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  • hello and welcome to News Review from our home studios we are locked down like

  • many millions of other people because of the corona virus but we are still here

  • to bring you headlines and vocabulary you can learn from them hi Catherine

  • hello Neil and hello everybody yes today we have a story about onions

  • Neil how much would you pay for an onion oh well not much more than about 30 P

  • that's about 50 US cents I guess well here's a story about somebody who paid

  • 20 pounds for one onion 20 pounds for an onion well let's find out some more

  • about that story from this BBC news report BBC news beat it's one of the

  • most important lessons in life don't leave your unlocked phone lying

  • around Joni Mitchell wasn't listening though his one-year-old was straight on

  • there not with a joke Facebook status or a million selfies Alice chose delivery

  • and spent 20 quid on an onion 1 year-old daughter a single onion plus she got it

  • delivered and it cost 20 pounds incredible well I certainly hope they

  • enjoyed that onion well you've been looking at this story and you've picked

  • out words and expressions we can use water we found yes today we have eye

  • watering and I watering racks are and the Mews okay let's hear your first

  • headline with that word eye watering please and we're here in the UK with the

  • Sun first the headline that's sure lot toddler playing with her dad's phone

  • spends an eye-watering 20 pounds on a single onion eye watering

  • describes an amount much larger than expected yes so a two-word phrase here

  • joined with a - the first word is ie ye then - and then watering W a TR ing so I

  • watering near what kind of things make your eyes water

  • well painful things unpleasant things yes nasty experiences things that make

  • you sad yes things that make you cry yeah things that make you cry so we use

  • this figuratively to say an amount of money in this case that is really

  • shocking outrageous much more than you're expecting and can make you

  • literally go oh my god I don't believe it and almost start to cry with pain or

  • fear or distress that's I watering now 20 pounds on a single onion is a lot of

  • money and here it's described as an eye-watering 20 pounds so the way we use

  • this expression eye watering is we have an eye watering and then the amount of

  • money that you spend on something and it's to say it's an outrageous shocking

  • amount of money that you really don't want to spend this headline though

  • Katherine is a perfect example of a double meaning upon a play on words as

  • we call it can you explain what it is well yes I can yes no new what happens

  • when you chop onions I cry my eyes water yeah it's a very common reaction to

  • onions it makes you cry so I watering the year means shocked at the amount of

  • money but they're using it in an onion story because it's a really cool

  • wordplay a very good example of headline word wordplay it's not just about money

  • though is it it's to do with large amounts yes

  • any amount which is more than normal more than expected and

  • is a bit shocking and painful in a way so you might say I had to work for an

  • eye-watering 24 hours without a break I did yeah I was trying to get that

  • English the cat's video done on time and I used it without a number there but it

  • was still quite shocking what an idea okay let's have a summary of that way

  • time now for our second headline and we're off to the BBC here in the UK now

  • the headline is toddler rocks up I water in 20 pound delivery onions Bell racks

  • up gathers a large amount of something yes now this one's a phrasal verb there

  • are two parts in this verb rocks are a or AC K s and the second word up it's a

  • separable phrasal verb so you can rack something up or you can rack up

  • something okay obviously this is connected to the word rack what is a

  • rack a rack is a kind of shelf with a lot of compartments a set of shelves

  • with a look with a set of compartments so you can really put more and more

  • things into these different spaces on your rack you may have a have you got a

  • wine rack Neal I don't have a wine rack but I have wine if you have a lot of

  • wine a lot of bottles of wine you might have a wine rack which is a place that

  • you can keep the bottles in separate compartments and it keeps them organized

  • and tidy so and you will add to that wine rack as you build up your wine

  • collection you will add more and more bottles and that's the idea of rack up

  • you accumulate you get more and more of something gradually awesome usually

  • gradually it can be quickly I mean but it's it's it's

  • incremental II piece by piece amount by amount so if you rack up a big

  • build in this case you spend some money you spend some more money you spend some

