Fluency News: Music will break through

Hello, everyone!‍

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português sobre as coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, temos um update sobre a situação entre Ucrânia e Rússia, e falamos sobre os Grammys, que aconteceram durante o fim de semana. Também falamos sobre o mais recente lockdown na China, e sobre os adolescentes que estão caçando vacinas para ajudar suas comunidades.

Nós temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, venha conferir! @fluencytvingles
Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar!‍

See you!

Transcrição do episódio

What is up, folks! This is Fluency News, and I’m Scott Lowe! Welcome to the podcast that helps you train your comprehension and listening skills, while getting informed!

Constant contact with the language you’re learning is essential to guarantee your success in your journey to becoming fluent. That means reading, watching movies and tv shows, listening to music, watching videos and tips, and listening to podcasts! We have a bunch of options for you to explore, so check out our content portal, fluencytv.com. There you’ll also find the transcript of this episode, along with all the sources to the stories we cover here today.

Now, let’s get started and see what’s been going on since our last episode. This weekend the 64th annual Grammys happened. It was, basically, a three-and-a-half-hour mega concert. The ceremony, which steered clear of politics and the pandemic, saw a virtual message from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and an emotional tribute to victims of the Russian invasion.

In the light of last week’s Academy Award’s unexpected incident, the Grammys seemed to revel in its technical proficiency and lack of controversy. “We’re gonna be listening to some music, we’re gonna be dancing, we’re gonna be singing, we’re gonna be keeping people’s names out of our mouths,” said host Trevor Noah in his opening monologue.

The teenage pop star Olivia Rodrigo and the R&B duo Silk Sonic dominated the major categories at this year’s awards. Jon Batiste won Best American Roots Performance for “Cry,” Album of the year for “We Are,” Best American roots song, Best music video and Best score soundtrack for visual media for “Soul.”

Halfway through the ceremony, Noah introduced Zelenskiy: “Even in the darkest times, music has the power to lift spirits and give you hope for a brighter tomorrow. There’s nobody who could use a little hope right now more than the people of Ukraine.”

In a pre-filmed video, Zelenskiy cast music as an embodiment of peace and freedom. “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who can’t hear them. But the music will break through anyway.”

‍Nessa notícia, nós temos o uso do idiom steer clear. Você já conhece o uso dessa expressão? Steer clear significa “afastar”, “evitar”. É um idiom, uma expressão típica do inglês, que tem o mesmo significado de outros verbos, mas acaba sendo mais usada. Steer significa “dirigir”, “conduzir”, mas quando pareado com clear, tem o significado transformado. Quando dizemos steer clear, estamos dizendo que é pra se afastar, evitar, se distanciar de algo, ou de alguma coisa.‍

Speaking of Zelenkskiy, we’re going to go to Ukraine for an update. The US president, Joe Biden, called the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, a war criminal on Monday, and said he would call for a war crimes trial. Outrage is mounting over the alleged massacre near Kyiv.

To many in the West, the Bucha killings became a wake-up call, the first chance to see the scope of mass killings of civilians that amount to war crimes – or even genocide.

“The world cannot be tricked anymore; the spotlight is on Putin and his forces,” Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog, told Al Jazeera.

“We demand a thorough, international investigation, and we demand justice for the victims of these war crimes,” he said.

President Biden also said he would seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.

“We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to gather all the detail, so this can be an actual – have a war crimes trial,” Biden said, according to remarks posted by Associated Press.

‍Nessa história, nós temos três usos distintos do verbo call. O primeiro, quando dizemos “Biden called Putin a war criminal”. Aqui, call tem o significado de “chamar” alguém de alguma coisa. Biden chamou o Putin de criminoso de guerra, por exemplo. O segundo uso de call está logo depois, quando dizemos que Bidn would call for a trial. Call for é um phrasal verb, o que significa que a adição da preposição “for”, muda o sentido do verbo. Você pode traduzir como “chamar para”, mas aqui o sentido é de uma convocação, um chamado oficial. Biden vai fazer um chamado para que haja um tribunal.‍

‍O último uso dessa notícia é quando dizemos wake-up call. Literalmente, é uma chamada para acordar. Ela pode ser, literalmente uma chamada, uma ligação para acordar alguém. Mas nós usamos essa expressão com mais frequência para falarmos de um alerta. É algo que chama a atenção, desperta alguém para alguma coisa. Esses são só alguns dos usos do verbo call. Existem inúmeros outros, com preposições, complementos e tempos verbais diferentes. Para identificar o significado de cada um em uma frase, é importante focar no contexto, e não em palavras individualmente.‍

Sadly, this is still an ongoing story, and we don’t know what’s going to happen next. But remember, we have a new episode of Fluency News every week, and we’ll bring you any updates we can!

Now we move to China, where Shanghai remains under lockdown. Authorities said the lockdown will continue as it reviews results of an exercise to test all of its 26 million residents for COVID-19.

The city began its two-stage lockdown on March 28, initially in Shanghai’s eastern districts, and later expanded to cover the whole city.

“The city will continue to implement seal and control management and strictly implement ‘staying at home’, except for medical treatment,” the city government said on its official WeChat account.

