0:00

This is the BBC. Up

0:30

front payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month

0:32

required. New subscribers

0:34

only. Renew for 12 months to lock in savings. Taxes

0:36

and fees extra. Additional restrictions apply. See

0:38

full terms at mintmobile.com Don't

1:00

put this off. Delivery dates are

1:02

limited. So get up to 40%

1:05

off today. At 1800flowers.com/ACAST. That's 1800flowers.com/ACAST.

1:30

Head to our website

1:32

bbclearningenglish.com or search Learning English

1:34

for Work in your podcast player. Now,

2:00

the story. You've

2:26

been looking at the headlines, Georgie. What's

2:28

the vocabulary people need to understand this

2:30

story in English? We have... This

2:36

is News Review from BBC Learning English.

2:47

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

2:50

one's from The Financial Times. This

2:59

headline is about how the delay

3:01

to Senegal's elections may cause a

3:03

constitutional crisis. Now, a constitutional crisis

3:06

is when there's a big disagreement

3:08

about how government is run. But

3:10

we are looking at the word

3:12

looms, Georgie. What can you tell

3:15

us about looms? Sure. Well,

3:17

if something looms, it means that

3:19

it's coming soon. It's used for

3:21

something negative, so something negative is

3:23

about to happen. Yes, and

3:25

in this case, the constitutional crisis

3:27

is the thing that's seen as

3:29

bad. It's the thing that looms

3:32

because the delay could threaten

3:34

democracy. That's right. But we

3:37

can use this word whenever a

3:39

worrying situation seems likely to happen.

3:42

We could say that as the

3:44

world heats up, more environmental disasters

3:46

loom. Yes, or a

3:48

health care crisis looms when a

3:51

new disease with no cure spreads.

3:54

Now, are there any other uses or

3:56

meanings of looms? Actually, yes.

3:59

It's used in... a more physical

4:01

way as well. So if something or

4:03

someone bigger than you looms over you,

4:05

they appear over you in a threatening

4:08

way. Imagine we're in a

4:10

horror movie, we're in a dark forest, I

4:12

turn around a tree and suddenly

4:15

a horrifying monster looms over me.

4:18

That is pretty scary. Let's look at that

4:20

again. Let's

4:30

have our next headline. This one's from

4:32

The Economist. Senegal's

4:34

democracy hangs by a thread. So

4:37

we know that a constitutional crisis

4:40

is looming, and from

4:42

the context then we are clear that hangs

4:44

by a thread, the expression we're looking at

4:47

cannot be a good thing. Can you break

4:49

it down for us? Yes, let's

4:51

start with thread. So a thread

4:53

is a long thin piece of

4:56

fibre like cotton that's used

4:58

to make materials, and

5:00

this is my ring and it's hanging

5:02

by a thread. It's supported by the

5:04

thread at the top but not at

5:06

the bottom, it's hanging. Yeah,

5:08

so if something hangs by a thread

5:10

it's not very safe or secure or

5:12

strong. No, so according to

5:14

the headline, Senegal's democracy is hanging by

5:17

a thread, it's not as strong as

5:19

it was. So Georgie, when

5:21

else can we use hangs by a thread?

5:24

Well the idiom means that a

5:26

situation is delicate, it's in danger

5:28

of failing, collapsing or coming to

5:30

an end. So if

5:32

a company is having financial difficulties,

5:34

the employees may feel that their

5:36

jobs are hanging by a thread,

5:38

they don't feel safe or strong.

5:41

Let's look at that again. Let's

5:50

have our next headline. So,

6:01

this headline is about an

6:03

archbishop's reaction to this postponement

6:05

in the elections in Senegal.

6:07

An archbishop is a very

6:09

senior person in the church,

6:12

and a postponement is a delay. But

6:14

we are looking at this word, baffled,

6:16

which is a lovely sounding word, but

6:18

what does it mean? Baffled

6:21

means extremely confused. The archbishop

6:23

doesn't understand the president's decision

6:25

to delay the election, with

6:27

just three weeks to go.

6:31

Now, Georgie, I'm extremely confused. In

6:33

fact, I'm baffled, because we already

6:35

have this word confused in English.

6:38

Why do we need another one,

6:40

baffled? Well, Neil, when you reach

6:42

a certain level of English, it's good to

6:44

have a variety of words so you don't

6:47

get stuck using the same ones all the

6:49

time. And baffled is a good one. We

6:51

use it a lot, and it feels so

6:53

nice to say, doesn't it? Baffled. Other

6:56

words that you can use to

6:58

mean confused are perplexed and bewildered,

7:00

although these are a little less

7:02

common. So, baffle.

7:05

Can that be used in other ways? Yes,

7:07

it's also used as a verb,

7:09

so just like you can confuse

7:11

someone, you can baffle someone. Neil,

7:14

you baffle me when you turn up to work

7:16

in the middle of winter without a coat on.

7:19

Well, there's nothing baffling about that. I

7:22

don't think you need a coat unless it's below zero.

7:25

Let's look at that again. We've

7:33

had loons. Something worrying is

7:35

coming soon. Hangs by

7:37

a thread. Something is in danger of

7:39

failing. And baffled. Extremely

7:42

confused. Watch more news

7:44

review on our website and learn how to

7:46

talk about world events in English. Thanks

7:48

for joining us, and goodbye. Bye.