Australia's 'one-in-a-fifty-year' flood: BBC News Review

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil and joining me is Tom. Hello Tom.

Hello Neil and hello to our audience. Australia is our story today.

Australia has been hit by the worst floods in 50 years

and today we're looking at the impact of these floods.

If you'd like to test yourself

on any of the vocabulary you hear in this programme,

there's a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

OK. Let's find out about those floods from this BBC News bulletin:

So, there is extreme flooding in New South Wales in Australia.

More than 18,000 people have moved to escape the floodwater.

Political leaders say that these floods are the worst in 50 years

and there is a warning that rain and flooding could continue in the state.

Very serious situation there.

Now, you've been looking across the media at this story

and picking out words and expressions which are useful

for talking about it. What have you got?

I have: 'torrential', 'batter' and 'kick in the guts'.

'Torrential', 'batter' and 'kick in the guts'.

So, let's start with your first headline please.

Of course. My first headline today, Neil, is from CNN in the USA – it says:

'Torrential' – describes heavy, strong rain.

Yeah. So, 'torrential' is an adjective.

Spelling: T-O-R-R-E-N-T-I-A-L – 'torrential'.

And the stress is on the middle of three syllables: 'tor-REN-tial'.

'Torrential' – am I right?

Yes, that's an excellent pronunciation of 'torrential', Neil.

OK. Now, it might be useful to think about the noun version of this word.

It is. The noun form is 'torrent' – that's T-O-R-R-E-N-T.

And a 'torrent' is a large amount of water which is moving very fast.

This is not as common as 'torrential'

but it's useful to understand where the adjective comes from.

Yeah. So, we could say 'torrential rain' or also a 'torrent of rain',

but 'torrential' is more common.

Yeah, we could say a 'torrent of rain'. We'd normally stick with 'torrential'.

We'd normally use the adjective form.

Some collocations for torrential:

we have 'torrential rain', 'torrential downpour'

and interestingly it's very common to use the word 'after' with this

because often we're talking about the impact of 'torrential rain',

so you'll see the word 'after' with it as well.

OK. So, are there any other expressions using this word 'torrent'?

There are, Neil, yeah. That's why I put it in.

A 'torrent' – OK. 'Torrent' – not that common in English,

but we have a common fixed expression, which uses the word.

The fixed expression is a 'torrent of abuse'.

Ah, a 'torrent of abuse'. Now, this is something that you might witness

– you might see at a football match, for example.

Say a player makes a mistake – the crowd is often

not very friendly or forgiving about mistakes.

The player might be subjected to a 'torrent of abuse'.

Imagine... yeah, imagine getting hit by, like, a river of abuse:

it just doesn't stop. It flows and it comes down at you.

For example, Neil, you might give me a 'torrent of abuse'

if I make a mistake on News Review – like, 'Tom, what have you done??

You did this wrong! Your sound's bad! It's a huge mess!'

And if you continued it would be a 'torrent of abuse'

and I would be very upset.

You know I would never do that, but just as an example, I'll say yes.

Never on camera anyway...!

Australia has been very unlucky with natural disasters over the last year.

We have a story about the fires that were there last January.

Where can our viewers find it, Tom?

Our viewers can find it by clicking the link in the video.

OK. Let's have our next headline please.

Our next headline, Neil, is from Beef Central,

which is an Australian agricultural news website – it says:

So, there's that word 'torrential' again to describe rain,

but our vocabulary is 'batters'.

'Batters' – strikes hard and repeatedly.

Yeah. So, 'batter' – 'to batter' is a verb: B-A-T-T-E-R – 'batter'.

And you note the kind of schwa:

unstressed pronunciation at the end: 'batter'.

Yeah. Now, it might be useful

and you might actually recognise in this word 'batter'

a little clue to help you understand it or remember it:

the word 'bat'. Now, a lot of sports use a bat

and if you have a bat, you can 'batter' things with it.

Well, you can, yeah. So, cricket – you have a bat.

Baseball – you have a bat. And what do you do with this bat, Neil?

You hit things.

You hit things or you strike things. So, this is the sort of – where...

this is why they're using it here: it has this image of being struck or hit.

It's quite violent imagery which describes this strong storm.

Yeah. Now, apart from physically battering something,

you can... you can figuratively: you can...

you can attack someone with words and it would still be a 'battering'.

Definitely, yeah. It wouldn't be pleasant.

