BBC 英语学习 News Review 唐纳德·特朗普被指控

Donald Trump, charged with trying to change the result

of the 2020 US presidential election.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil 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 on our website.

Now the story Donald Trump has been charged with attempting to change the result of the 2020 US presidential election.

It follows an inquiry into riots in Washington on 6 january 2021.

The former President is accused of spreading lies about election fraud for more than two months.

Trump has now been charged in three criminal cases.

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

We have overturn plotting and can run, but can't hide.

This is news review from BBC, learning English.

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

This is from the Financial Times.

Donald Trump indicted for unprecedented attempt to overturn US election.

So the headline says that Donald Trump has been indicted for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election.

Indicted means officially accused of a crime unprecedented, means never happened before.

But we are looking at overturn now, beth, I think we can break this word down, can't we?

Yeah. So, as we often see, this is a longer word we can break down into over and turn.

Now we all know what turn means.

It's changing the direction of something.

And when we add over, it means changing the direction completely.

Now, in this headline, it's metaphorical.

Yes, we are talking about the metaphorical direction or position of something.

And in this case its an election.

So simply, donald Trump is accused of trying to change the position the original result of something, and it's the US Presidential election.

Can we use this in other ways?

Beth Well, it is usually used in official contexts, so, e.g., in law, a legal ruling might be overturned.

E.G., it wouldn't be normal or natural to say, I've overturned to my decision to have salad for lunch instead of pasta.

E.G. Yes, that would be weird.

It sounds way too formal. Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. This is from BBC news.

Trump charged with plotting to overturn election defeat.

So in the headline we see that word overturn again that we've just been learning about.

But this time we are going to look at plotting.

And again, if you look inside that word, there's a clue about its meaning, the word plot.

Now, beth, I know you love a good novel.

The plot is the story line.

Is that right? It is when it's a noun, but here it's a verb, and it's used a little bit differently.

So to plot is to make a plan, but often one that is wrong or possibly harmful.

So if you say that someone is plotting to do something, they're making a plan to do something that they probably shouldn't do.

Yeah, so in this headline, it means that Trump is accused of planning to do something wrong, and here that is changed the result of an election.

Now, that's a very serious thing to accuse someone of.

But we can also use plotting in a more light hearted way.

We can, yeah, maybe you see two friends and they're whispering to each other, and you say, what are you two plotting over there?

Of course, this is a joke.

You're accusing them in a funny way, of doing something wrong, planning something.

But it's not that. Let's look at that again.

Let's look at our next headline.

This is from The Spectator. Donald Trump can run, but he can't hide from his 6th of January Indictment.

So we have indictment, which is the noun form of

that verb we saw in the 1st headline in date, which means to officially accuse someone of committing a crime.

But we are looking at the expression can run, but can't hide.

Yes. Now, let's think literally again.

Imagine someone being chased because they've done something wrong.

They would be looking for some way to hide, but if there isn't anywhere, they just have to

carry on running. Yes. Now, nobody is suggesting that Donald Trump is literally running anywhere.

What it means, though, is that he is trying to escape from something that he just can't seem to get away from.

That's right. And we can use this for informal situations too.

Now, neil, I had a chocolate bar on my desk this morning, and it's gone.

You can run, but you can't hide.

Let's look at that again. We ve had overturned change the results of something plotting, planning to do something wrong or harmful.

And can run, but can't hide.

Can't escape the consequences of your actions.

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