BBC 英语学习 News Review 间谍气球

Was it a spy balloon that the US Air Force shot down?

China says no. This is news review from BBC Learning English.

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

Don't forget

to subscribe to our channel, like this video, and try the quiz that's on our website.

Now,

the story A Chinese balloon has been shot down by the US Air Force near the country's coast.

Washington believes it was a spy balloon, while China says that it was just monitoring the weather.

The incident has led to the delay of an important diplomatic visit to China.

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

We have Deflates bickering and on edge.

This is news review from BBC, learning English.

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

This is from BBC news. Balloon Saga deflates efforts to mend us China relations.

So this headline is saying that this story about the balloon has had a negative effect on China US relations.

They are not getting better. As a result, the word we are looking at is deflate.

Now, literally deflate means to let the air out of something.

Now, I'm sure that the headline writer has chosen this word because we're talking about a balloon, but also you can let the air out of something like a football or car or bike tires.

But that's not what we're talking about here, is it?

No. Here it is a metaphor.

So to deflate something in this way means to take the energy or force out of it.

So think about that ball or tire, if it has no air in it, it's pretty useless.

Now, this way of talking about it's is connected to hopes and dreams, isn't it?

It is, yeah. So your hopes and dreams can become deflated, and it just means that they become weaker.

Now, maybe you have A-A football team or a sports team, you really want them to win, and then they keep losing, so you feel deflated.

Your hoped for the team deflated, yeah.

Or you need 80% in an exam to pass, and you get 79, you're going to feel deflated.

Let's look at that again. Let's have a look at our next headline.

This is from AP Balloon Bickering over Biden s actions, china s intentions?

Yes, so there have been arguments over President biden's actions and also china's intentions.

With this balloon, we are looking, though, at the word bickering.

Now, bickering means arguing, but there are lots of words in English that we can use instead of arguing.

But the headline writer might have chosen bickering because it starts with the same letter as balloon.

So we have balloon bickering. Now, what kind of arguing is bickering?

The Well, bickering is the kind of arguing about things that aren't really that important.

So imagine a brother and sister constantly fighting over little things.

So if it's little things, why is the headline writer using bickering about this thing that sounds quite serious?

Well, it's quite possible that the headline writer thinks that these things that they're talking about aren't very important.

But it's more likely what we said before, that it just sounds good to write or to say, balloon bickering.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This is from the Financial Times.

China's military keeps rivals on edge with balloon strategy.

So the headline and story is saying that china's use of balloons in this way is making other countries feel uncomfortable.

The expression that we're looking at is on edge.

That's right. So the expression on edge is that you feel tense because maybe you're nervous or worried.

Can you break it down for a snail?

Yes. Well, we don't know exactly the origin of this expression, but it's useful to imagine standing on the edge of something, e.g.

a mountain, a cliff or a tall building.

You are going to feel nervous and stressed, because something bad might happen.

Exactly. It's quite dangerous. You might fall.

So when people are on edge, they can sometimes react in a very stressed way, or maybe with anger.

Neil, is there anything that puts you on edge?

This morning, beth, we came to

the studio and the script wasn't quite ready, and we didn't have much time.

I felt a bit on edge.

That's right. But we're okay now.

It was okay in the end.

Ok let's look at that again.

We've had deflate take the air energy or strength out of something, bickering, arguing over something that really doesn't matter, and on the edge tents.

Because you're nervous or worried about something, don't forget.

There's a quiz on our website at BBC learning english com.

Thank you for joining us. And goodbye.

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