BBC News Review: Frog death mystery in Peru 2022

July 4, 2022



Thousands of frogs have been found dead in Peru. Join Neil and Sian to discover the language the world’s media is using to talk about this story.
For more, visit our website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/towards-advanced/unit-16/session-2

The story:

The Peruvian environmental agency is investigating the deaths of about 10,000 frogs, whose bodies have been found in the river in the south of the country. A local campaign group says pollution in the River Coata is to blame for the deaths.

Leonardo Rocher – BBC News
The Titicaca water frogs are an endangered species that lives exclusively in the huge freshwater lake shared by Peru and Bolivia and its tributaries. The number of residents around South America’s largest lake has increased sharply in the past two decades, while the number of frogs there is estimated to have declined by 80%. Residents say the government has done too little to deal with the impact of humans in the area. They are calling for a sewage treatment plant to be built near the regional capital, Puno.

Key words and phrases:

endangered species
a type of animal or plant that might stop existing because there are only a few of that type alive

get to the bottom of
to discover the truth about something or find the cause of something

a turn of events
a change in a situation

pleas
serious and emotional requests for something

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15 Comments
  1. I always learn with this program.thanks a lot.

  2. Nice….BBC… San you look so beautiful with your blue dress…And Neil you are always peaceful and quiet…😍😍😍😍

  3. thanks from Vietnam!

  4. Love is in the air💔

  5. The frogs in NA , CA an SA are dying and it has been going for many years.  I use to see tadpolls as a young child and you don't see them again in the ponds, creeks, and streams.. so why the surprise.

  6. Thank you.

  7. HI BBC, I'm a fan of 6 minute English Programme, paticularly, Alice's accent, why dont you bring her to this programme.

  8. Reply
    Leonardo Ferreira July 4, 2022 at 11:16 am

    Is Leonardo Rocher a brazilian? His accent…

  9. Thanks for this program

  10. Hello , welcome to News review the program we give you the language you need to talk about the News.

    Hi, Im Neil, joining me today is Sian, Hi Sian, Hi Neil.
    so what is our story?

    Today, we have a story about an animal that is dying misteriously.

    an animal dying miteriously.
    ok, Let's find out some more about that from this BBC world service Newsbulletine.

    The Perubian environmental agency is investigating the death of about ten thousands frogs whose bodies have been found in the river in the south of the country.

    A local campaign group says pollution in the river ( ) is to blame for the death.

    Ok,so, Ten thousand frogs have been found dead in Peru
    it's a little bit of mistery, they're invesgating WHY.
    but local residents believe that it's due to pollution in the river.
    and they're desperate for Gorvernments to clean it up.

    so, you've been looking at the story, How it's been reported on the News website
    what are the words and expressions ,phrases being used to talk about the story?

    Ok, I've picked out four expressions.
    We have "endangered species" ,"get to the bottom of" ," turn of events" and "plea"

    ok, "endangered species" ,"get to the bottom of" , "turn of events" and "plea"
    , How are these appearing in the Headlines , in the articles?

    OK, so, the first one "endangered species" is in this BBC News story.
    and we have "The Titicaca water frog is an endangered species that is found only in the huge freshwater lake shared by Peru and Bolivia and its tributaries.

    so, "endangered species" that's a type of animal or plant that might stop existing because of their only few of that type left.

    so, it is in danger. that creats the word "endangered" with an "e" this time.

    and this is what we called a collocation , word that go together very often in English.

    and endangered, species always goes together. "Yes"
    or endangered animal also , endangered plant.

    yup, but species is a type of animal , here for example ,
    it's not all frogs that are endangered.
    just this special Titicaca water frog. "Yes"

    and another reason why the word species is interesting? listen to the pronunciation?

    spe SH es , there is a SH in the middle.
    why? because there's no SH in the spelling.
    normally, quite often in English ,when we want to produce the SH sound
    ,represented with letters, we use SH , not here

    it's "CI" species with "CI"

    umm same with my name Sian "Shan" there's no SH.

