humanitarian 人道的な
civilians 民間人
so far 今のところ、今まで、ある限度
cease fire 休戦、停戦
blindside 無防備なところを襲う
exodus 脱出
conflagration 大火災
break out 突発する
Fighting broke out on the 15th of April because of disagreements between the country’s military leadership. So it occurred humanitarian crisis in Sudan as thousands try to leave. According to UN, about fire hundred civilians have been killed so far in the capital, Khartoum, and a 72-hour ceasefire was agreed from Monday.
1,”The worst of worst case scenarios”: western diplomats blindsided over Sudan crisis.
In this headline, diplomats have been blindsided by this crisis, which means that it was a big surprise. But we’re looking at a word “worst-case scenarios”. It describes a situation, or scenario, which is the worst possibility, the worst case in that situation. So, of all the bad outcomes that could have happened, this was the worst. And also we can use this in our everyday English. It’s often used when we talk about future possible outcomes and this is the worst of those options. For example, imagine that your car breaks down. The worst possible scenario is that you have to buy a new car. And we can use the opposite meaning, “best-case scenario”. In this situation, “the best-case scenario” is you just need a minor fix for your car.
2,UN warns of ‘catastrophic conflagration’ is Sudan as foreign exodus accelerates
There are lots of interesting words in this headline. ‘Conflagration’ is a violent event, and ‘exodus’ is when lots of people try to leave somewhere. But we are looking at the verb ‘accelerate’ and it might be useful to think about cars again. So we use ‘accelerate’ for a car when it speeds up- you press accelerator. In this headline, it says that “a foreign exodus accelerates’, which means hat lots of people are leaving more quickly than before. And you used the phrase verb ‘speed up’ there, which also means ‘accelerate’. We can use ‘accelerate’ in lots of different situations. For example, runners in a race accelerate when they see the finish line. And disease can accelerate. In 2020, Covid infection rates accelerated around globe.
3,Ceasefire under way in Sudan as UK government warned ‘not to miss window’ for evacuations
This headline describes the UK government warning people to evacuate Sudan. That means get out quickly, and not miss the window. Now, when we say ‘window’, we probably think of that space in a wall, usually covered by glass. But we’re talking about a window of opportunity. This is a metaphorical space for an opportunity, or a limited time when there’s a chance to do something. So window is used in the headline to mean that people have a small, or limited amount of time to leave Khartoum, or Sudan, altogether. And we can also use ‘window’ like this when organizing time. For example, in business, you need an urgent meeting but it has to happen today. So there’s only a small window of time or opportunity. And also you are applying for a job and you need t do it quickly before the window closes ad its too late to apply.
