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

57,438 views ・ 2020-05-05

BBC Learning English


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hi everyone welcome to News Review I'm nail in my home studio of course we are
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in lockdown because of the corona virus outbreak but with me well on the other
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side of London is Catherine hi Catherine
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what story have you got for us today well the race is on to find a treatment
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for corona virus and scientists in the United States think they might be onto
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something okay well let's find out some more about
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that story from this BBC news report REM deseve is an antiviral that was
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originally developed as a treatment for Ebola a full clinical trial of more than
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a thousand people suggests it cuts corona virus symptoms from an average of
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15 days down to eleven however the impact on deaths is still not certain
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and the fine detail is lacking the data has not been published or reviewed by
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independent scientists it means we cannot be convinced of the drugs
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effectiveness or usefulness now scientists are saying that the amount of
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time that people experience kovat 19 symptoms has been reduced from 15 days
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to 11 by using this drug however this the results have not yet been
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independently tested so it's a little bit early to start celebrating okay well
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you have been looking around the various news websites you've picked out some
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really fantastic vocabulary this week what have you got
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we have clear-cut opening the door and show promise clear-cut opening the door
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and show promise okay let's have your first headline please yes we'll start
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with BBC news here in the UK and the headline is remedy severe drug has
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clear-cut power to fight coronavirus clear-cut obvious easy to understand
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that's right there are two words in this vocabulary item we've got
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clear CLE AR and cut C UT put them together you have clear cut okay all I
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know the word clear I'm not so sure about cut in this instance what is
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cutting got to do with this well it's quite an idiomatic use of the word cut
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so we'll start with clear now if something's clear it's very obvious you
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can see it very easily and that's really the sense of this word it's obvious if
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you cut something with a very sharp knife it's very straight there's no
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ragged edges it's just really clean cut isn't it something that's cut with
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something very sharp so this idea that it's obvious and clean there's no doubt
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if something is clear cut there is no room for doubt there is no room for
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argument something's very very obvious and you can't disagree with it okay you
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often see this expression used in a sporting context for example you could
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hear that it was a clear-cut penalty how did the referee miss it yes that's a
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really good example of how to use clear coat when people might be about to argue
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when you're anticipating people to throw doubt on something you can stop them you
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can stop this argument before it happens by saying it's clear cut it means
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anybody can see it you can't all you can't disagree now you
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can use the word clear-cut in a positive or a negative sense so you can say that
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this is a clear-cut case of a good treatment for a bottom four Cove in 1900
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or you can say it's a clear-cut penalty meaning something bad happened so you
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can use clear-cut for good things or bad things the key about clear-cut is
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there's no possibility of arguing it's also used often in a negative sense
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isn't it so we can hear that something is not clear-cut yes
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you can say it's not clear-cut if you don't really know if something is
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obvious or not obvious there's room for argument there's a possibility of debate
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yeah then you could say it isn't clear-cut so I heard you're thinking of
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becoming a vegetarian meal I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian yes I
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I read a lot of the arguments in favor and there's quite a lot but also there's
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some debate about how healthy it is so I have to say it's not clear-cut whether
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it's the best thing for the human body yeah it's not clear-cut at all it's
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fairly clear-cut for the animal was healthiest though that is indeed
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clear-cut okay let's have a summary please
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time now for your second headline please Catherine yes we're in the United States
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now with MSNBC and the headline is Falchi REM disappear trial is opening
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the door to possible coronavirus treatments opening the door making
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something possible yes we have three words here opening ope n ing the th e
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door opening the door okay well I know what opening a door is but I'm not
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really clear about the connection to this story what's what's opening doors
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got to do with this medical it's quite a zoo Matic but it's not a huge stretch of
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the imagination to work out what we're talking about here if you leave one room
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and you go through a door you're in another room you you're in a different
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place you're in a new place and when you're in a new place new and different
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things can happen so opening the door is an expression that talks about
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possibilities things that might happen next
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usually good opportunities in this case this drug trial is creating
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possibilities for coronavirus treatments so if you open the door to something and
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the preposition is to you're creating possibilities for good things usually
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good things to happen okay so for example a lot of young people finishing
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school will be wondering whether to go to university university can really open
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the door to job opportunities yes absolutely yes going to you know any
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further education opens the door to more possibilities in particular with
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employment the career prospects okay let's have a summary of that please
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if you are interested in hearing stories about vaccines and medical trials we
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have the perfect one for you don't we Catherine we do it was actually mr.
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Fucci again and this time he's talking about a possible vaccine for Ebola so
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click the link to go to the story ok time now for your final headline yes
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we're still at the United States this time with ABC News the headline is early
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trial results for a desappear show promise show promise give an indication
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of likely success yes another two-word phrase show SH o w promise PR om is e
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show promise okay well I know what shown me the show means display promise though
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promises of word people probably know in a slightly different context as a verb
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yes Rob promised to pay back some of those biscuits he's he stole and we're
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still waiting for them it music says he would do something in the future yeah
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this is a slightly different meaning isn't it
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this is a slightly different meaning but it is related to the future if you
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promise to do something you say that you will do something in the future if
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usually if something shows promise you can see from what is happening now that
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the future for this thing will be good good things will happen in the future
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so showing promises about what's happening now that indicates a good
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result in the future so Neil I believe your daughter likes to play the piano
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she's learning isn't she she is learning piano yes and she yeah how'd you get on
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with it well she passed her grade one the other day which means that she's
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showing promise yes so she's going to be good
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she's starting now but she's done well in her exam you can see that one day
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Neal she'll be on that stage selling records you can try helping meet her
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helping me to retire yes so to show promise or she's very promising is
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another way we can say it if somebody or something is promising you can see that
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they're good good things happening now and even better things will happen in
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the future yeah we also hear the expression is show potential yes the
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synonym would be to show potential yes Oh to have potential okay let's have a
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summary of that
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time now then for a summary of the words we've looked at today please Katherine
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yes we had clear-cut which means obvious easy to understand
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we had opening the door meaning making something possible and show promise give
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an indication of likely success I bet you want to test yourself on that
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vocabulary and you can do on our website at BBC learning english.com
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stay safe and join us next week goodbye
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