BBC News Review 乌克兰战争：美俄和谈

From BBC Learning English. This is learning English from the news.

Are podcast about the news headlines.

In this program, US and Russia are in talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Hello, I'm Beth, and I'm Pepper.

In this program,

we look at one big new 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 the story.

The US and Russia have agreed to start peace talks and negotiations for ending the war in Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the talks are the 1st step of a long and difficult journey.

But Ukraine hasn't been invited to the talks, and ukraine's president, vladimir Zelensky says Ukraine will not give up territory to Russia.

So let's have our 1st headline.

This one's from the Wall Street Journal in the US.

US gears up for highest profile Russia talks since Ukraine invasion.

And that headline again, US gears up for highest profile Russia talks since Ukraine invasion.

And that's from the Wall Street Journal in the US.

This headline is about preparations in the US for the talks with Russia.

And we're interested in the phrase Gears up now, pepper a gear that's part of a car or a bike, right?

Yes, gears are used in mechanical things like cars, and they determine how much power or speed something has, e.g.

in a car, you use a lower gear when you are traveling more slowly, and a higher gear when you need more power and want to go faster.

Okay, so to gear up, literally, we change to a higher gear.

So we can think about this meaning to understand gear up in the headline.

Yes, us gears up for talks.

It means prepare, or get ready for.

Now, we often use gear up when we're talking about preparing for something difficult or something that requires a lot of energy.

So e.g. you could get up for a negotiation or gear up for an important sports match.

We can also use gear up to talk about events that are highly anticipated.

E.G., there's a big festival in my town next week, and everyone's gearing up for the event.

They're getting ready. Now, there's another expression with gears that we often use.

We can say that someone has switched gears, and that means they've dramatically changed their approach to something.

We ve had gear up, prepare or get ready.

E.G. I'm gearing up for a big test this week.

I hope I'm ready. This is learning English on the news uppercast.

About the news headlines today. We're talking about the US.

And Rushes talks about an end to the war in Ukraine.

As we mentioned earlier, ukraine isn't involved in the current talks.

European leaders have also not been included.

So far. Ukraine's president, vladimir Zelensky, has said he won't recognize a peace deal that is negotiated without his country being involved in the negotiation.

Since the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, russia has taken control of large parts of ukraine's territory.

It's unclear whether Russia would agree to returning that land.

Let's have another headline. This one's from BBC news.

Ukraine end game What each side wants from a peace deal?

And that headline, again from BBC News Ukraine and game What each side wants from a peace deal.

This headline is from an Explainer article, which discusses what things would need to be negotiated for Ukraine and Russia to end the fighting.

Now, we're interested in this expression.

End game. Pepper, can you tell us more?

Yes. So an end game, which can be written as one word or two, is what we call the final parts of a game, like chess.

So it's all about tactics. So that's a literal end game.

But we can also use end game metaphorically, and that's to talk about the final stage in a process, especially one which involves a negotiation or a dispute.

So in the headline, by using the phrase Ukraine end game, the writer is imagining what a potential peace deal might be like if the talks are effective.

Remember, these are just the 1st talks, but the fact that talks are happening at all is a big change in the conflict.

And we can also use end game in a slightly different way to talk about someone's aim or motivation for doing something.

So, e.g., you could say the company's end game is to sell their products around the world.

We've had end game the final stage in a process, especially a negotiation or dispute,

e.g. negotiations with the workers,

have reached their end game. There'll be a deal on wages soon.

This is learning English from the news.

Our podcast about the news headlines.

Today, we're discussing talks about an end to the war in

Ukraine. Now that the US has shown it wants to try and end the war in Ukraine, other world leaders are thinking about what peace in the region could

look like. European leaders, including Olaf Schultz, emanuel Macron and Kiastama, have been discussing how to help end the war.

UK Prime Minister Kiir Starma said that the UK could send some British troops, that's, soldiers, to help keep the peace if a deal to end the war was reached.

But not all European leaders agree, and we have a headline about this.

This one s from The Independent, a newspaper in the UK Europe Split over Star Pledge to send troops to Ukraine.

And that headline again, europe split over Starma pledge to send troops to Ukraine.

And that's from the Independent in the UK.

This headline is about kiyistarma's pledge.

That means a promise to send troops to Ukraine.

Now we're looking at split. If something splits, it means it divides into two or more pieces.

Yes, e.g. if I offer to split my cake with you bath, that means I will divide it into two pieces, and we get one each.

Lovely. We can also use splits metaphorically to talk about a group of people who have different opinions.

In this headline, it's split over.

Yes, in the headline, europe is split over.

Starmers pledge. That means European leaders disagree about the idea, imagine them divided into two or more groups based on what they think they are split.

We commonly use split when we're talking about opinions, e.g.

in politics. So the government might suggest a tax rise, that splits opinion, people can't agree about it.

We had split divided into two or more opinions about something, e.g., me and my boyfriend are split over whether to move to the countryside.

We just can't agree. That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another new story.

If you've enjoyed this program, try the worksheet on our website To test what you've learned, visit bbc learning english dot com.

And you can also find us on social media search.

BBC Learning English. Bye for now.

Bye.

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