Show 1144 Thursday 21 January
Hi I'm Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
As you know, of course, last week there was a massive earthquake in Haiti.
And since then, countries and organizations and people have been doing what they can to help.
So, today I thought today we’d study a video from one of those organizations, The Red Cross.
This video was made five hours after the earthquake and it’s an update about what they know and the steps that have already taken and the steps that they’re likely to take.
What we’ve heard so far is damage to major infrastructure.
Infrastructure is: The basic physical and organizational structures (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.
And as she does on to say, that’s an important point because the more damage there is to roads and airports, the more difficult it is to get people and supplies in there to help those affected.
The language and presentation style for this kind of video is interesting. Because she’s talking about such a serious topic – a really tragic event, her tone needs to reflect that – and I think her delivery was really good.
And the language is very plain, very serious. You won’t find many of the things which make language more colourful or interesting, like metaphors, idioms, phrasal verbs, slang.
Right now we’re getting conflicting reports on the use of the airport.
It’s very likely though, because of the location, that it has been damaged.
And she uses the euphemism loss of life when talking about death.
There’s going to be significant loss of life.
That’s a less direct way of saying: a lot of people have probably already died and will die.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora, in Stick News today, a man who was trapped in the wreckage of his hotel after the Haiti earthquake, survived thanks to his iPhone.
Dan Woolley is from Colorado in the United States.
He was making a movie about the impact of poverty on the people of Haiti
and had just returned to his hotel from a day of filming when the earthquake struck.
According to news reports, thanks to the iPhone first-aid app he’d downloaded, Dan knew how to treat his broken leg and head wound.
The app also warned him not to fall asleep if he was going into shock, so he set his phone’s alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes.
Dan was rescued 65 hours after the earthquake.
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 21st of January.
Kia ora.
Word of the Day
Today's word is hinder.
In today’s video the woman says that because the roads are damaged it will: hinder the movement of supplies.
hinder verb to make it difficult for sb to do sth or sth to happen
And ne of the examples in here is: Some teachers felt hindered by a lack of resources.
conversations with sarah
#724 It’s a really poor country
Step 1: Read Bob’s lines.
Step 2: Repeat Bob's lines and talk to Sarah.
Bob Have you ever been to Haiti?
Sarah No. How about you?
Bob No, I’d never even heard of it.
Sarah Yeah, when we were in Canada the prime minister visited the country and that’s the first time that I’d heard of it.
Bob It’s a really poor country, isn’t it?
Sarah Yeah, apparently there’s a massive slum there.
Bob How big?
Sarah About two or three hundred thousand people … almost as big as New Zealand’s capital city.
Bob Wow. And now their lives will be even more difficult.
Sarah Yeah, it’s really sad.
links
music
show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
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artist: kitaygorod
album: Phoenix
track: Om
from: Moscow, Russia
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