- Hello, this is Jack

from tofluency.com and welcome to this lesson

where we're going to look at an article

in English, a new story,

and you're going to learn some words

and phrases from this article.

So I'll leave the link to the newsource

in the description so you can go read it yourself

but you can see it on your screen

and the title is this,

solar eclipse enthrals huge crowds in South America.

So solar eclipse,

this is when the moon covers the sun

and to enthrall means to completely fascinate.

So people are just amazed by something.

They are really fascinated and interested in something.

It's not used that much in everyday English

and that's one thing when you're reading new stories,

it's important to know that you're not always going

to use that type of vocabulary, okay?

So solar eclipse enthrals huge crowds in South America.

And in the subtitle,

dry weather, crystal-clear air

and low light pollution provided a stargazer's paradise.

So a stargazer is somebody who looks at the sky.

They had dry weather and crystal-clear air

which is fantastic.

So it means that it made things all the better.

So now what's interesting is it says

hundred of thousands of people flocked.

To flock somewhere means to go there in big numbers, okay?

So hundred of thousands of people flocked

to go somewhere

and it suggests that people are going there

all at the same time to see some type of event.

And they went to the northern Coquimbo region near

the Atacama Desert.

Now I've been to the Atacama Desert.

I was there in 2007 and it's a fascinating place.

I was only there for a few days.

Now I just want to read some of the quotes.

So Betsy Clark, an Australian tourist,

"I don't believe there's a better place in the world to see

"an eclipse than La Silla."

And this is La Silla Observatory.

So an Australian tourist either went there purposefully

or was lucky enough to be there at the time.

"It was an experience to last several lifetimes,"

said Chilean tourist Rene Serey.

So an experience to last several lifetimes.

This just means obviously it was the best experience.

An experience to last several lifetimes.

So you can use this several lifetimes

just to really emphasize that something is amazing.

Let's read some more quotes down here.

"Oh my God, it's incredible!" shouted some,

while others chanted "more, more, more!"

Many remained silent,

enchanted and moved by one of nature's spectacles.

So enchanted just like completely in awe

and moved, to be moved, in this sense,

means to feel some emotion towards it

or to have a lot of emotion about it in a positive way.

So usually you cry because somebody has done something nice

if you are moved

and then it goes on to say

"The truth is that even if one knows what's going on,

"it is shocking the minute that the shadow of darkness

"begins to come and that silence begins,"

Okay, I like this.

Even if you know that it's going to happen,

it's still an amazing experience

and it's shocking the minute that the shadow

of darkness begins to come and that silence begins.

So the minute that.

This is used a lot in English

and it just means at that moment, okay?

The minute that he saw me he looked away.

Okay?

That's a strange example

but the minute that the shadow of darkness begins to come

and that silence begins.

So the moment, the minute that, the moment that.

"Very seldom has it happened that the whole of an eclipse

"is seen over an observatory,

"the last time this happened was in '91

"at the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii,

"said Matias Jones, an astronomer at La Silla."

Very seldom.

Now seldom means rare.

Very seldom means very very very rare

and seldom is one of those terms

that isn't used that much in everyday English

but it's used in formal English, okay?

So a more informal way

or a more common way to say it is

it hardly ever happens.

So seeing an eclipse at an observatory hardly ever happens.

Hardly ever.

That's a little bit more common in everyday English.

Over the border in Argentina,

people massed, people flocked to look, massed to look.

That's used in like a religious term

whereas flocked you think of a flock of birds.

That's more a nature term.

So over the border in Argentina,

people massed to look into the sky

in the western Cuyo region,

which had the country's longest exposure

to the eclipse.

However little could be seen

in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires,

where overcast weather blocked the view.

So overcast weather, cloudy.

If it's overcast, it means the sky is covered in clouds.

So people in Buenos Aires couldn't see the eclipse

because it was overcast

but going back to the subtitle,

in Chile, dry weather,

crystal-clear air and low light pollution provided

a stargazers' paradise.

So those are some words and phrases

that you can learn from this article.

I'll leave a link to the article

in the description and the question of the day

is have you ever seen a full or a partial solar eclipse?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Thanks for watching.

Bye-bye.

(cheerful music)