If you are 'battered' – say on social media,

if you do a post, which is very unpopular,

and you get lots and lots of posts which criticise you,

you could 'get battered' and here we have the collocation as well:

'get battered' means, kind of, get attacked by people.

Yeah. Similar to our first expression there – a 'torrent of abuse'.

Yeah, definitely. There's a lot of violent imagery in today's broadcast.

But, moving away from violence, there is another form

of 'batter' as well, which is very popular in the UK.

Absolutely. I love fish and chips and when I go to the fish and chip shop

I go and I get my cod 'battered'. Now that doesn't mean...

Yeah.

...it doesn't mean that it's been beaten up by the –

by the person running the fish and chip shop.

No. So, 'batter' as a noun – B-A-T-T-E-R.

This is the stuff that we put on our fish before we fry it.

Flour, water – put your fish in there, fry it: it is a 'battered fish'.

And you can 'batter' lots of things, like bananas for example.

Yeah. Now, Tom you have got a really fantastic joke.

I know you're a dad, Neil, so I'm going to give you a dad joke,

which is a very unfunny joke in English. OK. Are you ready?

Neil, did you hear about the fight in the chip shop?

No, I didn't hear about the fight in the chip shop. What happened, Tom?

Two fish got 'battered'.

So, there we go. Both meanings of 'batter':

to put that flour and water coating on a piece of fish before frying,

but also to hit really hard, so...

Hysterical.

Absolutely. I think this is a good time for a summary:

Talking of fish and chips, we have a programme in which Tim,

our pronunciation expert, talks you through

some of the pronunciation issues connected with that phrase.

Where can our learners find it?

Once again, our learners can find it by clicking the link in the video.

Let's have your next headline.

My next headline, Neil, comes from Yahoo News Australia – it says:

'Kick in the guts' – extremely disappointing event or action.

We've got more, sort of, violent imagery here, Tom.

Yeah. Yet more violent imagery here again, Neil, on today's News Review.

So, 'kick in the guts' is a verb phrase. Four words.

The first one: 'kick' – K-I-C-K. Next: 'in' – I-N.

'The' – T-H-E. And 'guts' – G-U-T-S. A 'kick in the guts'.

And this is an extremely disappointing event or action.

Yeah. Now, the word 'guts' refers to the, sort of, stomach area in general

and if you imagine receiving some really, kind of, disappointing news,

you kind of feel it in that area – in your 'guts', in your stomach – don't you?

You do and we actually – there's an adjective that we have

in British English, which is 'gutted'.

If you feel very disappointed, you feel 'gutted',

so it has – you know – a similar meaning.

Yeah. So, whereas if somebody actually kicked you in the 'guts',

the main sensation would be pain rather than disappointment,

but what we're talking about when we talk about 'guts'

is connected to disappointment and feelings.

Yeah, definitely. It's figurative and they've used it with this headline –

you mentioned the Australian fires earlier in the broadcast –

so, the headline is about an Australian family,

who saved their home from the fires

but then this time in the floods they have lost their home.

So, you can imagine there's a real sense of deep disappointment there...

Yeah. ...very upset.

Now, this is not the only expression in English

with a 'kick' in it and a part of the body:

there's there's one with teeth as well.

Yeah, a 'kick in the guts' makes you feel disappointed;

a 'kick in the teeth' makes you... it's perhaps even worse.

It makes you feel disappointed and it's quite disrespectful as well.

Yeah. So, for example, Rob – he stole one of your scripts, didn't he?

Yeah. Imagine Rob stole my script and then he won an award

and got journalist of the year.

Yeah. So, not only did he steal the script,

which was – you know – disappointing in itself;

he then went and won an award with it,

which was an extra disappointing, disrespectful...

Extra disappointing, extra disrespectful.

If I was married and my wife left me, that would be very disappointing,

but then if she married my best friend the next week,

that would be a real 'kick in the teeth' – very disrespectful as well.

Absolutely. It's time now for a summary, I think.

Yeah, I think so. On that happy note, let's have a look at the summary:

Time now then for a recap of our vocabulary please, Tom.

Of course. Today's vocabulary.

We have 'torrential' – describes heavy, strong rain.

'Batters' – strikes hard and repeatedly.

And 'kick in the guts' – extremely disappointing event or action.

If you want to test yourself on this vocabulary,

you can find a test on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

And you can find us all over social media.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

See you next time. Bye!