English in the News: Vocabulary of Floods

Hi, my name is Rebecca and in today's lesson we're going to talk about events in the news.

I'm going to help you to understand when you read, write, listen or speak about events

that have happened in the news.

Actually, when something has happened somewhere in the world, it's a very, very good opportunity

for you to improve your English vocabulary.

Why is that?

Because when something has happened, usually the news channels will repeat the story again

and again and again, right?

So it gives you many opportunities to hear the story, to hear certain critical vocabulary

around that subject and to learn that vocabulary, okay?

So I always tell my students, even if it's really hard in the beginning when you hear

a story about a particular event, to use that opportunity to improve your vocabulary by

breaking down the story into its different elements and picking up some critical vocabulary

from certain events that happened, okay?

So today we're going to start with a particular event which has happened the time when we're

recording this, there have been some terrible floods in Pakistan and we're going to discuss

this story.

Of course, by discussing this story, we are discussing the subject of floods in general,

correct?

So, I've put some items on the board, let's look at those and this strategy can help you

to understand the vocabulary of any subject that's in the news, okay?

Let's look.

All right.

So, of course, the subject we are discussing today is floods.

Now, what is a flood?

You probably know if you have been watching the news, a flood is when water overflows

into areas which are not normally covered by water, normally land, okay?

So usually a river, maybe it rains a lot and the river overflows and the water starts to

cover areas of land that are not normally covered by water, right?

So the way we're going to analyze this story and divide the vocabulary is in this way.

We are going to first look at the people and vocabulary that they use to talk about the

people that are in--involved in this event, some of the places that are mentioned, some

general vocabulary to describe this terrible situation, some of the specific problems that

have emerged or that have arisen, that have happened as a result of this flood, some of

the actions.

Here, we'll see a lot of the verbs that are used to describe this story and also slightly

more advanced expressions that you could pick up.

Now, of course, that's quite a lot, if you're not very advanced in your English, you can

still benefit from this lesson in many ways, you don't have to learn all of these things,

you could start by just focusing on one category like the people or--and then expanding step

by step to some of the other areas, okay?

So in a minute, we're going to come back and talk about the people that are involved in

this event.

Okay, so let's begin by looking at some of the people who have been affected by the flood.

Now, of course, you could always say that people have been affected by the flood, but

if you have more precise vocabulary, then you will be able to speak more intelligently

about the subject and use more specific vocabulary to describe the people that you're talking

about.

So let's look at some of this vocabulary, okay?

First word, farmers.

Many farmers have been affected by the flood.

What is a farmer?

A farmer is somebody, we could say, who works on a farm, somebody who grows food or keeps

animals in order to produce food, right, in an agricultural setting, right?

Farmers.

Next word, laborers.

Labor is another word for work.

So a laborer is a worker, okay?

Laborers are workers.

It could be in any field.

Villagers.

So instead of simply saying that many people were affected by the floods, you could say

many villagers were affected.

A villager, of course, is someone who lives in a village.

You could also use the word resident.

A resident is somebody who resides in a place.

To reside also means to live, okay?

So the person who lives somewhere or resides somewhere is called a resident.

Another word which you might see when you or hear about this story is the word inhabitants.

Inhabitants are also people who live somewhere or who inhabit a certain area.

When you inhabit a certain area, you live there.

So to some extent, many of these words are similar, they are synonyms, residents, inhabitants

both live in a certain area, okay?

Now we also have a number of words which we can use to describe a group of people who

have been affected in a particular way by some event.

So we could say the homeless.

The homeless means people who are now without a home, all right?

We could also refer to that, to certain people as the injured, people who have been injured

or hurt.

We could refer to the destitute.

The destitute means people who have no food, clothing, shelter, the basics of life, okay,

are called destitute.

But when we refer to that group of people, we can say the destitute, all right?

We could also use the word, the displaced.

Displaced, you can probably see, you see the word place, somebody who is displaced has

been moved from their normal place to another place.

They have been displaced, all right?

That's a lot of words, you probably know some of them, some of them may be new.

Let's review a little bit.

So what would we call someone who is from a village?

