BBC News Review 研究发现，减肥药可降低癌症风险

From BBC, learning English. This is learning English from the news, our podcast about the news headlines In this program, can weight loss drugs reduce the risk of cancer?

Hello, I'm Neil, and I'm Georgie.

In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help

you understand it. You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet, on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

So let's hear more about this story.

Weight loss drugs could reduce the risk of getting cancer by half.

New research suggests cancer experts are excited by the findings, with one saying that this could be a whole new era of preventative cancer medicine Obesity is associated with 13 different cancers.

Losing weight reduces the risk, but the researchers have calculated that the weight loss drugs provide an additional protective effect that is more than just weight loss.

And our 1st headline is about this.

This headline from the daily record Weight Loss Jabs may prevent cancer due to health benefits beyond weight loss.

And that headline, again, from Daily record weight loss Jobs May prevent cancer due to health benefits beyond weight loss.

We're looking at this word jab.

What is a weight loss jab?

Georgie. Well, jab is another word for injection, an injection that's the act of putting a needle into the skin to insert medicine.

Now, jab is mostly used for vaccinations, but here it's about these weight loss drugs which are injected.

Yes. Now, jab is quite an informal word, and it became a lot more common during the covid pandemic, when people were talking about the covid vaccinations.

Yeah, so you might hear someone ask, have you had your jabs?

Which means, have you had your vaccinations?

Jab has some other meanings. It can be a verb, meaning to poke something quickly and forcefully.

Usually was something pointy, like a finger or a pencil, e.g.

I was in a crowded place, and someone was in a rush, they jabbed me in the ribs with their elbow to get past me.

Ouch. Poor union. Now, a jab can also mean an insulting comment, and we can use it in the phrase Take a jab at someone.

So E.G., my sister always takes jabs at me for my fashion sense.

She says, the colours I wed don't suit me.

We've had jab injection. E.G. I hate getting jabs.

I'm really scared of needles. This is learning English from the news.

Are podcast about the news headlines today.

We're talking about the suggestion that weight loss drugs could reduce the risk of cancer.

The study involved tracking patients for eight years, and found that weight loss injections were better of reducing the risk of cancer than weight loss surgery.

The authors of the study think this could be because the drugs reduce inflammation in the body and help the immune system destroy cancer cells.

Let's have our next headline. This one is from the Telegraph.

Weight Loss jobs half the risk of cancer.

And that headline, again, weight loss Jabs half the risk of cancer.

That was from the Telegraph. So we can see that word jabs again, the jabs half the risk of cancer, but this time we're looking at half.

Now, an eel A sounds a bit like half, doesn't it?

Yes, the now, half with the sound means 50% of something.

Half of four is two, E.G.

But here it's a verb, half with A-V sound.

Yes, it can mean to divide something into two parts.

So imagine a pizza. I could have a pizza into two parts, E.G.

But in the headline, it means to reduce the amount to 50, reduce the risk of cancer to half half the cancer risk.

Yes, the word quarter can also be a noun and a verb.

A quarter of something, that's the noun is 25% of it, two quarters something.

The verb means to divide it into four parts or reduce it to 25 %.

Yes, but we can't do the same with a 3rd or any other fraction.

They work as nouns A 3rd, a 5th and 8th.

You're not likely to see them as verbs.

We've had half reduced by half.

E.G., the theme park harved its prices for the day to attract more customers.

This is learning English from the news, from BBC.

Learning English, we're talking about the weight loss drugs that could reduce the risk of cancer.

So this study used earlier versions of the weight loss drugs, known as g LP ones, which were initially brought out to treat diabetes.

Since the study began, newer, more effective drugs have come out, and the authors of the studies say these may be even more beneficial for reducing cancer risks.

Okay, let's look at our next headline.

This one is from sky News.

Weight Loss Jobs could almost harve risk

of obesity related cancers beyond slimming down.

Study

suggests. And again that headline from sky News Weight Loss Jabs could almost half risk of obesity related cancers.

Beyond slimming down. Study suggests this headline is

about the drugs having effects beyond just weight loss.

And we see that word harve again, but this time we're looking at the frasal verb slim down.

So you might know the adjective slim which has a similar meeting Too thin.

But what about the verb slim down?

Well, it has two meanings. Both are related to making something smaller.

Here in the headline, it means become thinner by losing weight.

The jabs have effects that go beyond just slimming down.

Another example, my dad says he wants to slim down before our friend's wedding so he can fit into his old suit.

Slim down can also mean to reduce something in size or quantity.

Now, this is usually used in a business setting.

Yeah, so, e.g., the company needs to slim down its workforce to cut costs.

We ve had slim down become thinner.

E.G. his doctor told him that slimming down was important for his health.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

Will be back next week with another new story.

We learned the fraser verb slimm down, but we have a whole series about phrase a verbs on our website.

Search Frasal Valves with Georgie on BBC learning english dot com.

Don't forget to follow us on social media.

Search for BBC Learning English. Good Bye for now.

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