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  • Britain's Emma Raducanu wins the US Open.

  • Hello, I'm Rob. This is News Review from BBC Learning English

  • and joining me today is Catherine. Hello Catherine.

  • Hello Rob and hello everybody.

  • Now, don't forget we're going to be teaching you some vocabulary today

  • and you can test yourselves on the words by going to our website

  • bbclearningenglish.com where there's a quiz.

  • But first, let's hear a news report from the BBC about this story:

  • So, yesexciting news from the United States:

  • Britain's Emma Raducanu has beaten Leylah Fernandez

  • to win the US Open Tennis Championships.

  • She is only eighteen years old.

  • It's her first time at the US Open.

  • Yes. Well done Emma! Very exciting news.

  • And we've got three words and expressions

  • that you can use to talk about this story, haven't we?

  • We have. We have: 'captures imagination'.

  • We have 'fluke'. And we have 'fallen for'.

  • So, that's 'captures imagination', 'fluke' and 'fallen for'.

  • OK. We're going to find out where these words appear in news headlines.

  • And what is your first headline now please?

  • Well, we're starting at BBC Sport and the headline:

  • 'Captures imagination' – makes people interested and excited.

  • 'Captures imagination' is a two-word expression here.

  • The first word: 'captures' – C-A-P-T-U-R-E-S.

  • And the second word: 'imagination' – I-M-A-G-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

  • Now, the headlines have actually missed out the word in the middle,

  • which is either 'the' or it can be a pronoun

  • like 'my', 'your', 'his', 'her', 'their'.

  • So, in everyday English,

  • something 'captures the imagination' of somethingsomeone.

  • Or something 'captures my imagination' or 'your imagination' –

  • his/her... 'his' or 'her' or 'their imagination'.

  • So, if something 'catches your imagination',

  • you suddenly get really interested in it.

  • You want to know more about it. You get very excited about it.

  • So, Emma Raducanu has come from...

  • it seems like she's come from nowhere

  • she's actually been working a long time for this,

  • but suddenly here she is. She's an amazing winner.

  • Everybody wants to know more. Everybody's interested in her story.

  • So, she has 'captured the imagination' of many, many people.

  • They're interested!

  • Yes. Everyone's very excited, including me.

  • Got... that's really got me into tennis, I suppose.

  • We're using the word 'capture' here, which is like 'catching'.

  • So, are we actually 'catching' something?

  • Yes, 'capture' – if you 'capture' something,

  • you kind of trap it so it can't get away.

  • You think about, you know, escaped criminals;

  • the police will try to 'capture' them.

  • They will catch them, so they can't escape.

  • So, it's not that you can't escape literally,

  • but it's that idea ofyou really...

  • you don't want to escape; you want to know more.

  • You're interested, you're engaged, you're excited.

  • And has anything captured your imagination recently, Catherine?

  • Well, as it happens, yes.

  • I've seen an advertisement for this dinner experience.

  • You go to have dinner, but there's all these people

  • from Charles Dickens novels all around the place

  • I don't know if that's serving you food or chatting to you,

  • but it's this immersive theatre experience

  • and it sounds really interesting

  • and it's 'captured my imagination', so I'm going to go.

  • Excellent. Well, let's have a summary of that phrase:

  • So, we are talking about tennis today

  • and we've talked about tennis before here on News Review.

  • Earlier this year, Wimbledon started again

  • after being locked down because of coronavirus

  • and so we talked about Wimbledon starting up again.

  • So, how can we watch that video again, Catherine?

  • It's easy. You just click the link.

  • Just click the link down below. Excellent.

  • OK. Let's have a look at your next headline.

  • Yes, we're at the Guardian now, still in the UKthe headline:

  • 'Fluke' – something that happens by luck or chance and not skill.

  • Yes, it's a single word this time: F-L-U-K-E – 'fluke'.

  • A 'fluke' is a noun. It can also be an adjective

  • and there is a separate adjective that I'll tell you about later,

  • but 'fluke' – noun or adjective and sometimes even a verb.

  • It's a short, nice-sounding word, isn't it?

  • It is.

  • Which... which gets used occasionallyfor example,

  • I've got a local football team I support.

  • I won't name them, but they're not very good to be honest,

  • but last weekend by 'fluke'

  • they won a gamethe first one this season.

  • They scored a couple of amazing goals

  • and we could say it was 'flukey'. There's that adjective.