It did not indicate when the limitations might lift.

Now, let’s see some lighter news, shall we? Teens in Maryland, United States, are volunteering as “vaccine hunters” to help older residents get appointments.

The students have joined their teachers in an effort to ensure that residents most at-risk during the coronavirus pandemic can secure their vaccinations.

Sherwood High School 11th grade students Kashmira Heaton-Vakharia, 16, and Fernando Johnson, 17, began volunteering as “vaccine hunters” about a month ago.

Their Spanish teacher, Tanya Aguilar, is part of a group of Montgomery County schoolteachers who started scouring websites to get appointments for older residents, or for those who don’t speak English and are considered vulnerable.

“I wanted to do anything I could to help, and this was a perfect opportunity” said Heaton-Vakharia. She explained she’d followed news stories about the difficulties people were having in securing appointments.

Both students said navigating the dozens of sites looking for vaccination appointments proved a challenge despite their computer skills, and they’re happy to snag those appointments for others.

The students estimate they have logged 215 appointments between them.

Johnson explained the students often work in teams at each other’s homes. When he collaborates with Heaton-Vakharia, they may jump back and forth between their phones and laptops.

The tactic is helpful when getting appointments for family groups, said Johnson: “I’ll do a husband, she’ll do a wife” — and by doing both at the same time, “we can make sure they get done together, on the same day at the same time.”

Both students said the more they learned about health disparities that affect people in their own community, the more they were inspired to act.

Their efforts helped schedule vaccinations for about 60 members of the Takoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church. Among them was Pastor Daniel Xisto, who said he’s grateful to the group of students for their help.

“Oh, man, I mean it meant the world to me and to my members, who have a hard time online,” said Xisto, who snapped a picture of himself being vaccinated to encourage church members to get a shot.

Xisto hopes that when his church is open for services, he can invite the vaccine hunters, and meet them in person.

‍Os “vaccine hunters” aqui, são caçadores de vacinas, pessoas que buscam, vão atrás de agendamentos para pessoas que não tem acesso à internet. Mas tem uma palavra usada nessa história que pode ter significados completamente diferentes, dependendo do contexto. A palavra é scouring. Scour é um verbo, que também pode ser usado com adjetivo. Aqui, scouring significa procurar um lugar ou coisa muito cuidadosamente, para encontrar uma coisa específica. Os adolescentes e professores estão varrendo a internet, buscando em vários lugares, vasculhando e esquadrinhando o que podem para encontrar agendamentos para ajudar outras pessoas. O outro significado de scour é o de limpar, esfregar. Bem diferente, não é? Nesse caso, é mais fácil identificar, além do contexto. Quando estamos falando de buscar alguma coisa, procurar, frequentemente vamos usar a preposição for, para encontrar alguma coisa ou alguém.‍

We know things can get a little dark, but there’s always some light to be seen, if we know where to look. We hope you can find that light everywhere and anywhere you are. And it’s with that uplifting story that we’re going to end today’s episode, folks.

Nós sempre recebemos muitas mensagens de pessoas querendo estudar na Fluency Academy. Se você é uma delas e quer melhorar o seu nível de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês, mandarim ou coreano, estudando com os nossos super professores, você pode se inscrever na nossa lista de espera.

Assim, na próxima vez que abrirmos uma turma, você estará na lista prioritária, o que vai te dar uma chance ainda melhor de conseguir uma vaga! É só clicar no link na descrição desse episódio e se inscrever, leva uns 15 segundinhos e é 100% de graça!
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Alright! There’s a new episode of Fluency News every week, and we’ll be waiting for you. Until next time! Peace.

‍Stories‍

‍The Grammy Awards
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/04/grammy-awards-2022-olivia-rodrigo-wins-big-and-ukraines-zelenskiy-makes-cameo
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2022/apr/04/ukraines-president-appears-in-video-message-at-2022-grammys-video
https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2022/apr/04/the-64th-annual-grammy-awards-in-pictures
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/oscars/trevor-noah-made-a-subtle-joke-about-the-oscars-slap-at-the-grammys/ar-AAVQdAP
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/grammy-awards-red-carpet-idUSRTS6RZUQ
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/olivia-rodrigo-billie-eilish-compete-wide-open-grammys-contest-2022-04-03/‍

‍Ukraine-Russia conflict
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/3/russia-ukraine-live-news-un-chief-urges-independent-bucha-probe-liveblog
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-street-corpse-with-hands-bound-bullet-wound-head-2022-04-03/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/4/will-the-bucha-massacre-wake-up-the-world
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/3/russia-ukraine-live-news-un-chief-urges-independent-bucha-probe-liveblog‍

‍Shanghai to extend lockdown of 26 million people as it reviews COVID test results
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-sends-military-doctors-shanghai-test-26-mln-residents-covid-2022-04-04/‍

‍Teens volunteer as ‘vaccine hunters’ to help older residents get appointments
https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2021/03/teenagers-join-the-vaccine-hunters-to-help-older-residents-get-covid19-vaccines-photos-coming-in-slack/