hi everyone welcome to News Review I'm nail in my home studio of course we are
in lockdown because of the corona virus outbreak but with me well on the other
side of London is Catherine hi Catherine
what story have you got for us today well the race is on to find a treatment
for corona virus and scientists in the United States think they might be onto
something okay well let's find out some more about
that story from this BBC news report REM deseve is an antiviral that was
originally developed as a treatment for Ebola a full clinical trial of more than
a thousand people suggests it cuts corona virus symptoms from an average of
15 days down to eleven however the impact on deaths is still not certain
and the fine detail is lacking the data has not been published or reviewed by
independent scientists it means we cannot be convinced of the drugs
effectiveness or usefulness now scientists are saying that the amount of
time that people experience kovat 19 symptoms has been reduced from 15 days
to 11 by using this drug however this the results have not yet been
independently tested so it's a little bit early to start celebrating okay well
you have been looking around the various news websites you've picked out some
really fantastic vocabulary this week what have you got
we have clear-cut opening the door and show promise clear-cut opening the door
and show promise okay let's have your first headline please yes we'll start
with BBC news here in the UK and the headline is remedy severe drug has
clear-cut power to fight coronavirus clear-cut obvious easy to understand
that's right there are two words in this vocabulary item we've got
clear CLE AR and cut C UT put them together you have clear cut okay all I
know the word clear I'm not so sure about cut in this instance what is
cutting got to do with this well it's quite an idiomatic use of the word cut
so we'll start with clear now if something's clear it's very obvious you
can see it very easily and that's really the sense of this word it's obvious if
you cut something with a very sharp knife it's very straight there's no
ragged edges it's just really clean cut isn't it something that's cut with
something very sharp so this idea that it's obvious and clean there's no doubt
if something is clear cut there is no room for doubt there is no room for
argument something's very very obvious and you can't disagree with it okay you
often see this expression used in a sporting context for example you could
hear that it was a clear-cut penalty how did the referee miss it yes that's a
really good example of how to use clear coat when people might be about to argue
when you're anticipating people to throw doubt on something you can stop them you
can stop this argument before it happens by saying it's clear cut it means
anybody can see it you can't all you can't disagree now you
can use the word clear-cut in a positive or a negative sense so you can say that
this is a clear-cut case of a good treatment for a bottom four Cove in 1900
or you can say it's a clear-cut penalty meaning something bad happened so you
can use clear-cut for good things or bad things the key about clear-cut is
there's no possibility of arguing it's also used often in a negative sense
isn't it so we can hear that something is not clear-cut yes
you can say it's not clear-cut if you don't really know if something is
obvious or not obvious there's room for argument there's a possibility of debate
yeah then you could say it isn't clear-cut so I heard you're thinking of
becoming a vegetarian meal I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian yes I
I read a lot of the arguments in favor and there's quite a lot but also there's
some debate about how healthy it is so I have to say it's not clear-cut whether
it's the best thing for the human body yeah it's not clear-cut at all it's
fairly clear-cut for the animal was healthiest though that is indeed
clear-cut okay let's have a summary please
time now for your second headline please Catherine yes we're in the United States
now with MSNBC and the headline is Falchi REM disappear trial is opening
the door to possible coronavirus treatments opening the door making
something possible yes we have three words here opening ope n ing the th e
door opening the door okay well I know what opening a door is but I'm not
really clear about the connection to this story what's what's opening doors
got to do with this medical it's quite a zoo Matic but it's not a huge stretch of
the imagination to work out what we're talking about here if you leave one room
and you go through a door you're in another room you you're in a different
place you're in a new place and when you're in a new place new and different
things can happen so opening the door is an expression that talks about
possibilities things that might happen next
usually good opportunities in this case this drug trial is creating
possibilities for coronavirus treatments so if you open the door to something and
the preposition is to you're creating possibilities for good things usually
good things to happen okay so for example a lot of young people finishing
school will be wondering whether to go to university university can really open
the door to job opportunities yes absolutely yes going to you know any
further education opens the door to more possibilities in particular with
employment the career prospects okay let's have a summary of that please
if you are interested in hearing stories about vaccines and medical trials we
have the perfect one for you don't we Catherine we do it was actually mr.
Fucci again and this time he's talking about a possible vaccine for Ebola so
click the link to go to the story ok time now for your final headline yes
we're still at the United States this time with ABC News the headline is early
trial results for a desappear show promise show promise give an indication
of likely success yes another two-word phrase show SH o w promise PR om is e
show promise okay well I know what shown me the show means display promise though
promises of word people probably know in a slightly different context as a verb
yes Rob promised to pay back some of those biscuits he's he stole and we're
still waiting for them it music says he would do something in the future yeah
this is a slightly different meaning isn't it
this is a slightly different meaning but it is related to the future if you
promise to do something you say that you will do something in the future if
usually if something shows promise you can see from what is happening now that
the future for this thing will be good good things will happen in the future
so showing promises about what's happening now that indicates a good
result in the future so Neil I believe your daughter likes to play the piano
she's learning isn't she she is learning piano yes and she yeah how'd you get on
with it well she passed her grade one the other day which means that she's
showing promise yes so she's going to be good
she's starting now but she's done well in her exam you can see that one day
Neal she'll be on that stage selling records you can try helping meet her
helping me to retire yes so to show promise or she's very promising is
another way we can say it if somebody or something is promising you can see that
they're good good things happening now and even better things will happen in
the future yeah we also hear the expression is show potential yes the
synonym would be to show potential yes Oh to have potential okay let's have a
summary of that
time now then for a summary of the words we've looked at today please Katherine
yes we had clear-cut which means obvious easy to understand
we had opening the door meaning making something possible and show promise give
an indication of likely success I bet you want to test yourself on that
vocabulary and you can do on our website at BBC learning english.com
stay safe and join us next week goodbye