Brexit talks: Next days are crucial: BBC News Review

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

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

Hello Neil. Hello everybody. Yes, in today's story,

talks between the UK and the EU are continuing, this time without a deadline.

To test yourself on any vocabulary that you hear in today's programme,

don't forget to go to our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's find out more about the EU-UK negotiations from this BBC News report:

So, talks are continuing between the EU and the UK.

The two sides are trying to agree their post-Brexit trading relationship.

Now, they did have a deadline of last Sunday; that deadline came and went.

Talks are continuing. Economists are saying that if they are unable to make a deal,

this will have a negative effect for both sides.

OK. Well, you've been looking around the various news websites at this story.

You've picked out three really great expressions that people can use. What are they?

They are: 'go the extra mile', 'stockpile' and 'crash-out'.

'Go the extra mile', 'stockpile' and 'crash-out'.

So, let's start then with your first headline, please.

Yes, we're starting here in the UK with the BBC – the headline:

'Go the extra mile' – make a greater effort than is expected.

Yes. So, we have a fixed phrase here. It's made of 'go the extra mile' – four words.

First word is 'go' – G-O. Second word: 'the' – T-H-E.

Third word: 'extra' – E-X-T-R-A. And the last word 'mile' – M-I-L-E.

Now 'mile', as we know, is a unit of measurement – of length. A mile is 1.6 kilometres.

Now Neil, you're fond of running, aren't you?

Yeah, I run to try and keep fit, and I have taken part in a couple of races:

Half marathons – not full marathons.

Half marathons – that's quite a distance, isn't it? How long's a half marathon?

It's 13 miles, so that's just over 22 kilometres.

Wow! And you have to do a lot of training for that, don't you?

You have to do a lot of training and usually you have to decide

what time you think that you can achieve

and you follow a training programme to help you achieve that time.

And it involves running a certain number of miles on certain days,

so if you want to do better than you're planning or hoping,

you really have to 'go the extra mile'. You have to 'do extra miles' to be successful.

And I think that helps explain this expression.

It does. So, if you're doing more training than you really need to,

it will hopefully improve your performance, yeah?

Yes, that's the idea, yeah.

OK. And we can take that idea from running to really apply it

to anything you're trying to achieve: if you put more effort in,

or in the circumstances if you put more effort in, you'll get a better reward.

So, you do more than you need to do to get a better result than you would have done.

That's right, yeah.

Have you ever gone the extra mile, or know anyone who's gone the extra mile for you?

Well, it's funny you should say that; I remember last winter there was a lot of snow in my...

in where I was staying and the path – front path – was covered in snow,

so I went round to a neighbour and I knocked on the door and said:

'Can I borrow your shovel, because I'd like to clear the snow from my path?'

And the neighbour said, 'Yeah. Sure, I'll bring it round later.'

And about an hour later, I opened the front door

and the neighbour had not only come around with the shovel,

he had cleared all the snow from my drive.

So, I wasn't expecting it – all I wanted was to borrow the shovel,

but he 'went the extra mile' and he did the complete job for me

and I was amazed and very grateful as well.

What a... what a heartwarming story!

Yes, yes. So, 'going the extra mile' means doing more than you need to do.

Now, it's not just about people helping each other or just... or trying to get better at running:

anything in life that you need to... if you'll do more than you're required to,

you'll get a better result – we can use the phrase to 'go the extra mile'.

Yeah. So, watch right to the end of this video – 'go the extra mile'

and improve your English. Let's have a summary:

So, in our last example we talked about 'going the extra mile' and marathon – half-marathon running.

We have a story on that very topic and its health benefits. Where can they find it?

You can find that story by clicking the link.

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

Yes and we're still in the UK this time, with The Express – the headline:

'Stockpile' – gather a large amount of something for future use.

Yes. One word: S-T-O-C-K-P-I-L-E – 'stockpile'. It's a verb; it can also be a noun.

Yes and it's a verb in the headline, but thinking about it as a noun

helps us to break it down into its parts and to understand it better.

