BBC News Review 墨西哥发现失落的玛雅城

From BBC Learning English. This is Learning English from the News.

Are podcast about the news headlines In this program, hidden City Found in Mexican Jungle.

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

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 the worksheet, on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

So Papa, let's hear more about this story.

A huge loss city has been found in the jungle in Mexico.

The city was built by Maya people hundreds of years ago, and it was PHD students that found the city when they looked again at an old laser survey of the jungle that they found online.

The survey had originally looked at the environment of the jungle, but actually showed evidence of a city underneath the jungle which hadn't been spotted.

OK, so let's have our 1st headline.

PHD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accidents.

And that's from BBC News. That headline again from BBC news.

PHD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident.

So Beth, this headline is talking about the discovery of the Maya City, but we're looking at the expression by accident.

And it's quite important for the story, isn't it?

Yes, an accident is something that happens that is not expected or intended.

So if you do something by accident, then you do it without meaning to or intending to.

Right? So in the story, the ph D students found the city by accident.

They weren't intending to find it.

Remember, they found an old survey online.

They didn't plan their own survey of the jungle.

So another example I didn't mean to spill your coffee on you paper.

I'm sorry. I did it by accident.

Sorry. Oh, that's okay, beth. So we can also talk about doing something without intending to, using the adverb accidentally.

So we could say, the ph D students found the city accidentally, but by accident is a very common way to say it to And interestingly, we also have a phrase that means the opposite on purpose.

So if you do something on purpose, then it means you intend to do it.

We've had by accident without intending to, E.G., I read her diary by Accidents.

I was only looking for a book she borrowed.

This is learning English from the news.

Our podcast about the news headlines.

Today, we're talking about an old city found in the Mexican Jungle.

The jungle where scientists found the city might appear wild, but archaeologists believe up to 50000 people could have lived in the city before myer civilizations began to collapse in 800 A-D, the scientists research found evidence of temple pyramids and accords where people would have played an ancient ball game.

The city named Valeriana by scientists, is only 15 km from a main road, where my people still live today.

So let's have another headline Mayan City with buildings and plazas Hiding in plain sight has only now been found, and that is from the online media organization, world Is One News.

Let's have that headline again. Mayans City with buildings and plazas hiding in plain sight has only now been found.

And that's from World is One News.

This headline is talking about what archaeologists have discovered in the city buildings, places, open areas, town squares, lots of things, paper, yes.

And we're looking at the expression Hiding in plain sight.

Okay, so let's break it down.

1st off hiding. This comes from the verb hide.

And if you hide something, you put it somewhere that it can't be seen or found by others, and you can also hide yourself, so go somewhere that you can't be seen or found.

OK? And the 2nd part of the expression is in plain sight.

And so this is a way to say that something can be clearly seen.

So something's in plain sight, it can be clearly seen by people.

So, e.g., beth, I might advise you not to leave your valuable items in plain sight, because somebody might steal them.

Good advice. But I'm confused, because hiding means something can't be seen, but in plain sight means it can be seen clearly.

So how can it be both?

Well, the expression hiding in plain sight means that even though something is clear to see, people didn't see it before.

Remember, the Maya city was only 15 km

away from where people lived, and people had scanned the area before, but not seen the huge city underneath the jungle.

The city was

hiding in plain sight. Okay, so we use the expression hiding in plain sight

to talk about things that are concealed or unseen, even though we can see them easily.

E.G. I could say

I've hidden my favorite suites in plain sight in the office, and I hope nobody eats any of them.

We can also use hiding in plain sight to talk about somebody well known doing something bad, but not many people talk about it or realize at the time we ve had hide in plane sites be concealed or unseen, even though it can be clearly seen, e.g., the criminals must be hiding in plain sight.

We know they're still in the city.

This is learning English on the news apocast.

About the news headlines. Today, We're talking about a huge city found hidden in a jungle in Mexico.

And the city was found using new laser technology.

Yet the technology makes it much easier to survey wild places like jungles, which are difficult for scientists to access.

Archaeologists think that they can use similar surveys to find more hidden cities and understand more about my life hundreds of years ago.

Here's another headline. This one is from fis dot org.

Have we found all the major Maya cities?

Not even close, new research suggests.

And headline again, have we found all the major Maya cities not even close, new research suggests, and that is from fisto org, which is a science news website.

So Beth, this headline is talking about the possibility that there are lots more hidden cities built by Maya people hundreds of years ago.

And this headline is interesting paper, because it begins with a question Have we found all the major Maya cities?

And then it follows with the phrase Not even close.

So what's going on here? Well, we use the expression not even close to say that something is not at all true.

Okay, so in the headline, not even close is used to suggest that scientists have lots more cities to discover they are not close to finding them.

All right? And we use not even close a lot in conversation, so if somebody asks you a question, you can respond informally using not even close.

We also use it to add emphasis when we're writing informally, by answering our own question, like in the headline.

OK, so another example paper Can I ask you, do I have the best fashion sense at BBC?

Learning English? Do you think? Sorry, beth, not even close.

That bird hat that you're wearing is absolutely horrible.

Thanks. UL Because not even close is quite an informal phrase.

If your boss asked you whether you had finished your work, then you probably wouldn't respond with Not even close.

We ve had Not even close.

Not at all true. E.g. Did I finish all my homework this weekend?

Not even close. I'll have to stay up late to get it done.

That's it for this episode of learning.

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

If you've enjoyed this program, try our newester's All about Business Bargain, where we talk about the strange words and phrases people use at work.

Search Learning English or work in your podcasts, or visit our website, bbc learning english dot com.

Bye for now. Bye. I'm going to them.

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