Learn English with a BBC News article

Hello. This is Gill at engVid, and today we're going to have a lesson which involves reading

a news article. Okay? So, I'm going to show you a recommended website, which I think it would be a

very good one for you to look at on a regular basis. Okay? And there will be a quiz at the

end of this lesson, so be prepared for the quiz. And so let's just have a look then. I'll show you

the website. Here we go. So, this is the BBC News website, so it's the UK news service, the BBC,

which stands for British Broadcasting Corporation. And this is the... The website,

which is bbc.co.uk/news. I'm going to be reading this article with you today and explaining a few

things about the vocabulary in it, if there are any unusual words, maybe some idioms and metaphors

that you often find in a piece of written journalism. And I hope you find it an interesting

subject as well. So, okay. And also, just to say, the BBC News is a very high standard, so

the BBC always try to be accurate and well-balanced, unbiased. They try not to have

any political bias. They try to give you the full story and look at all the different aspects. Okay.

So, it's something you can go back to every day, if you like. And you can see at the top here,

there are different tabs you can click on to look for news in different subject areas as well. So,

it's a very good place to go, more or less. I look at it every day myself and read articles

all the time. Okay. So, the article we're looking at today, then,

comes from the 19th of June, 2019, so it's a little bit back in time. And it's... The title is

"Why are Nike trainers washing up on beaches?" Okay. So, it's a rather unusual subject about

Nike trainers washing up, like this, on beaches. So, there's a rather sad-looking Nike trainer,

all muddy, in a terrible state, which is washed up on a beach. So, let's have a look. So,

I also recommend reading aloud, which is obviously what I'm doing here, for you to hear me reading

the piece. If you read anything from the website or from anywhere else, I do recommend reading aloud

because it helps you to, kind of, experience the words vocally. Okay. So, I'm going to read

aloud, which is what I'm doing here, for you to, kind of, experience the words vocally,

not just inside your head, but you say the word and you hear yourself saying it, and I think it's

a very good thing to practice, even if you read maybe one or two paragraphs a day out loud in

English. It's very... Very good practice. Okay. So, that's what I'll be doing, obviously,

so I hope hearing me reading all these words aloud will be useful for you for pronunciation

purposes as well. Okay, so let's have a look then. So, here's the story.

Over the past year, from Bermuda and the Bahamas to Ireland and Orkney,

hundreds of pairs of unworn shoes have washed up on beaches. But how did they get there,

and why are scientists so interested in where they are being found? Okay, so we'll see a couple

of maps later on in the article. So, Bermuda, Bahamas, Ireland. Orkney is up in Scotland,

but we will see it on the map a little bit later. So, on both... Basically, on both sides of the

Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda and the Bahamas on the western side of the Atlantic, and Ireland and

Orkney on the eastern side of the Atlantic, these shoes have been washing up on the beaches,

on the beaches, coming up out of the sea, and people have been finding them, which is a bit

of a mystery. But then we find out why it is by the end of the article. Okay, so let's have a look.

In September 2018, on Flores Island, in the remote Atlantic archipelago of the Azores,

Gui Ribeiro began noticing strange items washing ashore. So, the Azores are, you probably know,

islands in the Atlantic which belong to Portugal. Okay, so the name Gui Ribeiro is a typically

Portuguese name. Okay. Okay, so at first they appeared in small numbers and could be dismissed

as ordinary artefacts lost by individuals, mere flotsam among the churn of man-made waste that

inhabits the world's oceans. Okay, so the word artefacts, an artefact, it's usually a piece of

art, like an object, an ornament, or a statue, or something like that. But here they're using it

as just like an item, ordinary items lost by individuals. And then this word flotsam is very

unusual. It means things that float around on the surface of the water, usually rubbish. And

there's another word that goes with flotsam, although this writer hasn't used it. It's flotsam

and jetsam. So, you sometimes hear those two words together, flotsam and jetsam, that refer to the

same thing. And then the churn of man-made waste, it means things sort of going round and round.

