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  • Heatwaves cause record temperatures around the world.

  • This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Neil. And I'm Sian. And you can learn lots of vocabulary

  • about this story in the programme.

  • You can. And remember, subscribe to our channel, like this video

  • and try the quiz on our website.

  • Now, today's story.

  • Heatwaves are pushing temperatures to their highest levels ever recorded.

  • It has reached over 40 degrees in parts of Europe, North America, Asia

  • and the Middle East. Wildfires have been burning out of control. Experts

  • say heatwaves like this have become more frequent

  • because of climate change caused by humans.

  • Sian, you've been looking at the headlines.

  • What's the vocabulary?

  • We have 'scorch', 'bakes', and 'wrestles'.

  • This is News Review from

  • BBC Learning English.

  • Let's have a look at our first headline.

  • This one is from Earth Observatory from NASA.

  • So, let's start with that word 'heatwave' which is everywhere,

  • and it just means 'a period of time where the temperature is much higher

  • than usual'. But from the headline, the word

  • we're looking at is 'scorch', and it's connected to heat, isn't it?

  • And we've got a lot of words about heat in English.

  • Yes, we do. And 'scorch' is one of them.

  • It means 'to heat something to a level, which damages it'.

  • So, for example, Neil,

  • have you ever walked on a pavement in bare feet on a hot day?

  • Yeah. It's horrible, isn't it?

  • It can scorch the bottom of your feet. And that word 'scorch' -

  • we can use with the word 'marks'. Now, for example, if you're ironing a shirt,

  • you want to make your shirt nice and flat.

  • If you leave the iron on the shirt for too long,

  • it can leave scorch marks. It does. I have done this before,

  • and 'scorch' in this headline

  • means 'the heat from the Sun actually, literally damages the grounds,

  • so it scorches the ground.

  • Yes, and as you said, it's literal use here,

  • but we often use scorching to talk about hot weather.

  • It's an exaggeration. When we say:

  • 'It's scorching',

  • we don't usually mean that the ground is burning.

  • Exactly. And here's a bit of useful British slang

  • for you connected to this word.

  • So, we can describe a very hot day as 'a scorcher'.

  • Yeah. We have had a few too many scorchers recently.

  • Today is a scorcher. Absolutely.

  • OK, let's have a look at that again.

  • Let's have a look at our next headline.

  • Yes. This one's from The Standard:

  • The word we are going to talk about is 'bakes'.

  • Now 'bakes' means 'to cook something in an oven like a cake'.

  • We bake cakes.

  • We do, but we also use bake to talk about very hot weather, and

  • it's very common in English to use cooking words to talk about hot

  • weather. OK. So how do I use it?

  • Do I say the weather bakes me?

  • I see what you mean, but no.

  • We don't say that. We normally use the cooking words

  • in the 'ing' form to make an adjective.

  • So, today

  • it's baking.

  • It's baking in here.

  • Yeah. It is baking out there.

  • You also mentioned that we use other cooking words in this same way.

  • Can you give us some examples?

  • Yes, so we also have 'roasting'.

  • So, you can roast meat in the oven.

  • But you can also say 'it's absolutely roasting today.'

  • Yeah, absolutely roasting.

  • And that's important,

  • isn't it? Because 'roasting' and 'baking' - these are strong adjectives.

  • We can't use 'very' with strong adjectives that sounds wrong.

  • 'Very roasting', 'very baking'.

  • No, 'absolutely roasting'.

  • Are there any other cooking words we can use, Sian?

  • So we also have 'boiling'. So, water boils,

  • but we can use 'boiling' to describe very hot weather,

  • but be careful because not every cooking

  • words can be used to describe hot weather.

  • That's right.

  • We don't say it's 'frying outside' or 'it's really grilling today'.

  • Let's have a look at that again.

  • Let's have the next headline, please. This is from the Financial Times.

  • 'Wrestles' is the word.

  • Now, if you wrestle with someone, you fight them.

  • You try to throw them to the ground.

  • So, how can you wrestle with the heatwave?

  • Well, like lots of the vocabulary

  • we look at in News Review,

  • this is not literal.

  • It's used metaphorically.

  • So, the important thing here is the idea of fighting with something.

  • Yeah. And this is very common to talk about

  • particularly difficult problems.

  • Yes. So, if you wrestle with a problem,

  • you have a difficult problem that you're trying to solve. So here,

  • the heatwave is the difficult problem and Europe is trying to solve it.

  • It is not a simple problem to solve so we have to wrestle with it.

  • Yeah. And there's an interesting spelling and pronunciation

  • of this word. It is not 'w'-wrestle.

  • No, that's very difficult to say, so

  • 'w' is a silent letter like lots of words in English.

  • We have silent letters everywhere.

  • So, a useful tip. If you see

  • 'W-R', the 'W' is silent.

  • So, 'wrist' or 'wriggle'.

  • Yeah. You're not wrong.

  • Let's have a look at that again.

  • We've had 'scorch' - damage with heat.

  • 'Bakes'- heats to an uncomfortable level.

  • So, it's not just for cakes.

  • And 'wrestles' - struggles with a difficult situation.

  • But don't wrestle with your English. Go to our website

  • where you'll find a quiz to help you.

  • Thank you for joining us, and goodbye. Goodbye.

Heatwaves cause record temperatures around the world.

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