A simple cut in the timeline means deleting a clip out of the timeline. When you cut, the other clips in the timeline stay where they are, leaving a gap. A ripple edit is when you delete a portion of a clip, but after you delete it, the button you click will automatically move the other clips in the timeline together, closing the gap. You do this by right clicking on the clip, and then clicking ripple delete. Lifting and extracting are two ways to cut portions of different clips at one time. To do this, you press the in point in the program panel where making a cut would be appropriate and then clik the outpoint where it would be appropriate.
Lifting is like a simple cut, while extracting is like a ripple delete in terms of what happens to the other clips in the timeline.
This is an example of an extract edit. I decided to extract the two clips where I did because it was the only semi-approprate place to cut it. It doesnt look the best, and you cant tell, but that was the only place that made sense.