Prince Harry: Why was he in court? BBC News Review

Prince Harry appears at the High Court.  

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

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and try the quiz on our website. Now, the story.

He said it's his 'life's work' to challenge the press.

Now, Prince Harry has appeared

at the High Court in London to show how serious

he is about it.

The Prince, along with other celebrities like Sir Elton John,

accuses Associated Newspapers of

illegally gathering private information.

The publisher denies all the claims.  

You've been looking at the headlines, Beth. What's the vocabulary?

We have: life's work,

snooping and bluffing.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from The Independent. Prince Harry has begun his life's work -

by turning up in court when he didn't need to be there.

Yes. So, the headline says that Harry has appeared in court

even though he didn't need to and this shows he has begun his life's work.

'Life's work' is the expression that we're looking at.

It seems quite simple Beth, but can you tell us more?

Yes. So, this expression does seem simple, because it's made up

of two words that we know very well - 'life' and 'work'.

But, in combination,

they have a special meaning and it's all to do with passion.

Yes, that's right. Now, Beth, in your life,

you have been working as an English teacher,

but you often tell me that your passion, and what you

really care about, is theatre and that,

in fact, you're writing a musical

and that is the thing you dedicate your energy and passion to -

it's your life's work.

Yes. So, when we say that something is our life's work,

it might be the thing that we're paid to do, it might be a job -

if so then that's very lucky, because your

life's work can also just be something you really enjoy, like a hobby.

That's right. Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from Bloomberg UK.

Prince Harry clashes with Daily Mail in UK

snooping lawsuit.

Yes. So, the headline says that Prince Harry clashes with the Daily Mail.

That means he is having a fight with them and

it's about this issue of snooping.

'Snooping' is the word

we're looking at and, Beth,

it means sort of looking around for things, doesn't it?

Well, it's more than that. So, 'snooping' is looking around

in places that you probably shouldn't be to try

and find information that other people don't want you to know about.

OK. So, it's about looking for private information, secret information.

Yeah. That's right.

And that's what these celebrities are accusing

publications from Associated Newspapers of doing -

getting private information about them in a dishonest way,

such as listening to private phone calls.

Now, 'snooping' is the activity and 'to snoop' is the verb.

Yes. And the person who does it is called 'a snoop'.

Now, 'snooping' is not considered a positive thing

so when we use this word,

we're talking about unhappy situations. Anything else to say?

We use it with 'on'

so we can say someone is 'snooping on a celebrity' and we also use it

with 'about' and 'around'.

I can say 'that man is snooping around'.

OK, let's look at that again.

  Let's have our next headline, please.

This is from The Guardian.

Prince Harry shows he is not bluffing

in vendetta against Daily Mail owner.

So, the headline says that Prince Harry has a vendetta against the Daily Mail.

That means a very long relationship of hatred, but we're looking at the word

'bluffing'. Now, bluffing is a little bit like joking, isn't it?

Well, a bit, but it can be a bit more serious than that.

So, bluffing is about making people believe that you're going  

to do something even if, actually, you aren't. OK, so, for example,

I can say to my boss, 'unless you give me a pay rise,

I am going to leave' but, actually,

I'm not going to leave because I need the job and I need the money.

Yeah. That's right. It's like a false threat. In this headline,

we can see that it's used in the negative.

'Harry's not bluffing'. It's very often used in this way.

So, we say 'I'm not bluffing' to mean that we are serious in our threat.

Yes. And so this piece says that Harry is serious.

He really does want to control and limit the behaviour

of some parts of the press.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had life's work -

the thing you dedicate your life

to achieving because you care so much about it.

Snooping - finding out private information

in a dishonest way. And bluffing - saying that

you're going to do something

that you're not really going to do.

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