Name: Earthquakes hit Afghanistan: BBC Learning English from the News
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T17:01:31.000Z
Duration: 8 min 2 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...

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines in this programme.

In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com so let's hear more about the story.

A major aftershock has hit eastern Afghanistan just days after an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale hit the region.

More than 1,400 people have been killed and 3,000 more injured, according to the Taliban government.

The region is difficult to access because it's mountainous and rescuers have been searching for people trapped under mud and stone homes in the area.

Rescue efforts have also been complicated because landslides have blocked roads.

Let's have our first headline, this one from SBS Australia.

Second Afghan Quake brings more Trauma to the Shattered Region.

And that headline again from SBS Australia, second Afghan Quake brings more Trauma to the shattered region.

This headline says this second quake has brought more trauma to Afghanistan.

Trauma is an experience that's very distressing and devastating.

The headline describes the region as shattered now, literally shattered.

If a mirror shatters, it breaks into lots of small, sharp pieces.

It's dangerous and difficult to deal with.

If a country is shattered, it's destroyed, badly damaged, either physically or or emotionally, and

And you might know another common meaning of shattered.

You can say that you're shattered after a long day.

It means you're really tired or exhausted.

Other words we commonly see in stories like this are broken or fractured.

Yes, you might see these words used to describe the impact of a natural disaster like an earthquake or maybe a political crisis.

For example, the country was shattered after 10 years of civil war.

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

Today we're talking about the earthquakes that have hit Afghanistan.

The Taliban government and Health ministry in Kabul are calling for international aid.

Some affected villages are especially difficult to access and there are concerns that local health facilities don't have enough resources to help with the number of people injured.

The UN has released emergency funds and several nations, including the uk, have promised to send aid.

Our next headline is about the aid being sent to Afghanistan.

Aid effort Underway after Afghanistan Quake Wipes out Villages that headline again from UN News.

Aid effort underway after Afghanistan quake Wipes out villages now wiped out means completely destroyed.

But we're interested in this word underway, which contains two familiar words, under and way.

But when we put them together in a new word, underway, it has a quite specific meaning, which is a little bit different.

Well, if something is underway, it has started to happen, and it's happening now.

So the headline means the effort to supply aid to Afghanistan is happening now.

And we can use underway with the verb be, but also with get.

So an alternative headline would be aid effort gets underway.

And underway is usually used for situations considered to be official or important.

Can you give us some other examples, Beth?

So a building project could get underway.

Or someone's recovery after a hospital operation could be underway.

We've had underway describe something that has started.

For example, changes to the school's management are underway.

Now, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

Today we're talking about the earthquakes in Afghanistan.

The disasters come as Afghanistan goes through a severe drought.

And before the earthquakes, most foreign aid had been stopped from entering the country.

There are also international sanctions on Afghanistan, which started when the Taliban were first in power in the 1990s.

These sanctions affect the economy of the country.

The World Food Programme has also said there's a severe hunger crisis in Afghanistan.

So this next headline is all about these problems.

Earthquake adds to perfect storm of problems hitting Afghanistan, says UN and that headline again from Sky News.

Earthquake adds to perfect storm of problems hitting Afghanistan says UN so this headline says the earthquake adds to a perfect storm of problems.

So let's look at this express perfect storm.

Now, the word perfect is usually used when we talk about positive things, and

the word storm is usually used to describe negative things.

So, Beth, what's going on in this expression?

Okay, well, a perfect storm is a fixed phrase.

And even though the word perfect is in it, it usually refers to a very bad situation where many bad things happen at the same time.

So it comes from the idea that all the conditions need to be right for this metaphor.

Metaphorical storm, a bad thing to happen.

Afghanistan has a drought, not much aid, a hunger crisis, and now earthquakes.

It's definitely a lot of bad things happening at once.

Neil, can you give us another example of how to use perfect storm?

So if there's less water, then fewer crops can grow and that means there's not enough water and not enough food.

this sounds confusing, but a perfect storm is very occasionally used to describe a positive situation, isn't it?

So a positive perfect storm would be lots of positive things that lead to a lucky or very good result.

So, for example, a company might say the digital revolution has created the perfect storm for new technology to be invented.

We've had a perfect storm, a situation, usually negative, that happens because of a combination of circumstances.

For example, the Minister for Agriculture blamed high food prices on a perfect storm of population growth and bad weather.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another news story.

If you want to practice what you've learnt, go to our website to see more example sentences and to try our free worksheet.

And don't forget to follow us on social Media.