Từ vựng & cấu trúc qua bài báo Millions of votes still being counted as contest between Trump and Biden narrows to key states (CNN)

· Điểm báo

Cuộc đua vào nhà Trắng trở thành chủ đề nóng, được dư luận quan tâm trong những ngày qua. Kết quả của cuộc tranh cử này không những ảnh hưởng đến tình hình nước Mỹ, mà còn có phần tác động đến thế giới. Vì vậy, bên cạnh hướng dẫn trả lời SPEAKING part 2,3 chủ đề Housing & Places , IELTS TUTOR sẽ giúp các em hiểu rõ nghĩa từ vựng trong ngữ cảnh thực tế qua bài báo Millions of votes being counted as contest still Biden narrows to key states (CNN).

I. Đoạn báo IELTS TUTOR phân tích

(CNN) Millions of legally cast votes are being counted in elections offices around the country as the presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden comes down to a handful of battleground states.

Biden holds the lead in the Electoral College at this stage in the night, 224-213; 270 electoral votes are needed to become president.

Experts had warned for months that a result may not be known on election night, or even days afterward , as voters voted by mail in record numbers. As of early Wednesday morning, it was still too close to call in Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Georgia and the potentially critical state of Pennsylvania.

Trump won a close race in Florida, which was one of the states Biden had hoped to peel away from the President's 2016 map and has a narrow edge in North Carolina. The former vice president has taken the lead in Wisconsin and is hoping that Arizona, where he has a 5-percentage point lead with 82% of the ballots counted, could be his first victory of the night that turns a red state blue.

With more than 90% of the vote counted in Wisconsin, Biden holds a narrow lead over Trump in that state of just more than 20,000 votes , with all of Milwaukee's vote counted.

The state of Nevada, which Clinton won by a slender margin in 2016, also appeared to be a much closer race than Democrats had expected. With 85% of the votes counted in that state, B iden leads by less than a percentage point.

Increasingly, it appears that the result of the entire election could hinge on whether Biden can restore the Democratic "blue wall" in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, a scenario that could stretch into the coming days as large numbers of mail-in votes are counted .

Biden pulled ahead by a slight margin in Michigan Wednesday morning with 90% of the vote counted.

[…] Michigan's Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a tweet Wednesday morning that "hundreds of thousands of ballots in our largest jurisdictions are still being counted including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Warren & Sterling Heights."

The night unfolded as the most unorthodox election night in modern memory. At times it appeared like one candidate or the other was heading for an early win in important states. But batches of mail-in and early votes meant the count often dramatically shifted one way or the other.

Polls are now closed across the US on a nerve-jangling night that will set the nation's course for the next four years and cast judgment on the most tumultuous presidency of the modern age. Results are flowing in from battlegrounds and it's too early to make a projection in many key states.

[…] Trump's chilling threat to vote counting

Trump attempted to claim victory in the presidential race and called for a halt to legitimate vote counting that is underway around the country in a chilling threat to American democracy

In fact, the election is far from over with millions of votes outstanding in key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan - ballots that were cast before Election Day that have yet to be counted. Yet Trump sought to mislead his loyal supporters by conflating the legitimate counting of ballots with voting as he falsely claimed Democrats were trying to "steal the election."

Facing the real possibility That Could he lose, Trump - as expected - Appeared to be seizing the opportunity to confusion His supporters about the democratic process and suggest That There Was something nefarious about the fact That Many states are still counting votes. The lengthy vote count, which could extend for several days, was widely anticipated because so many Americans cast vote-by-mail ballots to protect themselves from exposure to the coronavirus in the middle of a pandemic.

While making the ludicrous suggestion that the counting of legally cast votes should stop as he watched his margins narrow in several key swing states, Trump made a wild threat that his lawyers would take their case to the Supreme Court even though it remains unclear what their legal rationale would be.

Even within Trump's short speech there was a glaring inconsistency in his position as he advocated for votes to continue to be counted in Arizona, a state that he believes is more favorable to him, while expressing anger that one network had called it early. CNN has not projected a winner in Arizona.

[…] Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon ripped Trump's speech as "a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens."

"The President's statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented , and incorrect," she said, adding, "It was unprecedented because never before in our history has a president of the United States sought to strip Americans of their voice in a national election. Having encouraged Republican efforts in multiple states to prevent the legal counting of these ballots before Election Day, now Donald Trump is saying these ballots can't be counted after Election Day either. "

Biden was the first candidate to speak to supporters early Wednesday morning, after a night of results didn't deliver a quick winner, saying that "we believe we're on track to win this election."

