BBC 英语学习 News Review 汤加火山和海啸袭击

There are reports of major damage in the Pacific island of Tonga after a huge volcanic eruption and widespread tsunami.

This is BBC news. Of you from BBC, learning English.

I'm Rob, and joining me to talk about this story

is Roy. Hello Roy. Hello Rob.

And hello 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.

New Zealand has sent an air Force plane to the island nation of Tonga to make an initial assessment of the damage caused by saturday's massive volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Communications there are mostly down. The International Red Cross says it fears large scale devastation, and is preparing relief operations for people who may now lack drinking water or shelter.

The Aid Agency, save the Children is also trying to provide assistance.

So a massive volcanic eruption and tsunami hit Hunger, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean.

At the moment. Due to this event, it has been difficult to get news from Toga, new Zealand, have sent a plane to look at the level of damage, and aid agencies and charities are planning to try and help for fear that the number of people are without shelter and water.

And we have three words and expressions from the news headlines to help us talk about this story.

What are they? Please? Roy Yes, we do.

We have Cut off. Step up and go dark.

That's cut off. Step up and go dark.

OK, could we have a look at the 1st news headline, please?

Roy. OK, so our 1st news headline is from the Independent, and it reads, tsunami threat, recedes and casualty Reports are yet to come in.

As tonger remains cut off. That's cut off, isolated, unable to be contacted.

Yes. So cut off is usually seen as a frasal verb, which is separable.

1st word cut, C-U-T, 2nd word off, O, double f And as I said, it's separable.

So you can cut somebody or something off, or you can cut off something or somebody, and it means to be out of contact or to stop contact.

OK? Now, familiar with those two words?

We know what a cut is.

That's something you can do with with scissors, like cut your hair.

And off, of course, is the opposite of on.

So to stop something, you turn it off.

Yeah. So e.g., cut is about severing communication, or severing contact, if you like.

Um. And in the sense of cut off, what it means in the headline is that all communications have been stopped for a period of time.

Now, we also use cut off when we talking about utilities like electricity or water.

They get cut off sometimes, don't they?

Yes, they do. If you don't pay a bill for your Internet.

Ah, the the cut the provider may decide to cut you off to stop your supply.

Getting back to the kind of natural environment, we can use the expression cut off when maybe A-A village gets cut off because the road is blocked with snow.

Or if there's a storm, an island might get cut off as nowhere getting the ships in, because the sea is rough, that's when we can say somewhere is cut off.

Is that right? Yeah. I mean, in that sense, it's more about sort of a lack of access.

Or, again, is that idea of communication, being able to contact somebody.

But a village, in that sense, cut off by the snow means that there's no way to get to the village or for people to leave.

It's cut off, isolated from the outside world.

Now, there is also a very another interesting way to use cut off.

It's when somebody is speaking, and they're trying to say something like, e.g., tell a story, and the other person stops them from Oh, yeah, can I just cut you off there, please?

Roy, didn't you I-I don't wanna hear one of your stories again.

OK, it's about my dog. I'm going to cut you off there.

A great example. So you stopped me from speaking, you ended my communication again, if you like.

Yeah, I'm gonna cut you off again.

And let's have a summary of that expression.

Very good. We've talked quite a bit about corona virus here on News Review.

Now, one of the strains that developed last year meant that the UK was cut off.

There's that expression again. Cut off because we weren't allowed to travel.

So how can we watch that video again?

Please, roy. All you need to do is click the link in the description below, just down below.

Thank you. Right? It's time now to look at our next news headline, please.

OK, so the next news headline comes from the Taiwan News, and it reads, australia, new Zealand step up efforts to aid tsunami hit hunger.

So that step up increase intensity of something.

OK? So it's another Frasal verb Step up.

1st word step, S-T-E-P, 2nd word up.

And it means to increase the

intensity of something, e.g. Step up efforts.

Quite commonly, we say, step up my effort, or step up our efforts.

OK? And also another

example. I guess when a um situation becomes dangerous, we might step up the security.

Yeah, that's correct. So, E.G., maybe there's a bomb threat and people are worried, so they decide to increase the number of security guards, they step up security.

Okay, now, my boss said the other day that I should step up and take control.

I mean, what does he mean by that?

Well, this is another meaning of the words step up, and it basically means to assume responsibility or to take responsibility.

So, e.g. he was telling you to take responsibility for the situation.

OK? Message understood. And finally, you can have a step up, or a big step up, in your career as well.

Yeah, a great example. So, E.G., maybe you're a worker, just a sort of middle, mid level worker, middle management, I don't know, and suddenly you get promoted several levels to become the CEO of the company.

It's a big step up in your career.

The step up, in that sense, is hyphenated, and it's a noun, so the hyphen comes step hyphen up.

Great. Thanks for that explanation of step up.

Let's have a summary. We've made a program about the active and passive voice.

So right, tell us how we can watch it.

Well, all you need to do is click the link and the description below, just down below.

Great. Let's have a look now at your next news headline, please.

Yes. OK. So our next headline comes from Nine News Australia, and it reads Cluster of eruptions expected stronger communications go dark following tsunami that go dark stop communications, especially for a long period of time.

Yes. So this is a two word expression.

1st word go geo, 2nd word dark.

D-A-R-K. And it means to be out of communications or to stop communication.

Okay, and I've heard this expression used quite a bit in spy movies, when, you know, spies go dark.

Yeah, a great example. So, E.G., maybe a spy or a secret agent is on a secret mission, and we say that they are undercover, where they are on this secret mission, pretending to be somebody different.

And then suddenly they are worried that somebody has discovered that they are a spy, so they decide to go dark, which means they stop communications.

Effectively, they they disappear. Yeah, just to clarify, they're not going dark by turning the lights off.

No, no. An. An interesting expression there is when we talk about, um, their secret identity being discovered, we say that they have a cover identity, and then we say their cover has been blown, to blow somebody's cover, which means to reveal them.

And that is the reason that they disappear.

They stop communicating, they go dark.

But we're not talking about spies here, abi.

We're getting back this new story here?

No, we're not. So, E.G., in the case of the headline, when we're talking about Congo going dark, it basically means, because of this situation, their communications have gone down.

It means that they're no longer able to communicate.

Now, another way that we maybe use go dark is, e.g.

a celebrity on social media, if they stop using social media for a while, we could say that this celebrity has gone dark.

Or in terms of a company, if they cease or stop activities, or again, communication, we may say that that company has gone dark, but it's more commonly used to talk about general communication.

Great. Yeah. And of course, at the end of day, when the sun sets, it goes dark, doesn't it?

It does no more daylight the end of the day, suddenly the world goes dark.

OK, lets have a summary of that expression.

It's time now to have a recap of the expressions weve talked about today.

Could you tell us what they are, please?

Roy Yes. We had cut off, isolated, unable to be contacted.

We had step up, increased intensity of something, and we had go dark, stop communications, especially for a long time.

And don't forget, you can test yourself on this vocabulary by going to our website, where there's

a quiz. And of course, our website is the place to go to for lots of learning English resources.

The addresses

bbc learning english dot com. And don't forget, you can check us out on

social media as well. Well. That's all for today's news review.

Thank you for watching, and see you next time.

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