  • more money and suddenly you spend a lot of money you can rack up a big bill you

  • can rack up the surprising bill you can rack up a 20-pound bill in this case

  • there wasn't a lot on the it seems like it was one onion plus delivery so it

  • wasn't a lot of accumulation but the idea is that she's created this larger

  • than expected bill yeah and you can give the sense also that something is getting

  • too expensive for example you could say the cost of my house improvements are

  • really racking up yeah you're spending more and more money yes good example the

  • idea of Rucka Rucka it's usually not a positive idea the idea is you're

  • spending more than expected or too much money okay yes Rocka

  • isn't always used just for money it's for anything that you can accumulate we

  • often use it in sport to talk about your scores are you a cricket fan at all oh I

  • love cricket cricket for people who don't know is a very popular game in

  • England Australia New Zealand India the subcontinent Pakistan places less and

  • there's quite a high scoring game is that you can score hundreds of points in

  • cricket you score hundreds of runs hopefully and so are you good can you

  • rack up a good school when you're on the field in cricket Neil yeah so I get my

  • eight-year-old son to Bowl at me in my garden and I really rack up the runs I

  • knocked the ball four and six over and over again yeah I don't be funny but I

  • think I could rack up a good score against you it's not particularly fair

  • but it's very satisfying shall we have a summary of that

  • if you would like to see another story about food we have a good one here about

  • eating red meat and whether or not that is a good thing to do yes my home dear

  • Catherine well it's here if you click the link we

  • answer the question is eating meat really bad for you

  • ok on to your final headline so we're off now to Australia for 10 daily and

  • the headline is a dad's hilarious tweet about his daughter ordering onions on

  • delivery has gone viral his biggest reaction leaving thousands

  • delighted bemused meaning a little confused yes bemused be us amused it

  • sounds a little bit like amused is there a connection well it's related I think

  • you've got if you are amused a.m. you SED something's funny something's

  • entertaining something makes you happy it's enjoyable so something that's

  • amusing is makes you happy and delighted if something is been using if

  • something's been using it is kind of funny and enjoyable but it's also

  • confusing so a lot of things that little kids do it is bemusing it makes you feel

  • bad news so yes you're amused but it's because of some confusion or

  • bewilderment or what just happened there yeah you often see you often see

  • tourists looking a bit bemused you do yes if you've ever seen a tourist in

  • your hometown somebody from overseas looking at the food or look at things

  • out or try to work out a ticket machine they're kind of enjoying their visit to

  • your country often but they're kind of confused by things they don't know how

  • everything works so they've got that like weird look on their faces do your

  • boom used look for is new that's quite a big used look

  • imagine you're a tourist and you don't know what's going on kinda thing I've

  • had that experience many many times me too yes the experience of everybody else

  • laughing at you doing your bemused face I do hope so what are the joys of

  • traveling I hope it doesn't provoke the musem n't bemusement is a very nice noun

  • yes you can have a feeling of bemusement you can have a look of the newsmen t'

  • remember you must be mused new well a few weeks ago now when we were in the

  • office I came in and there was this huge jar of biscuit uneaten right there right

  • next to Rob yeah and it was full he wasn't he wasn't eating them I mean

  • normally his face would be sort of pushed into the jar munching away

  • swallowing and munching and all these kind of eating noises but he wasn't

  • interested and it was extremely the music incredible I'm Jay my bemused face

  • right now I can't believe my ears Rob not eaten all those biscuits was he

  • ill that day he must have been he must have been ill I'm not surprised you were

  • bemused okay let's have a summary of that word

  • time now for a recap of our vocabulary please yes we had eye watering describes

  • an amount much larger than expected racks up gathers a large amount of

  • something the news little confused if you'd like to test yourself on this

  • vocab there's a quiz you can take on our website BBC learning english.com stay

  • safe and see you soon bye

hello and welcome to News Review from our home studios we are locked down like

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