Austria - Lockdown for unvaccinated: BBC News Review

Austria orders nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Rob and joining me today is Neil. Hi Neil.

Hello Rob. Hello everybody.

If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary in this programme,

there is a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

But now, let's find out some more about the story from this BBC News bulletin:

OK. As you have just heard, there has been a large increase

in the number of people infected with Covid-19 in Austria

and the government has responded by a lockdown,

but only for people who haven't had a Covid-19 vaccination.

This is the first government in the world to take such action.

So, if you haven't had a vaccination, you have to stay at home

and you can't go out except for work or to buy food.

The rate of vaccination in Austria is actually quite low

compared to the rest of Western Europe, at around 65%.

And we've got three words and expressions

we can use to talk about this story. What are they please, Neil?

Yes, we have 'surge', 'plunges' and 'on the cards'.

So, that's 'surge', 'plunges' and 'on the cards'.

And these words come from news headlines.

What is your first headline please?

First headline comes from the Independent,

which is a British newspaper, and it reads:

OK. That's 'surge' – increase suddenly.

Yes, spelt: S-U-R-G-E.

The word in this headline is a verb

and if something 'surges', it means

there is a sudden, dramatic increase of some kind.

So, for example, in this headline

it's the increase in the number of people infected with an illness.

Are we just talking about Covid and viruses when we talk about a 'surge'?

No, when something 'surges', it's not just about illnesses.

For example, groups of people or crowds can 'surge'.

Most people have had that experience of being at a large sporting event

or a concert when the doors open and people rush through:

that is a crowd 'surging', often with dangerous –

sometimes with dangerous consequences,

as we saw tragically in the United States recently,

but there's this sense of there being a lot of something

going through suddenly – through...

through an area, or through a population in the case of Covid infection.

And we've got to be careful because we have a verb form

and a noun form of this word; is that right?

That's right. So, in the headline it's a verb,

but we can also use the word 'surge' as a noun: 'a surge'.

So, there has been 'a surge' in Covid cases in Austria.

We can talk about 'a surge' at a football match or at a concert,

when lots of people move in the same direction at the same time.

We can also talk about a 'power surge', can't we?

Yeah, a power surge is when too much electricity travels through the system –

the network – often again, just like the crowd 'surge',

with potentially dangerous or negative consequences.

It could overpower a building, for example,

and you can end up with a power cut or damage to some of the...

some of the gadgets and equipment.

And also I've heard in economic terms a 'surge' in house prices,

when house prices increase quite quickly, quite suddenly.

Yeah, and again that is to do with sudden, dramatic increases.

And the word itself contains an element of drama,

so of course headline writers like to use these types of words

because, you know, it's not possible to have an undramatic 'surge'.

There is drama inherent in the word 'surge'.

Very true. OK. Thanks for that.

Let's have a summary of that word.

Yeah.

Of course, we've talked quite a bit about Covid here

on News Review and in our other programmes,

and last year we made a programme, 6 Minute English,

all about: 'Will Covid change our cities?' It's an interesting listen.

Where can people watch and listen to it, Neil?

Yeah, it's really fascinating – this idea that a disease

can change the way our cities look.

All you have to do is click on the link below.

Down below. OK. Fantastic.

OK. Let's have a look at your next headline please.

Yes. The next headline comes from the Evening Standard,

which is from the UK – a London-based newspaper –

and the headline is:

That's 'plunges' – moves quickly into something.

Yes, that's 'plunges': P-L-U-N-G-E-S.

A verb again here, 'plunges',

and as you say, Rob, it means something moving from one place

to another, usually downward.

For example, do you like swimming Rob?

Yes, I do like swimming, yes.

Particularly in the summer of course, yeah.

Are you a diver?

Well, I'm not a professional diver, but I do like

to 'plunge' into the cool waters of the sea on a hot summer's day,

or 'plunge' into a swimming pool.

That's right. So, 'plunge' has this sense of

falling dramatically into something.

Yeah, is it always downwards, when you're 'plunging'?

Like a... like water over a waterfall – is it going down?

Yes, it is. Yeah, it's going down.

A person who 'plunges' into water goes from one position up higher

down into a lower position.

But in this headline, we're not exactly going

from a high position to a low position, are we?

No. It's interesting, isn't it?

Going from having freedom into...

into a lockdown: there's no physical direction in that,

but we're thinking figuratively here.

So, we use the word 'plunge' because

probably emotionally it's a downward thing to do:

to go from freedom to lockdown.

So, that's why the word 'plunge' is appropriate here.

OK. And like our previous word, there's a verb form and a noun form.

Yes, we 'plunge' into something, or we can...

Well, here's a set expression: 'take a plunge' or 'take the plunge'.

Yes, I'm familiar with that one – 'take a plunge', which is when you...

you end up after thinking about something for a long time,

you make a decision to do something:

maybe a career change – you eventually want to 'take the plunge'.

That's right, yes. If you are not sure about something;

there might be uncertain consequences,

just like diving into deep water that you're not sure of,

we can say that you 'take the plunge'.

You decide to take that difficult decision into an unknown future.

So, for example, Rob,

I know you've always wanted to join the circus, haven't you?

Yes, always wanted to be a clown.

Yes. Do you think you'll 'take the plunge' and, you know,

leave BBC Learning English and, you know, clown around for a living?

Yeah. Well, I'm still... well, I do that anyway, but I mean...

I'll... I'll have a think about it, I think,

before I make that decision – before I 'take the plunge'.

Yeah. Very, very wise.

OK. Shall we 'take the plunge' now

and have a look at the summary of that word?

So, we've been talking about water 'plunging' over waterfalls.

The famous Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe might have a problem though,

because the water there is drying up.

So, it might stop 'plunging' over

and this is something we covered in our Lingohack video.

Where can people watch that video again, Neil?

Yeah, it's well worth a look, that video,

and it's just in the link below. Click in the link.

Down below. Time now for your next headline please, Neil.

Next headline comes from Russia Today and it reads:

Now, we should say that this headline came out before the final decision,

so we're looking towards the future there

and the expression is 'on the cards'.

So, that's 'on the cards' – likely to happen.

Yes, and it now has happened.

Rob, have you ever been to a fortune teller?

Well, I have actually. Yes, I went to see this...

this woman who had a pack of cards.

She produced a card and the card – the picture on the card

told me what my future would hold:

that I was going to have a wife and two children, so that came true.

Yeah, OK. So, by looking 'on the cards',

the future became clear. Is that right?

Yeah. It was likely to happen and in this case it did happen.

Yeah. So, this is probably the origin of this expression:

from fortune telling.

We say that something is 'on the cards':

it means that it is likely to happen.

It's a set phrase, yeah?

It is a set phrase, yes.

OK. It's a nice little phrase. Let's have a summary of 'on the cards':

OK. It's time now to recap the vocabulary

that we've been discussing today.

Yes, first of all we had 'surge' – increase suddenly.

Secondly, we had 'plunges' – moves quickly into something.

And finally, 'on the cards' – likely to happen.

Thanks for that. And don't forget – you can test yourself

on this vocabulary by going to a quiz

on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

There's lots of other Learning English resources there as well

and don't forget – we're all across social media as well.

Well, that's all for this News Review.

We'll be back again next week. Bye for now.

Goodbye.