First Arab Woman in Space: BBC News Review

61,776 views ・ 2023-05-24

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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'A dream come true'
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says the first Arab woman in space.
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This is News Review from BBC
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Learning English I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.
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Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.
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Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video,
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and try the quiz on our website.
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Now, the story.
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The first Arab female astronaut,
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Rayyanah Barnawi, has blasted into space.
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She is part of a crew of space tourists who are visiting
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the International Space Station for eight days. As well as having a holiday,
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the tourists will conduct independent research,
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according to space company Axiom.
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You've been looking at the headlines,
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Beth, wants the vocabulary?
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We have 'out of this world', 'swoop' and 'paves the way'.
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This is News Review from BBC Learning English.
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Let's have a look at our first headline.
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This is from 9 News Australia.
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So, this headline is saying that the International Space Station
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welcomed astronauts in this landmark mission - 'landmark' means that
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it was very significant and important.
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But, what we are looking at is 'out of this world' -
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an expression which contains lots of familiar words, but put together.
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What's the meaning? Well, it's used as an adjective,
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and 'out of this world' means 'incredible'.
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In fact, it's so good that
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it's not even from this planet.
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So, the welcome that the astronauts received
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at the International Space Station was incredible.
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But, it's being used literally
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in this case - they were out of the world because they are in space.
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And normally, we're not in space
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when we use this expression.
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So, we use it metaphorically.
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That's right. The headline writer is having a little bit of fun here
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because it is a story about space, and an expression about space.
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But, we can use in normal situations too.
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For example, Neil, yesterday
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I had a slice of cake.
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It was incredible, it was out of this world.
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Well, I went to a concert and the music was out of this world.
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It was so good.
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Let's look at that again.
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Let's look at our next headline.
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This is from Futurism:
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So, this headline is about the Space X
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tourists arriving at the International Space Station.
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We are looking at the word 'swoop'.
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Now, Beth, 'swoop' is something that birds do. It is. Yeah.
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So, 'swoop' means to 'fly easily, quickly and often downwards'.
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So, for example, if a bird swoops,
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it might be trying to catch a mouse.
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Yeah. So, this sounds like quite a kind of dramatic word.
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Why is it being used here?
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Well, the astronauts
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reached the International Space Station in a rocket, and 'swoop' here
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means that they flew quickly, and they docked with the space station.
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Now, take notes, though, because 'swoop' doesn't always have to be used
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with flying does it? No, it can mean a sudden attack.
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So, for example, the police can swoop on a gang of criminals.
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It means that they can enter their house quickly.
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Let's look at that again.
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Let's have our next headline.
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This is from Wired:
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So, this headline says that this mission might pave the way
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for a future commercial space station.
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We're looking at 'pave the way' and 'pave' means
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to create a hard surface to travel along. It does.
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You might know the word 'pavement', which is the bit next
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to the road that you walk on. But,
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'pave' in 'pave the way' means create a metaphorical path.
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It's not real. Yes.
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So, it means to do something for the first time to create future possibilities.
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That's right.
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So, this expression is often used with science and experiments.
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Maybe there's a successful medical trial, and that paves the way for new
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drugs. That's right.
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Let's look at that again.
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We've had 'out of this world' -
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'incredible; very good'. 'Swoop' - 'fly quickly and efficiently'.
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And 'paves the way' - 'makes something possible'.
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If you want to watch another video about women is space, click here to learn about Mars.
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Don't forget to click here to subscribe to our channel so you never miss another video.
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Thank you for joining us. Bye.
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