Someone who lives in a village is called a villager, very good, okay?

Somebody who has been hurt, what would you call somebody who has been hurt?

He is injured, okay, very good.

What about somebody that has no food, or clothing, or shelter?

How would you refer to a group of people who don't have food, or clothing, or shelter?

Which one of these terms?

That's right, the destitute, the destitute, okay, very good.

What's another word for worker?

What's another word for worker or workers?

Do you remember?

Good, laborers, right, laborers.

And last of all, what are a couple of ways in which we can describe people who live somewhere?

Which two words describe people who live in a certain area, okay, do you remember?

Residents and inhabitants, all right?

So you've just learned some vocabulary about the people who have been affected by the flood,

all right?

When we come back, next we're going to look at some places in the news, okay?

So now we're going to talk about some places associated with the story about floods.

The first one, hospitals, right, I think you know what those are.

Next one, fields.

What's a field?

A field is an area of open land, usually used to grow food and so on, all right?

Villages, right?

Farm land, see this is a compound word, two words put together make one word, area used

for farming or for agriculture is called farm land.

Rice paddies, a rice paddy is what?

It's a field in which rice is grown, it's an area where rice is grown in kind of square

areas, so those are called rice paddies, they have now been flooded.

You might hear the word river bank, again, river bank is another compound word, the two

words, river and bank, but not the kind of bank where you put your money, right?

River bank means the slopes or the sides of the river, all right?

You might also see this expression, flood hit areas, that means areas that have been

hit by the flood, so flood hit becomes an adjective to describe the area.

You could also see low lying regions, a low lying region, region means the same as area

and low lying means that they are relatively low, so when the floods come in, it's very

easy for these areas to become flooded, all right?

So let's review, what is the side of a river called or the slopes of a river, what's the

word for that?

River bank, correct, good.

How would you describe the place where food is grown, an open area where food or crops

are grown?

Those are called what?

Fields, right, very good.

If an area has been affected by floods, how could we describe this area?

We could say flood hit areas, good, and if an area is relatively low and therefore it

can be flooded very easily, what do we call this area?

Low lying, low lying area or low lying region, okay?

All right, next we're going to be talking about some general words to describe this

terrible situation, okay?

So now we're going to discuss the vocabulary to describe situation itself, right, the situation

in general terms, as well as some of the specific problems associated with the floods.

So unfortunately, all of the words that we have to describe the situation more or less

mean the same thing and they're all very sad words or they describe very sad events.

These words are tragedy, which is a very sad event, a disaster is when, again, there's

a lot of tragedy, right?

Catastrophe is a little bit larger, it's when we have widespread disaster, when the disaster

takes place on a large scale, affecting a lot of people, as in the case of the floods.

And calamity is also a great misfortune or a great disaster of some kind.

So you might hear any of these words being used to describe the floods in Pakistan, again,

the pronunciation is tragedy, disaster, catastrophe and calamity, okay?

You could really use any of these words to describe the current situation or any kind

of widespread flooding, which has led to a number of problems.

Let's look at some of these problems, right?

Of course, unfortunately, again, there has been death, means many people have died.

These are the nouns we're looking at, right, right now.

There has been a lot of destruction of homes, property, infrastructure, infrastructure means

the system of roads, railways, communication lines, all kinds of things.

Disease, there is a lot of disease, a lot of illness being spread through the water.

There is a lot of starvation, starvation is when people don't have enough food to eat

and therefore they could actually die, they are starving, sometimes we say they are starving

to death because they don't have adequate or enough nutrition.

There is misery, misery means great sadness, great problems, right, great hardship.

Hardship is another word which means great difficulty, okay, they are facing a lot of

hardship.

So, again, a lot of words to describe the situation as well as the problems that you

encounter when there has been widespread flooding.

Next we're going to talk about some specific actions related to this event.

Okay, so now we're going to talk about some verbs that you will hear in connection with

this story about floods, alright.

First word, of course, is to flood.

Another word similar to that is to inundate.

To inundate is the more advanced level word which basically means the same as to flood,

when water overtakes a certain area and it covers areas which are not normally covered

by water.

