درس بیست و هشتم - رای تو و من

28 - Your Vote and Mine

Hi everyone. I’m Jennifer from English with Jennifer. It’s time to practice oral reading together. The text I wrote for you is short enough to read a few times. Let’s read aloud to build your confidence and fluency.

I’ll help you read clearly and with expression. Elections create both excitement and stress. I don’t love politics, but I think it’s important to follow the news and learn what you can. You also need to question things and make your own conclusions.

Then on election day, you can feel more confident about your choice. Do you vote? Do you think elections are important? Before we read, let’s go over some vocabulary. I wrote this text with high frequency words.

In fact, all the words come from a list of the most common words you need to know in English. Here’s an important question related to our text. A monarchy has a king or a queen. What do we call a government with people we choose to represent us? It starts with an r. R-e…republic.

In a republic, we choose our representatives by voting. “Vote” can be a countable noun or a verb. Every four years, Americans vote and choose a president. Politicians try to win our vote. They want us to vote for them. When we vote, we’re trying to elect someone for a position. “Elect” is the verb.

You elect someone. What’s the noun? The process? Election. Are you familiar with “lead”? It means to guide. “Lead” is the verb. What’s the noun? The person who does the leading? What suffix do we add? -er. Leader.

And what quality does this person have? What’s the noun? What other suffix can we add? Leadership. That’s the quality of being a leader. How about the adjective “ideal”? Something that’s ideal is perfect for someone or for some situation. How do we turn “ideal” into an adverb?

What suffix do we add? -ly. Ideally. We say “ideally” to explain what exactly we want for a situation. For example: Ideally, you’ll read this text every day for a week. Knowing word parts like the suffix -ly helps you identify new words and use them correctly.

Here are two words from the same word family: efficient, efficiency. Look at the endings. Do you know which one is a noun and which one is an adjective? “Efficient” with the ending -ent is the adjective. It refers to having the quality of not wasting things.

Like an efficient worker. An efficient plan. “Efficiency” with the ending -cy is the noun. That’s the quality. So, a leader, a government, a country, a company must have efficiency. They shouldn’t waste resources. “Particular” can be an adjective or a noun. It refers to something special or specific.

In a store, you may be shopping for a particular kind of sweater. A salesperson might ask, “Are you looking for anything in particular?” “Effect” is a noun. It means a result or a change of some kind. Events can have a positive or negative effect on us. “Have an effect on someone” is a collocation, a set phrase. Learn it.

Here’s another collocation: the press. You probably know the verb “press,” like to push on something. We press a button. When we say “the press,” we’re referring to all the people who give us the news: TV reporters, newspaper photographers, etc.

Here are more collocations you’ll read in the text: Belong to a party, as in a political party. Run for office, meaning you’re trying to get a political office a position in the government. Public official. This is the person elected to an office.

For the greater good, meaning for the benefit of all the people, the whole country. So, are you ready to read? Let’s practice the text. Your vote and mine. When you’re done, you can come back and review the vocabulary notes.

What exactly is the greater good? How do you understand this phrase? Do some actions for the greater good require a sacrifice of some kind? If so, is that okay? Think about it. We’ll end here.