-7499067493155718492

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

News Review from BBC Learning English

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Hello and welcome to News Review, the programme where we show you how to use the language from the latest news stories in your everyday English.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Hi, I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hi Catherine.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Hi Neil.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

So, what is our story today?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Today's story, Neil, is about a potential disaster that people are working very hard to avoid.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. Well, it sounds very serious. Let's hear some more from this BBC News report.

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Thousands of people living below the tallest dam in the United States have been ordered to leave their homes because a damaged overflow channel, or spillway, is in danger of collapse.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Engineers have been releasing water from the Oroville Dam in California and are using helicopters to drop rocks onto the site.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So, a story from America there, and there is a massive dam.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Now, a dam is a barrier which is made by people to hold a large amount of water in one place, usually either on a river or a lake or a reservoir.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Now, this dam in California looks like it's going to break. This will cause a huge amount of water, and all the people who are living in the path of this water have been asked to leave their homes while they try to fix the damage.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. Well, you've been looking at this story online, the various news websites, and picking out the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story. And what have you come up with?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

We've got three really useful expressions. The first one is evacuate, second is overflow, and we have an expression race against the clock.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. Evacuate, overflow and race against the clock. So, how are these appearing in the headlines?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. Well, let's go to BBC News first, and the headline here is Oroville Dam Risk. Thousands ordered to evacuate homes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. So, evacuate, meaning leave a place because of danger.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Exactly that, yes. And in this case, the people have to evacuate their homes because of the problem of the water that may come from the dam and kill everybody, basically.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So, they evacuate homes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes. But it's an interesting word, isn't it? Because who's doing the evacuating and what's evacuating can be confusing.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Absolutely. So, in this case, in our headline here, it says evacuate homes. The place that you're leaving becomes the object of the verb evacuate.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

But you can also evacuate people. So, we could say, the headline could say, California authorities evacuate people from their homes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

There's two ways you can work this verb.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

So, as a verb there, as you say, it's also a noun, the noun being evacuation.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes. And the evacuation is happening right now in California as we speak.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes. And the people?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Evacuees.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

They are evacuees, which is not the same as a refugee.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

No, no. It's a slightly different… There's a similar idea of people leaving, but evacuees generally go because of a specific danger.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It's usually for a short time. When the danger's passed, they return to their homes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah, it's temporary, isn't it?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah, yeah. Refugees is to do with war. It's often for a longer time, and it's a specific situation of war in particular, yeah.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah. Now, this word evacuated is also interesting because it's neither formal nor informal, is it?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

No, no. You can use it in any situation. In fact, if you try to think of a synonym for evacuee or evacuate, there probably isn't one.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It's leaving a place because of danger. If the fire alarm goes now, we will evacuate the studio.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes. Yeah.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

There's not like a less formal phrasal verb or something like there often is in English.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

No, no, no. Evacuate is specific for this particular situation. Leave a place because of danger quickly is evacuate.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Have you ever been evacuated?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

No, I haven't, Neil, but have you?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

I have been evacuated when I was a small boy in the 1970s, if you can believe that. I lived in Canada, and there was a rail accident. A train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

And in the middle of the night, I believe, a family had to come to us. They were evacuated.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

To your house?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

To my house, to move further away from where the accident happened. And then we were called and told to move as well. So then we were evacuated.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Wow. So, a mass evacuation.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

There was an evacuation.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Sounds really exciting.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

It was, for a small boy.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Shall we move on to our next headline?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

OK. So, looking at CBN News, we have California evacuates residents as flooded dam threatens to overflow.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

To overflow.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yep.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

That means, well, that's a situation where there's more water than can be contained.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Exactly that, yes. And it comes, the word over, often when we put it in front of another word, it means too much of something.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So, overflow means to spill because there's too much. And in this case, the dam is going to overflow, so everyone's had to leave.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It can be a verb and it can be a noun, and the pronunciation changes slightly. So, let's do it as a verb first, Neil.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

To overflow.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Very good. Stress on the…

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

The final syllable.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Uh-huh. And when it's a noun…

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Overflow.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

With the stress on the…

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

First syllable.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Very good, Neil. Very good.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

And overflow, the overflow in your bathroom, you know, you've got your sink in your bathroom or your kitchen or your bath,

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

and there's a hole near the top of the bathroom sink.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

That's called an overflow. And if it gets too full of water, it'll travel down that emergency evacuation pipe.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It's called an overflow.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

And it's there to prevent overflowing.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It is actually, yes. Interestingly, yes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Okay. We also use this word in a non-literal sense.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

We can do, yes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

It's a special day today, isn't it?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Valentine's Day, Neil. Are you overflowing with love and affection?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

I am, which explains why this studio is glowing red.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So, an emotional word. You can overflow with any emotion. You can be anger, you can be happiness, you can overflow with pride, someone's achievement.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

But it means when you've got a lot, a lot of emotion, you're really feeling it.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Let's move on to our final headline.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Yep. And now we are looking at the independent.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Oroville Dam. Water officials race against the clock to prevent disaster as heavy rain approaches.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

So, race against the clock. Try to complete something urgent in a short space of time.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Absolutely. And it's perfect for this situation. This disaster, if it happens, will be really big.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So, they've got a limited amount of time to do two things. One is to evacuate all these people in danger.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

And the second thing is to try and fix the damage. So, they're doing a lot of work. It's really urgent and they haven't got much time.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

They're racing against the clock. Or you can also say race against time.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yeah. It's a very visual expression, isn't it? Yeah.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

You can imagine people running to get things done and the clock ticking.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes, absolutely. And it does conjure up a great sort of mental image.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

It's very memorable and perfect to describe the urgency of this situation, yes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Do we ever race against time, Catherine?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Well, it's a Tuesday, Neil, and we've got to get this programme out. You've been working all morning.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

I've been racing against the clock.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes. And we've just about got there, I think.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Just about done it, I think.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Well done.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Yes.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

OK then, before we recap today's vocabulary, we have, of course, our Facebook challenge.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

And we've just been talking about that expression, race against the clock.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Here are three more clock idioms. Which of them means 24 hours a day?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Is it A, round the clock, B, watch the clock or C, turn back the clock?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Did we have a good response?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

We had an excellent response.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

I think we had 100% correct answer rates today, which I think is maybe the first time.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So absolutely everybody said the answer is A, round the clock.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So to pick out a few of you, we have Rubens Stoppa, Zumana Yusuf.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

We had Wen Heng Li and Riza Velasco Ebreo, who said A is the correct answer.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

So thanks Riza and everybody else who got that right.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Well, that's a nice note to end on, isn't it?

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Could you just now recap the vocabulary we've heard?

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

I can indeed.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

We had Evacuate, leave a place because of danger.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

Overflow, for liquid to spill because there's too much of it.

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S… Speaker 2 (-7499067493155718492)

And race against the clock, try to complete something urgent in a short space of time.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

If you would like to test yourself on today's vocabulary, there is a quiz that you can take on our website, bbclearningenglish.com, where you'll find all sorts of other videos and activities to help you improve your English.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Thank you for joining us and goodbye.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

Goodbye.

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S… Speaker 1 (-7499067493155718492)

News Review from BBC Learning English.

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