Olympics: Sprinter seeks asylum: BBC News Review

At the Olympics, a Belarusian sprinter says that her

team tried to force her home after she criticised her coaching staff.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil and joining me is Roy. Hello, Roy. Hi, Neil and hello, everyone.

If you would like to test yourself on the vocabulary around the story.

All you need to do is head to our website

www.bbclearningenglish.com to take a quiz.

But now, let's hear more about that story from this BBC news report.

The Belarusian authorities say she was removed from the team because of

Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya

claims that her country's officials were trying to force her

to return home after she criticised her coaches. She is now in the

protection of the Japanese police and she is seeking asylum in Europe.

OK. Well, you've been looking around the world's media at this story.

You've picked out three really useful items of vocabulary that can help

people to talk about the story and understand it. What have you got?

We have a 'standoff', 'against someone's will' and 'kidnap plot'.

'Standoff', 'against someone's will' and 'kidnap plot'.

OK, let's have a look at your first headline, please Roy.

OK, our first headline comes from the UK from The Mirror and

it reads: Olympic sprinter who criticised regime in airport

standoff as she refuses to fly home.

'stand off' - situation in which neither side wants to agree.

OK. So this word is spelt S-T-A-N-D-O-F-F

and you'll notice there

I spelt it as one word. In the headline, it's hyphenated, but you

can use it in either way, you will see it in both ways - and it basically

relates to a situation in which two parties or two people cannot agree.

OK, Roy. I think I know this situation from various movies

I've seen - where you have one group of people one individual with a gun

and another one with a gun and they're pointing at each other,

and neither one of them wants to compromise.

Yeah. So it's all about that idea of neither willing to compromise and

you're absolutely right. It is quite commonly with two people with guns.

Neither one wants to leave the safety of where they are so they're

both stuck or staying in their position and they are in a standoff,

if you like. But in this situation, it more relates to a situation where

neither person wants to agree to the terms and neither person is moving.

It's not about guns in this case or in a film.

Yes, and probably most commonly guns and violence are not involved in

this when we're talking about standoffs. Can you give us another example,

maybe from the world of commerce or business?

Absolutely. So, yeah, as you say it's quite commonly used

in business and it maybe relates to a situation where two companies

or two parties from two different companies are trying to agree terms,

or maybe a deal or a takeover, but neither one is willing to compromise

or accept the other's term. So there is a standoff. They're not

willing to move. And it's also commonly used in other situations.

For example, legal situations. Perhaps a divorce where there

is a standoff between the two people that want to get divorced.

Neither one is willing to agree to the other's terms. Yeah.

OK, we can also see this word, well a very similar looking word,but

it's an adjective to describe a certain type of person - 'standoffish'.

Is that similar? Not really this is... Yeah, basically,

let me give you an example: The other day,

I went to an online party and I was really happy and I was

ready to celebrate, but nobody was speaking to me. Nobody,

nobody was talking to me. They were all being really unfriendly and very formal.

They were being a bit standoffish as you'd say. So it relates

to a person who is unfriendly, or being quite formal.

  The opposite type of person to you, Roy.

Thank you.

Shall we get a summary?

To hear another story about a standoff, we have one

about North and South Korea. Where can our viewers find it, Roy?

All you need to do is click that link.

OK, let's have a look at your next headline.

So our next headline comes from the UK again, from the

Telegraph, and it reads: Belarus Olympic sprinter 'forced to

airport against her will' after criticising coach.

'against someone's will' - doing the opposite of what someone wishes.

Yes. So this expression is three words.

The first word 'against' is: A-G-A-I-N-S-T.

The second word, is that like, it can be like 'my',

'your', 'his' or 'her' and the third word is 'will': W-I-L-L.

And it relates to doing something that somebody doesn't

want or somebody doesn't wish.

Yeah, now some people might be confused - that little word 'will' -

very common. People associate it with when we're talking about the future.

This is not the same word.

No, no. I will explain it. So that little word 'will' is everywhere.

And it's a modal verbs, as you say, commonly used to talk about the

future. Potentially, a decision made at the time of speaking.