    =====================================================
    moment of the truth. it's been always in the middle of my curiousity why her name is Shan when pronouced, curiosity discovered.
    =====================================================

    ( what's Neil saying? ) "NO rules"
    spelling and pronuncition have a very strange relationship.

    exactly, it makes difficult to look,

    but %%% I still learn how to spell
    but also for learners to pronouce words %%%
    ================================================
    this part I am not sure what they are talking about
    ================================================

    so , you just have to learn it. "Yes, exactly"
    Ok, let's get to the bottom of the next one.

    yeah, ok, ( ) ,this is the get to the bottom of
    and we have here in the story by CNet.
    "Reserchers are trying to get to the bottom of this tragic turn of events"

    yes, to get to the bottom of something. to discover the truth about something
    or find the cause about something.

    so, it's not literal , they are not getting to the bottom of the lake or anything like that. they're just finding the truth.

    but you can imagine kind of digging for an answer somewhere. "yeah"

    particullary something bad ofthen? "often bad, isn't it? "
    for example , the university at a problem with a ( ) people copying.
    and they're keen to get to the bottom of it, to discover why it was happening.
    so that they can stop it.

    it's not always bad though, is it?

    you had that love letter on valeteins day a few month ago?
    and you had to get to the bottom of who sent it to you.

    yes I did.

    Did you ever get to the bottom of it?

    yes I did and I told my mom to stop sending things to BBC.

    "I didn't , I told" or "I did and I told" which is correct?
    =============================================
    All Moms over all around the world are SAME. 🙂
    =============================================

    of course , your mom, ( ) suspected that.

    right then,

    there's sad turn of events of you.

    it was sad turn of events.

    which is the next word. so here is in the same story.
    we have "Reserchers are trying to get to the bottom of this tragic turn of events."

    yes, turn of events means a change in a situation
    I mean "turn" is quite obvious , imagine a car going along at a cerntain direction.
    and suddenly turn so it goes to a different direction

    and turn of events means a change in a situation.

    and it's often used with like tragic, dramatic, unexpected or strange.

    yeah, for example , recently, this week, last week,
    Bob dylan who is a singer and song writer
    he was given award.

    for "for Literature". <– this word I googled it 🙂

    the Nobel prize for Literature.
    and for some people that was a strange turn of events

    because he is singer this is an award for writer. "Is it?"

    it's an unexpected situation. yeah.

    OK, we do also say that events take a turn ,so it's often used with worse
    so events took a turn for the worse.
    which is it means that they suddenly became bad.

    finally we have?

    the last we have is plea
    which is not the same as please thank you.
    and it's singular plea and we have here in the same story from BBC News.

    it says the government has ignored pleas for the construction of a sewage treatment plant in the area.

    so, pleas is request for something often serious and emotional

    so it's not just request for a coffee, for example ,
    it's very serious, very emotional , very dramatic

    for example , those terrible stories when a child goes missing
    you see the parents making an emotional pleas for an information

    that's a qualication ( ) to make a plea.
    you can also use the verb , so the parents plead for an information.

    and that's also something that you hear in ( )

    so it's (an illegal or legal ?) as well.

    somebody might plea the guilty or put in a qulity plea or not quilty plea.

    so If I say, Im guilty, I plead guilty. or plead inocent.

    ok, let's now hear some more about this story about the frog.
    from the BBC's Leonardo Rocha , listen out for his use of the expression "endangered species"
    =============================================================
    The Titicaca water frogs are endangered species that lives exclusively in the huge fresh water lake shared by Peru , Bollivia and its tributaries
    the number of residents around south America's largest lake has increased
    sharply in the past two decades.
    while the number of frogs there is estimated to have declined by 80%
    residents say that the government has done too little to deal with impacts of humans in the area.
    they're calling for a sewage treatment plant to be built nera the ( ) capital BONO.
    ===============================================================

    thank you very much BBCle, Sian, Neil
    every body waching BBCle News review in the world
    have a great day all.

    see you next week.
    good bye.

  11. Thanks

  12. Omg! One of the correct answer was mine and you pronounced amazingly correct. 🙂 Thanks:)

  13. My favorite program from BBC Learning English! Thanks from Brazil!

  14. It is incredible. In 2015 something similar happened in the Bolivian side, now in Peruvian side. There are several environmental damages (crimes) in Peru, in the latest times, oil spills in the Amazonia, deforestation in Manu reserve, an else. That is the way we want to be part of the OECD countries?
    There is so much to do to reform Peru, I hope President Kuczynski do the right thing.

  15. Reply
    Josue Fabian Marona July 4, 2022 at 11:16 am

    Im from Perú and Im very sorry for this new 🙁 we are not concious 'bout pollution and people just throw away their garbage to the river .. that is the reality !! anyway excellent as always 😉

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