Friends say goodbye to Matthew Perry: BBC News Review

'Utterly devastated':

that was the reaction of the cast of 'Friends'

to the death of their co-star Matthew Perry.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Beth and I'm Phil.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary

'Friends' star Matthew Perry was found dead at his home last weekend.

He was most famous for playing Chandler Bing in the global hit series 'Friends'.

He had suffered from alcohol and drug addiction

throughout his life, which he often spoke about. His 'Friends'

co-stars have led tributes to him.

You have been looking at the headlines,

what's the vocabulary?

We have 'reeling from' 'walked the line between' and 'sparring partners'.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from The Sun.

Friends cast reeling from death of Matthew Perry who was like a brother

to them and will release joint statement.

This headline is about the reaction by the 'Friends' cast saying how sad

they are at Matthew Perry's death.

Now, the expression that we're looking at is 'reeling from'. Phil, what does it mean.

OK, well, if you're reeling from something,

then you're shaken or shocked by something.

And this is about the reaction to terrible news

And how it can often leave people feeling confused

and unable to do anything.

So that's what it means here:

Perry's co stars have been shocked by this terrible news.

Now, this sounds like a metaphorical meaning.

Does it have a literal use?

It does, and we actually often use it to talk about fighting.

If you reel, if you're reeling,

it can mean that you're off-balance.

Think about a boxer.

If a boxer gets hit very hard,

then they might find it hard to stand up or to do anything,

and then they're reeling from their opponent's punch.

And that means that when someone is reeling from shocking news,

they might feel a bit like they've actually been punched.

They're reeling from the shock.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. And this is

from The Hollywood Reporter.

Critics appreciation:

Matthew Perry masterfully walked the line between mirth

and melancholy.

Now, this is a story about Matthew Perry's career

and we're going to look at the phrase

'walk the line between'. Now, 'Mirth' is another word for laughter and 'melancholy'

means 'sadness' so it sounds like there's a bit of a contrast here.

Yeah, it's about balance.

So, here it's saying Matthew Perry was able to make people laugh,

but also that his characters could show sadness.

Now, if we want to think about an image here imagining

laughter on one side and sadness on the other side

and then you have a line down the middle.

If you could walk the line between them,

then you've got a perfect balance.

Yes, so if you're learning a language,

you might need to walk the line between choosing activities that are really fun,

that you really enjoy and then doing other ones that you really need to practise.

And we could use this in other contexts, as well.

So, think about work,

think about being a manager.

A good manager needs to walk the line between being friendly

and getting people to do their work.

Yes, qnd we need to walk the line between giving enough examples

and not taking up too much time.

Let's look at that again.

Next headline please.

This is from the New York Times,

Matthew Perry was one of TV's best sparring partners.

Now, we're going to learn the phrase 'sparring partner'.

It has the word 'partner' in

so I assume this is about two people.

And this is another boxing phrase, isn't it?

Yeah, It is. In boxing a sparring partner, is someone

who you practise fighting with and now, because they're a partner

You trust them not to hurt you.

That's right. But here

we're talking about actors, not boxers.

Matthew Perry was an actor who was described as so talented and natural

that he challenged his co-stars to be even better.

Now, we can use sparring partner more generally

just to be someone who makes you better at what you do by challenging you

through their own performance.

That's right. OK, let's look at that again.

We've had 'reeling from'- shaken by.

'Walked the line between' - achieved a balance between

and 'sparring partners' - people who challenge you to be better.

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