BBC 英语学习 News Review 推特_一百万人离开

Nearly a million Twitter users leave as Elon Musk takes over.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Beth. Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk

about this story. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video and try

the quiz on our website. Now, the story almost 1 million.

That's how many Twitter accounts have been deactivated since Elon Musk bought the social media platform last month.

Musks takeover has been controversial. Some people are worried about his approach to free speech.

Thousands of staff have lost their jobs, and there are plans to make some users pay a subscription.

Many users are moving to an alternative called Mastodon, a free social network platform where posts are called tooth.

Organ Rockle, the founder of the platform, tuted on Monday that he thinks the massive increase in users is pretty cool.

You ve been looking at the headlines path What is the vocabulary?

We have Flock on Fire and Mammoth.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

Let's take a look at our 1st headline.

This one comes from The National A Scottish media outlet.

Top Scottish Twitter users flock to Mastodon.

Amid Elon musks Twitter takeover. Okay, so Twitter users in Scotland, as well as many other places in the world, are leaving.

And the word that we are looking at in this headline is flock, which is connected to birds, isn't it?

Yeah. So flock, as a noun, is a group of birds.

And remember, the Twitter logo is a bird, and you post tweets.

Now, tweets is a word that is the sound of bird makes.

Yeah. So the headline writer uses flock because of twitter's connection to birds.

It's used as a verb in the headline, but we can also see it as a noun to refer to a group or group of birds or sheep.

So what's the connection to sheep?

Well, if you picture a field with one sheep, and it moves over here, all of the other sheep follow it.

Sheep are famous for following each other.

So the headline writer has used this as well to describe all of these people moving from Twitter to masterdone.

They're following each other like sheep.

And so there's a nice double meaning in this headline related to birds and sheep.

But the word flock is that one that we use in everyday English.

Yeah, we do. So imagine a shop has a sale, then all of the shoppers might flock there because they want to buy something for a good price.

Yes. And if your favorite singer or group is going on tour, people will flock to ticket websites to try and get a place at the concert.

And also, if we make a good video, people flock to our website to watch it.

I hope that happens. Yeah. Same.

Let's take a look at that again.

Time for our next headline. This one is from CNN, with Twitter in Chaos.

Mustardon Is on Fire. So the headline says that Twitter is in Chaos.

Lots of people are leaving, they're joining Mastodon a rival.

The expression we're looking at is on fire.

Now, this sounds a little bit dangerous, beth, if something is on fire, that's not a good thing.

Should I call the fire brigade?

No, no, don't call the fire brigade.

So this expression on fire is used to talk about a good thing, to say that something is amazing or it's doing well.

So the headline writer is actually praising Mastodon because it's so popular at the moment.

Yeah? So often in this program we talk about metaphorical language.

On fire literally means that something is in flames.

That's not the sense here. No, in this headline, and also in informal conversation, we use on fire to say that we're impressed with something.

Yeah? And not just social media platforms.

We use it more widely. Yes, we do.

So we often use it to talk about skills.

E.g. I watched my friend play football yesterday, and she scored three goals.

She was on fire. Yeah? And I saw you preparing this script this morning.

Beth, you were on fire. Thank you, neil.

I think we're both on fire today.

Let's take a look at that again.

Time for our next headline, please.

This one is from The slate.

Could Mastodon really become a social media mammoth?

The headline is Asking If Mastodon could become a social media mammoth.

Mammoth is the word we're looking at.

What is a mammoth? Well, they are extinct animals.

They looked a little bit like Harry elephants.

They have a big trunk, and they were absolutely enormous.

Yes, and so size is the key in this headline.

It's asking whether mastodon could become a really big social media platform.

Exactly. And mammoth is also related to another very big and extinct animal that also looks like a hairy elephant, a mastodon.

And that is the name of this new social media platform.

Yes. so there's a really nice double meaning in the headline.

It's quite clever. It links the mammoth to the mastodon, another really big, extinct animal.

And also the name of this social media platform we're looking at mammoth, though.

And as an adjective, it can be used to describe really big things.

Yes, it can. So, e.g. this morning, it took me over 2 h to get to work.

It was a mammoth journey. Yes, and I had a mammoth time at the weekend.

I tried to get my kids to clean their bedroom.

And to the long, long time.

Let's have a look at that again.

We've had flock move together in a large group on fire.

Impressive, because something is done very well, and manner something very big.

Don't forget theres a quiz on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

Thank you for joining us. And goodbye, bye.

Oh.

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