BBC Learning English from the News
Follow up Activities
Transcript
From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
In this programme, Trump assassination attempt – US reacts.
Hello, I’m Neil.
And I’m Georgie.
In this programme, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet, on our website: BBCLearningEnglish.com.
So, let’s hear more about this story.
People in the US have been reacting after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Now, an assassination is a murder and it’s the murder of someone important or famous.
Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump as he spoke at an event in Pennsylvania, injuring the former president’s ear.
One man in the audience was killed in the attack, two others were seriously injured.
Security officers then shot the gunman dead, and the exact reason for his attack is unclear.
We have a headline which gives us more information about the gunman,
Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Yes, this one is from Sky news, which is based in the UK.
Trump gunman: An ‘outcast’ who wasn’t let on school rifle team because ‘he was a bad shooter’.
So, that headline again from Sky news:
Trump gunman: An ‘outcast’ who wasn’t let on school rifle team because ‘he was a bad shooter’.
We’re interested in the word ‘outcast’ from this headline.
Okay, so let’s break it down and look at the second part, um, so ‘cast’ as a verb means to throw something.
Yeah, so if we cast something or someone out, it means we throw them, we throw them away.
So, we can see this meaning in the noun – ‘an outcast’, and an outcast is a person who is cast out – someone who is not accepted by other people.
Yes, and it’s got a serious meaning, really, it can be connected to people from a different race or class, so it’s connected to inequality often. Yes, that’s right.
But we also use it socially to describe someone who doesn’t fit in or doesn’t have any friends, and that is the meaning that we see in the headline – the shooter was an outcast, it suggests he didn’t really fit in with people.
We looked at ‘outcast’, someone who is not accepted by society.
For example, the business is treating working mothers like outcasts.
This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
Today, we’re talking about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and its impact on the US.
Politicians across the USA have been critical of the attack on Trump.
Yes, President Biden has said that US politics must never be a ‘killing field’.
And there are concerns about how the violence will impact the US elections in November, where Biden and Trump are due to compete to be the next president.
Let’s have another headline.
This headline is from the Financial Times, based in the UK,
and it is: America is staring into the abyss
Let’s hear that again.
America is staring into the abyss, from the Financial Times.
Now, this is an article about the significance of the assassination attempt in American politics.
Let’s start by looking at this word ‘abyss’.
Neil, what does it mean?
Well, literally, an abyss is a very big, deep black hole.
But of course, there isn’t suddenly a deep hole in the USA.
The headline is describing the social and political situation as an abyss.
Yes, and that’s how we often use ‘abyss’ – metaphorically to describe a dangerous and powerful situation.
Now, if you fell into a real abyss, a big hole, that would be a very bad situation for you.
You might not be able to get out of it. It would be really scary and dangerous.
Yeah, exactly.
In the headline, America is staring into the abyss.
That means the country is looking at the dangerous situation.
‘Staring into the abyss’ is a common metaphor, isn’t it, Neil?
It is. Yes. We also talk about ‘being on the edge of an abyss’, and we use that to describe a dangerous, overwhelming, frightening situation in front of us.
But it is quite dramatic language, isn’t it?
We often use ‘staring into the abyss’ in writing and in headlines. We don’t often use it in speech.
We’ve had ‘staring into the abyss’, facing a large, dangerous situation.
So, for example, the company is staring into the abyss of bankruptcy after four years without making a profit.
This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.
We’re talking about the assassination attempt on former US President, Donald Trump.
Since the shooting, Donald Trump has attended the Republican convention.
This is where politicians from the Republican Party pick their candidates for the election in November.
Thousands of supporters gathered in Milwaukee to cheer on Trump, who wore a bandage on his ear.
At the convention, Trump was confirmed as the Republican candidate for president, and he picked JD Vance as his candidate for vice-president.
Here’s a headline about Trump’s response to the shooting.
It’s from The Telegraph, based in the UK.
‘Trump 2.0’ ditches old rhetoric for new mission to unite America.
That headline again: ‘Trump 2.0’ ditches old rhetoric for new mission to unite America.
Now, this headline gives the opinion that Trump’s behaviour may change.
‘Rhetoric’ means speech or writing that is designed to change people’s minds.
It’s very common during political campaigns where politicians want to convince us to vote for them.
Now, this headline writer says that Trump has ditched this old way of speaking, and that means he has stopped using it.
Yes, but we are interested in the phrase, ‘Trump 2.0’.
What does it mean? Are there two Trumps now, Neil?
So this could be confusing.
What you heard in the headline was ‘two point oh’.
Actually it’s written as a number two dot zero, but we say ‘two point oh’, and we often say oh instead of zero, for example, in phone numbers.
So, 2.0 comes from technology doesn’t it?
So think about gadgets or computer programs – engineers usually describe the second version of a program or a product as ‘2.0’.
Now, here it’s an adjective we use to describe someone or something that has changed, usually for the better – ‘Trump 2.0’. Yes,
So it doesn’t mean that Trump has literally been reprogrammed, but the headline is saying that following this assassination attempt, he might be like a new version of himself.
Now remember that this is the opinion of the article writer.
Yes, now we can use ‘2.0’ informally to talk about a dramatic change in someone or something, so we can use it in a more lighthearted way as well.
We’ve had 2.0 – a new, improved version of something.
For example, Georgie is looking very tired today. She can go home and have a good night’s sleep and then come in tomorrow refreshed. It could be ‘Georgie 2.0’.
That’s it for this episode of Learning English from the News.
We’ll be back next week with another story.
If you want to learn more from the news, we have lots of programmes to help on our website, visit BBCLearningEnglish.com.
Don’t forget, we’re also on social media. Look for BBC Learning English.
Goodbye for now. Bye.