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  • Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hello Catherine.

  • Hello Neil. Hello everybody. Yestoday we've got a weather story.

  • Snow is all over the place in Spainit's causing massive problems,

  • especially in the area of the capital Madrid.

  • OK. And if you want to test yourself on any of the vocabulary you learn

  • in today's programme there's a quiz on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

  • Now, let's hear more about that story from this BBC radio report:

  • Yes. So, Storm Filomena has hit Spain.

  • It has caused snow chaos, in particular in Madrid.

  • Lots and lots of drivers were stuck in their cars overnight.

  • The mayor of Madrid has called in the army to help.

  • It is thought that people... because people can't move,

  • it's going to help in the fight against coronavirus.

  • OK. Well, we've got three words and expressions from the headlines

  • connected to this story that can help you talk about it. What are they?

  • We have: 'blankets', 'wreaks havoc' and 'swathes'.

  • 'Blankets', 'wreaks havoc' and 'swathes'.

  • OK. Let's start with your first headline with that word 'blankets', please.

  • We're starting in the US from Voice of Americathe headline is:

  • 'Blankets' – covers completely with a layer of something.

  • Yes. B-L-A-N-K-E-T-S – and it's a verb: 'to blanket'.

  • Yeah. It's a verb, but I know what this thing 'blanket' is as a noun:

  • it's a piece of material that you can cover yourself with to stay warm,

  • so what's this... what's this got to do with snow, you know? It's not warm!

  • Yes, a 'blanket' is normally that big piece of fabric, usually made of wool

  • or something soft and cosy. You put a 'blanket' on your bed,

  • or if you're kind of having a sofa day you might get a 'blanket' and cover yourself,

  • and it keeps you nice and warm and cosyWell, the idea is not to be warm and cosy,

  • but it is connected to being covered with something:

  • completely covered with something. Soif you have a 'blanket' on your bed,

  • it will completely cover your bed and this is the idea.

  • If something is 'blanketed' in snowif an area is 'blanketed' in snow

  • it's coveredcompletely covered in snow.

  • So, not a little bit, but a lot.

  • And we often see these words togetherdon't we? 'Blanket' and 'snow' – also 'ash'.

  • Yes, when volcanoes erupt, like the very famous Mt. Vesuvius

  • that erupted and 'blanketedthe city of Pompeii with ash.

  • So, moving back to this word 'blanket' as a noun,

  • we can also use it in the expression a 'blanket of something'

  • and that means that the 'something' is the thing that makes up the 'blanket'.

  • Exactly, yes. So, a 'blanket of snow' is covering the city of Madrid right now.

  • Yes, that's right. We use 'with' or 'in' in connection with this word.

  • Yes, you can 'blanket' something 'with' something

  • or you can 'blanket' something 'in' something

  • and we often use this word in the passivewe can say, 'Madrid is blanketed with snow,'

  • or, 'Madrid is blanketed in snow.'

  • OK. Let's have a summary:

  • We have another story about snow and rescuesthis time about some tourists

  • who got stuck at the top of Britain's tallest mountain.

  • Where can our viewers find this?

  • Yes, the people who got stuck on top of the mountain

  • all they were wearing is trainers... on their feet at least.

  • And you can find out more by clicking the link.

  • OK. Let's have a look at your second headline please.

  • Yes. We're in Germany now with Deutsche Wellethe headline:

  • 'Wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage.

  • And we can see also that word 'blanketsthat we've just looked at in this headline,

  • but we're looking at 'wreak havoc' here.

  • Yes. So, 'wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage. It's a two-word expression.

  • The first word is wreaks – W-R-E-A-K-S.

  • And the second word: 'havoc' – H-A-V-O-C.

  • So, let's look at this second word: 'havoc'. 'Havoc' means chaos,

  • complete disorder, pandemonium, a complete and total mess.

  • And the verb 'wreak' means cause, so if you 'wreak havoc'

  • you cause complete and total destruction, chaos – a mess.

