Here’s an update on a few previous lessons
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and you are listening to Plain English, where JR and I help you upgrade your English with current events and trending topics. And twice a year, I like to go back and revisit previous lesson topics, just to see if there’s anything new. So on today’s lesson, we’ll review six previous lesson topics. And I’ll tell you what it means to “have a history of” something.
I mentioned JR before. He’s the producer and he has uploaded today’s full lesson to PlainEnglish.com/473. JR also selects the song of the week; that’s coming up at the end of the audio lesson today.
Update on previous lessons
Business winners during covid
Zoom, Peloton, Shopify: you learned in Lesson 297 that they were the pandemic winners in the business world. As COVID-19 pushed us all inside, and as we transformed the way we worked and played, some companies found themselves in exactly the right place at the right time.
Zoom was so popular that it became a generic term for video meetings. Businesses, schools, and even groups of friends turned to the video conferencing service to connect with one another from their own homes. Peloton sold expensive exercise bikes with pricey monthly subscriptions of group classes on the video screen. Consumers canceled their gym memberships and worked up a sweat at home. And Shopify powered a lot of online stores, including for many retailers that scrambled to set up online portals for the first time.
These stocks soared during the pandemic, as investors extrapolated their pandemic successes into the future. But now, Zoom, Peloton, and Shopify stocks have all fallen 60 percent or more from their peaks. Just as Zoom became a verb, so did “Zoom fatigue” become a catch-all term for work-from-home burnout . Peloton owners who let their monthly subscriptions lapse discovered these new expensive bikes are a good place to hang clothes. Not one but two television characters died after using a Peloton. And small stores welcomed shoppers back in person, since online shopping isn’t as satisfying as browsing the racks at a brick-and-mortar location.
Not to fear: these companies, and many other pandemic winners, still came out ahead. They’re just not quite as favored in the stock market as they were during the worst of the pandemic.
Djokovic
Novak Djokovic is playing in the French Open. By the time you hear this, you might know how he did. He’s lucky to be playing at all. France only recently lifted its requirement that anyone entering public spaces be vaccinated.
You’ll remember from Lesson 438 that Djokovic is not vaccinated. He was unable to play in the Australian Open and two major tournaments in the U.S. He played in tournaments in Dubai and Monte Carlo, but was knocked out of both early. The Serbian tennis star said he underestimated the mental toll his deportation from Australia would have. He needed some time to get over the ordeal and get back into playing shape.
Now, however, he says he’s back in shape and ready to return to Roland Garros, where he won the 2021 French Open. He and Rafael Federer both have 20 all-time Grand Slam tennis titles; only Rafael Nadal has more. Nadal won his twenty-first title in Australia this year; that was the tournament Djokovic couldn’t play in.
NFT’s
Do you remember non-fungible tokens? That’s the way to pay for—and own—a digital thing, usually just an image or something even less real than that. It doesn’t make any more sense now than it did in April 2021, when we talked about it in Lesson 352 . At the time, an NFT—like an online certificate of ownership—for an image of Jack Dorsey’s first Tweet on Twitter sold for $2.9 million.
In other words, an online record that someone officially owned a Tweet—literally just a picture of the first Tweet, a picture that can be copied and shared for free—someone nonetheless paid $2.9 million for the official ownership of this image.
Well that person was ready to cash in on his investment and he offered it up at auction, hoping to make a profit on his new-economy investment. The highest bid was $14,000, a 99.5 percent drop in value. The owner didn’t sell. This would normally be a good time to admit a mistake. Not to be deterred, the investor said, “I will never regret buying it.” Ah sure, you know how investing is right? You see 99.5 percent declines in value happen all the time. Long live NFT’s!
Surfside condo collapse
Just about one year ago, a condominium building in the suburbs of Miami collapsed without warning. You heard about that in Lesson 382 . Ninety-eight people were killed in the rubble. And just recently, a big settlement was announced. Insurance companies, the building’s developer, and others will pay a total of $1 billion to the family members of the victims and the owners of the destroyed units. A lawyer for the victims said that money can’t replace the loss of life, but that the plaintiffs were satisfied with the settlement and the compensation. Investigators have still not been able to determine what caused the building to collapse.
Juan Carlos
Spain’s former King Juan Carlos abdicated the throne and fled his country, after allegations into money laundering and illegal commissions sullied his reputation. Prosecutors in Spain concluded all three investigations against him and have decided not to pursue charges. When Lesson 289 came out, the former king had disappeared and nobody knew for sure where he was. It turns out he was in Abu Dhabi, where, he recently announced, he will be staying. Although the former king may return to Spain from time to time, he said he has established a “permanent and stable” life in the United Arab Emirates.
Havana Syndrome
And finally, back in Lesson 118 , we talked about “Havana Syndrome.” That’s the name given to a mysterious set of symptoms that afflicted American diplomats and intelligence officers abroad. They were getting debilitating headaches, hearing strange noises, losing their balance, and losing their ability to concentrate, all while serving in Havana, Cuba.
A panel of scientific experts, working for the government, concluded that some of these cases were likely caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy. In other words , the report concludes that someone was using a device to pump microwaves directly at American diplomats, in their homes in Cuba. That, the panel believes, is what caused their bizarre symptoms. The report didn’t comment on who was responsible, but Russia has a history of investigating this type of weapon.
A few more
A couple personal notes: In Lesson 431 , we talked about mental health apps. I’ve recently downloaded one called “Journal.” It’s for setting your mood and doing a little bit of writing and journaling about how you’re feeling and what you’re grateful for. I would recommend it to you, and you can even use it to practice writing in English.
I’m looking forward to watching Season 6 of Better Call Saul. I told you about that series in Lesson 277 . The final season has just been released.
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