If you think of the sea and the waves coming in and out all the time, anything floating on the

water is going to be sort of moving around, churning around. Okay. So, a lot of pollution,

sadly, in the oceans, including these shoes. Okay, so next paragraph. "Soon, though,

it became clear these Azorean arrivals were part of a greater group. Trainers, flip-flops,

and a selection of other footwear were appearing with a regularity that singled them out

from the other tidal deposits." So, trainers, I think everyone knows what trainers are,

sports shoes. Flip-flops are the ones that just flop around when you're walking,

and other footwear. Tidal deposits, the tide, that's the waves coming in and out,

so referring to the tide. Tidal deposits, meaning things washed up by the tide. Okay.

Okay, let's carry on. "They were the same brands in the same styles, and for some of the trainers,

at least, the same production dates were printed on a label sewn into the tongue of each shoe.

Moreover, every item of footwear appeared to have been unworn." Okay, so these shoes were all made

at the same time, same production dates from the factory. And the label sewn into the tongue of the

shoe, the tongue is the part where... When you lace up your shoe, and there's that piece that goes

under the lace, that's the tongue because it's, like, the shape of your tongue, like that. And

then this word "moreover", you may not be familiar with that. It just means "also" or "as well".

"As well as this, every item appeared to have been unworn", meaning nobody had ever worn them.

They weren't... They didn't look as if somebody's feet had ever been inside them, so they were new.

Apart from being damaged by the sea, they were completely new. Okay. So, "In the months that

followed, Mr. Ribeiro retrieved about 60 Nike trainers, along with a host of other brands."

So, again, "host" is a bit metaphorical. "A host" means "a lot", "a lot of other brands".

And news of the findings began to spread, so people started talking about it. So here's...

Here's a trainer in the sand, found on the west coast of Ireland. So that's just on the very

eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Ireland is here. Before you get to England, the mainland,

England, Wales, Scotland, here, you've got Ireland here. So Ireland is closer to the Atlantic than

we are here in England and the UK, the rest of the UK. So... Okay, so this guy in Ireland found

well over 100 shoes, so he found more than 100 shoes. Okay. So, "Seven months later and 1,400

miles", or you can say 1,400 miles is another way of saying that number, "2,250 kilometres away

in Cornwall, UK." So Cornwall is in the southwest of the UK. "Tracy Williams started noticing a

similar trend." Okay, similar thing happening. So she says, "A friend in Ireland asked me if I had

found any," says Miss Williams. "I went out the next day and found quite a few." Beach cleaners

or beachcombers tend to network. So if a certain item is washing up, we quickly find out about it

and we're then on the lookout. So beach cleaners, that's obvious, people who clean the beach.

Beachcombers, if you think of a comb that you put through your hair, beachcombers are people

who look very closely at everything they find on the beach. So she says these people tend to

network, meaning they communicate with each other, they share information. So they... the story

spreads between them. And then we're on the lookout, looking out for things they know what

they're looking for. Okay. So, "As well as the Azores and southwest England, specimens of this

scattered footwear flotilla have so far been found on beaches in Bermuda, the Bahamas, France, Ireland,

Orkney, and the Channel Islands." So this is both sides of the Atlantic, as I said earlier.

And the Channel Islands are just near the French coast. Okay. So this scattered footwear flotilla,

a flotilla is things floating. Quite often a group of boats or ships are called a flotilla.

It's a group of things all floating together. And I think also journalists like to play with

the sounds of the words. So footwear flotilla, two words beginning with F, you know, it's a bit

poetic really. Okay. And specimens, meaning examples of the shoes. Okay. "The source of

all these shoes is believed to be a single ship. Through the research I have done," Mr. Ribeiro

says, "everything indicates they may have been from some of the 70 to 76 containers

that fell overboard from the Maersk, Shanghai." Okay. So big containers, if you think a big ship

has more than 70 big metal containers with shoes inside them, that actually fell overboard into

the sea, fell off the ship into the sea. Okay. So, "In early spring last year, the Maersk,

Shanghai, a 324-meter, 1,063-foot vessel capable of carrying more than 10,000 shipping containers

was traveling from Norfolk, Virginia, down the east coast of the U.S.", that's USA, America,

"to Charleston, South Carolina." So going down the coast, the east coast of America.

