wellness goals.
Grab that extra 15 minutes of sleep, do some food prep that ensures. You're fueling your
body in healthy ways, allow yourself a walk around the neighborhood, slow down, breathe and drink.
Our water, you'll be surprised how all these little changes lead to higher energy levels
across the board. Number three, improve, your mindset mindset. Also affects energy
levels Optimus tend to get less bogged down by challenges, which means they generally experience
less stress and can manage it more effectively when it's unavoidable, keep a positive attitude
and surround yourself with people who do the same. Are you ready to keep learning you can
Review your next news article right now and make sure you get this free speaking
guide where I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently,
you can get it from my website right here and then get started with your next lesson.