Warmest January day ever: BBC News Review

New Year, new record high temperatures, already.

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video

and try the quiz on our website.

Now, the story.

The hottest January day ever in Europe.

At least seven countries reported the warmest New Year's Day

on record. One village in Poland

recorded nineteen degrees Celsius compared to its usual temperature

of around one.

Climatologists are calling it

the most extreme heatwave ever seen in Europe.

You have been looking at the headlines,

Beth. What's the vocabulary?

We have topples, go downhill and shattered.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from The Independent.

'The most extreme

heat wave ever seen in Europe': Warm January

topples records.

So there is a heat wave in Europe, which is a bit strange

because it's in the middle of winter, but temperatures are unusually high.

The word we're looking at from the headline is 'topple'.

Now, Beth, you know that game

where there's a stack of bricks and you have to take one from the bottom

and put it on the top, over and over again and eventually it can...

Yeah. You have to pull them out and then it kind of gets unbalanced

and it topples over.

Yeah. That's right. So 'topple' means fall.

But, as we can see in the headline,

it can be used metaphorically as well to mean break – break a record.

Yeah, that's right. So, our headline is saying

that January has toppled the record. So, the temperatures have broken

any previous records that there were.

Now, are there other things that 'topple',

apart from games with stacks of bricks and records?

Yeah. So, physically, imagine there's a storm,

there's a lot of wind and then a tree might topple. Also a baby,

when it learns to walk, they're quite unsteady, unbalanced on their feet,

so they might topple over.

Yeah. And these are all things that are unbalanced.

You can actually actively topple

something – knock it over.

Yeah. You can. So, again,

if we've got that game full of bricks and you just decide to push it over,

then you topple it. But we also use this metaphorically

to talk about removing someone from power. For example,

you can topple a leader.

Yes. And when you topple a leader,

often it's used in the passive voice

so we can say that someone has been toppled.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one comes from The Times.

'Ski holiday hopes go downhill as Alpine snow melts away.'

OK. The headline is saying that the snow is melting –

that is obviously very bad

if you have planned a skiing holiday.

But we are looking at the expression, 'go downhill'.

I know 'go', I know 'down'

I know 'hill' but together, Beth, what is the sense?

Well, if something goes downhill then it becomes worse.

So, the headline means that people's real chances of going skiing are becoming less and less possible.

Yes, temperatures are so high that the snow is melting.

This is a bit of a clever headline, though, isn't it?

There's a double meaning which we often see.

Yes. So, obviously, when people go skiing, they actually go downhill.

So the headline writer has used this expression to be a bit clever.

It's got a double meaning.

Yeah. So, generally speaking, 'go downhill' means that something is getting worse.

Let's think of some other examples of things getting worse.

A business could go downhill.

Yes. Your health might go downhill as you get older.

Yeah. Your English could go downhill

if you don't study regularly

so stick with us.

OK, let's have a look at that again.

Our next headline, please.

This is from The Washington Post.

Thousands of records shattered

in historic winter warm spell in Europe.

  The headline says

that temperature records have been shattered. Now, Beth, when I hear

the word 'shatter', I think of glass breaking,

smashing everywhere. Yeah and that's not that surprising

because when glass shatters, it breaks into lots of tiny pieces and

it's very dramatic.

So, when we hear about a record being shattered, again

we're talking about something dramatic.

Yeah. So think about the Olympics.

Athletes often shatter records – they break them dramatically.

So we've got this word 'shatter' with records and, earlier,

we heard 'topple' with records.

Is there a difference?

They're basically the same, but 'shattered' is always quite dramatic.

Now we can also use 'shattered' to describe big emotions.

So, for example, if you hear something really terrible,

then you might say that you are shattered by the news,

or you might feel shattered.

That just means you're really upset.

Yes, and 'shattered' can also mean extremely tired.

We've just finished our Christmas and New Year holidays,

lots of travelling, visiting people, late nights, early mornings.

Beth, I was shattered.

Well, I hope you're not too shattered to finish News Review.

I think I can just about manage. Let's look at that again.

We've had topples – falls,

go downhill – become worse, shattered – broken, dramatically.

Don't forget, there's a quiz on our website at

BBCLearningEnglish.com Thank you for joining us,

and goodbye. Bye.