"On the evening of the 3rd of March, 17 miles from the Oregon Inlet, off the coast of North

Carolina, it was caught in a storm. While battling high winds and rough seas, a stack of its cargo

laden containers toppled overboard." So battling high winds, a battle is usually people fighting

with weapons as well, guns, and so on. But the ship, metaphorically, the ship was fighting against

the... The strong winds and the rough seas, and some of the containers fell off into the sea.

Okay. So here's another nice picture of a... Here's a flip-flop, the sort that flops around when you're

walking. And it says, "Which appears to have had bites taken out of it." Something's been eating

it. You can see little bits of damage here. I don't know what has been eating it, maybe some

sea creatures. And I don't know... This looks a little bit like seaweed, this green stuff that's

got stuck to it, and bits of wet sand. So this is Tracy Williams' photo from, I think, from Cornwall.

Okay. So, "At the time, the Maritime Trade Press reported that aircraft crews sent to locate the

missing containers had found nine of them, nine containers floating, but that seven had later sunk."

So maritime, meaning anything to do with the sea, anything happening on the sea,

they reported this missing containers floating, but then out of those nine, seven actually went

down to the seabed. Okay. "It is not possible to say with certainty all the recovered footwear

originated from the Maersk Shanghai. The vessel's operator, Zodiac Maritime, did not respond to BBC

questions on the matter." Sometimes the BBC say this. They've asked somebody to answer a question

and they don't get a response, and they tell everybody about it. They did not respond to BBC

questions on the matter. So you think, "Ah, okay." So anyway, "Nike also chose not to comment when

contacted." So that's two people who didn't want to respond, because it's a bit embarrassing for

them, I suppose. Okay. So, "However, two footwear brands, Triangle and Great Wolf Lodge, confirmed

the examples of their products that had been retrieved did originate from the ship." So at

least they were prepared to admit that it was some of their products. "And Mr. Ribeiro is not the

only beach cleaner to be convinced they came from the Maersk Shanghai. Liam McNamara from County

Clare on the west coast of Ireland has found well over a hundred shoes, mostly Nike trainers, that

in his opinion most definitely came from that vessel. One company has admitted to losing stock

from that shipment, and another admitted losing stock at sea," he says. "They've been turning up

all over the place." So this "turning up" is a slightly informal phrasal verb, but it's a very

... The phrasal verb "to turn up" means "to appear". So it's... It's a more informal way of saying,

not "they've been appearing all over the place", but "they've been turning up". It's... It's a

phrasal verb, a more conversational way of saying it. Okay. And then this lady, Tracy Williams from

Cornwall, says, "It would be good if companies could be more open about cargo spills, if they

could put their hands up and say, 'Yes, there's been an incident.'" "Put their hands up", again,

a bit metaphorical, but it means they... They should admit, they should be honest and say,

"Yes, there has been an incident. We did lose some shoes." Okay. So, what impact can events like this

have? Whatever it is, if it is sinking to the bottom of the sea or washing up on beaches,

it's going to have a detrimental impact to the marine wildlife, says Lauren Iles from

the Marine Conservation Society. So, this is the pollution issue. Detrimental impact means a bad

effect on the marine wildlife, meaning the fish and other sea creatures in the sea. All that

plastic isn't going to be good for the... The creatures living in the sea. So, she continues,

"The shoes will be breaking down to microplastics over years, which will have huge impacts on the

amazing wildlife we have, both in the UK and worldwide. Estimates vary, but it is thought

about 10 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans each year." Okay. So, "to end up", that's

another phrasal verb, meaning they arrive, they get into the sea. Their final destination is the

sea, "to end up somewhere", which is a bad thing when it's plastic in the sea. "Asked how big a

role container spills play in that pollution, Miss Iles says it is not fully understood." So,

how much, you know, containers falling into the sea, how often does that happen?

She says, "I don't think there's enough data on it to draw proper conclusions", she explains.