So you say 'I'm going to the cafe.'

'OK, I will come with you', but not in this sense. In this sense,

It's actually being used as a noun, and it has a very different meaning

and it's basically about wishes or intentions in this case.

Yeah. And we're talking about sort of strong wishes, we're not talking about, you know,

wanting to have a biscuit with your cup of tea or something like that.

No, no. So in the case of the headline,

it's basically saying that the athlete was being returned home,

but she didn't want to go back.

So it was against her will - that was her intention to not go back.

So this word 'will' is used in a word people may have seen connected to

people's strength of personality to complete something which is

perhaps a bit tricky: 'willpower'. What's 'willpower'?

Absolutely. So 'willpower', it relates to your

resolve or your ability to, your mental ability, to do something.

Let me give you an example we commonly use 'willpower'[when]

talking about overcoming something like smoking.

So if you decide to give up smoking. Many, many years ago,

I used to smoke cigarettes and I realised that one day,

they were not healthy for me, and I wanted to give up. And it's a very,

very sort of difficult process, or it was for me,

but I threw those cigarettes in the bin and I said no more and I had,

I had to use a lot of willpower there to get through that

because it was very difficult, but I had some,

I had a strong will - we can say it was that way as well. But

willpower is the thing that helped me overcome smoking.

OK. Yes, you might need a lot of will power to help you move

ahead with your English, but I'm sure you can do it.

Follow Roy's smoking example. Let's get a summary.

Now, talking about the other 'will' - the future

'will', we have the perfect programme for you, don't we Roy?

Yes, we do. All you need to do is click the link in the description to

check out that episode of the Grammar. Gameshow.

Excellent stuff. OK, let's have your next headline.

OK, so our next headline comes from the Australian and

it reads: Tokyo Olympics 2021:

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya kidnap plot.

'kidnap plot' - plan to take someone without their consent.

Yes, so this expression is two words. K-I-D-N-A-P. Second word

P-L-O-T. 'Kidnap plot' - and it's a plan to take somebody against their will.

Yeah. So that first word 'kidnap' - that is the taking someone bit,

isn't it? It is, yeah. I like to explain it to

my students as saying it's like stealing a person, when you

take that person and they don't want to be taken - to kidnap

them. And quite commonly, you see that connected with money

and the people who take the person:

the kidnappers, ask for money, which is commonly known as a 'ransom'.

However, in this case there is no implication of money being asked for.

Yeah. So we've got 'kidnap' which is stealing a person as you saya

and then we've got this word 'plot'.

Now, there were 'plot' is usually connected to stories, isn't it

Roy? Why is it being used here?

Well yeah, you can use the word 'plot' in terms of a story of a film or a book,

but that's not what it means in this case.

It's a different use of - it's a different word. 'Plot; in this case is a plan

or intention when a person or a group of people are coming up with a plan

and it's usually quite a negative plan. It's a plot against someone or

a government. So it's a negative plan, a dangerous plan to maybe take down

someone, or take down a government, potentially.

Yeah, you can use this if you're talking about someone who you think is

making a plan against you which is not going to be good for you.

You can say: What are you plotting? Are you plotting against me?

Yes, Yeah. You can use it as both a verb and a noun.

'A plot' or 'to plot', exactly. I think a good example of that is Rob.

You know what he's like with his biscuits or my biscuits,

more like. The other day, I could see Rob looking at me eating my biscuits

and you could see in his eyes he was planning something. He was plotting

against me, and suddenly I received a little noise on my computer.

He had sent me an email saying: 'Look at this - you have won something.'

I looked, and then I looked back and my biscuits were gone.

That was his plot, You can't trust that guy, can you?

Not at all. Not with biscuits anyway. OK, let's get a summary.

Time now then Roy for a recap of the vocabulary, please.

We had 'standoff' - situation in which neither side wants to agree.

We had 'against someone's will' - doing the opposite of what

someone wishes, and we had 'kidnap plot' plan to take someone without

their consent. If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary,

there's a quiz on a website www.bbclearningenglish.com and we are

also all over social media. Thanks for joining us. And goodbye. Bye!