Record-breaking snow storm hits Spain: BBC News Review

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hello Catherine.

Hello Neil. Hello everybody. Yes, today we've got a weather story.

Snow is all over the place in Spain; it's causing massive problems,

especially in the area of the capital Madrid.

OK. And 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 radio report:

Yes. So, Storm Filomena has hit Spain.

It has caused snow chaos, in particular in Madrid.

Lots and lots of drivers were stuck in their cars overnight.

The mayor of Madrid has called in the army to help.

It is thought that people... because people can't move,

it's going to help in the fight against coronavirus.

OK. Well, we've got three words and expressions from the headlines

connected to this story that can help you talk about it. What are they?

We have: 'blankets', 'wreaks havoc' and 'swathes'.

'Blankets', 'wreaks havoc' and 'swathes'.

OK. Let's start with your first headline with that word 'blankets', please.

We're starting in the US from Voice of America – the headline is:

'Blankets' – covers completely with a layer of something.

Yes. B-L-A-N-K-E-T-S – and it's a verb: 'to blanket'.

Yeah. It's a verb, but I know what this thing 'blanket' is as a noun:

it's a piece of material that you can cover yourself with to stay warm,

so what's this... what's this got to do with snow, you know? It's not warm!

Yes, a 'blanket' is normally that big piece of fabric, usually made of wool

or something soft and cosy. You put a 'blanket' on your bed,

or if you're kind of having a sofa day you might get a 'blanket' and cover yourself,

and it keeps you nice and warm and cosy. Well, the idea is not to be warm and cosy,

but it is connected to being covered with something:

completely covered with something. So, if you have a 'blanket' on your bed,

it will completely cover your bed and this is the idea.

If something is 'blanketed' in snow – if an area is 'blanketed' in snow –

it's covered – completely covered in snow.

So, not a little bit, but a lot.

And we often see these words together, don't we? 'Blanket' and 'snow' – also 'ash'.

Yes, when volcanoes erupt, like the very famous Mt. Vesuvius

that erupted and 'blanketed' the city of Pompeii with ash.

So, moving back to this word 'blanket' as a noun,

we can also use it in the expression a 'blanket of something'

and that means that the 'something' is the thing that makes up the 'blanket'.

Exactly, yes. So, a 'blanket of snow' is covering the city of Madrid right now.

Yes, that's right. We use 'with' or 'in' in connection with this word.

Yes, you can 'blanket' something 'with' something

or you can 'blanket' something 'in' something

and we often use this word in the passive: we can say, 'Madrid is blanketed with snow,'

or, 'Madrid is blanketed in snow.'

OK. Let's have a summary:

We have another story about snow and rescues – this time about some tourists

who got stuck at the top of Britain's tallest mountain.

Where can our viewers find this?

Yes, the people who got stuck on top of the mountain –

all they were wearing is trainers... on their feet at least.

And you can find out more by clicking the link.

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

Yes. We're in Germany now with Deutsche Welle – the headline:

'Wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage.

And we can see also that word 'blankets' that we've just looked at in this headline,

but we're looking at 'wreak havoc' here.

Yes. So, 'wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage. It's a two-word expression.

The first word is wreaks – W-R-E-A-K-S.

And the second word: 'havoc' – H-A-V-O-C.

So, let's look at this second word: 'havoc'. 'Havoc' means chaos,

complete disorder, pandemonium, a complete and total mess.

And the verb 'wreak' means cause, so if you 'wreak havoc'

you cause complete and total destruction, chaos – a mess.

So, in this case we can say that the snow in Madrid has 'wreaked havoc'.

It has caused chaos. People can't move anywhere.

There are... there may well be power cuts. People can't get to work.

There's lots and lots of problems caused by this snow,

so 'wreaks havoc' means causes a really difficult, chaotic situation.

Now, these two words – 'wreak' and 'havoc' – they are what we call

a very strong collocation: they go together – these words go together very strongly.

Very strongly indeed. There are not many other English words that you will use

after the verb 'wreak', but 'wreaks havoc' is a very strong phrase.

Now, we've used it in this Spanish example here to describe a very serious situation

but we can also use it for, kind of, personal situations:

if somebody's cooking in your kitchen and you go into the kitchen

and you see pots and pans and dishes everywhere,

and packets and things of food on the floor, you can say:

'My God! They've wreaked havoc in the kitchen!'

And it just means they've made lots of mess.

Yeah. And this lockdown, lots of people have noticed

this lockdown has 'wreaked havoc' on my hair, Catherine.

Ah yes, it has, most definitely!

I've watched it getting worse and worse over the weeks and months.

Yeah. So, I would like to point out to everybody

that it is not possible to get a haircut at the moment

and this is too much of a mess for me to deal with on my own.

Yes, yes – they're going to need industrial hair clippers for you, Neil!

No pair of scissors is strong enough...!

OK. There is another word, 'reek', which is spelt differently

but sounds exactly the same, but has a very different meaning.

Yes: R-E-E-K. If something 'reeks', it smells very strongly and usually quite badly

but it's completely different – R-E-E-K – not to be confused with W-R-E-A-K.

OK. Let's get a summary of that word:

So, as we all know, the coronavirus has been 'wreaking havoc' across the world

and has been for about a year now.

And it's also having a really bad effect on people's mental health.

We have a programme about that, if you are interested.

We do... Where can our viewers find it?

Yes, to see more about this topic, just click the link and you'll go straight there.

Time now for our next headline.

And we're finally looking at Euronews – the headline:

'Swathes' – large areas.

Yes. 'Swathes' – S-W-A-T-H-E-S.

The pronunciation is particularly noteworthy: 'swathes'.

And it's got that 'th – zz' at the end. Neil, would you like to demonstrate?

Yes, two challenging sounds for a lot of learners.

At the end of the word we have: 'th' followed by 'zz' – 'swathes'.

Yes, and the S-W at the beginning doesn't make it any easier.

One more time, it's 'swathes'.

Now, 'swathes' means large areas, often of land.

So, we can have large areas... 'swathes' of land, 'swathes' of forest,

'swathes' of countryside, 'swathes' of trees and it literally means large areas.

In this example, we're talking about 'swathes' of Spain, I think it said...

Yep, 'swathes' of Spain – means large areas of Spain – are covered in snow.

Yeah. So, 'swathes' followed by 'of' and then the thing.

Yes.

This is about large areas, isn't it? So, I couldn't say,

'Swathes of my garden are covered in weeds,' but if I did say that,

it would mean that I had a huge garden and I... I can tell you I don't.

Erm... you wouldn't be working here, Neil, if you had 'swathes' of land.

Yeah. So, it's about very large areas. Let's get a summary:

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

Yes. We had 'blankets' – covers completely with a layer of something.

We had 'wreaks havoc' – causes chaos or damage.

And finally we had 'swathes' – large areas.

If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary,

go to our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

There's a quiz there and you can find us all over social media.

Thank you for joining us and stay safe. See you next time. Goodbye.

Goodbye.