【語注】
climatologist 気象学者
pull ○ out 引き抜く、立ち直る、撤退する
heatwave 酷暑、熱波
knock it over ひっくり返す
physically 物理的に、肉体的に
Alpline 高山の、アルプスの
stack with〜 〜にくっついて、離れないように！
Thousands of records 数千の記録
warm spell 暖かい期間
smashing 素晴らしい、猛烈な、素敵な
BBC learning Englishでは今年初のnews review♡
今回もまとめてみました〜！
前回のワームのお話より、分かりやすいお話でした。
New year,it was the hottest day ever in Europe and new record high temperatures already. At least seven countries reported the warmest New Year’s Day on record. One village in Portland recorded nineteen degrees Celsius compared to its usual temperatures of around one. Now,I’d like to talk about a strange phenomenon and introduce three new words - topple,go downhill,shattered- in this topic.
1,”The most extreme heat wave ever seen in Europe “: warm January topples records.
Even though it’s in the middle of winter,temperatures are unusually high. There is a heat wave in Europe,which is a bit strange. Topples means fall,but the headline is used metaphorically as well to mean break- break a record. This headline is saying that January has toppled the record. So the temperatures have broken any previous records that there were. Next,imagine game where a stack of bricks,and you have to take one from the bottom and put it on the top,over and over again. But eventually the tower of the bricks gets unbalanced and topples over. So this temperature topples,which means gets unbalanced breaking a record and fall. But we also can use this metaphorically to talk about removing someone from power. For example,you can topple a leader,often it’s used in the passive voice. So we can say that someone has been toppled.
2,Ski holiday hopes go downhill as Alpine snow melts away.
If you have planned a skiing holiday,the snow is melting that is obviously very bad. It becomes worse as if something goes downhill. People’s real chances of going skiing are becoming less and less possible. There’s a double meaning which we often see. Obviously,when people go skiing,they actually go downhill. So the headline has used this expression to be a clever. Generally speaking,“go downhill “means that something is getting worse. For example,a business could go downhill,your health might go downhill as you get older.
3,Thousands of records shattered in historic winter warm spell in Europe.
Temperature records have been shattered. What is “shattered ”like? I think of glass breaking smashing everywhere. It breaks into lots of tiny pieces and it’s very dramatic. When we hear about a record being shattered again,we’re talking about something dramatic. For example,in Olympic Games,athletes often shatter records - they break them dramatically. “Topple”and “shatter”are basically the same,but shattered is always quite dramatic. And also we can use “shattered “to describe big emotions. For example,if you hear something really terrible,then you might say that you are shattered by the news. It means really upset. In addition to these meanings,it’s used a meaning which is extremely tired. For example,ww have just finished our Christmas and New Year holidays,lots of traveling,visiting people,late night and early mornings. I was shattered.
Topple,go downhill,shattered- In light of these words,temperatures broke a record,but the condition is unbalanced and getting worse like go skiing. And people get records dramatically by the news.
