BBC News Review 巴西洪水

Worst flooding in 80 years hit southern Brazil.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

Will we help you understand news headlines in English?

I'm Beth, and I'm Georgie. Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary you need to talk about this story.

And don't forget to subscribe to our channel to learn more English from the headlines.

Now today's story Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande de Soul have left hundreds of towns under water.

Over 90 people have died in the floods, and about 155000 have had to leave their homes.

More than a hundred and 30 people are still missing.

More heavy rain is expected in the region this week.

You ve been looking at the headlines.

What's the vocabulary that people need to understand this new story?

In English we have torrential displaced and Reek havoc.

This is news review from BBC, learning English.

Let's have our 1st headline. This one is from the Guardian Weather Tracker.

Torrential rainstorms cause death and destruction in Brazil.

So this headline says that heavy rain is causing floods in Brazil.

We are looking at the adjective torrential, and this comes from the noun torrent Georgie.

What is a torrent? Torrent means bury a fast flowing water.

So imagine a stream, a fast stream, a river or a waterfall, has torrents of water.

So when we describe rain as torrential the adjective, we mean very strong, heavy rainfall.

So imagine torrents of water falling from the sky.

As you can imagine, torrential rain often causes floods and destruction.

Now, we almost always use torrential to describe fast flowing water, but specifically rain.

Now we really use it to emphasize just how much rain there is.

That's right. We do also use it to exaggerate as well.

So even if the rain doesn't cause floods and destruction like it has in Brazil, we might still use it to sound dramatic.

So this weekend, e.g. in the UK, we had a lot of heavy rain.

I might say that it was torrential rain.

I had to cancel all my plans.

Yes, and that is a good example of exaggeration.

It wasn't that bad. Now, instead of torrential, we can also say it's pouring, which again means a lot of rain.

And in the U-K we often say it's chucking it down, which means, again, it's raining really heavily.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one is from the Decken Herald Death toll from Brazil reins climbs to 83 thousands displaced.

Now, this headline says that the death toll in Brazil is climbing.

A death toll means the number of people who have died, and climb means increase.

But we are looking at the word displaced.

It has the word place in it, which is a noun.

You know that word? We are in a studio.

That is a place. But Georgie, how do we use it as a verb?

Well, if you place something somewhere, it means that you put it somewhere.

So, beth, can I play something in your Yes.

Okay. I placed the water bottle in your hand.

I put it there. Okay, so that is a place.

But here we're looking at displaced.

And when we add the prefix disk, it actually means the opposite.

And displaced is very often used for serious things.

Yes, it means to move someone or something from their original position.

And in the headline we have Thousands displaced.

And here we're talking about thousands of people being displaced.

That means the floods caused them to leave their homes because it's become too dangerous.

And we do hear the word displaced very often in the context of war and natural disasters, like in the headline here, when something is just too dangerous and people are forced to move away.

Yep. And don't confuse displaced with misplaced they sound similar, but they have different prefixes, which gives them different meanings.

So misplace means that you put something in the wrong place or lose it.

So this morning, E.G., I misplaced my keys, and that means I couldn't find them.

Have you found them now? Yes.

Good. OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. This one is from people's Dispatch.

Floods Wreak havoc on southern Brazilian state, with 83 confirmed deaths.

Now, again, this

headline is talking about the floods in Brazil, but we are looking at Reek havoc.

Now, this is very often seen together as a combination, but can you break it down for us?

Yes. Let's start with havoc. Havoc is a noun which means chaos or destruction.

And Reek has a similar meaning to cause So together, the meaning is similar to cause chaos.

The floods are wreaking havoc in Brazil.

They are causing chaos. So as you said, reek havoc is common as a combination, re on its own is not common, and you shouldn't use it just any time you want to say the word cause, right?

So we could say pollution causes climate change, and we definitely wouldn't say pollution reeks climate change.

It just sounds very strange. Now, reek is almost always followed by havoc in modern English, but the word havoc is a little bit more flexible.

So apart from Reek havoc, we could say, cause havoc or unleash havoc.

Any more examples? Yes. So actually this morning we had a lot of train cancellations, which wreaked havoc on people trying to get to work on time.

And as we know, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy.

Edit. OK, let's look at that again.

We've had torrential describes heavy rain, displaced, moved from the original position, and reekk havoc cause chaos.

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another episode. Thanks for joining us.

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