Yes, a stock –S-T-O-C-K – is a supply:

often a supply of... that's going to last you for a long time.

And a 'pile' is a heap: a small mountain,

when you gather more and more things and put them together.

So, if you have a 'pile' of 'stock', you have a lot of things

that you're going to use in the future: you're getting ready

or you're preparing for your future need by getting a lot of things that you need now.

And we saw a lot of 'stockpiling' – certainly in the UK – as we went into lockdown

earlier in the year and people were rushing to the supermarkets

and buying as many toilet rolls and sugar and flour and tins of food as they could carry,

or as they were allowed to: they were 'stockpiling' because they were worried

that there wouldn't be any of these things later on.

Now, when we use 'stockpile' we're not talking about just preparing for a future event.

So, for example, if I'm having a barbecue I don't 'stockpile' beer or drinks.

You might... if you're expecting a shortage!

But no – 'stockpiling' isn't something we do every day:

you don't 'stockpile' on a Friday for the weekend.

What you do is you 'stockpile' when you're worried about a problem,

when you think there's going to be something bad happening,

or there's going to be a shortage or they won't be available

So, it's usually about preparing for something bad.

OK. Well, let's have a summary of that:

So, talking of stockpiling – that's something that happened in the first wave of coronavirus.

It wasn't all bad stories that came out of that period though

and we have a positive news story from that time, don't we Catherine?

We do. And if you want to find out more about that positive story from coronavirus, click the link.

OK. Time now for our next headline:

And we're still in the UK, this time with the Guardian – the headline:

'Crash-out' – describes leaving in a disorganised way.

Yes, and another two-word phrase.

First word is 'crash' – C-R-A-S-H. The second word: 'out' – O-U-T.

In our headline, 'crash-out' is used as an adjective

so the two words 'crash' and 'out' are joined with a hyphen.

Yeah. Often used as a verb though – probably more often than as an adjective.

Much more often to use this as a verb, yeah.

Now, we mentioned 'disorganised' there. When the word 'crash' is involved,

generally speaking, it's not a good thing, is it?

No 'crash' is used for accidents: things that happen very chaotically, clumsily.

Yeah, a 'crash' is generally not a good thing. When you 'crash out' of something,

you leave certainly not the way you planned to leave.

You don't have a dignified, elegant, organised exit;

you go by surprise and often sooner than expected

and often causing a lot of kind of surprise and worry and fear and, you know, sometimes pain.

So, a 'crash-out' is not a good way to leave.

No. And we use this to talk about processes or in sports – competitions, for example.

We don't talk about individual examples of somebody losing or,

you know, I wouldn't say that I 'crashed out' of work last Tuesday.

Not unless you did something really bad and you lost your job!

Yeah, 'crash out' is not: 'Bye everybody!'

You know, it's when something really bad happens. if you have...

We talk about this in sport, like you said, when some...

a team is expected to do really well in a tournament

but something terrible happens: they lose really badly at the beginning –

or it could be an individual – we say they 'crashed out'

because we were expecting them to perform well and stay in the competition,

but something went terribly wrong and they left early: they 'crashed out'.

So, it's a disastrous and bad way to leave. So, the European example is saying

that if Britain goes – leaves Europe completely without a trade deal, this will be a bad thing.

Yeah. And if you follow England in football,

you'll know that they 'crash out' of every single tournament.

We won't talk about that in this show, Neil, thank you.

It's also used in a completely different way: 'crash out' can mean sleep.

It can, yes. If you're really tired you say: 'Goodnight everybody – I'm going to crash out.'

Not a bad thing, not a good thing: just means you're really tired and you're going to bed.

That's right. OK. Let's have a summary:

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

Yes. We had 'go the extra mile' – make a greater effort than is expected.

We had 'stockpile' – gather a large amount of something for future use.

And finally 'crash-out' – describes leaving in a disorganised way.

Do not forget to test yourself on the vocabulary at our website bbclearningenglish.com

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

Thanks for joining us and see you next time. Goodbye.

Bye.