Greenest summer ever for UK: BBC News Review 2022

June 18, 2022



Over half of the energy consumed in the UK this summer came from low-carbon sources – that’s things like solar and wind power rather than coal or oil.

The British National Grid – that’s the system of wires that takes electricity from its sources into people’s homes – was the most environmentally friendly ever this summer.

[Cover image: GETTY IMAGES]

Key words and phrases:

enjoys
experiences something as an advantage

spells trouble
suggests there may be future problems

bleed
take a lot of money from

For more, visit our website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/newsreview/unit-1/session-1

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21 Comments
  1. I lubbb u Catherine n Neil sir n mam u r superb teacher n l am always enjoyed the lesson's .I don't know how to describe the ur teaching style .uh ho, lubbb u n adore you everythings

  2. I enjoyed this English conversation between Niel and Catherine

  3. Reply
    MariaLamonia Martins June 18, 2022 at 11:57 am

    I so like listening you guys 😄hello from Brazil 🇧🇷

  4. I wish it has subtitle by google

  5. thanks so much.

  6. You guys are Great !  Thank you for doing this, wish you all the best.

  7. Reply
    Alexandre Delavant June 18, 2022 at 11:57 am

    oh I'm french and I try to improve my English, this video is cool but there is not the underwriter :/ Like for they see it!

  8. thanks you are so good 🌹

  9. Thanx british

  10. I remember I have learned the word “gesticulate” from BBC learning English. Now I have to say that I like that way Catherine gesticulates during 6 mins. hihi. So lovely.

  11. does this video has subtitles?

  12. would be nice if you could add subtitles 🙂

  13. Reply
    ALDO CEZAR Guimarães June 18, 2022 at 11:57 am

    Thank you very much, You're helping me a lot. Trying to find a quiz at the web site.

  14. so spell trouble means cause problem

  15. That is a very beatiful and special way to help people learning english so thank you so much and i really appresure your endless efforts

  16. Hello and welcome to news review
    the program where we show you how to use the language from the latest news stories in your everyday English.

    Hi, I'm Neil. joining me is Catherine. Hi Catherine?

    Hello Neil.

    So what is our story?

    Today's story Neil is about Power.

    Power. right. OK. interesting.
    Let's hear more from this BBC news bulletin.

    So Power Story there, British National Grid is the system of wires, cables that take electricity around The UK.
    Now They're saying that this summer their power, their electricity was the most environmentally friendly ever.
    So we're now using more electricity made from low carbon sources like wind and solar power.
    We're using more of that than fossil fuels like
    coal or oil.

    OK you've been looking at this story picking out words that we need to talk about this using our everyday English.
    What have you got?

    We have got Enjoy, Spells trouble and bleeds.

    Alright. Enjoys in your first headline, please.

    OK, so we're looking at The ( ) times and the headline is: UK enjoys 'greenest' summer as 52% of electricity from low carbon sources

    Enjoy: meaning experiences something as advantage.
    Now this is a bit weird, isn't it?
    because we all know what enjoy means.
    I enjoy watching football.
    What do you enjoy doing?

    I enjoy playing my accordion, Neil.

    We both enjoy doing….

    It's lovely, love it. great fun. lovely.

    So why are we talking about?
    Why are we using this word enjoy in this sense?

    It is slightly different because we enjoy something, you've got this feeling of pleasure, entertaining, something great fun. you like doing it.
    And it's usually for people rather than an entire country or something that goes on for a long time.
    But connection here is something that's good and positive and provides benefit.
    So The UK has enjoyed the greenest summer ever according to this which means that this green, environmentally, friendly summer of electricity
    is good for The UK.
    So we're talking about benefit here.

    And we find this use in a couple of set expressions because ( ) said someone enjoys good health.

    Yeah. it doesn't mean you ( ) yeah. I'm healthy, I'm healthy.
    but it just means that you have a good health
    and it benefits you.

    And another one, somebody enjoys a good reputation. Perhaps they do a lot of charity work. they've got a good reputation. we say they enjoy a good reputation.

    Yeah, and again, they don't ( ) probably
    going yeah… yeah..

    I've got a good reputaion

    Everybody loves me.
    But reputation is there and it's benefit to them.

    Alright. what's our next headline then?

    OK we're going to The Telegraph now and headline is:
    National Grid's 'greenest summer' ever spells trouble for fossil fuel plants

    Spells trouble: meaning suggests there're maybe future problems.
    I'm a bit confused here. Why are we talking about spelling? I know how to spell trouble.

    Yeah. spell it.

    Hang on. T.R.O.U.B.L.E

    You're quite right. very congratulations on your spelling but it's nothing to do with spelling.
    The idea of 'spells trouble' actually means that means trouble, or as is going to cause problems in the future.
    So we use it pretty much subject verb proposition object.
    Something spells trouble for something else.
    It means something's going to cause problem.
    In this case green electricity is causing a problem for fossil fuel energy suppliers.
    You might think that's not a bad thing.
    But it's not a case of positive and negative
    or negative and positive.
    It just means one thing causes problems for another thing.

    So you could say ,for example, automation.
    ahhhh Driverless cars, for example, spell trouble for taxi drivers.

    Absolutely yes.
    If there's too many automatic cars, taxi drivers are going have problems.

    Yeah. Do you think automation spells trouble for us here? in this..

    We can get a nice robot sitting in your seat Neil, it spells trouble for you. but I might not quite like it.

    Ahhh thank you very much.

    You're welcome.

    And our final word. final headline.

    OK next we're going to The Guadian.
    The headline is actually: This summer was greenest ever for energy, says National Grid.

    The word we're looking at is in this story
    and this telling us that fossil fuels bleed revenues from the utilities sector.
    revenues there means money. so bleed revenues, bleed money.

    So Bleed here meaning take a lot of money from.

    Yes.

    Not. nothing to do with blood.

    No, we're very idiomatic today.

    So why are we using bleed? I don't understand.

    So if you cut yourself. hopefully…
    if you cut yourself badly in fact you don't want to lose blood. but if you cut yourself, blood will flow. it's not a good thing. you want to keep it. You might panic a bit.
    there's a bit of danger involved. you're losing blood. and it's important and vital.
    and you don't want to.
    So we use this idea of bleeding when something is costing a lot of money and that's a bad thing. in fact costing more money than you can afford to lose. so you want to stop it. it's bad.

    It's kind of damaging effect on you?

    Yeah. yeah. so if something's bleeding money
    it means losing so much money that is really big problem and you need to stop it.

    And there's an expression using this.
    You can say that someone bled you dry.

    Yeah, it's a bit gruesome if you think about it.
    but if something bleeds you dry, it means something costs so much more money than you were expecting that really becomes financial problem.
    So you can bleed somebody dry.
    Somebody can bleed you dry.
    Something can bleed you dry, yes.
    Ever had, ever been bled dry, Neil?

    I wouldn't want to say this
    My builder has bled me dry.
    but it's costed more than I expected.

    My twitter: @leea01040389363
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  17. It is so warm to see Neil pretends that he does not understand, just like a beginner English learner

  18. I really like this video and the way Neil and Katherine teach English, it is so friendly and warm and kind. I feel very happy while watching this video more than any other English-teaching video.

  19. Reply
    Benigno Augusto Estrada Reyes June 18, 2022 at 11:57 am

    thanks for the news reviews videos, I watch them every Thursday….
    I hope you will upload more videos from 6 minutes English, I enjoy them a lot…

  20. What a useful videos! Thank you very much! You are the best!

  21. it must have subtitle in English

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