Blood test for 50 cancers: BBC News Review

66,502 views ・ 2023-06-07

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Could a simple blood test tell you
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if you've got cancer?
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This is News Review from BBC Learning English.
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I'm Neil, and I'm Beth.
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Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.
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Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video
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and try the quiz on our website.
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Now, the story.
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A new blood test can identify more than fifty types of cancer.
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Not only that, in eighty five percent of cases,
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it correctly located the source of the disease.
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The test works by looking for changes in the genetic code of cancers.
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Researchers at Oxford University, where the trial took place,
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say results have been encouraging soo far,
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but there's more to do.
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You've been looking at the headlines,
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Beth. What's the vocabulary?
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We have shows promise,
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miracle and world first.
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This is News Review from BBC Learning English.
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Let's look at our first headline.
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This is from BBC News.
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Multi-cancer blood test shows real promise in NHS study.
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So the headline says that this blood test shows promise.
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And that's the expression
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we're looking at. It contains the word
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'promise', which you probably know.
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It means to say that you're going to do something. But together with show is it different?
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It is quite different.
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Yep, so with 'show' it is a two word expression.
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It means that something is on the way to being successful.
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So the headline is saying that this blood test shows promise.
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It's on the way to being successful.
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It could be successful.
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Yes, that's right.
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A note on the headline.
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It says, 'shows real promise'.
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This makes the success seems stronger.
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Very common combination.
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We can also say 'shows a lot of promise'.
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Can you give us another examples, Neil.
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Yes, well, you can use 'show promise' quite widely, for example
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I heard you practising your Spanish earlier,
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Beth and it shows promise - muchas gracias.
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I heard you practising your singing. Your singing is is showing promise.
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Yeah, OK, so... Don't worry.
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I'm not going to sing. Let's look at that again.
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Let's look at our next headline.
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This is from the Economic Times India.
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U S Company comes up
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with miracle blood test that can detect fifty types of cancer.
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OK, this headline again is about this new blood test that can detect cancer.
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The word we're looking at is 'miracle'. Now, Beth.
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I thought a miracle was connected to religious things
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like walking on water or making something dead
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come back to life.
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Well, it can be that,
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yeah, but we can also use it more widely.
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So a miracle is a very big achievement and often something quite unusual.
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So, for example, maybe your team is losing really badly at half time.
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But then they bring it back and they win. It's a miracle.
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Yes, and we can use 'miracle' as an adjective, as in the headline.
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And it's used to describe something which is incredible.
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A miracle blood test. Yeah, that's right.
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Another example would be a miracle baby.
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If someone's trying really hard to get pregnant and then they achieve it.
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Let's look at that again.
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Let's look at our next headline.
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This is from the Express. Major cancer breakthrough as world's
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first blood test can detect fifty types of disease.
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So the headline says this blood test is a major breakthrough
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a breakthrough is a very important discovery or event,
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but we are looking at 'world-first'.
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It describes the blood test as 'world-first'
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and again two familiar words: 'world'
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and 'first', but when we put them together.
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What does it mean? Well together
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'world's-first' means very important because it's the first in the world
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Can you give us some other examples.
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and is also used to show incredible new achievements like this blood test.
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So other examples in the world of DNA the cloning of Dolly the sheep
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was a world-first and also the astronauts landing on the Moon
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in 1969.
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It's a world first. Yes,
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and take note, we can put world-first before or after the noun, for example,
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we can say a world-
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first blood test or we can say this blood test is a world-
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first. Let's look at that again.
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We've had 'show promise', show signs of future success.
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'Miracle' describes something incredible.
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And 'world-first'.
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Very important because it's never been done before.
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And for another video about blood, we've
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been asking the question: What's the
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point of blood types? Just click here to watch.
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And don't forget to click here to subscribe
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to our channel, so you never miss another video.
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Thanks for joining us. Goodbye. Bye.
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