Episode 155 How To Use Current News Articles To Learn English

Today we're reading an article from Reuters about the release of the online App from Meta, Threads and it's competition with Twitter. You can find this article here:https://www.reuters.com/technology/metas-twitter-rival-threads-hits-100-mln-users-record-five-days-2023-07-10/ Engoo also has an article about this thing. You might find that easier, although it is one of their advanced articles. You can find it here: https://engoo.com/app/daily-news/article/meta-launches-twitter-rival-threads/VNQPOBvoEe6bYgPW13_vtQ Once you've found all the vocabulary and read the article consider what kinds of questions you could discuss about this topic with co-workers. Here are some of my ideas: Are you using Threads? What do you think about Twitter? What do you think about Elon Musk? Do you think Twitter is going to be dead now that this has happened? Do you think Musk really will sue Zuckerberg? And if so, do you think he'll win? And what's going to happen next? How do you feel about advertisements on social media? If you've done everything you can think of with the article then why not try writing your own version. This is a great way to practise your writing skill, but remember you can write it in whatever style you like. You could write it as an information article, like this Reuters article, or your could write it as an opinion piece, just talking about your perspective of the two Apps, or the two CEO's or the software for each, whatever you like. Vocabulary from Article Words Dethroning - to take someone or something off the highest point Microblogging - Twitter has such a small word count, but people say how they feel now so it's considered micro-blogging Speedier - faster dropped - went down Monetizable - something it's possible to make money from or charge money for Public disclosure - something explained or told to the public Takeover - When one person or company buys another company Analytics - the statistics and findings from study or research Indicates - shows or demonstrates Prior - something that happened before or previously Infrastructure - the structure that something is built on, could be roads or the internet Trajectory - the direction something is heading Tanking - dropping very quickly, and in a bad way Burgeoning - growing very quickly and recently Mocking - making fun of, laughing at Behemoth - something very big, a giant Resemblance - looks like, looks similar to Rely on - depend on, need to survive Turmoil - a lot of change and confusion Uproar - everyone is very upset Discourse - conversation or discussion Phrases Fastest-growing online platform - getting bigger than other online Apps quickly hit the milestone - 'milestone' means some important point or measurement. So to 'hit the milestone' means you reached an important point. organic demand - demand that has grown without advertisement, often by word of mouth. fastest-growing consumer application in history - an app that people who are online use was down - has dropped hit an all-time record - the record or important number is higher than has ever been seen before launching and invite-only beta - started a first version of the App but only invited people, you couldn't join if they didn't let you maintains a waitlist - to keep a list of people who want to join geared toward - aimed at or made for a particular group, organisation or kind of people alleging that - saying, but right now we don't know if it's true or not would-be rivals - they could be competitors bears a strong resemblance to - looks very similar to limits its appeal - stops it from being appealing or interesting clear path - an easy way to go pitching itself - telling everyone what it is or what they should expect.