China Rocket lands in ocean: BBC News Review

Hello, and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil and joining me is Catherine. Hello, Catherine.

Hello, Neil. Hello, everybody. Yes, today's story:

the remains of a Chinese rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean. Now,

for a while it wasn't certain where exactly this stuff was going to land.

If you would like to test yourself on any of the vocabulary

you hear in our programme today,

there is a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear some more about that story from this BBC News report:

So, the remains of a Chinese rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean.

Now, there had been some concern from some people about where exactly

this rocket was going to land. They were worried about injuries.

China insisted that the risk was very low and, as it happens,

nobody as far as we know was injured after all.

Catherine, you've been looking at this story across the world's media.

You've picked out three words and expressions, which people will find

useful for understanding the story. What are they?

We have: 'debris', 'heats up' and 'gamble'.

'Debris', 'heats up' and 'gamble'.

Let's start then with your first headline.

Yes, we are starting with the South China Morning Post – the headline:

'Debris' – broken pieces of something larger.

Yes. Now, interesting pronunciation for this one.

The word is spelt: D-E-B-R-I-S.

Now Neil, you're a British-English speaker, are you not?

I am. So, how do you pronounce this word?

Well, I say – I think I say:'debris'.

'Debris'. 'Debris', OK.

You will also hear British-English speakers saying 'debris'.

So, you can say 'debris' or 'debris',

but if you are a speaker of American English, you will say, Neil?

'Debris'.

'Debris' – notice the stress shifts. In British English,

it's on that 'deh-' or 'dey-' – the first part of the word.

In American English, it's the second part of the word: 'debris'.

But the 's' is always silent.

Yeah, OK. So, a bit of a complicated word here,

pronounced in several different ways, but the most obvious thing

is that we don't pronounce the 's' at the end. Why not?

Because it's a French word originally, as it goes.

And in French words often the 's' isn't pronounced,

but we have our British version of this word: 'debris' or 'debris'.

Yeah. Interesting – this word is neither

too formal or too informal; it's suitable for any use.

Yeah. You can use it anywhere, in any situation to describe,

basically, broken pieces of something that are often left scattered around

after an accident or some kind of violent event. So, after a storm when

the weather's really bad: there's lots of wind, there's lots of rain.

You go outside – you will see your rubbish everywhere,

bits of trees, broken branches, kind of – bins have gone over.

Lots of rubbish in the street after a storm. That rubbish is 'debris'.

Yeah. And we can also use it in a slightly humorous way

to describe, basically, a really messy place.

Yeah, you can talk about the 'debris' that's left after a party.

So, it's not always natural disasters;

it can be created – you know, just mess that's created.

And in this rocket case, they're talking about 'debris',

meaning pieces of the broken rocket scattered around.

OK. Let's get a summary:

If you're interested in stories about space, we have one about

a rocket that went into space and came back, made by SpaceX.

Where can our viewers find the story?

You can read about the...

you can watch the recycled rocket story by clicking the link.

OK. Let's have your next headline, please.

Yes. We are now in the US and our headline, from CNN, is:

'Heats up' – becomes more extreme.

Yes. Two words now. First word: 'heats' – H-E-A-T-S.

The second word: 'up' – U-P. So, the verb 'to heat up' is a phrasal verb.

Now Catherine, I know what 'to heat up' means:

that's what I do with my leftovers.

I get them out of the fridge and I put them in a little bowl and I

put them in the microwave and I 'heat them up'. Is that the same?

To make food hot, yeah. No, it's not quite the same.

But when you 'heat food up', you make it hot: you take it from a

cold state to a hot state. Now, if we think about this more metaphorically,

we often use the idea of 'getting hot' or 'heating up' to describe

a situation which is getting more serious, more pressured,

more anxious, more important, more tense, often more angry.

So, the space race is 'heating up': it means it's getting more intense.

It's getting more serious. There's more pressure.

So, we could use words like 'intensify' or 'agitate'.

Yeah, good. Good synonyms. Good synonyms.

So, if you think about yourself at work, you know: you've got an

important meeting, there's a job to be done, the deadline's coming,

more and more people are asking you questions about it.

You know that if this job isn't done properly,

there's going to be some problems, so you can say that

'the situation is heating up' or you can say that 'the heat is on'.

Yeah, definitely. 'The heat is on'. And we use, as you said, 'heat'

metaphorically to describe, sort of, uncomfortable situations.

If you can imagine something being too hot, you don't feel good.

Yes, exactly. 'Too hot to handle' – we talk about that when there's

a situation that is really serious and you don't want to get involved,

or if you are involved there's going to be trouble.

OK. Let's get a summary:

If you would like to watch another story about a situation

where things really 'heated up',

we have the perfect one for you about the Royal Family.

Yes, we do, so just click the link to find out more.

Now, time for your next headline please, Catherine.

Yes, we are in the UK now with the Telegraph:

'Gamble' – a plan that has both a risk of failure

and the chance of success.

Yes. G-A-M-B-L-E.

Now, it's a noun in our headline, but it can also be a verb.

That's right, yes.

And people probably know the verb 'to gamble' connected to betting. So...

Yes, yes. ...you know: casino,

horse racing, that kind of thing.

Yes. Where you put some...

you place some money on the result of something – a race or a game

of cards – and if you guess or predict the result correctly,

you get more money back. If you got it wrong, you lose your money.

Now, the idea of gambling is about risk, isn't it?

You take a risk: you might have a good outcome, you might have a bad

outcome, but essentially you don't know for sure what's going to happen.

And that's the sense that's being used here, isn't it? It's not

about putting money on something in the hope of winning more money.

No, it's about – here they're referring to the idea that it

wasn't certain where this rocket 'debris' was going to land,

and the 'gamble' was: will it land in the ocean?

Or will it land in a populated area and cause some damage?

Now, China said that this wasn't a big risk, but some other people said:

'Well, actually there was a big risk here.

There could have been a lot of damage.'

And that's why they're saying: 'China won the gamble.'

Because there was no damage eventually.

Yeah. We use set expressions of this as well:

'take a gamble' and 'a bit of a gamble'.

Yes, absolutely, and it's where you do something

not really knowing whether the outcome will be good or bad.

Yeah. Now, a person who 'gambles' is a 'gambler',

but that doesn't mean that this is a person in a casino or in

a bookmakers, putting bets on horses.

It can describe a type of personality that enjoys risk.

Yes, it can. Obviously, I mean, if you are a 'gambler',

you can say: 'I'm a gambler. I like going to casinos.'

But you can also just use it about your attitude to life.

You know, if you think, 'Well, I'm gonna do this thing at work.

If it goes... if it goes badly, there'll be trouble,

but if it goes well, everybody'll say I'm fantastic.'

Then your personality type is: you like a 'gamble', you're a 'gambler'.

OK. Well, let's get a summary:

Time now for a recap of our vocabulary please, Catherine.

Yes, we had: 'debris' – broken pieces of something larger.

'Heats up' – becomes more extreme.

And 'gamble' – a plan that has both a risk of failure and chance of success.

If you'd like to test yourself on the vocabulary, there's a quiz on our

website at bbclearningenglish.com and we are all over social media.

Join us next week and stay safe. Goodbye.

Bye!