BBC 英语学习 News Review 火箭撞击月球

Part of an abandoned rocket is thought to have hit the moon last Friday, according to scientists.

Hello.

This is news review from BBC, learning English, and I'm Rob.

And joining me today to look at the language from the headlines about this story is Roy.

Hello. Roy. Hello Rob. And hello everybody.

If you would like to test yourself on the vocabulary around this story, all you need to do is head to our website, bbc learning english dot com.

But now let's hear more about this story from Professor Hugh Lewis, a professor at the University of Southampton, who's talking about space debris.

Human beings are really ingenious, and we've been able to solve the problem of getting satellites into orbit, but what we haven't been able to solve is really how to clean up after ourselves.

So the story is this part of a discarded rocket has most likely impacted on the far side of the Moon.

Now, it isn't clear at this time who this rocket belongs to.

The effects of the impact on the moon are likely to be quite small and minor.

But interestingly, the European Space Agency estimates that there are now 36500 pieces of space junk, which is a word we use, or phrase we use to say space rubbish larger than 10 cm.

Well, well, we have three words and expressions from a news headlines about this story.

What are those words and expressions?

Please, roy. We have rogue collision course.

And calculate. That's rogue collision course.

And calculate. Ok let's go to that 1st headline then, please.

Okay, so our 1st headline comes from space dot com, and it reads, A rogue, three ton piece rocket debris just collided with the moon.

So that's rogue describes something that behaves abnormally, often in a way that causes damage.

OK? So rogue is being used as an adjective here.

It spell R-O-G-U-E, and it talks about something that is behaving unexpectedly.

Is describing something that's not acting in its normal way, and the result of these rogue actions usually leads to some kind of damage.

And in this headline, we're using the word robe to describe the actual rocket.

Yeah, yeah, we are. So, E.G., the rocket was expected to do one thing, or this the part of the rocket was expected to do one thing, and it's behaving in an unexpected way, as in it's now going to collide, or has collided with the moon.

Um, we use this word rogue quite often to talk about, uh objects or people, e.g.

a rogue employee. If you have a rogue employee, they may be doing something that's going to cause damage or dangerous actions, e.g.

they may be trying to sabotage your steel secrets from the company.

If you have a rogue company or a rogue firm, maybe they are behaving or trading in a bad way, selling bad products, e.g.

We also hear it when we talk about, uh, secret agents.

You can have a rogue secret agent, or, uh, a rogue spy may be there selling secrets to the enemy.

This all sounds very negative. Is rogue a negative word?

Or or can it be used in a positive way?

Quite quite commonly, it is used negatively.

You can also, in some instances, use it positively, e.g.

police officers. You have some police officers, and they're given some orders, but they decide to go against their orders.

They go rogue, and they may be save people from a building.

So they, they, they they don't follow their all this.

And they go and help other people.

They they go rogue. And we could talk about rogue countries as well.

Yes, you can a country that's not behaving in an in unexpected way, in a normal way.

And the verb commonly used with rogue is a go rogue.

To go rogue. OK, thanks for that, roy.

Let's have a summary. We've been to space before in news review.

Last time we went there was to find some space wine and tell us more.

Roy. All you need to do to watch this story is click the link in the description below.

Great. Okay, let's have a look at your next news headline, please.

Okay, so our next headline come from euro News, and it reads, three tons of space junks heads to the moon on a 5800 mile per hour collision course.

So that's collision course on a path which will result in impact.

So a two word expression, 1st word collision C-O double L-I-S-I-O-N, 2nd word course C-O-U-R-S-E.

And it means on a path, or going in a direction that will result in an accident.

And this expression is commonly used with the preposition on on a collision course.

Okay, now, I've heard this expression used in the movies, in a kind of action film or a disaster movie, when, e.g.

two aircrafts are heading towards each other, they're on a collision course.

Is that right? Yeah, that's right.

So, e.g. one object is potentially moving like a plane in the direction of something, e.g.

a mountain, and if they don't change their direction, if they junk change their way, they are on a collision course, and they will hit It could also be two objects moving towards each other that are gonna have an accident, and we commonly use it for talking about things like cars, trains, moving objects.

What about two people if they're gonna head towards each other, bump into each other?

Are they on a collision course?

Is that kind of literal meaning?

Well, I suppose you could. If they've both got, like, trees of drinks, and they can't see, and it's gonna, you know, they're both going towards each other, and they're going to hit.

But it's not common that we would use say that they're on a collision course.

Um, we do use it more non literally.

When we're talking about two people who are maybe heading towards a big argument or a fight, you could say that they are on a collision course, OK?

Unlike us, royal course. Never on a collision course, never.

OK. Thank you for that. Let's have a summary.

In our six minute English program, we talked about astronauts possibly going on strike.

How can we find out more?

Right, all you need to do is click the link in the description below.

Yep. Great. Let's have a look at your next headline now, please.

Okay, so our next headline comes from the Daily Saba, and it reads Old Nearly four ton rocket crashes into moon.

Astronomers calculate to the word is calculate, come to a conclusion?

Yes. So this word is calculate, and it is spelt C-A-L-C-U-L-A-T-E.

And it means arrive at a conclusion or understanding.

Now, calculate, this is something something to do with maths, isn't there?

Adding up numbers? Yeah, quite commonly.

So we calculate sums or mathematical equations, so, e.g.

one plus one. A calculate that, and it is two.

It often involves numbers or information.

Now, a synonym of this, and it's more informal, fraser verb, is to work out.

So you work out an equation, or you work out a sum.

Hmm. And if people can't work out a sum in their heads, they use a calculator.

They do. Indeed, I use calculators all the time.

I am terrible at mads, which is why I said one plus one.

I'm an English teacher, not a math teacher.

But, yeah, that's right, you use a calculator to work that out.

Now, in the headline, calculate is being used, as I said, as a verb, and it means to reach an understanding or to arrive at a conclusion.

And it's probably involving maths. They were working out the angle or the speed of the rocket.

So we also use it to talk about a person we do, but it's a very different meaning.

You can say somebody is a calculating person, or they are calculating, and it's usually negative.

It means they may be plotting and scheming.

They're trying to control a situation for their benefit.

As I say, it's usually a negative.

Yes, very good. OK, let's have a summary.

OK, roy, its time now for you to recap the words and expressions that we've talked about today.

Please. Yes, we had rogue describes something that behaves abnormally, often in a way that causes damage.

We had collision course on a path which will result in impact, and we had calculate come to a conclusion.

Now, if you want to test yourself on the understanding of his vocabulary, we have a quiz that's on our website at bbc learning english dot com.

And that's also the place to go to to check out all our other Learning English materials.

And of course, we're all across social media.

Well, that's all for today's news review.

Thank you for watching, and we'll see you next time.

Bye for now. Bye.

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