To respond, to respond means to answer.

How has the international community responded to this tragedy?

They have responded or answered by sending food, by sending money and so on, okay, to

respond.

Another word you might hear is to wade.

To wade simply means to walk in the water, alright, because the water is flooded, right,

the water has flooded, so people have to walk through it where there might have been a road,

there is now, there are now rivers and so people have to walk through the water and

that walking through the water is called wading.

In fact, sometimes when we have a swimming pool, right, you have an adult swimming pool

and next to that you might have a small pool for children, that small pool is sometimes

called a wading pool or if you go similarly to the sea or the ocean, you might just walk

through the water, not swim in the ocean or the sea, you may simply walk through the water

and that's called wading, to wade.

Next word, to warn.

To warn somebody of something is to let them know in advance that something dangerous is,

might happen or is about to happen, to advise them before.

The next two words also mean the same thing, they mean to rebuild and to reconstruct.

To rebuild or reconstruct means to build again or to construct again, of course after this

terrible tragedy, many villages and homes and buildings and factories will have to be

rebuilt or reconstructed, right.

The next word is distribute.

Food aid packages have been distributed to many of the destitute, destitute is a word

we learned earlier which means people who are without food or clothing or shelter.

Many people have been evacuated, to evacuate people means to move them from a dangerous

area or dangerous situation to a safe area, right.

When we are, when people are moved, if they suspect that there might be a fire that's

coming into that area or an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane or floods, then sometimes

the government takes responsibility to evacuate people, to move them out of the danger zone.

Another word which you will see now in connection with this story is the word donate.

When countries donate something or individuals donate something, they give it, they give

it formally.

So it's another word for give, ok but we might give somebody a birthday present but we might

donate money for a particular cause or to help people.

You can donate money, you can donate food, clothing and much, much more.

And the last word we're going to cover today is the word to pledge.

To pledge is to promise.

So some people may donate, they may give and others may pledge or promise to give a donation

in the future, alright.

So to pledge again means to promise.

Let's review these.

I realize there's a lot of vocabulary here.

You can take your time and watch this lesson again and again a few times and maybe just

concentrate on certain areas.

You could take certain vocabulary that you relate to, try to write some sentences, try

to describe the situation as it's going on and you will probably also discover suddenly

that you are here, you are hearing these words on the news.

It's not that you suddenly can hear them, it's suddenly you recognize these words.

It often happens when we learn new words that we suddenly find them in our reading or in

our listening and it's just that now we recognize them and you may find that to happen to you.

So what is the word to answer something?

When something has happened, how did the international, what did the international community do?

They responded, right?

Good.

What is the word when food is given to different places?

This is the word to distribute.

I don't know if we did that one, to distribute.

To distribute means to pass out, okay, to pass out to different people, good.

What is it when you tell somebody in advance, be careful, there's a hole there, be careful.

What are you doing?

You are warning them, okay, very good.

What is the word that means to promise that you're going to do something or you're going

to give something?

The word is to pledge, right, very good.

Alright, one last one question for you.

What is the word that means to take people from an area of danger and move them to an

area of safety?

What is this word?

To evacuate, okay, very good.

A lot of serious vocabulary here, I realize that, and as I said, take it slowly, if you

like, just work on the people first, then do the places, then look at some of the verbs,

some of the general nouns to describe the situation.

Take as many words as you can handle at one time, review them many times, just like I've

been doing, learn them, ask yourself, keep asking yourself again and again.

If you just learn without asking yourself, then you might not remember, okay, but if

you keep checking, then you will remember, and that's how our brain works, with a lot

of repetition, but in a lot of fun ways, okay.

So maybe you could practice reading something, you could practice listening to the news now,

you could try to write a little paragraph about what has happened and use some of this

new vocabulary, and you could also try to discuss it with some friends, okay.

So I hope you enjoyed this lesson, we plan to do some other lessons about events that

are in the news, please feel free to also go to our website at www.engvid.com, you will

see there a quiz on this lesson and many other subjects in English, alright.

Thanks very much, good luck with your English, bye for now.