This is News Review from BBC learning English hello and welcome to news of you the
show where we show you how to use the language from the latest news stories in
your everyday English I'm Dan and joining me this morning is Tom hi Tom
hi dad good morning and hello to our audience wherever you are so what's the
story tom today's story Dan is about a very bad journey a very bad journey that
sounds intriguing ok so let's hear more from this BBC
Radio 4 news report British Airways flights from London to düsseldorf are
supposed to take just 1 hour and 20 minutes making it a trip to the city
easier and more attractive than ever according to its website but passengers
who boarded one early morning service took the scenic route when the pilot
mistakenly flew to Edinburgh so the story a plane left London it was going
to fly to düsseldorf and it was supposed to arrive in Germany 1 hour and 20
minutes later however the plane didn't arrive because they went to Scotland
instead the pilot landed in Edinburgh by mistake because he got lost that's quite
an interesting story Tom thank you very much for sharing ok so you've been
looking around it's three words and expressions that we can use to talk
about this story I have our three words today baffled blunder and stifle baffled
blunder and stifle okay can we have your first headline there of course we can my
first headline is from rt.com it says I blame brexit passengers
baffled as be a flight to Germany somehow ends up landing in Scotland
baffled completely confused it's a nice word Tom what can you tell us about it
it's an adjective the adjectives say for I am baffled
I am completely confused and it's an extreme adjective as well so we wouldn't
say very baffled the adverse would user completely baffled totally baffled
utterly baffled exactly yeah yeah perfect
okay you said it was Edie yes is that significant well we can also use it in
an ING for with adjectives as the adjectives it
gives us the feeling so if I am baffled I am completely confused if something is
baffling it makes me completely confused yeah I know something is quite baffling
something that so it certainly makes me feel baffled every time I hear about it
it's Neal's idea you heard about this you know the one English for cats yes
yeah it's yeah it's baffle it is a bit baffling I was real baffled when I hear
it yeah I mean like cats don't speak English for a start so hmm I could use
the verb form or do please and say it baffles me baffles yeah okay so we have
a verb - yeah if something battles you it confuses you or it extremely confuses
here makes you very confused like cryptic crosswords Tom cryptic
crosswords baffle me they make me so confused I've no idea how to do them and
of course we often use it in the phrase it baffles me plus a clause don't we yes
so I could say it baffles me how this pilot could go to Germany and land in
Scotland
well thank you very much for not baffling us on that explanation let's
have a look at the second headline the second headline for today is from the
Scottish Sun the sons of UK paper this is Scottish version and the word is
blunder it says plain blunder passengers baffled
there's that word again as flight destined for Dusseldorf Lanza Edinburgh
Airport due to paperwork blunder blunder careless mistake often serious and they
feel so strongly about it they've used it twice in the headline okay so what
kind of word is blunder blunder is a countable noun means a careless or
stupid perhaps mistake okay and what kind of verb will be used with it make
so we're talking about this pilot we could say he made a pretty significant
blunder yeah when he arrived in the wrong country with all his passengers
and if you make more than one you could make blunders because or you can make a
series of blunders okay so for example if I leave my keys in the house when I
lock the door and I leave and I load my wallet along the way and all sorts of
things happened to me due to my own carelessness I could say I've made a
series of blunders you could say you've made a series of blunders exactly or
gonna use a verb form again you blundered okay and is when I blundered
when I left the house I blundered when I got on the bus and forgot my wallet
that's perfectly human perfectly forgivable and the other form we can use
is the ing form as an adjective okay this is quite strong so don't say it to
your family or your bosses or anything wouldn't normally say it to friends in
an informal way someone who understands that you're joking with them it yes so I
could say Oh Dan you're such a blundering fool why did you do that it
happens all the time very very human
okay well thank you for not blundering through their explanation let's have a
little make any blunders no he didn't actually it was very good yes let's have
a look at the third headline the third and final headline for today is from RTL
today and our word is stifle it's a BBC presenter can't stifle the laughs stifle
restrain or prevent something from happening exactly so the topic of the of
the story is that when the BBC headliner was reporting on this admittedly very
funny story he was trying not to laugh I guess he was on the TV but it says can't
stifle he couldn't do it okay so he began to laugh although he was trying
not to who's trying to prevent his laughter stifle it much like children
who often stifle their laughter when they ain't told off and they don't
understand yeah you could stifle laughter then you could stifle giggles
as well if you're if you're a child and your parents shouting at you guaranteed
to make them more angry okay and can we use this in in in other ways it does
have an you can actually there is a more serious use of stifle which means to
prevent something from having air and it's in this more serious context you're
also likely to see it in headlines so for example if there's a government that
doesn't like criticism you could say the government is trying to stifle criticism
by silencing journalism I say or maybe if you have a very artistic child who
would like to become an artist or a photographer but actually the parents
they're its parents would prefer it to become a doctor or a mathematician
they might stifle its creative its stifle its creativity exactly yes very
nice well thank you for not stifling any information about Rome I bet so cab you
Larry
now Tom could you please recap the vocab of course I can
we have baffled completely confuse blunder a careless mistake often serious
and stifle restrain or prevent something from happening thank you very much now
if you'd like to test yourself on today's vocabulary there is a quiz that
you can take on our website don't get baffled don't get baffled thank you very
much you've baffled me now so where was I quiz you can take at our website BBC
learning english.com don't make any more blunders done thank you very much also
Tom there are also lots of other language videos for you to learn with
and lots of other materials available for you you can also find us on social
media that's Twitter Instagram Facebook and
YouTube you have another one I'm trying to pay for well stifle my laughter as
well Twitter Instagram Facebook and YouTube and of course there is an app
that you can use it's frees download and free to do use so you can take us with
you wherever you go apologies there for the Miss speech tom is making faces at
me but all the language has been exemplified again yes thank you very
much for joining us and good bye bye Ron please review from BBC learning
English
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