BBC 英语学习 News Review 逮捕“自由护卫队”

In Ottawa in Canada, freedom Convoy protesters have been arrested.

This

is news review from BBC Learning English.

Hello. I'm Rob, and joining me today is Roy.

Hello. Roy. Hello, rob

and Hallow. 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, to take a quiz.

But now, let's hear more about this story from this BBC news report.

Officials in Canada have now made more than a hundred arrests as they seek to end a three week blockade of the capital Ottawa by Lorry drivers.

They are protesting against mandatory covied vaccinations to enter the United States.

More than 20 vehicles have been towed away.

So Lorry drivers in Canada have been protesting against rules that they must be vaccinated against covered in order to enter the United States.

They have been blockading and blocking the city of Ottawa.

Hmm, an interesting story. And we've got three words and expressions from the news headlines that you can use to talk about this story.

What are they? Please, roy. We do we have siege, bitter divisions and final push.

That siege bitter divisions and final push.

OK Well, let's have a look at the 1st headline, please.

Okay, so our 1st headline comes from the Bangkok Post, and it reads, police reclaim Canada capital after truck A siege ends.

So that siege organized operation to prevent a place from receiving supplies in order to force a surrender?

Yes? So siege is a noun, and it is built S-I-E-G-E, and it basically refers to an operation that prevents a place, e.g.

a city, from receiving any kind of supplies, uh, in order to force them to surrender.

Now, it's commonly used as a military tactic, and we often see it used with the verb, um, lay to lay, siege.

Yeah. So we tend to see this used in war and depicted in films.

Is that right? Yeah, it is.

It's a military tactic where, e.g., a group like the like an army, surrounds a place, e.g.

a city, and it stops that city from receiving supplies like food, and it prevents people from leaving the city.

So in other words, people inside the city are potentially starving, and this is a tactic used to make those people surrender.

Okay, so we're kind of talking about the military and the army, but this headline isn't about that.

It's about truckers. What are truckers?

OK Yeah, so truckers is another word for truck drivers.

Now, a truck in American English refers to that massive vehicle that is used to transport goods along the road.

Now, as I say, truck is an American English word.

In British English, we refer to the vehicle as a lorry, and the person who drives there is a lorry driver.

And you can also call that person an HGV driver.

HGV stands for heavy Goods vehicle.

OK? And going back this word siege, then we sometimes use in connection with groups of protesters or even terrorists.

Yeah, the important idea here is that it's all about groups of people.

So it's like a an organized operation of a group of people to stop a place from being supplied, or to force a kind of capitulation or surrender.

Okay, let's have a summary then of that word.

In news of you recently, we talked about the volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit the Pacific island of Tonggo, where it was cut off from the rest of the world.

How can we watch that video again?

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

OK, let's have a look at your next headline, please.

OK, so our next headline comes from The Financial Times, and it reads, just in Trudo ends Canadas truck a siege, but leaves bitter divisions.

So that's bitter divisions, angry, disagreement between two groups.

Yeah. So this is a two word expression.

1st word is bitter, B-I, double T-E-R, 2nd word divisions D-I-V-I-S-I-O-N-S, and basically the 1st word bitter relates to kind of being angry, and the 2nd word divisions is a disagreement or some kind of split or separation.

So I thought bitter had something to do with taste, like the taste of coffee or lemons.

They are bitter, absolutely. It can refer

to taste, but it also has another meaning, which refers to being

angry. So bitter is, you can say it's a replacement for the word angry, so, e.g., if you have a bad day, you could be quite bitter.

Now, we commonly use bitter to talk about a longer form of anger, so it's not quick, and it's also sort of builds over time, so you can become bitter over time.

Hmm, I mean, I'm bitter if I have to go into the office for a meeting that either doesn't take place or is a waste of time.

I get bitter about the time wasted.

I can understand that. So that's a good example of being better.

Now, we're also talking about divisions.

Now, a division is when two parties or two groups disagree, and it separates them, it splits them, e.g., in their opinion, down the middle.

So it could be talking about two countries who are divided.

It could be divisions in political groups, or, e.g.

between protesters and other groups of protesters.

Okay, what about, though, if I had a disagreement with you, roy about who's going to make, who's gonna make the tea or coffee?

Would we have a bitter division over that kind of situation?

Well, I disagree. We never have a disagreement.

But no, as I said, it's about groups.

So individuals, you may say that I disagree with Rob, it's your turn to make the coffee um.

Or Or maybe if I disagree with you over an opinion, I may say that we can't see I to I means disagreement, but we don't commonly use it to talk about just two individuals.

It's more commonly used to talk about groups.

Yeah, so two large groups. They are divided into different opinions or or or where they stand on a situation.

Absolutely good stuff. OK let's have a summary of that expression.

Are you struggling to disagree with someone?

Well, we made a program about how to disagree better, right?

No, we didn't just this is agreeing.

Okay, all you need to do to watch that program is click the link in the description below.

Yep, it's definitely down there below.

OK let's have a look at your next headline, please.

So our next headline comes from The Mail online, and it reads, canada makes final push to end weeks long protest in Capital.

Hundreds of police officers around downtown Ottawa and warn residents to keep away or face arrest after taking almost 200 into custody this weekend.

To that final push, last effort or movement.

So another two word expression. 1st word is final, F-I-N-A-L, 2nd word push, P-U-S-H.

Now, a push is a movement or an effort, and final that means last.

Yeah, and I hear this a lot in sport.

A football team makes a final push for promotion, or even just a final push to win the game by scoring maybe another goal.

Absolutely. So what a final push means?

It's an ultimate last effort where you get all of the energy that you can to just make that final last, huge effort to achieve something that possibly before.

you haven't had too much success doing.

So in terms of the football team and the promotion, maybe it looks like they're not gonna get promotion, they're not going to go up to the next league, but they just get that final effort to try and get promoted.

But in this headline, we're not talking about sport or football.

We're actually talking about the police who are trying to break up a protest.

Yeah, that's right. So they're making a huge final effort to end the protests.

Now, we don't only use it in this sense.

You can use it in many different ways, e.g., a politician can make a final push to run for a position or presidency.

Or in terms of business, if negotiations between two parties they're not going too well, you can make a final push to close the deal.

And can we use this expression informally, casually?

Um, not not really. So, e.g., if it's your birthday, rob and I've been trying to buy you a birthday present without success, I'm not going to say I'll make a final push to get your birthday present.

This is for a bigger kind of opera operations, e.g.

ending a protest or closing

a business deal. Okay, you'd still make an effort to buy me a present, wouldn't you?

Always good. Let's have a summary of that expression.

OK we're almost out of time, but let's have a recap of the words and expressions that we've discussed today, please.

Yes, we had siege organized operation to prevent a place from receiving supplies in order to force a surrender.

We had bitter divisions, angry disagreements between two groups, and we had final push, last effort or movement.

Don't forget, you can test yourself on these words and expressions in a quiz that's on our website at bbc learning english dot com.

And that's the place to go to for lots of other learning English materials.

And don't forget, we're on social media as well.

That's all for news review for today.

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

Good Bye. Bye.

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