Driverless car trial: BBC News Review

Driverless cars: would you travel in one?

Well, there's a trial taking place in the UK

to see if they can be used on public roads.

Hello, I'm Rob and this is News Review from BBC Learning English

and to talk about the story, I'm joined by Neil. Hello Neil.

Hi Rob. Hello everybody.

Yes, if you'd like to test yourself on the vocabulary

that you hear in this programme, there's a quiz on our website

at bbclearningenglish.com.

But now, let's hear some more about the story from this BBC News report:

So, driverless cars: it's a technology that is coming

and they make people feel a little bit nervous,

but there is a trial going on in the UK at the moment,

in the city of Milton Keynes,

to test and see how safe they are

before they can start being used properly.

Yes, and we've got three words and expressions

that we can use to talk about this news story.

What are they please, Neil?

We have: 'kick off', 'large-scale' and 'hit'.

That's 'kick off', 'large-scale' and 'hit'.

OK. Well, let's have a look at your first news headline

to learn about one of those words. What is it please?

OK. So, looking in the Times newspaper —

that's from the UK — we have the headline:

That's 'kick off' — begin; start.

That's right. 'Kick off' is a phrasal verb,

made up of the first part, 'kick',

and then the particle 'off'.

And we hear this expression used in football, don't we?

Yeah. So, at the beginning of a football match

there is 'the kick-off'; that's a noun.

Or the players 'kick off' as a verb and it means just start the game.

Obviously, in football you 'kick' the ball

and so 'kick off' means start the football match.

So, are we talking about football in this story here?

Well, actually we're not, no.

So, 'kick off' originates from football but it can be used

in a wide variety of other contexts,

just meaning to start something.

Although, actually in this story there is a connection to football

because the trial involves footballers

from the team MK Dons — transporting them around —

so the headline writer has had a bit of fun there;

he's using 'kick off' to mean start something in general,

but there is a connection to its original meaning about football.

Yeah, I get that. Right, OK.

And it's quite an informal expression, this one, as well, isn't it?

That's right, yes. You wouldn't see in...

you know, sort of, official documentation

about the start of something —

you wouldn't see the verb 'kick off',

but we use it all the time and it's OK to use in headlines, obviously.

Yeah. OK. So, we 'kick something off' or we 'kick off something':

that's the kind of way we use it generally, yeah?

That's right. The verb can be separated

so that means you could put something in the beginning:

we can 'kick off the project' or 'kick the project off'.

OK. Great. Let's have a summary then of that phrase:

So, we've been talking about 'kick off',

but we use the word 'kick' in another English expression,

'to kick something into the long grass',

and we talked about this expression in one of our videos:

The English We Speak.

How can we watch that video again please, Neil?

Yes, don't 'kick it into the long grass';

watch this video by clicking on the link below.

Yeah, it's just down below there. Great. OK.

Let's have a look at your next headline please.

OK. The next headline comes from BBC News and it is:

That's 'large-scale' — involving many people or things.

Yeah. So, 'large-scale' — here an adjective made up of two parts.

'Large' — obviously that means big.

And 'scale' — and 'scale' refers to the size of something

and it isn't necessarily something big or small.

'Scale' in itself is neutral; it needs something to modify it,

like 'large' in this example.

'Large-scale'. OK. But, when I use maps, I see a 'scale' on there.

Is that a similar thing? Is that related?

Yeah, that's right. So, when you look at the...

look at a map, you'll see there is a 'scale'

and it tells you what the relationship is

between the size of the map and the size of the real thing

that the map is describing.

Yeah, very useful indeed.

So, 'large-scale' is about lots of things and people or about a large area.

So, sometimes we might see 'large-scale' flooding

after a storm over a large area, yeah?

Yeah, that's right, Rob. So, as you said,

in this example it's a 'large-scale' project

or experiment involving a lot of people,

but 'large-scale' can also be used to describe a geographical area

that's affected by something.

So, as you said, 'large-scale' destruction

or devastation caused by a natural disaster.

And we also know that the recent Covid pandemic —

that's had a 'large-scale' impact on the economy, on businesses.

That's right. Yes, exactly, yeah.

The Covid-19 has had a really 'large-scale' impact:

a huge 'scale'.

OK. Let's now have a summary of that expression:

Something that had 'large-scale' devastation last year

was the tornadoes that happened across parts of the USA

and we talked about that on News Review,

and you can watch that video again. So, tell us how please, Neil.

Yeah, to see that story about the terrible 'large-scale' destruction

caused by those tornadoes, just click on the link below.

Thank you. Right, it's time now to look at your next headline please.

Yeah, my next headline comes from Autocar,

a magazine dedicated to cars, and the headline is:

So, the word is 'hit' — make an impact on.

Yeah. Now, 'hit' is one of those words in English

that has lots and lots and lots of different meanings,

as we've discovered researching this programme,

haven't we, Rob? Yeah!

But, in this headline, we have a quite common expression

hidden in this headline: 'hit the road'.

Now, we use the expression 'hit the road' to mean go:

go somewhere, leave.

For example, if we were at a party

and you, Rob, wanted to stay longer than me

and then it was getting really late, I might say to you:

'Come on, Rob. It's time to hit the road.'

And it means leave, but actually in this...

the sense of 'hit' in this sentence is not connected to that;

it's more to do with impact in general, isn't it?

Yeah, and we're not talking about physical impact.

I mean, this could...

we could argue this is a bad choice of word,

because 'hit' sounds like something's going to crash,

but we're using it more figuratively, aren't we?

Yeah. So, we're talking about the impact —

the metaphorical or figurative impact —

of this trial on the roads of a city in...

in the UK — Milton Keynes.

So, when we say that it's going to 'hit' it means that it's going to start

and that there will be an impact,

because it's a noticeable thing

for driverless cars to suddenly be used on the roads.

And... so, 'hit' is a good headline word to use in this context.

Yeah, it's short and it's dramatic, so that's perfect for a headline.

Yeah. We could say... going back to the coronavirus pandemic,

we could say that, you know, the effects of coronavirus —

it's 'hit' the economy. It's had an impact on the economy.

Yeah, it's 'hit' the economy.

It's 'hit' the whole population.

And we can also talk about, you know,

a new piece of technology has 'hit' the shelves or 'hit' the market.

A new type of phone may have 'hit' the market.

Again, it's connected to impact,

which makes it close to the meaning of that original 'hit',

meaning, you know, smash something with force.

Great. Thank you for making that clearer.

Let's have a summary of that word 'hit':

OK. It's time now, Neil, to recap the vocabulary that we've discussed today.

Yes, we have heard 'kick off', meaning begin or start.

'Large-scale' — involving many people or things.

And 'hit' — make an impact on.

And now, don't forget — you can test yourself

on the words and the phrases that we've talked about today

in a quiz and that's on our website

at bbclearningenglish.com.

That's the place to go to to check out all our Learning English materials

and don't forget, of course — we're on social media as well.

Well, that's the end of News Review for today.

Thank you for watching and we'll see you next time. Bye bye!

Goodbye.