Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles hi everybody this is neil from bbc learning english it's news review and i'm joined by georgina hi georgina hi neil hi everybody so today we're looking at the story behind the headlines all about noah lyles and how he attempted to beat a 200 meter world record it's a great story and you can test yourself on the vocabulary on our website at bbclearningenglish.com now let's hear some more about that story from this bbc radio one newsbeat report a pretty spectacular mistake last night left athletics commentator steve cram almost lost for words he is loud he's about to finish that cannot be right i cannot be right yeah this is the kind of stuff you can't make up us sprinting noah lyles was racing against two other athletes over 200 meters all in different locations using a special timing system and he is very fast but he's not that fast he crossed the line in a time that would have smashed usain bolt's world record only to find out he started the wrong start line around 185 meters make of that what you will so he was 15 meters short it means he technically didn't complete the race he was moved into third place so he didn't bag the 8 000 prize either not his best day out yes so athletics commentator steve cram was almost speechless when he thought that noah lyles had managed to beat usain bolt's 200 meter world record in fact he hadn't because unfortunately he had started the race at the wrong start line so was in fact 15 meters short of the full 200 meters okay well that explains why he was so fast you've been having a look at this story and picking out the vocabulary people need to talk about it what have you got i've got blunder transpires and mix-up blunder transpires and mix-up let's start with your first headline with that word blunder please so the headline is from sky news it is noah lyles sprinter beats usain bolt's 200 meter world record before blunder is uncovered blunder careless or serious mistake yeah and that's spelt b-l-u-n-d-e-r and it is a noun and in this headline obviously the serious mistake was that noah lyles started the race at the wrong point and we should stress this was not he had no idea that this had actually happened so it was uh yeah it was it had serious consequences and made it impossible for him for to complete the 200 meter race this word is um very popular in headlines isn't it when we're speaking normally we're more likely to use the word mistake aren't we yeah exactly i think it's a great word for news headlines because it has such a distinct meaning and everyone knows that it basically means a serious mistake that has consequences it's also a verb isn't it it is a verb yes so and often when it's used as a verb it's used with around so to blunder around and it means uh when someone's very clumsy so for example um oh my gosh have you made any blunders lately neil i certainly have okay tell us about your blunder georgina so i don't embarrass myself yeah well this is very embarrassing and i have to be honest i think this may have happened a few times but very recently a friend's boyfriend told me about a surprise party that he was giving her but i didn't really hear the surprise bit so when i saw my friend i was like oh i'll see you on saturday at your birthday party and it was a surprise and she didn't know anything about it so i made a yeah it was a big blunder that i made and as you said then you made a blunder so when when we use it as a noun blunder and we want to make it into a verb we say make a blunder yeah so that's the verb we use with it to make a blunder great let's have a summary time now for our second headline please georgina the second headline is from cnn and it is noah lyles breaks 200 meter world record but then it transpires he only ran 180 meters transpires becomes apparent yeah and it's about t-r-a-n-s-p-i-r-e and it is a verb now this is used when something uh becomes clear but later on so it's when something wasn't known but then it becomes common knowledge and in this case uh noah lyle uh it became clear that he hadn't started the race at the correct point which is why he unfortunately couldn't break the world record or in fact complete the 200 meter race and it is quite formal when it's used so that's something to be aware of the last time i heard we used it uh neil can you remember well there was a very obvious example pretty much the last day we were in the office before lockdown uh you brought in a lovely tin of biscuits didn't you yeah they were delicious i actually don't know if they were delicious because i didn't get any but yes that's the problem nobody knows uh that they were delicious apart from one person uh nobody thought that he'd been in but it did actually transpire that rob had come into the building and uh well you know helped himself yeah he was spotted leaving the building with a you know uh crumbs of biscuits behind him yeah he he said he enjoyed them later yeah so we didn't know who did it in the end i'm sure i'm sure he did look happy let's have a summary if you like stories about sport we've got a great one for you haven't we georgina we do so it's a news review episode we did a while ago and it's all about how uh training for the premier league was starting again so take a look at it just click on the link below okay time now for our next headline so the next headline is from the daily mail it's quite long so bear with me and it is american noah lyles smashes usain bolt's 200 meter record before being told he had only 185 meters in a mix-up over using the right starting line with commentator steve cram left laughing in disbelief mix up mistake that creates confusion yes so it's about mix hyphen up and it's made up of two words in this case it has a hyphen between the two words because it is a noun so it's uh for example it's a mix-up it's when something confusing happens and you know uh does this ever happen to you well you were telling me uh that you are very kind of precise with certain things for example your uh your spices when you're cooking you have them in a distinct order is it alphabetical order yeah they have to be in alphabetical order and so basically when i'm cooking i just reach up grab the right spice because i know exactly where they are and put it into the recipe i'm cooking so if that order is mixed up then what happens it becomes confusing very very confusing because suddenly i'm about to pour the wrong spice into into a dish or a you know meal i'm making that would make it taste very very i wouldn't like to say disgusting but definitely interesting so it would be very and it has happened before actually it can be very confusing yeah okay this can be used as a verb as well yes it can so um yeah and when it's used as a verb it's not used with a hyphen so for example uh my friend came around to cook and she mixed up all my spices a terrible a terrible thing to happen to you georgina you must have felt very mixed up okay let's have a summary time now for a recap of the vocabulary please georgina so the first word we looked at was blunder careless or serious mistake the second one was transpires becomes apparent and the third one was mix up and it is mistake that creates confusion we are all over social media look for bbc learning english and we also have a free app to download stay safe and join us again soon goodbye bye
B1 blunder noah georgina meter headline world record Athlete's 200m 'record' only 185m - News Review 7 1 林宜悉 posted on 2020/11/14 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary