2022 Review of the Year: BBC News Review

Welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English, I'm Neil.

And I'm Beth.

2022 has come to an end. And what a year it's been.  

We've got a special video for you here

with all of your favourite clips from your favourite stories of the year.

Enjoy watching!

Staying up late into the night.

For some people, it's just the way they prefer to live.

But it may be affecting their health.

New research from the US found

that night owls may be more likely to develop heart disease and diabetes.

It's because people who get up early burn fat for energy more easily.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

OK, this one is from Sky News.

So, the headline asks, what kind of sleep pattern you have?

Do you prefer to stay up late?

Or, do you like getting up early? And there are two expressions in there

for those two situations.

What are they?

OK, so the one we're going to look at is night owl. What can you tell me about owls, Neil?

Well, owls are a type of bird and then they stay up late.

They stay up all night and they are very active at night.

That's when they do their work, which is hunting in this case.

Exactly, and so and so we call people who stay up late 'night owls'.

It means they stay up late,

but also they are mentally or physically active at night.

What about the opposite, Neil?

Well, we can also see in the headline the expression

'early bird' which comes from the saying 'the early bird catches the worm'.

And it describes someone who likes to get up early.

There are other ways of saying that as well -

you can call someone an 'early riser' or a 'morning person'.

Which one are you, Sian?

I used to be a night owl and I think, naturally

I'm a night owl, but I wanna be a morning person,

so I've made myself become one.

How about you? Well, the same -

I like staying up late, but it's never a good idea.

Let's have a look at that again.

A cancer vaccine by 2030?

The husband and wife team who worked on the Covid jab,

say the same technology could be used to treat cancer. These vaccines

tell the cells to produce a protein that can fight tumours.

The trials are in the early stages, but results have been encouraging so far.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

OK, this one is from the BBC.

And so the headline is asking

whether the technology that was used to develop Covid vaccines,

could also help in finding a vaccine or cure for cancer.

The company that's working on this is BioNTech but the word

we're looking at is 'crack'.

Now, I know this word 'crack' -

I can crack an egg or crack a plate. It means it breaks.

What's the connection?

OK, so those examples are physical examples, literal examples

of breaking something.

But here 'crack' means to solve a problem, to find a solution to a problem.

Ah. OK, so it's this technology that could solve,

or crack the problem of cancer.

Can we use 'crack' in any other way like this?

Yeah, so we can talk about the police 'cracking' a case.

So, this means they solve the case - they solve the crime. Or a detective,

like Sherlock, can crack a code, so that means he finds a solution -

he works out what the code means.

OK, well I think we've cracked this explanation for our audience -

let's look at that again.

Food and energy prices are rising across the world,

meaning millions now face tough choices in their daily lives.

Economists blame a combination of Covid, the war in Ukraine and poor harvests.

Now, central banks are putting up interest rates

to try to control the crisis.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This one comes from The Guardian.

Now, the expression that we're looking at is 'the spectre

of something'. A 'spectre' is a ghost, isn't it?

Yeah, that's absolutely right.

And you're probably wondering, Neil,

why are we talking about ghosts?

Yeah, I am.

Is it because a ghost is scary thing?

Well, yes it is.

'The spectre of something' is the possibility of something bad happening.

So, in this case

it's a possible recession.

So, for example, we could talk about the spectre of climate change

or the spectre of nuclear war -

these are really serious things -

but could we also use this for more light-hearted situations -

for example, the spectre of my dentist appointment next week?

No, not really.

We use this expression for unpleasant things that may happen in the future

and will probably happen to a lot of people. And by the way,

there's a spelling difference.

So, 'spectre' in British English ends in

're', but in the US it finishes with 'er'.

OK, let's have a look at that again.

And that's it.

2022 is over. Thank you for watching.

Join us next year for more News Review. Happy New Year!