  • So, in this case we can say that the snow in Madrid has 'wreaked havoc'.

  • It has caused chaos. People can't move anywhere.

  • There are... there may well be power cuts. People can't get to work.

  • There's lots and lots of problems caused by this snow,

  • so 'wreaks havoc' means causesreally difficult, chaotic situation.

  • Now, these two words – 'wreak' and 'havoc' – they are what we call

  • a very strong collocation: they go together – these words go together very strongly.

  • Very strongly indeed. There are not many other English words that you will use

  • after the verb 'wreak', but 'wreaks havoc' is a very strong phrase.

  • Now, we've used it in this Spanish example here to describe a very serious situation

  • but we can also use it forkind of, personal situations:

  • if somebody's cooking in your kitchen and you go into the kitchen

  • and you see pots and pans and dishes everywhere,

  • and packets and things of food on the floor, you can say:

  • 'My God! They've wreaked havoc in the kitchen!'

  • And it just means they've made lots of mess.

  • Yeah. And this lockdownlots of people have noticed

  • this lockdown has 'wreaked havoc' on my hair, Catherine.

  • Ah yes, it has, most definitely!

  • I've watched it getting worse and worse over the weeks and months.

  • Yeah. So, I would like to point out to everybody

  • that it is not possible to get a haircut at the moment

  • and this is too much of a mess for me to deal with on my own.

  • Yes, yesthey're going to need industrial hair clippers for you, Neil!

  • No pair of scissors is strong enough...!

  • OK. There is another word, 'reek', which is spelt differently

  • but sounds exactly the same, but has a very different meaning.

  • Yes: R-E-E-K. If something 'reeks', it smells very strongly and usually quite badly

  • but it's completely different – R-E-E-K – not to be confused with W-R-E-A-K.

  • OK. Let's get a summary of that word:

  • So, as we all know, the coronavirus has been 'wreaking havoc' across the world

  • and has been for about a year now.

  • And it's also having a really bad effect on people's mental health.

  • We have a programme about that, if you are interested.

  • We do... Where can our viewers find it?

  • Yes, to see more about this topic, just click the link and you'll go straight there.

  • Time now for our next headline.

  • And we're finally looking at Euronewsthe headline:

  • 'Swathes' – large areas.

  • Yes. 'Swathes' – S-W-A-T-H-E-S.

  • The pronunciation is particularly noteworthy: 'swathes'.

  • And it's got that 'thzz' at the endNeil, would you like to demonstrate?

  • Yes, two challenging sounds for a lot of learners.

  • At the end of the word we have: 'th' followed by 'zz' – 'swathes'.

  • Yes, and the S-W at the beginning doesn't make it any easier.

  • One more time, it's 'swathes'.

  • Now, 'swathes' means large areas, often of land.

  • So, we can have large areas... 'swathes' of land, 'swathes' of forest,

  • 'swathes' of countryside, 'swathes' of trees and it literally means large areas.

  • In this example, we're talking about 'swathes' of Spain, I think it said...

  • Yep, 'swathes' of Spainmeans large areas of Spainare covered in snow.

  • Yeah. So, 'swathes' followed by 'of' and then the thing.

  • Yes.

  • This is about large areasisn't it? So, I couldn't say,

  • 'Swathes of my garden are covered in weeds,' but if I did say that,

  • it would mean that I had a huge garden and I... I can tell you I don't.

  • Erm... you wouldn't be working hereNeil, if you had 'swathes' of land.

  • Yeah. So, it's about very large areas. Let's get a summary:

  • Time now for a recap of our vocabulary please, Catherine.

  • Yes. We had 'blankets' – covers completely with a layer of something.

  • We had 'wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage.

  • And finally we had 'swathes' – large areas.

  • If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary,

  • go to our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

  • There's a quiz there and you can find us all over social media.

  • Thank you for joining us and stay safe. See you next time. Goodbye.

  • Goodbye.

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

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