Covid-19: Drug trial gives hope: BBC News Review

hi everyone welcome to News Review I'm nail in my home studio of course we are

in lockdown because of the corona virus outbreak but with me well on the other

side of London is Catherine hi Catherine

what story have you got for us today well the race is on to find a treatment

for corona virus and scientists in the United States think they might be onto

something okay well let's find out some more about

that story from this BBC news report REM deseve is an antiviral that was

originally developed as a treatment for Ebola a full clinical trial of more than

a thousand people suggests it cuts corona virus symptoms from an average of

15 days down to eleven however the impact on deaths is still not certain

and the fine detail is lacking the data has not been published or reviewed by

independent scientists it means we cannot be convinced of the drugs

effectiveness or usefulness now scientists are saying that the amount of

time that people experience kovat 19 symptoms has been reduced from 15 days

to 11 by using this drug however this the results have not yet been

independently tested so it's a little bit early to start celebrating okay well

you have been looking around the various news websites you've picked out some

really fantastic vocabulary this week what have you got

we have clear-cut opening the door and show promise clear-cut opening the door

and show promise okay let's have your first headline please yes we'll start

with BBC news here in the UK and the headline is remedy severe drug has

clear-cut power to fight coronavirus clear-cut obvious easy to understand

that's right there are two words in this vocabulary item we've got

clear CLE AR and cut C UT put them together you have clear cut okay all I

know the word clear I'm not so sure about cut in this instance what is

cutting got to do with this well it's quite an idiomatic use of the word cut

so we'll start with clear now if something's clear it's very obvious you

can see it very easily and that's really the sense of this word it's obvious if

you cut something with a very sharp knife it's very straight there's no

ragged edges it's just really clean cut isn't it something that's cut with

something very sharp so this idea that it's obvious and clean there's no doubt

if something is clear cut there is no room for doubt there is no room for

argument something's very very obvious and you can't disagree with it okay you

often see this expression used in a sporting context for example you could

hear that it was a clear-cut penalty how did the referee miss it yes that's a

really good example of how to use clear coat when people might be about to argue

when you're anticipating people to throw doubt on something you can stop them you

can stop this argument before it happens by saying it's clear cut it means

anybody can see it you can't all you can't disagree now you

can use the word clear-cut in a positive or a negative sense so you can say that

this is a clear-cut case of a good treatment for a bottom four Cove in 1900

or you can say it's a clear-cut penalty meaning something bad happened so you

can use clear-cut for good things or bad things the key about clear-cut is

there's no possibility of arguing it's also used often in a negative sense

isn't it so we can hear that something is not clear-cut yes

you can say it's not clear-cut if you don't really know if something is

obvious or not obvious there's room for argument there's a possibility of debate

yeah then you could say it isn't clear-cut so I heard you're thinking of

becoming a vegetarian meal I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian yes I

I read a lot of the arguments in favor and there's quite a lot but also there's

some debate about how healthy it is so I have to say it's not clear-cut whether

it's the best thing for the human body yeah it's not clear-cut at all it's

fairly clear-cut for the animal was healthiest though that is indeed

clear-cut okay let's have a summary please

time now for your second headline please Catherine yes we're in the United States

now with MSNBC and the headline is Falchi REM disappear trial is opening

the door to possible coronavirus treatments opening the door making

something possible yes we have three words here opening ope n ing the th e

door opening the door okay well I know what opening a door is but I'm not

really clear about the connection to this story what's what's opening doors

got to do with this medical it's quite a zoo Matic but it's not a huge stretch of

the imagination to work out what we're talking about here if you leave one room

and you go through a door you're in another room you you're in a different

place you're in a new place and when you're in a new place new and different

things can happen so opening the door is an expression that talks about

possibilities things that might happen next

usually good opportunities in this case this drug trial is creating

possibilities for coronavirus treatments so if you open the door to something and

the preposition is to you're creating possibilities for good things usually

good things to happen okay so for example a lot of young people finishing

school will be wondering whether to go to university university can really open

the door to job opportunities yes absolutely yes going to you know any

further education opens the door to more possibilities in particular with

employment the career prospects okay let's have a summary of that please

if you are interested in hearing stories about vaccines and medical trials we

have the perfect one for you don't we Catherine we do it was actually mr.

Fucci again and this time he's talking about a possible vaccine for Ebola so

click the link to go to the story ok time now for your final headline yes

we're still at the United States this time with ABC News the headline is early

trial results for a desappear show promise show promise give an indication

of likely success yes another two-word phrase show SH o w promise PR om is e

show promise okay well I know what shown me the show means display promise though

promises of word people probably know in a slightly different context as a verb

yes Rob promised to pay back some of those biscuits he's he stole and we're

still waiting for them it music says he would do something in the future yeah

this is a slightly different meaning isn't it

this is a slightly different meaning but it is related to the future if you

promise to do something you say that you will do something in the future if

usually if something shows promise you can see from what is happening now that

the future for this thing will be good good things will happen in the future

so showing promises about what's happening now that indicates a good

result in the future so Neil I believe your daughter likes to play the piano

she's learning isn't she she is learning piano yes and she yeah how'd you get on

with it well she passed her grade one the other day which means that she's

showing promise yes so she's going to be good

she's starting now but she's done well in her exam you can see that one day

Neal she'll be on that stage selling records you can try helping meet her

helping me to retire yes so to show promise or she's very promising is

another way we can say it if somebody or something is promising you can see that

they're good good things happening now and even better things will happen in

the future yeah we also hear the expression is show potential yes the

synonym would be to show potential yes Oh to have potential okay let's have a

summary of that

time now then for a summary of the words we've looked at today please Katherine

yes we had clear-cut which means obvious easy to understand

we had opening the door meaning making something possible and show promise give

an indication of likely success I bet you want to test yourself on that

vocabulary and you can do on our website at BBC learning english.com

stay safe and join us next week goodbye