Belarus: Protests spread: BBC News Review

Hello. Welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Joining me is Catherine. Hi Catherine!

Hello Neil and hello everybody! Yes, today

we've got a story about protests.

If you want to test yourself on

any of the vocabulary you learn in today's programme, there's a quiz on our

website bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear more about that story

from this BBC news report:

Yes, we're in the Eastern European country of Belarus for this one.

There are protests because people feel

that the elections that happened recently were not counted fairly.

They're demanding the resignation of the president,

Alexander Lukashenko, who's been in power for 26 years.

You've been checking out the headlines on this story:

what are the three words and expressions that will

help people talk about it?

Yes, we've got three great words and

expressions for you this week.

They are: 'eclipses', someone or something's 'moment' and 'embattled'.

'Eclipses', someone or something's 'moment' and 'embattled'.

OK. Let's have your first headline, please.

Yes. In the UK for this one – we are

looking at BBC News. The headline:

'Eclipses' – makes something seem less important.

That's right: E-C-L-I-P-S-E-S – 'eclipses'.

Now, you know what an eclipse is, don't you Neil?

Yeah– so an eclipse, for example,

is when during the daytime it's lovely and sunny

and then suddenly the moon goes in front of the sun

and it goes dark.

That's exactly right, yes. So, the sun is shining on you:

it's bringing you lots of light – it's very important, isn't it?

And then suddenly you can't see the sun: it is no longer

important. Your attention now is drawn to the moon –

something normally smaller, but in this case

it seems like it's dominating the sun. Is that right?

That's right. So, this is about

a change of emphasis – of importance.

Exactly that, yes. When one thing becomes more important,

and actually dominates so much that the original thing

is no longer attracting any attention: that's the way we use 'eclipse' here.

So, President Lukashenko's rally is

dominated by the protests... the protests are becoming more important,

according to this headline, than Lukashenko's rally.

Yes, that's right.

Now – used here obviously as a verb as well.

Yes, that's right. It can be a verb:

you can eclipse something or something can be eclipsed.

Now, if we look at the recent coronavirus outbreak,

that has eclipsed pretty much every other news story for quite a long time now.

The coronavirus is the most important: nothing else

is really getting any significance because coronavirus is eclipsing

every other item of importance at the moment.

Absolutely. And we also hear it quite often in a sporting context,

for example, when somebody's record is broken.

Yes. So, Lewis Hamilton is a very successful

Formula 1 driver, but he's still not got as many Drivers' Championships as

Michael Schumacher, but if he does

he will eclipse Schumacher's record.

Very good example, yes.

OK. let's have a summary of that:

If you want to learn more about the word 'eclipse' or see a story

about eclipses we've got one for you, haven't we Catherine?

We have! Words in the News – and click the link

and you can watch the story.

OK. Let's hear your next headline.

Most certainly. Now we're looking at The Times again, here in the UK.

An opinion piece this time and the title is:

Something or someone's 'moment' – an opportunity

to achieve something significant.

That's right. And the key word here is 'moment'.

It's a noun – M-O-M-E-N-T – 'moment'.

Now – 'moment' – why are we talking about moment?

Everybody knows what moment means.

It just means a little period of time, so why is it being used here?

That's right a moment is a few seconds.

When we say 'just a moment' or 'wait a moment'

we mean wait a few seconds and then something will happen. So, a moment is a few seconds in time.

But here we're talking about – not so much time,

but opportunity: when the circumstances

are right for a change or for a big achievement,

we can say: 'This is your moment.'

You need to do this thing you've been waiting to do for a long time

because the circumstances are right.

You can do this, but you have to do it now.

That's when we say: 'This is something's moment,

or somebody's moment, or your moment.'

Yeah. And it's a brief opportunity, isn't it?

Yeah. It's something that, if you don't take now,

it's gonna vanish.

That's right. That's exactly right, yes.

It has to happen now... or it won't – it may not happen at all.

So, there is general widespread agreement that there is a problem

with the environment and that this is the climate's moment:

the moment when people can take the opportunity to make a change.

It's now or never.

Exactly, yeah. A very good example, yes.

And we can use it for things like the climate or you can use it

for individual people. You can say, if a sportsperson has been

training and training and training, for years and years and years,

and finally they get to the Olympic Games,

and they win, and they're on that podium getting the gold medal, you can say:

'this is her moment' or 'this is his moment'.

Absolutely. Let's now have a summary:

So, we've been talking about the climate and the fact that it is

a moment now for something to be done about the climate.

And we have a story about pollution and a possible

solution, don't we Catherine?

That's right. You know what to do:

if you want to watch it, the link's there. Just click it.

OK. Our next headline, please.

And in the UK again – this time, The Independent.

The headline:

'Embattled' – experiencing a lot of difficulties.

Yes. E-M-B-A-T-T-L-E-D – 'embattled'.

Now, the key part of this word is in the middle and it's 'battle'.

Now, you know what a battle is, don't you Neil?

Yes. A battle is a fight, often between armies.

Yes. A war is often made up of individual battles.

Now, when we use the word 'embattled'

we're not talking about actual fighting with weapons and guns,

but the idea of a lot of fighting – a big struggle – is this idea

in this word here now:

if somebody is embattled, a lot of people are attacking them.

There are lots of issues and they're having –

they must defend themselves and fight back in lots of different areas,

often for a long time. They're struggling and it's not looking good for them, to be honest.

If something's – if someone's embattled, they're in a bad situation

because of a lot of attacks from different people.

Yeah. And we use this to talk about people and

things in a position of authority.

Yeah – that's right. It's not something we talk about

in our kind of everyday life:

I wouldn't say, 'Leave Rob alone. He's embattled

at the moment. He's got too much to do and people are getting to him.'

Yeah – not so much. Not so much for your personal circumstances.

We can talk about football managers or football teams being embattled,

as you could say for poor Barcelona at the minute,

who lost 8-2 to Bayern Munich the other – just last weekend.

That team is embattled: it's got lots of problems. They're going on for a long time.

Excellent example, yes. OK. Let's have a summary:

Time now for a recap of the vocabulary please, Catherine.

Yes. We had: 'eclipses' – makes something seem less important.

We had: something or someone's 'moment' – an opportunity to achieve something significant.

And we had: 'embattled' – experiencing a lot of difficulties.

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