[..] Miami-Dade, which Biden is still likely to win, has large concentrations of voters of Cuban and Venezuelan descent who tend to be more conservative than other Latino groups and were targeted by the President with claims that Democrats were akin to socialists .

Biden performs well in Arizona

Biden appears to have made significant gains in Arizona where demographic changes have accelerated the state's shift from traditional Republican territory to a potential Democratic pick up. The President's unpopularity and the rapid growth of the state - from its rising Latino population to the influx of retirees from the Midwest and other parts of the country - has made its politics more unpredictable, even in just the four years since 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state 49% to 45.5%.

[..] Results may not be known for days

Millions of ballots were still outstanding in those critical three states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, many of them vote-by-mail ballots that were cast early and were expected to favor Democrats.

Even Georgia appeared at a standstill as officials in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and its populous suburbs said they had stopped counting mail-in ballots around 10:30 pm ET and that count would resume at 8 am Wednesday. The Fulton County tabulation was initially delayed by a water leak near the room where ballots were being counted but no ballots were damaged.

[…] The slow count in those Midwestern states is creating mounting anxiety for Democrats, who had hoped Biden could post some early wins on the board in swing states to prevent President Trump from declaring a premature victory before even crossing the 270 electoral vote threshold that he needs to win.

For weeks now, Trump has hammered the message that voters should know the results on election night - even though that is rarely the case in America - while suggesting that a later count could be a sign of voting irregularities, even though there is no evidence to support that and counting has been much more complex this cycle because so many people cast votes by mail in order to stay safe during the pandemic.

Michigan officials are predicting record turnout, and are hoping that ballots counted overnight could give a sense of at least the unofficial result within 24 hours of poll closures, instead of several days as some were initially expecting, but that appeared uncertain.

Historic amount of early votes

Across the country, officials were counting the more than 100 million votes that were cast before Election Day, according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research and Catalist.

The economy is the top issue on the minds of voters Tuesday, according to the preliminary results of a nationwide CNN exit poll. Those results are incomplete because Americans were still voting, but in those early measures about a third said the economy is the most critical issue. About 1 in 5 said racial inequality is the top issue and 1 in 6 said the coronavirus pandemic was most important to their vote. However, a majority said the nation should prioritize containing Covid-19 over rebuilding the economy.

Republicans have made a huge effort to invalidate ballots and limit voter turnout through legal challenges and questionable monitoring tactics that bordered on voter intimidation in some states. Trump spent his final days trying to cast aspersions on vote counting, insisting that a winner should be declared on Tuesday night, even though America has long counted ballots well into the days and weeks after Election Day.

With Biden leading in many national and battleground state polls, the President's team is counting on explosive Election Day turnout within the GOP and relying on their intensive, data-driven ground game to turn out quiet Trump voters, who they say have not been reflected in the polls.