  • So, they won 'by fluke', which is an interesting way to to use the word

  • 'by fluke' – as an adverb there.

  • And what happened exactly Rob then?

  • What was this 'fluke' – this amazing, kind of, weird thing that happened?

  • Well, basically, the other player tripped over

  • at that moment, there was a gap to score a goal

  • and so the striker, you know, hit the ball in.

  • Complete 'fluke'! Lucky – I suppose you could say.

  • OK. So, something that happens, which isn't expected; it's really unusual.

  • Everybody's surprised: you don't expect it to happen

  • and it probably won't happen again.

  • It's a 'fluke'. It's almost like a kind of miracle that you...

  • just came from nowhere and surprised everybody.

  • What the headline is actually saying is that

  •   Emma Raducanu's win was not a 'fluke'.

  • It's saying that she's... I think the story says she trained a long time.

  • This was all, kind of, planned and predicted.

  • It just looked like a 'fluke', because people weren't expecting it.

  • But a 'fluke' is something that happens unexpectedly, by surprise.

  • It's really unusual and it probably won't happen again.

  • And I mentioned, a bit ago, about the adjective version of 'flukey'.

  • We can say things are 'flukey'.

  • Yes, put a 'y' on the end of 'fluke'

  • and you've got the lovely adjective 'flukey'.

  • Excellent. OK. Well, let's have a look at a summary of that word:

  • On News Review, we talked about something

  • that may have been a 'fluke' earlier this year.

  • That was heavy snowfall in Spain back in January.

  • Was that unexpected? Was it 'flukey'?

  • Well, we talked about it, as I say, on News Review

  • and how can we watch that video again, Catherine?

  • You can find it by clicking the linkthat's not going to be a 'fluke'!

  • You click the linkthat programme will be there.

  • Definitely be there! Good stuff.

  • OK. Let's have a look at our next headline please.

  • Yes. And this time the Metro, here in the UK:

  • That's 'fallen for' – suddenly started loving someone.

  • Yes, we have a phrasal verb. 'Fallen' – F-A-L-L-E-N.

  • And the second word is 'for' – F-O-R.

  • And if you've 'fallen for' someone, you've fallen in love with them.

  • It's a very, very similar expression to 'fall in love'.

  • If you fall in love with someone, you can say you've 'fallen for them'.

  • Now, when you fall in love with somebody,

  • often you want to date them. You want to marry them.

  • You can talk about when you 'fell for' your wife or husband.

  • We're not saying everybody wants to marry Emma Raducanu,

  • but what we are saying is New York, herethe people of New York

  • have suddenly thought: 'She's great! She's amazing! We love her!

  • We want to know more about her!'

  • All of a sudden, they're all talking about her

  • and they think she is amazing.

  • So, they've 'fallen for her' means they think she's great: they love her.

  • Does it mean people are falling over then? Are they actually falling?

  • They're not actually dropping to the ground.

  • So, it is not that kind of 'fall'.

  • It's much more to do with the feelings.

  • So, the word 'fall' is used metaphorically.

  • And I've heard the phrase 'to fall for a joke', for example.

  • Does that mean people are falling in love with jokes?

  • Now, don't... not to be confused withyeah.

  • If you 'fall for someone' you fall in love with them.

  • If you 'fall for something', we can often say that that's

  • actually to do with a joke or a trick that you were fooled by.

  • So, for example Rob, if someone rings up from... and says:

  • 'I'm from your bank. There's a problem with your account. Please log in.'

  • And you log in and give them lots of money and later you think:

  • 'Oh no! That was a scam and I fell for it.'

  • It means you were tricked by it,

  • or you can 'fall for a joke' – means that

  • somebody plays a prank on you and you... you get tricked.

  • OK. No romance involved there. OK.

  • No. Not at all.

  • Excellent. OK. Thanks for that.

  • Let's have a summary of that expression:

  • OK. We're almost out of time but, Catherine,

  • could you recap the vocabulary that we've discussed today please?

  • Of course. We had:

  • 'captures imagination' – makes people interested and excited.

  • We had 'fluke', which means something that happens by luck or chance

  • and not skill.

  • And we had 'fallen for' – suddenly started loving someone.

  • Don't forgetyou can test yourself

  • on your understanding of today's vocabulary

  • by going to a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

  • And don't forget, of coursewe're all over social media.

  • Well, thanks for joining us today and we will see you again next time.

  • Bye for now. Bye.

Britain's Emma Raducanu wins the US Open.

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