hi everybody this is neil from bbc learning english
it's news review and i'm joined by georgina hi georgina
hi neil hi everybody so today we're looking at
the story behind the headlines all about noah lyles and how he attempted to beat
a 200 meter world record it's a great story and
you can test yourself on the vocabulary on our website at bbclearningenglish.com
now let's hear some more about that story from this bbc radio one newsbeat
report a pretty spectacular mistake last night
left athletics commentator steve cram almost lost for words he is loud he's
about to finish that cannot be right i cannot be right
yeah this is the kind of stuff you can't make up us sprinting noah lyles was
racing against two other athletes over 200 meters
all in different locations using a special timing system
and he is very fast but he's not that fast he crossed the line in a time that
would have smashed usain bolt's world record only to find
out he started the wrong start line around
185 meters make of that what you will so he was 15
meters short it means he technically didn't complete the race he was moved
into third place so he didn't bag the 8 000 prize either
not his best day out yes so athletics commentator steve cram
was almost speechless when he thought that
noah lyles had managed to beat usain bolt's
200 meter world record in fact he hadn't because unfortunately
he had started the race at the wrong start line so was in fact 15 meters
short of the full 200 meters okay well that explains why he was so
fast you've been having a look at this story and picking
out the vocabulary people need to talk about it what have you got
i've got blunder transpires and mix-up blunder
transpires and mix-up let's start with your first headline with that word
blunder please so the headline is from sky news it is
noah lyles sprinter beats usain bolt's 200 meter world record before blunder
is uncovered blunder careless or serious mistake yeah and that's spelt
b-l-u-n-d-e-r and it is a noun and in this headline obviously
the serious mistake was that noah lyles started the race at
the wrong point and we should stress this was not
he had no idea that this had actually happened so it was uh
yeah it was it had serious consequences and made it impossible for him for to
complete the 200 meter race this word is um very popular in
headlines isn't it when we're speaking normally we're more
likely to use the word mistake aren't we yeah exactly i think it's a great word
for news headlines because it has such a distinct
meaning and everyone knows that it basically means a serious mistake that
has consequences it's also a verb isn't it
it is a verb yes so and often when it's used as a verb it's used with around
so to blunder around and it means uh when someone's very clumsy
so for example um oh my gosh have you made any
blunders lately neil i certainly have okay
tell us about your blunder georgina so i don't embarrass myself
yeah well this is very embarrassing and i have to be honest i think this may
have happened a few times but very recently a friend's boyfriend
told me about a surprise party that he was giving her but i didn't
really hear the surprise bit so when i saw my friend i was like oh
i'll see you on saturday at your birthday party
and it was a surprise and she didn't know anything about it so i made
a yeah it was a big blunder that i made and as you said then you made a blunder
so when when we use it as a noun blunder and we want to
make it into a verb we say make a blunder
yeah so that's the verb we use with it to make a blunder
great let's have a summary
time now for our second headline please georgina
the second headline is from cnn and it is
noah lyles breaks 200 meter world record but then it transpires he only ran 180
meters transpires becomes apparent yeah and it's about t-r-a-n-s-p-i-r-e
and it is a verb now this is used when something uh becomes clear but later on
so it's when something wasn't known but then it becomes common knowledge
and in this case uh noah lyle uh it became clear that he hadn't started
the race at the correct point which is why he unfortunately
couldn't break the world record or in fact
complete the 200 meter race and it is quite formal when it's used so
that's something to be aware of the last time i heard we used it
uh neil can you remember well there was a very obvious example
pretty much the last day we were in the office before lockdown
uh you brought in a lovely tin of biscuits didn't you
yeah they were delicious i actually don't know if they were delicious
because i didn't get any but yes that's the
problem nobody knows uh that they were delicious apart from
one person uh nobody thought that he'd been in but
it did actually transpire that rob had come into the building and uh well
you know helped himself yeah he was spotted
leaving the building with a you know uh crumbs of biscuits behind him
yeah he he said he enjoyed them later yeah so
we didn't know who did it in the end i'm sure i'm sure he did look happy
let's have a summary if you like stories about sport we've
got a great one for you haven't we georgina we do so it's a news
review episode we did a while ago and it's all about
how uh training for the premier league was starting again
so take a look at it just click on the link below
okay time now for our next headline so the next headline is from the daily
mail it's quite long so bear with me and it is american noah lyles smashes
usain bolt's 200 meter record before being told he had only 185
meters in a mix-up over using the right starting line with commentator steve
cram left laughing in disbelief
mix up mistake that creates confusion yes so it's about mix hyphen up
and it's made up of two words in this case it has a hyphen between the two
words because it is a noun so it's uh
for example it's a mix-up it's when something confusing happens
and you know uh does this ever happen to you
well you were telling me uh that you are very kind of
precise with certain things for example your
uh your spices when you're cooking you have them in a
distinct order is it alphabetical order yeah they have to be in alphabetical
order and so basically when i'm cooking i just reach
up grab the right spice because i know exactly where they are
and put it into the recipe i'm cooking so if that order is mixed up
then what happens it becomes confusing very very confusing because suddenly i'm
about to pour the wrong spice into into a dish or a you know meal i'm
making that would make it taste very very
i wouldn't like to say disgusting but definitely
interesting so it would be very and it has happened before actually it can be
very confusing yeah okay this can be used as a verb as
well yes it can so um yeah and when it's used
as a verb it's not used with a hyphen so for example uh my friend
came around to cook and she mixed up all my spices
a terrible a terrible thing to happen to you georgina
you must have felt very mixed up
okay let's have a summary
time now for a recap of the vocabulary please georgina
so the first word we looked at was blunder
careless or serious mistake the second one was transpires becomes
apparent and the third one was mix up and it is mistake that creates confusion
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