broken image

II. Phân tích từ vựng & cấu trúc tác giả sử dụng trong bài báo

  • legally cast vote: phiếu bầu hợp lệ
  • presidential race: cuộc đua tranh cử tổng thống, từ này IELTS TUTOR đã phân tích trong bài báo  White House sows confusion about Trump's condition as source tells reporters next 48 hours will be critical
  • a handful of N (số nhiều): giống với a few, có nghĩa là một số lượng ít
  • (to) hold the lead: nắm giữ vị trí dẫn đầu
  • presidency (n): nhiệm kỳ tổng thống
  • legal rationale: cơ sở pháp lý
  • (to) warn: cảnh báo, các em theo dõi bài phân tích từ vựng cấu trúc chủ đề dịch bệnh ở nhà máy Amazon  chắc chắn đã gặp từ này rồi.
  • even days afterward: thậm chí những ngày sau đó, đây là một cách nhấn mạnh Câu khi viết, IELTS TUTOR còn hướng dẫn thêm các từ vựng chỉ thời gian trong IELTS WRITING! 
  • critical (adj): nguy cấp. Các em chú ý “critical” thường được biết đến với nghĩa quan trọng. Tuy nhiên trong ngữ cảnh này, “as of early Wednesday morning, it was still too close to call in Arizona, ... and the potentially critical state of Pennsylvania” có thể hiểu “tính đến sáng sớm thứ 4, nó quá gần để (nhận được) gọi kết quả ở Arizona, ... và bang Pennsylvania có khả năng nguy cấp (vì không gọi kết quả kịp thời).
  • (to) peel away / off: tách khỏi nhóm, cấu trúc để chuyển sang hướng khác
  • narrow edge: rìa hẹp
  • where he had a 5-percentage point lead with 82% of the ballots counted: nơi mà ông ấy có 5% dẫn trước với 82% phiếu được kiểm.
  • Biden hold a narrow lead over Trump in that state of just more than 20,000 votes: Biden dẫn trước Trump ở tiểu bang đó chỉ hơn 20,000 phiếu
    •  Trong Câu này, các em có thể học hỏi cách tác giả bổ sung số liệu “... of just more than 20,000 votes”, để phần WRITING TASK 1 đạt điểm cao nhé.
  • slender margin: tỷ lệ nhỏ. Ex: The Senate approved the use of military force by a margin of 52 votes to 47 (Thượng viện phê chuẩn việc sử dụng vũ lực quân sự với tỷ lệ 52 phiếu bầu đến 47)
  • entire election: toàn bộ cuộc bầu cử
  • (to) hinge on / upon something: phụ thuộc vào, Nếu một thứ này phụ thuộc vào thứ khác, thì điều đầu tiên phụ thuộc vào điều thứ hai hoặc bị ảnh hưởng rất nóhi
  • scenario (n): kịch bản
  • (to) pull ahead: vượt lên
  • with 85% of the votes counted in that state, Biden leads by less than a percentage point. (với 85% số phiếu được kiểm ở bang đó, Biden dẫn trước ít hơn một điểm phần trăm)
  • Biden pulled ahead by a slight margin in Michigan Wednesday morning with 90% of the vote counted. (Biden đã vượt lên dẫn trước một chút vào sáng thứ Tư Michigan với 90% số phiếu được kiểm)
    •  IELTS TUTOR lưu ý các em sau các động từ như “lead”, “pull ahead” để bổ sung thêm số liệu cụ thể, chúng ta sẽ dùng giới từ “by” đi kèm nhé!
    •  Xem thêm hướng dẫn về nâng cao về giới từ
  • jurisdiction (n): quyền hạn
  • (to) unfold: diễn ra, tiến triển
  • unorthodox (adj): không chính thống
  • batch of: lô hàng, nhóm đối tượng giống nhau
  • (to) shift one way or the other: thay đổi theo hướng này hay hướng khác
  • nerve-jangling (adj): căng thẳng
  • tumultuous (adj): náo động, biến động
  • projection (n): sự tính toán, tiên đoán >> project (v)
  • Trump attempted to claim victory in the presidential race and called for a halt to legitimate vote counting that is underway around the country in a chilling threat to American democracy: Trump đã cố gắng tuyên bố chiến thắng trong cuộc đua tổng thống và kêu gọi ngừng kiểm phiếu hợp pháp đang được tiến hành trên khắp đất nước trong một mối đe dọa sắc lạnh đối với phái Dân Chủ Mỹ
  • (to) conflate: kết hợp
  • (to) sixteen the opportunity: nắm bắt cơ hội
  • nefarious (adj): bất chính
  • (to) anticipate: tưởng tượng, mong đợi điều gì đó sẽ diễn ra
  • ludicrous suggestion: gợi ý lố bịch
  • Even within Trump's short speech there was a glaring inconsistency in his position as he advocated for votes to continue to be counted in Arizona, a state that he believes is more favorable to him, while expressing anger that one network had called it early: Ngay cả trong bài phát biểu ngắn của Trump, có một sự mâu thuẫn rõ ràng trong quan điểm của ông khi ông ủng hộ việc bỏ phiếu tiếp tục được tính ở Arizona, mộ mờt hn ting bang bày tỏ sự tức giận vì một mạng đã gọi (công bố kết quả) nó sớm.
    • glaring inconsistency: sự mâu thuẫn (không đồng nhất) rõ ràng
    • (to) advocate: tán đồng
    • …. while expressing anger that one network had called it early: cụm này sau từ “while” chủ ngữ của vế sau trùng với phía trước nên được lược bỏ. Chủ ngữ lược bỏ chính là “he”
  • outrageous (adj): tàn nhẫn
  • unprecedented (adj): chưa từng có
  • to be on track: trong guồng, đúng hướng
  • (to) accelerate: thúc giục
  • mounting anxiety: sự lo lắng ngày càng tăng
  • premature victory: chiến thắng sớm
  • electoral vote: phiếu bầu đại cử tri # popular vote: phiếu bầu phổ thông
  • (to) hammer: đưa ra chỉ trích
  • preliminary: sơ bộ
  • intimidation (n): sự đe dọa
  • (to) declare: tuyên bố

Các khóa học IELTS online 1 kèm 1 - 100% cam kết đạt target 6.0 - 7.0 - 8.0

>> IELTS Intensive Writing - Sửa bài chi tiết

>> IELTS Intensive Listening

>> IELTS Intensive Reading

>> IELTS Cấp tốc