Trump's tax returns: BBC News Review

Hello! Welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Tom. Joining me this morning is Catherine. Hi Catherine.

Hello Tom. Hello everybody. Today's story is all about

President Donald Trump's tax returns.

And don't forget – if you want to test yourself on

today's vocabulary, you can go to bbclearningenglish.com to find a quiz.

Now, let's listen to the audio clip from a BBC Radio 2 news bulletin:

So, a report in The New York Times in the United States

gives an insight into Donald Trump's financial

situation. Now it says that he paid only $750 in tax in the year that he became

US president. It also says that rather than making a lot of money

he's actually lost a great amount of money

during the last few years. Now, Donald Trump

says that this is a fake story.

'It's fake news!' Yes, and we've got three

words and expressions that you can use to talk about this story.

Yes, we have: 'sink', 'lashes out' and 'sham'.

'Sink', 'lashes out' and 'sham'.

Catherine, let's take a look at your first headline, please.

Of course. We are starting in the United States

with NBC News. Now, the headline goes like this:

'Lashes out' – criticises someone angrily and suddenly.

Yes. 'Lashes out' – L-A-S-H-E-S – and the second word is out – O-U-T.

It's a phrasal verb. The infinitive form is lash: L-A-S-H... O-U-T. 'Lash out'

'Lashes out'. Now, are there any prepositions we can use with 'lash out'?

Yes, you can lash out at somebody or something.

You can lash out against somebody or something.

And what you're doing when you lash out is you're showing anger. You're showing a

lot of anger: you show it very quickly and very suddenly.

Sometimes because you think that you're being attacked

and sometimes for no reason at all.

I remember the other day, Tom, yes – I gave

a tiny little suggestion for your programme, didn't I? Do you remember?

I said you had a lovely programme and I really enjoyed it;

I just thought it was a bit heavy and one or two jokes

might be a small improvement. I like the programme

but a joke or two might be nice. Remember?

Well... well... well do you know what, Catherine? I'm just going to stop you there

because sometimes people are tired, sometimes they're stressed,

sometimes it's difficult to make a programme and to be honest,

I think you have lots of problems with your programmes anyway.

Ooooh... OK... Not another word from me then, Tom.

There's no need to lash out like that. You can see I was

lashing out against you there. I was responding angrily and suddenly.

Yes and I love all your programmes anyway Tom – I was just joking.

So I'm a person. President Trump is a person.

Is it always people that lash out?

Often but not always. You imagine, you know, if you're a cat person

or if you know what cats can be like: one minute they're happy,

the next minute they're trying to fight you and bite you.

They lash out, often for no reason and other animals

can do it as well so... yeah, an attack – a sudden attack that

comes from nowhere is 'lashing out'.

'To lash out' – to attack angrily and suddenly.

Now, we have some more videos on phrasal verbs, don't we?

We have loads of videos on phrasal verbs.

To watch just one of them, click the link. Click the link.

OK. Catherine, can we have our next headline, please?

Of course. We're going to The Guardian, here in the UK, now. The headline:

'Sink' – cause to fail. Now, this isn't the main definition of 'sink'.

No. We'll look at the main definition first and then we'll go to

the definition we're looking at today. So, 'sink' is a verb – S-I-N-K.

It means – the main definition is when something falls to the bottom of something.

So, if something – if the Titanic for example,

the famous ship, sank in the ocean. It went right

to the bottom of the ocean.

So, to sort of go to the bottom below the surface, right?

Exactly. Below the surface is quite important in this definition.

If you think – if you're baking a cake, you put your cake

in the oven: it should rise but sometimes it goes

horribly wrong and again it moves right down to the

bottom of the pan and you have a horrible cake, which is

soggy and horrible. So, 'sinking' in its main meaning means

going to the bottom and we have to say that, you know,

that cake would be a failure.

And that is the second definition of 'sink' that we're looking at today.

'To sink' means to fail.

Now, 'sink' is an irregular verb, isn't it?

It is, yeah. The past of 'sink' is 'sank'.

The past participle is 'sunk'.

So, what is the headline saying about President Trump?

So, if something 'sinks you' it causes your failure .

So, is 'sink' just for people?

No, no. Organisations can sink, projects can sink or... events can sink projects.

So, businesses, projects, ideas: lots of things can sink.

If it can succeed, it can sink.

If it can succeed, it can fail: it can sink. It can fail very strongly.

Thank you, Catherine.

And we've got another video about a famous sinking, don't we?

Yes, we do. We mentioned the Titanic just before: we have a video about the Titanic.

Just click the link to watch it.

Catherine, can we have your next headline, please?

Yes. We're back in the US now. We're at CNN and the headline is:

'Sham' – something intended to trick or deceive people.

Yes. This is a noun – S-H-A-M – 'sham'.

Now, if something is a 'sham', it's fake: it's not real, it's a trick, it's an illusion.

CNN are saying that Donald Trump's image that he's created of himself

as successful, tax-paying – making lots of money –

they're saying actually he didn't make much money at all. In fact, he lost

money and he didn't pay much tax. So, they're saying his image

is fake, it's not real: it's a sham.

It's a sham. It's a big sham. It's a fake. This is what the news story says.

Donald Trump says, 'This is fake news.'

Now, is 'sham' always a noun?

We can use it in an adjective sense as well.

If we put it before another noun, then we can use it as an adjective

like 'sham marriage' or 'sham wedding', for example.

So a sham marriage or a sham wedding

would be one which is fake. For example, I suppose people – if you

marry a citizen of a country for a visa, this would be a sham marriage, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it's a kind of marriage where people – they don't know

each other, they come together, they get married

and then they go away, they never see each other again;

so that this person can get a visa. Or sometimes

they live together for a short amount of time, but not as a married couple,

and then they split up and the person has a visa, and sometimes the

other person gets some money for it, but it's all fake.

The marriage is fake: it's a sham. A fake wedding...

A sham marriage. A sham wedding. Sham guests. Sham gifts.

It's all a big sham. ...Sham cake!

Exactly.

Great. OK. Catherine, could you please recap today's vocabulary?

Yes. We had 'sink' – cause to fail.

We had 'lashes out' – criticises someone angrily and suddenly.

And we had 'sham' – something intended to trick or deceive people.

Don't forget that you can test yourself on today's vocabulary

on the website bbclearningenglish.com.

We are all over social media too and that's it for today. Thanks for

watching and we'll see you next time. Goodbye.

Bye! Bye.