Antarctic ice melting: BBC News Review

"Irreversible change"

Antarctica faces a climate emergency.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil, and I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story,

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like this video and try the quiz on our website. Now, the story.

Sea ice

the size of Greenland is missing. This and collapsing ice shelves

are just some of the problems

Antarctica is facing due to climate change.

Scientists have met this week to discuss how important

the Southern Ocean is to the health of the whole planet.

They say more funding is urgently needed.

You've been looking at the headlines,

Beth. What's the vocabulary?

We have 'virtually', 'put on ice',

and 'call for' this is News Review from BBC

Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from Science Alert.  

Antarctic extremes are now virtually assured with global ramifications.

So this headline says that extremes - that means very hot

and very cold temperatures - are virtually assured,

and assured means guaranteed. Global ramifications - that means

that the whole world will be impacted.

But what we're looking at is the word, virtually.

We are. Now this word

virtually is very often used with technology.

In fact, Neil, I went on a virtual tour of the Taj Mahal

recently. I was at home in London, but it was like I was almost there.

Like I was virtually there in India.

Well, that's really useful way of looking at it

from that sort of technological point of view,

because in this headline virtually means

almost or nearly just like you're almost nearly sort of at the Taj Mahal.

The headline says

that these extremes are virtually assured - that means almost guaranteed.

That's right.

And we can also use virtually in a more casual everyday way.

So this morning, Neil,

I was late for work.

I was virtually on the bus when it left without me.

Well, I had a bad journey to work as well.

I left my headphones at home.

I had a really cool playlist. I want to listen to.

I was virtually in tears, almost crying.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from the Guardian.

I've spent forty years

in Antarctic research. Right now it's facing a climate emergency.

So we must not put vital science on ice.

OK, before looking at the headline a note about pronunciation.

Beth, you said research.

I say research. It's just a change in word stress, and both are fine. Now,

the headline. We mustn't put vital science on ice and put something

on ice is what we're going to learn about. At a fish market, Beth,

they put the fish on ice,

So it doesn't go bad.

Is there a connection?

Kind of. Yeah. So you put fish on ice to save it

for later when you actually need to cook it now.

The headline says, you mustn't,

or we mustn't put science on ice,

Meaning we shouldn't wait until we need the science because, actually,

we need it now.

So put on ice means delay or postpone. Now,

of course, this story is actually about ice - Antarctic ice,

and so it's a kind of clever headline.

You see that quite often.

Can you tell us some other uses of put on ice.

Yeah. So maybe at work

there's a project.

You think it's going to go ahead,

but then you don't have enough money.

So the project is put on ice.

Yeah, I was thinking of moving house recently,

but the timing is not good.

So that plan - we have put it on ice.

It means we'll save it for later and think about it again in the future.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from Merco Press. World

scientists call for more research on the Southern Ocean and climate change.

So scientists call for more research.

We are going to learn about call for it contains call which everybody knows.

So why are we looking at it?

Well, call for is a phrasal verb. With phrasal verbs,

they have particles like for in this case

and it can change the meaning. Call for means to publicly

ask for something, so in this case in the headline

scientists are writing, speaking and asking governments

and the world of science and the public for a change.

Yeah, they're calling for action.

Now, Beth. I am meeting a friend for dinner later.

But I need to change the time.

Do I call for a change of time.

No, because you don't need everyone,

you don't need the public to know that you're changing the time.

So just let the restaurant

know. So call for is quite formal.

It's often used in headlines and reports.

We don't really use in everyday conversation.

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

  We've had virtually -

almost, nearly, put on ice –

save for later, and call for - ask for publicly.

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