BBC 英语学习 News Review 世界人口增至80亿

8 billion. That's how many people live on Earth, according to the UN This is news review from BBC, learning English.

I'm Neil and I'm shann Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary about this story.

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The world's population has officially reached 8 billion.

The growth is partly due to developments in health, nutrition and medicine.

It has taken just eleven years to go from seven to 8 billion.

But growth in several countries is actually slowing.

Many are concerned the expanding population is destroying the planet.

You ve been looking at the headlines, sean, what's the vocabulary?

OK, we have peak, poses and shape.

This is news review from BBC, learning English.

Let's take a look at our 1st headline.

This one is from the Telegraph.

World Population hits 8 billion, as experts predict when it will peak.

The world's population has reached eight billion.

That's eight followed by nine zeros.

And experts are predicting when the world population will peak.

And peak is the word we're looking at.

Is there a connection to mountains?

Shah, well, yes, kind of. So if you picture a mountain, the top is the peak, so it means you can't go any higher.

But we also use this word peak to talk about data and graphs.

So if you look at this this point, here is the peak, and it means the top.

So in the same way, the peak of a mountain is the top, yes, so that top of the mountain peak on the graph, those are nouns, but it's also used as a verb to mean, go as high as possible.

Exactly. So the headline writer is saying that the population is continuing to rise now, but at some point the population will reach the peak, so it can't go any higher, just like an actual mountain.

Yeah? And we use peak not just to talk about graphs and mountains.

We can use it to talk about performance, e.g.

in sport, exactly. So it's often used to mean that a team or a person has reached their best level of performance, they can't get any better.

They've piqued. Yeah, and we can use this, e.g.

the World Cup is coming. It's really important for a football team not to peak too soon.

So that means that they shouldn't be at their best level of performance until the actual competition, not before it exactly.

That's a useful phrase, don't peek too soon.

And we use it for other situations, not only sport.

So if you're revising for exams and you start doing too much too early, you could say, don't peak too soon, or you'll forget everything on exam day.

Excellent advice. Let's have a look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one is from CNN. Global Population hits 8 billion As growth poses more challenges for the planets, and so this population growth is causing problems for the planet.

We're looking at the word poses, and I know this word pose.

It means the way you stand.

So a model, the way a model stands for a photo, or maybe an actor on the stage that's close, or a painting, yes, the way you stand in a particular position, or yoga, you can have a yoga pose, but here it's a verb, and poses means creates or causes something to happen.

Yeah, so the headline is saying that this population growth is causing problems, issues, challenges.

It poses a problem. Exactly. So we often use poses with questions.

You can pose a question, but it's commonly used with negative nouns, like threat or danger or problem.

So should we think of some examples?

Yes. So if a driver has been drinking alcohol, it poses a danger to people in the road and in that car as well.

Yeah? Or political scandal compose problems for the government?

Yeah? OK, let's have a look at that again.

Time

for our next headline. This one's from the Conversation As the 8000000000th person is Born,

here's how Africa will shape the future of the planet's population.

This headline is looking specifically at Africa and how it will shape the future.

Now it's the word shape

we're looking at. Sean, can you give me some

example of shapes? OK, so shapes as a noun, we can have a triangle, a square, circle, but if you want to make something into the shape you want, you shape it.

So that's a verb. Shape as a verb, as it is in the headline.

And the headline is talking about how Africa will shape or influence the future.

Yes. And we often use this verb shape in relation to beliefs or ideas or a person's character.

So has anything or anyone in your life shaped you as a person?

I guess yeah. I moved around a lot when I was a kid, and I think that shaped my personality, because as an adult, I've moved around a lot as well.

Let's have a look at that one more time.

We've had pig can't get any higher or better.

Poses causes or creates something that's usually negative shape, influence.

Don't forget, there's a quiz on our website at bbc learning english dot com.

Thank you for joining us. And goodbye.

Goodbye.

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