India Tunnel Rescue: BBC News Review

India tunnel rescue.

All forty one workers freed.

  This is News Review

from BBC Learning English, where we help you understand

the news headlines in English. I'm Beth, and I'm Phil.

Make sure you watch to the end

to learn the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.

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Now, the story.

  Free at last

All forty one workers trapped in a tunnel in northern India

for seventeen days, have been rescued.

They were removed one by one through a ninety centimetre diameter pipe.

None of the men are thought to be injured,

but they are all being given medical checks.

You've been looking at the headlines, Phil.

What's the vocabulary that people need to understand this news story in English?

We have ordeal,

nail-biting and makeshift.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English.

Let's have a look now at a first headline.

This is from CNN.

All forty one workers rescued from collapsed tunnel in India.

After seventeen day ordeal.

The headline tells us that all forty one of the workers who were trapped

have been rescued. The word

we're learning about is ordeal. Phil,

what can you tell us about it?

Just think about the situation we have here.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be trapped underground in a tunnel

for seventeen days without knowing if you were ever going to get out?

Well, I think it's very hard to imagine how scary and awful

that must have been, and that is the type of situation

that we describe as an ordeal.

It's not a word used for everyday bad situations like missing the bus

for example.

We use ordeal for difficult, unpleasant situations.

Often situations

that last a long time or feel like they last a long time. And

just a note about the pronunciation.

Note that the stress is on the second syllable. It's orDEAL. orDEAL.  

That's right. orDEAL.

OK, let's look at that one more time.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from India Today. Utterkashi tunnel rescue's

last moments captured in nail-biting videos.

So this headline tells us

that the last moments of the rescue were captured on video and that

it was nail-biting. Nail-biting is the vocabulary that we're looking at. Phil,

are you a nervous person? Not generally.

But there are certain situations when I might be, so

if I'm watching my football team going through a penalty shoot out

at the end of a really important match. That's nail-biting.

In fact, by the end of it,

I'm not sure if I'll have any nails left.

That's because you bite your nails to cope with the stress,

and that is where the adjective nail-biting comes from.

So if something is nail-biting,

then the situation is very worrying

because it's not clear how it will end or what the result will be.

That's right. And in this story,

it was not certain until the end

if the workers would be rescued safely. Now are there any other similar expressions?

We can also describe this type of situation as nerve-wracking.

OK, let's look at that again.

Next headline, please. This is

from NDTV. Rescued workers in makeshift hospital

inside tunnel.

So we hear that the rescued workers are in some kind of hospital in the tunnel.

But what kind of hospital?

It must be very difficult to make a good quality hospital

in such a short amount of time.

And that is the key to understanding our next word.

The adjective used to describe the hospital

is makeshift. We use that to talk

about something that's been built very quickly to meet a sudden need.

That's right. And also it's temporary or at least intended to only be used

for a short amount of time and it's probably not very good quality.

We hear about makeshift accommodation.

Perhaps after people have been evacuated

from a natural disaster like a flood.

Or you might read about a school, having makeshift classrooms

if their buildings have been damaged by a war or

because the government hasn't spent enough money on school building.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had ordeal.

A very unpleasant experience.

Nail-biting - It makes you really nervous.

Makeshift - temporary and low quality.

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