Afghanistan: Taliban retake Kabul: BBC News Review

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have retaken Kabul after twenty years.

I'm Catherine. This is News Review from BBC Learning English

and today, joining me is Roy. Hello Roy.

Hello Catherine and hello everyone. If you would like to take a quiz

on the vocabulary around this story, head to our website

bbclearningenglish.com to take a quiz.

Now, let's hear more about this story from this BBC News report:

The Taliban have retaken the Afghan capital of Kabul,

twenty years after they were removed.

The President has left the country and people are trying to evacuate.

Thank you, Roy. And you've been looking

at the headlines around this story.

You have three words and expressions for us today, don't you?

What are they?

We have: 'brace', 'engulfs' and 'sweep'.

'Brace', 'engulfs' and 'sweep'. So, your first headline please.

Yes, my first headline comes from the UK,

from the Financial Times, and it reads:

'Brace' – prepare for something difficult.

Now Roy, what can you tell us about 'brace'?

Right. OK. So, this word is spelt: B-R-A-C-E.

Now, Catherine, when you heard about

the UK having a third lockdown, how did you feel?

Urgh... well, you know, I thought, 'Here we go again...

another lockdown. Oh, it's going to be difficult.

I'm going to have to get myself mentally prepared.'

So, I had a little talk with myself, I bought some extra chocolates,

and, sort of, nice jogging trousers and I got ready to stay at home.

So, I got myself – mentally, I made myself feel really strong

and decided I'm going to power through this lockdown.

So, I had to really strengthen myself mentally.

So... Exactly. So, you 'braced' yourself mentally:

you prepared yourself for an unpleasant or difficult situation.

And notice there as well – I said, 'Brace yourself.'

We commonly use it with words like 'brace myself', 'brace himself',

'brace themselves' to talk about preparing for that negative situation.

So... so, is it only about mental preparation.

It's just about, kind of, your... your own self and feelings.

No... no. It can also be used about 'bracing' yourself for a negative...

'bracing' your body for... For example, if you go on a plane,

they quite commonly read those instructions where they say,

'In the event of an accident,

please – you know, you put your hands behind your head, I think –

and you 'brace' yourself for impact, or 'brace for impact'.

Yeah... OK. And what about – is it only for people?

Can you brace things?

Yeah, yeah. It's a little bit different;

for example, if you have a weakened wall in your house –

maybe you're having some renovations and you notice that

a wall is weak or some posts in the garden – maybe want to 'brace' that.

You want to support that. So, we use maybe a piece of wood

or metal to reinforce the structure to support it and 'brace' it.

OK. And what about 'braces' on people's teeth?

I've heard them using that expression.

Yeah, slightly different. It's those metal things that we put on our teeth

and it's used to support and correct their positions.

Thank you. Let's get a summary of that please:

So, talking about difficult situations that we need to 'brace' for,

we have a programme about the climate emergency, don't we, Roy?

Where can we find that?

All you need to do is click the link beneath.

And your second headline please.

Yes. My second headline comes from Reuters and it reads:

'Engulfs' – affects powerfully; overwhelms.

Yes. So, 'engulfs' is spelt: E-N-G-U-L-F-S.

And it basically means that a place

or a person has been almost overwhelmed by a negative situation.

So, in the state of the headline – in the case of the headline –

it's saying that chaos has 'engulfed' the airport,

which means there's people running around shouting,

nobody knows what's happening, no one knows who's in charge

and there's a lot of panic.

And it's happening everywhere, isn't it? It's just...

it's not in, like, little... little parts of the airport.

The idea of 'engulfs' means it's absolutely everywhere.

All over the airport. And if a person...

it's – quite commonly we use it in the passive as well.

'He was engulfed', or 'they were engulfed',

or 'the area was engulfed'.

And do we say – what prepositions are we using then, with the passive?

We commonly use it with 'in' or 'by'.

So, you can be 'engulfed by' an emotion

or you can be 'engulfed in' something.

So, that's interesting; you're now talking about emotions rather than actions.

The airport example was about, kind of, the physical situation,

but you can also be 'engulfed' in or by an emotion, you're saying?

Yeah. You can be 'engulfed' by fear. So, for example,

if something is too overwhelmingly frightening,

you can be just 'engulfed' by fear.

So, that would mean, you know, you can't move,

you can't talk to anybody, you're completely panicked,

you can't think properly...

Absolutley. ...because the fear is so strong

and it's really taking over your entire person.

Absolutely. But it's not the only case that we use 'engulf'.

There is another meaning of 'engulf', which has this same idea

of being surrounded, or by... covered by something negative.

For example, a building could be 'engulfed' in flames

when it is completely on fire,

or an area or a country could be 'engulfed' by a snowstorm.

We've just been talking about Greece. You know, isn't it –

large parts of Greece are 'engulfed' in wildfires, right now.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you very much. Let's get a summary:

Yes. And talking of places being 'engulfed' in flames,

we did cover the Notre Dame story, when Notre Dame Cathedral in France

was 'engulfed' in flames. Roy, where can we find the video for that?

All you need to do is click the link below.

And now, let's have a look at our next headline.

Our next headline comes from Associated Press News and it reads:

'Sweep' – move powerfully and quickly.

Yes. So, this word is spelt: S-W-E-E-P.

Now, when you clean your house, Catherine –

now, I think this word is quite commonly used when talking about cleaning

– how do you clean your house?

Well, what I usually do is use a vacuum cleaner, but for the purposes

of this programme, I'm going to tell you that I get a very...

a small hand brush and I get down onto the floor

and I move that brush slowly and very carefully around the floor,

and I gather every tiny little piece of dust and dirt from the floor.

So, I 'sweep' my floor with a brush.

Perfect. Now, obviously in the headline we're not talking

about cleaning an airport, or cleaning an area,

but in this sense it is a similar idea with that big movement.

And we usually talk about 'sweep' when a group of people

are moving into an area covering everything and...

Yeah, it's covering... they're not missing anything, are they?

No. They're getting absolutely everything

and nothing... nothing escapes a 'sweep', does it?

Absolutely. And also, for example, it's not just about a group of people

– maybe a government 'sweeps' into power,

which is a similar idea with talking about the Taliban here:

they are sweeping into power.

And that kind of means with, you know...

nothing can stop them, isn't it? Yeah.

It's the idea that it's complete, you know – this takeover of power.

It's a large, quick and powerful movement.

Another way that we can use 'sweep'

is actually for a trend or something like this.

So, for example, a new fashion style that everybody starts doing –

we can actually say it 'sweeps the nation'.

Strong collocation there, isn't it? That phrase to 'sweep the nation'...

we use that a lot, don't we, in British English?

We do... we do. 'Sweep'...

to say that everybody's doing it or it's very, very popular.

Thank you very much. And let's see a summary:

Now Roy, can you recap today's vocabulary?

Of course. We had 'brace' – prepare for something difficult.

'Engulfs' – affects powerfully; overwhelms.

And we had 'sweep' – move powerfully and quickly.

Thank you Roy. Now, don't forget that you can test yourself

on the vocabulary for today's show on our website bbclearningenglish.com.

We are also all over social media.

Thank you for joining us. See you next time.

Bye.