Name: Driverless car trial - BBC News Review
Uploaded: 2022-01-15T16:45:07.000Z
Duration: 10 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Driverless cars: would you travel in one?

Well, there's a trial taking place in the UK

to see if they can be used on public roads.

Hello, I'm Rob and this is News Review from BBC Learning English

and to talk about the story, I'm joined by Neil. Hello Neil.

Yes, if you'd like to test yourself on the vocabulary

that you hear in this programme, there's a quiz on our website

But now, let's hear some more about the story from this BBC News report:

So, driverless cars: it's a technology that is coming

and they make people feel a little bit nervous,

but there is a trial going on in the UK at the moment,

before they can start being used properly.

Yes, and we've got three words and expressions

that we can use to talk about this news story.

We have: 'kick off', 'large-scale' and 'hit'.

That's 'kick off', 'large-scale' and 'hit'.

OK. Well, let's have a look at your first news headline

to learn about one of those words. What is it please?

OK. So, looking in the Times newspaper —

that's from the UK — we have the headline:

That's right. 'Kick off' is a phrasal verb,

And we hear this expression used in football, don't we?

Yeah. So, at the beginning of a football match

Or the players 'kick off' as a verb and it means just start the game.

Obviously, in football you 'kick' the ball

and so 'kick off' means start the football match.

So, are we talking about football in this story here?

So, 'kick off' originates from football but it can be used

Although, actually in this story there is a connection to football

from the team MK Dons — transporting them around —

so the headline writer has had a bit of fun there;

he's using 'kick off' to mean start something in general,

but there is a connection to its original meaning about football.

And it's quite an informal expression, this one, as well, isn't it?

That's right, yes. You wouldn't see in...

you know, sort of, official documentation

but we use it all the time and it's OK to use in headlines, obviously.

Yeah. OK. So, we 'kick something off' or we 'kick off something':

that's the kind of way we use it generally, yeah?

so that means you could put something in the beginning:

we can 'kick off the project' or 'kick the project off'.

OK. Great. Let's have a summary then of that phrase:

but we use the word 'kick' in another English expression,

and we talked about this expression in one of our videos:

How can we watch that video again please, Neil?

Yes, don't 'kick it into the long grass';

watch this video by clicking on the link below.

Yeah, it's just down below there. Great. OK.

Let's have a look at your next headline please.

OK. The next headline comes from BBC News and it is:

That's 'large-scale' — involving many people or things.

Yeah. So, 'large-scale' — here an adjective made up of two parts.

And 'scale' — and 'scale' refers to the size of something

and it isn't necessarily something big or small.

'Scale' in itself is neutral; it needs something to modify it,

'Large-scale'. OK. But, when I use maps, I see a 'scale' on there.

Is that a similar thing? Is that related?

Yeah, that's right. So, when you look at the...

look at a map, you'll see there is a 'scale'

and it tells you what the relationship is

between the size of the map and the size of the real thing

So, 'large-scale' is about lots of things and people or about a large area.

So, sometimes we might see 'large-scale' flooding

Yeah, that's right, Rob. So, as you said,

in this example it's a 'large-scale' project

but 'large-scale' can also be used to describe a geographical area

So, as you said, 'large-scale' destruction

or devastation caused by a natural disaster.

And we also know that the recent Covid pandemic —

that's had a 'large-scale' impact on the economy, on businesses.

The Covid-19 has had a really 'large-scale' impact:

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Driverless car trial - BBC News Review

pandemic

properly

recap

expression