studio on the other side of London is Catherine hi Catherine hello Neil and

hello everyone yes today's story is about Cove in 1900 million people around

the world have now sadly died with coronavirus now don't forget if you want

to test yourself on any of the vocabulary that you learned today

there's a quiz on our website at BBC learning english.com okay let's find out

some more about their story from this BBC World Service news bulletin more

than half a million people worldwide have now lost their lives as a result of

the corona virus pandemic by far the worst affected country is the United

States with more than a hundred and twenty-five thousand deaths yes that's

right now over a half a million people around the world have died from

coronavirus with the USA topping the tables with a hundred and twenty five

thousand deaths in that country alone okay well you've been looking at the

media and checking out what language is being used around this story what have

you got for us yes today we have death toll milestones and grim death toll

milestones and grim so your first headline please Katherine yes of course

now we're starting today right here in the UK with the BBC the headline is

coronavirus covered 19 death toll hits 500,000 worldwide death toll number of

people who have died because of a particular event yes there are two parts

to this word in fact there are two words the first word is death de ATH

and the second word is tallit tol l or are some people like to pronounce it tol

so you can say tall or tall I'm prefer torille near what do you like to say I

think I say tall death toll yes a lot of people prefer taller but you will hear

taller as now death is a noun form of the verb to

die to die to lose your life the opposite of live is die the opposite of

life is death the word Torah tio double l has a meaning attached to payment or

cost or price now Neal you know what a taller Road is don't you yeah a toll

road or a toll bridge is one that you have to pay to use pay with money actual

money in this sense we're talking about a different kind of cost don't we yes so

a toll road a toll bridge a toll gate is something that you pay money to use so

it's this idea of payment or cost now this disease covered 19 has taken at all

is taken a payment if you like and the payment has been in human lives so we

use the the adjective sorry the noun death death toll to say that this

disease has taken a payment in form of life now this is an extremely common

expression is that you will see it and hear it in news reports connected to any

kind of event which causes death yes it's not just to do with illness it can

to do it is about accidents disasters things like volcanoes earthquakes

landscape landslides where a large number of people are killed we talk

about the death toll in the earthquake or the death toll as a result of the

explosion we also use it to do with traffic accidents plane crushers always

where something bad happens a number of people die we talk about the death toll

yeah and although we've established that it's a very commonly used and you'll see

it a lot in headlines it's not necessarily something that you would use

in a conference an informal conversation that's right everybody it's a very very

common expression death toll but it doesn't translate so

easily to everyday spoke in conversational English so I wouldn't say

to you Neal oh my goodness have you heard about the traffic accident the

death toll was six you would say oh my goodness Neal six people died in the

traffic accident absolutely yeah okay let's get a summary of that time now for

our second headline please Catherine yes and we're now looking at the United

States we have a headline from KSTP comm world hits coronavirus milestones and

mid fears whiz to come milestones important events in the development of

something yes milestones ni le sto n e s milestones two parts to this word the

first word male mi le that's a measurement of distance a mile is a

little bit longer than a kilometer and then stones stones are those hard

minerals you know what a milestone is Neal if you're traveling somewhere don't

you yeah so literally a milestone is a kind of old-fashioned road sign I

suppose it's a stone on the way to a destination let's say London and it

might have a number on it 15 and that means 15 miles to London

exactly a stone on the side of the road with the word number 15 means that

you're 15 miles away from your destination so it marks a point on the

journey a significant point on a journey it doesn't say 15 and 3/4 miles and 5

yards it says exactly 15 so a milestone is a significant stage on a journey a

significant event in the progress of something so the event here is the half

million deaths and coronavirus is the journey or the progression or the thing

that's happening so a significant event in the progress of something now we

often use milestone in positive sensors you can to mark important events in

people's lives for example near your you're a parent

can you think of some milestones in children's lives that most parents would

mark for example the first day at school is a milestone for any young child

learning to ride a bicycle there's another milestone yes these types of

things major life event yes major life event and starting

University getting married things like that you can also use milestones in a

business context to represent important developments or progressions in the in

the progress of a business so your ten thousandth sale would be a milestone a

share price hitting a certain point would be a milestone launching a new

product would be a milestone so significant events in the development of

something are milestones okay let's have a summary of that

there are of course plenty of bad news stories around coronavirus but there are

a few positive things some people say happened we've got a link to one of

those stories haven't we Catherine that's right

cyclists are now being encouraged and supported in many places as a result of

the corona virus pandemic so click the link below to go to the story and find

out more okay let's have your next headliner and we're still in the u.s. a

investing.com is running the headline dollar retreats even as kovat 19 numbers

reach grim milestone grim unpleasant yes so we've got that word milestone again

and this time before it we have the adjective grim G or I am grim so what

does that word make you think when you listen to the sound of it Neil well I

think this is a word that sounds bad it sounds like something unpleasant is

happening or is being described there's something about feeling of it it sounds

a bit just bad but yeah it's it might be something to do with a great sound at

the beginning like it reminds you of this out the word gray but if

something's grim is bad it's a pleasant it's depressing it's not good news it

could be worrying there's a little bit of nuance for the contact depending on

the context but generally it's a negative word you don't want to hear the

word grim you don't want grim things in your life unfortunately they do happen

so this bad negative unpleasant worrying milestone those ideas are summed up in

the word grim and there's lots of uses of grim and what kind of weather have we

got today Neil it's a bit grim today you know I'm wearing a kind of winter shirt

because it's so cold in June even though it's almost July

right then is it what color is the sky gray grim gray yeah so the weather if

it's a little bit miserable raining grave you can't see the Sun it's colder

than it should be we can call that a grim day or grim weather we could also

use it to describe people's expressions if somebody has a grim look on their

face they are not happy about something the kind of look that you don't want to

see Neal from your kids teachers do you know I don't want to go to a parents

evening and have a grim face teacher facing me no because you know they're

gonna say something bad yeah absolutely okay let's have a summary

Catherine let's have a summary of our vocabulary yes we started off with death

toll the number of people who have died because of a particular event next we

had milestones important events in the development of something and finally

today we had grim meaning unpleasant you can find news review and all sorts of

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week stay safe bye