Plastic-eating worms: BBC News Review

Could plastic eating worms help the world's pollution crisis?

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video,

and try the quiz on our website.

Now it's time for the story

Getting rid of plastic with worm spit.

Spanish scientists have discovered something in wax worms saliva

which helps them eat plastic.

It's hoped the breakthrough will be an effective and natural way

of reducing plastic pollution.

One researcher suggests, in the future,

plastic-eating worm kits could be used in the home.

You've been looking at the headlines,

Beth, what's the vocabulary?

We have 'gobbling', 'lowly' and 'humble'.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This one is from France Twenty Four.

And so the headline is saying

something useful has been found in the spit of a certain kind of worm,

and it's the enzyme in the spit.

Enzymes are things that help chemical processes happen more quickly -

in this case, destroying plastic.

But the word that we're interested in is 'gobbling'.

And 'gobbling' is the word connected to the noise

a turkey makes.

Yes, you're right.

So, when a turkey gets its food,

it eats very quickly and loudly and we say this is 'gobble'.

And the headline writer has turned this into an adjective,

just like the noise 'gobble, gobble'.

And we've got a new word - 'plastic gobbling'.

'Gobble' is a funny word in English

because it sounds like the thing

it is describing.

And, we have a lot of words like that. For example,

what noise does a cat make?

Miaow. So, the noise is like that.

And the word to describe that is 'miaow'.

What about chickens? Cluck, cluck.

The chickens make a cluck cluck noise and the word

we write down and say is 'cluck'.

So, the headline makes you imagine a worm noisely eating plastic.

Just like a turkey gobbling it.

Now, of course, this is an exaggeration,

but it's quite entertaining and it gives you a strong mental image.

Yeah. Can you give us some examples of other words connected to eating

and the noise involved?

Yes, so we have 'gulp'. OK, so that is 'gulp'.

And that is about eating food and drinking quickly and loudly.

And we also have 'guzzle'.

But that's only really used for drink.

Yeah. And we have a word not connected to sound

but it's got an animal in it, 'to wolf something down',

means to eat it really quickly.

Let's take a look at that one more time.

Let's take a look at our next headline.

This one is from Reuters:

The headline is saying that the saliva -

that's the spit -

another word for 'spit' - of this certain kind of worm

might boost - that means help - the attempt to reduce plastic. But the word

we're looking at is 'lowly'.

What can you tell us about lowly?

Well, there's a clue in this word 'lowly' - low.

It means 'low in position or importance'.

So, for example, Neil,

when I started in my career,

I wasn't presenting News Review for the BBC,

I was in a lowly position.

OK, so you mean that you feel that the job

you were doing wasn't as important as the one

you're doing now. It was lower. Exactly.

OK. Now we have heard that this worm is actually really important -

it's eating plastic.

So, why are we calling it 'lowly'?

Well, wax worms aren't really high up in the animal kingdom. They're a little bit dirty.

Most people think of them as pests and they don't really like them.

And so the headline writer uses the word 'lowly'

because even though this worm doesn't seem that important,

it's actually doing a really important job.

Now, do we use this word much in our everyday English?

Well, yeah.

When we use it, it's always in a humorous way. We're kind of saying

the thing we're doing, isn't very important.

Like, I used to be a lowly tea maker in the office.

Well, you call yourself lowly,

but just like the worm,

you're performing a really important task.

Everybody loves tea.

It may not be the most glamorous job in the world,

but it is very important. OK, let's look at that again.

Let's take a look at our next headline.

This one is from the BBC.

And so the headline is saying the saliva of this type of worm,

this wax worm, can break down, which means 'destroy' certain types

certain types of plastic.

Tough plastics - ones that are difficult to break down -

difficult to destroy.

We have another adjective that we're looking at the which is 'humble'.

What can you tell us about humble?

So, 'humble' can have the same meaning as 'lowly', meaning 'ordinary' or 'not important',

but it has another meaning too.

So, it can describe a person who isn't proud,

doesn't believe that they're important,

even if they are. So, imagine someone wins an award,

they get on stage to give their speech and they say this isn't for me,

it's for everyone else.

Thank you everyone who helped me.

They are humble. What a humble person

and it's a positive thing to say about someone, isn't it?

So, in this headline, using 'humble' about this worm is a positive thing.

Exactly, because even though this worm maybe looks just like a worm,

it's really special and important -

it has plastic-eating abilities.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had 'gobbling' - eating quickly

and loudly like a turkey.

'Lowly' - low in position and importance.

And 'humble' - not proud,

but often important.

Don't forget there's a quiz on our website at bbcearningenglish.com

Thank you for joining us and goodbye. Bye.