So, there's not enough information to be sure how serious it is. But here's a map anyway, to show,

here's the Atlantic Ocean. So, there's the Azores, and they belong to Portugal, which is here.

And then there's Bermuda and the Bahamas on the western side of the Atlantic. There's North

America. Here's the UK and Europe, and Ireland there, North and South, Northern Ireland, and

then the Republic of Ireland. So, things are arriving on the coast of Ireland here. And then

there's a bigger map here of that. So, here's Cornwall. Here's the west coast of Ireland.

There's the coast of France, Brittany. The Channel Islands are just off the coast of France.

And here's Orkney, one of the islands in the north of Scotland. So, all of these places,

shoes have been... have been washing up on their beaches. Okay. Now, this next section,

I'm not going to read all of it. So, I suggest that because there's a quiz, and I'll be asking

questions in the quiz partly from this section, I suggest that you go to the link yourself after

this lesson and read this in more detail so that you're able to answer all the questions in the

quiz, because I know you'd love to get 10 out of 10. So, you'll need to do that to get the full

marks. Okay. So, we'll skip this bit because we're a bit short of time now. And then here's

another nice map. Don't you love maps? I do. Showing the currents in the sea, the way the sea

moves around. And this is how these shoes have been moved around from place to place, round and

round in circles sometimes, I think. So, you've got the Canary Current there, the North Equatorial

Current, and then the Gulf Stream going round like this. Okay. Right. So, I think also this

section two, we're a bit short of time, so if you'd like to read that section as well, it's all

very interesting information. Okay. And then here's a picture of the sea. So, you've got the

picture of someone, if that's Tracey Williams herself, then someone else must have taken the

photo, but there she is keeping her local beach clean and doing a very nice job. It's beautifully

clean and a lovely picture of the sea there in Cornwall, in the southwest of the UK. So,

let's just finish at the end here. So, for Miss Williams, who goes down to clean beaches near her

home in Newquay, Cornwall, multiple times a day, there is no easy solution.

"Nobody wants their goods spread across beaches and polluting the ocean," she says.

"But I think it would be good if companies could be more open about cargo spills, if they could

put their hands up and say, 'Yes, there has been an incident.'" So, we read this earlier.

"These things are going to happen, but there doesn't seem to be any responsibility when they

do," Mr. McNamara adds. So, I mean, what can you do if a container has fallen and sunk,

gone to the bottom of the sea? It would be expensive to get it back, but, you know. Anyway,

"The bottom line has to go back to the shipping companies. They're responsible for their cargo."

Okay. So, the bottom line also is a metaphor, an idiom, and it comes from accounting, adding

up figures. When you do accountancy, you have columns of figures, and then you get a total

at the bottom. And usually in accounts, it might be income and expenditure, it might be profit

and loss. And in any company, the profit is really important, obviously, to stay in business.

So, the bottom line means that the total, hopefully, the profit you've made in the year

is more than the money you've had to spend during the year. Otherwise, the company can be in

trouble. So, that's the bottom line, meaning the important thing, the bottom line has to go back

to the shipping companies. They're responsible for their cargo. Okay. And then just to show you

at the bottom here, this is a very good feature on the BBC News website. You have these related

topics, topics relating to the article that we've just read. So, it means you can look at any of

these and click through to them and read more about the particular places, the shipping industry,

trainers, Nike, pollution in the ocean, plastic pollution, generally. So, it's a very well

designed website. I really do recommend it. I hope you'll have a look at it and find topics

of interest for yourself. So, there we are. So, I hope you've enjoyed that reading, and

do have a look at the quiz. I hope you found it an interesting subject. And I do think the BBC

website, you know, it's very educational. You learn a lot just from reading articles on there,

on different subjects. You'll become, you know, very well informed on a lot of different subjects.

And of course, you'll be reading it in English, which is, again, helping you with your English

vocabulary as well, and English style, good style of writing, and so on. Okay. So, I hope that's

been interesting for you. Thank you for watching. Do subscribe if you haven't already, and see you

again soon. Okay. Bye for now. Bye.