BBC 英语学习 News Review 新英国首相：利兹·特拉斯

Bye bye, boris. Hello, liz. The UK has a new Prime minister.

This is news review from BBC.

Learning

English. I'm Meal and I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk

about today's story. And don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video

and try the quiz on our website.

Now it's time for our story.

Boris Johnson is out, and less Trust is in.

After winning the ruling conservative parties leadership election, johnson resigned after a series of scandals.

Prime Minister Trust will have to deal with urgent issues such as the energy crisis.

You ve been looking at the headlines, beth, what's the vocabulary?

We have Succeeds backed and storm clouds gathering.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

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

This one comes from the Washington Post.

Liz Trust succeeds Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister.

So the meaning of this headline is that Liz Trust has replaced Boris Johnson.

She has succeeded him. We're looking at this word succeed, which you probably know, with a different meaning connected to doing well.

Yes, you're right. So we use succeed to mean doing well or getting the result you want.

E.g. if you succeed in a job interview, then it means you've got the job.

But in this headline, it has a different meaning.

Succeed can also mean taking over from an official position.

Yeah, so the headline is saying that Liz Trust has taken over or replaced for us Johnson.

She has succeeded him. And when we use the verb succeed with this meaning, the person who is being replaced comes after the verb.

Now, beth, this sounds quite formal, this use of succeed, yeah, well, in this context and with this meaning, it is quite formal, so you might see it written down in headlines, articles, reports.

It's unlikely that you would hear people like you and me just using it in casual conversation, because we're more likely to say, replace or take over from Yeah, it's kind of for official positions and used very commonly when we talk about royalty.

So when a king or a queen dies, the next one succeeds them?

Yes? And we call this process succession.

So according to the British royal families, rules of succession, when the queen dies, prince Charles will become king, so he will succeed the Queen.

Let's take a look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one comes from France 24 New PM How Johnson Loyalist Lives Trust Bags the top job in British politics.

The headline is saying that Liztras has replaced Boris Johnson.

It calls her a loyalist, and that means that she was a strong supporter of him before.

That's not the word we're looking at, though.

We are looking at bag. Now, I'm sure you all know what a bag is.

It's the thing that you keep your phone keys and you're shopping in.

That's right. A bag is a thing.

It's a noun. But here it's being used as a verb to bag something.

Yes? So we can use bag as a verb to mean winning or getting something.

So in this case, liz Tres has got the job of being the British Prime Minister.

And we can use this with competitions.

You could say that he begged the top prize, but it's quite informal.

This is a kind of slang, that's right.

But why are we seeing this slang in a newspaper headline?

It's a serious topic. A newspaper is often a serious place for discussion.

Why is it there? Well, just because it's in the newspaper doesn't mean that it has to be formal.

So this is a big story at the moment.

The newspapers are trying to grab all of the readers' attention, and sometimes using slang can make it appeal to a wider audience.

Beth, have I ever told you about the time I bagged a top prize?

No, you haven't tell me. When I was ten years old, I won the breakdowns in competition at my youth club.

Wow, that's amazing. Can you show us now?

No, I don't want to end up in hospital.

Fair enough. Let's have a look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline, then, please.

This one comes from the Independent Storm Clouds Already Gathering over New PM

Liz Trust after narrow win. So we are looking at the expression

storm clouds gathering, which is very dramatic sounding best.

Do

you like rain? No, not really.

But we're not actually talking about real rain or real storms in this headline.

So it's used in a metaphorical sense to mean that something bad is going to happen.

So the storm clouds represent the bad things, and the gathering means is going to happen soon.

Yeah. So according to the headline writer, the clouds are gathering over Liz Trust as if it's going to rain on her, meaning that difficult times are ahead.

Yes, she has become Prime Minister at a challenging time for the UK.

There is the energy crisis and a possible economic recession.

So she does have some big issues to deal with.

Yes. And she herself has used the expression ride out the storm.

She says she needs to ride out the storm again.

They're that metaphor about storms, meaning that difficult times are ahead.

OK, let's have a look at that.

One more weve had to succeed.

Takes over, ann official position, bagged, got all won something, and storm clouds gathering, it looks like something bad is going to happen.

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

Thank you for joining us. And goodbye bye.

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