BBC News Review 瑞典将加入北约

Sweden, traditionally neutral, joins NATO. This is news review from BBC Learning English, where we help you understand news headlines in English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Phil. Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel so you can learn more English from news headlines.

Now the story Sweden is to join NATO.

After 200 years of neutrality, the nation applied to join the Defense Alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

All NATO members are expected to help an ally if attacked.

Hungry was the final NATO member to approve the invitation.

You ve been looking at the headlines film.

What's the vocabulary? People need to understand this new story?

In English, we have clear's path.

Final hurdle and Farewell. This is news review from BBC, Learning English.

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

This is from the BBC hungary's Parliament clears path for sweden's NATO membership.

So Hungary was the last member of NATO to approve sweden's membership.

It clears a path for Sweden.

That's the expression that we're looking at.

It contains that word path. Now, a path is another word for a route away from one place to another, often in a park or in the countryside.

Yes, it is and clear it's often an adjective, but in this case it's a verb, and it means to physically remove the obstacles that are stopping you from walking on the path.

Okay, now let's use our imaginations phil Here we have Sweden, and here we have Nato, and there is a path between the two.

But imagine that path is covered with trees and bushes.

Hungary comes along and clears the path.

Is that a useful way of thinking about it?

It's a very little way of looking at it here.

The obstacles are political, there to do with votes and decisions.

And hungary's decision has cleared the path for Sweden to join NATO.

Now, I think there's another way we could use this to talk about the world of work.

Isn't their meal? Yes. So imagine at work, you want to get a promotion, there's an opportunity for a promotion, but there is somebody else who has more experience and qualifications than you.

However, that person decides to leave the organization, and that act clears the path for you to get the let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This is from the Financial Times.

Sweden overcomes final hurdle to join NATO in historic shift.

OK, so it says that Sweden overcomes something.

It means they have solved a problem.

And in this case it's a hurdle.

But what a hurdle? We need to know what a hurdle is to understand this headline.

Yes. Well, a hurdle is one of those frames that athletes jump over when they're in a hurdle race.

And actually, I can already see a link between this headline and the last one, because that was all about removing obstacles, and a hurdle is an obstacle.

Yes? So sweden's final hurdle, or final obstacle to joining NATO, was hungary's vote to approve them, and they overcame it.

Can you give us another example?

Well, the reason that we make news with you is to help you overcome any hurdles in understanding the news in English.

The words and phrases that we teach you will help you overcome those hurdles.

Let's look at that again. Let's have our next headline.

This is from The Guardian. Sweden will complete its long farewell to neutrality with NATO accession.

So here in this headline, neutrality means that Sweden hasn't taken sides in any war or conflict for 200 years, but now they are abandoning that neutrality.

The word, though, that we're looking at is farewell.

What can you tell us about farewell?

PHIL Okay, well, this is quite an old formal English word.

Historically, it meant go well or travel well, but really it's just another way of saying goodbye.

Ah, but Phil, is it the same as saying goodbye?

I've never heard you say at the end of a working day, farewell.

Well, you can say farewell at the end of the working day,

but it would sound a bit strange.

We tend to use farewell for something that's kind of an emotional goodbye and important goodbye, or something that's very final.

Yeah, so if I was going to move to a different country, I might have a farewell party, and I might make a

farewell speech at that party, but I wouldn't do those things if I was just going home.

No, it has this kind of poetic and romantic sense.

So we could talk about a fond farewell, an emotional farewell.

And if you want a really old fashioned, formal English way of saying goodbye, you could say, I bid you farewell.

Now it's nearly time for us to say goodbye, not farewell, because we will be back next week.

Let's look at that again. We've had clear's path make something easier to achieve.

Final hurdle. The last thing stopping you from doing something and farewell, a way of saying goodbye.

Now, if you like things about making important decisions, why not check out our leadership playlist.

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another video. Thank you for joining us.

And goodbye. Goodbye. Oh.

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