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  • Sweden, traditionally neutral, joins Nato.

  • This is News Review from BBC

  • Learning English where we help you understand news headlines in English.

  • I'm Neil. and I'm Phil.

  • Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary

  • that you need to talk about this story.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to our channel

  • so you can learn more English from news headlines. Now, the story.

  • Sweden is to join NATO

  • after two hundred years of neutrality.

  • The nation applied to join the defence alliance

  • after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

  • All Nato members are expected to help an ally

  • if attacked. Hungary was the final Nato member to approve the invitation.

  • You've been looking at the headlines

  • Phil. What's the vocabulary

  • people need to understand this news story in English?

  • We have clears path, final hurdle and farewell.

  • This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

  • Let's have a look at our first headline.

  • This is from the BBC. Hungary's parliament

  • clears path for Sweden's Nato membership.

  • So, Hungary was the last member of Nato to approve

  • Sweden's membership.

  • It clears a path for Sweden.

  • That's the expression that we're looking at. It contains that word path. Now

  • a path is another word for a route a way from one place to another,

  • often in a park or in the countryside.

  • Yes, it is. And clear - it's often an adjective, but in this case,

  • it's a verb and it means to physically remove the obstacles

  • that are stopping you from walking on the path.

  • OK. Now let's use our imaginations, Phil.

  • Here we have Sweden and here we have NATO and there is a path between the two.

  • But imagine that path is covered with trees and bushes. Hungary

  • comes along and clears the path is a useful way of thinking about it. It's

  • a very literal way of looking at it. Here

  • the obstacles are political.

  • They are to do with votes and decisions

  • and Hungary's decision has cleared the path for Sweden to join Nato. Now,

  • I think there's another way we could use this to talk about the world

  • of work, isn't there, Neil?

  • Yes so imagine at work,

  • you want to get a promotion.

  • There's an opportunity for a promotion.

  • But there is somebody else who has more experience and qualifications than you.

  • However, that person decides to leave the organisation and that act

  • clears the path for you to get the promotion.

  • Let's look at that again.

  • Let's have a look at our next headline.

  • This is from the Financial Times.

  • Sweden overcomes final hurdle to join Nato in historic shift.

  • OK, so it says that Sweden overcomes something.

  • It means they have solved a problem. And in this case,

  • it's a hurdle. But what's a hurdle?

  • We need to know what a hurdle is to understand this headline.

  • Yes, well, a hurdle is one of those frames that athletes jump over

  •   when they are in a hurdle race

  • and actually, I can already see a link between this headline

  • and the last one because that was all about removing obstacles. And a hurdle

  • is an obstacle, yes.

  • So, Sweden's final hurdle or final obstacle

  • to joining NATO was Hungary's vote to approve them and they overcame it.

  • Can you give us another example?

  • Well, the reason that we make News Review

  • is to help you overcome any hurdles in understanding the news in English.

  • The words and phrases that we teach you

  • will help you overcome those hurdles.

  • Let's look at that again.

  • Let's have our next headline.

  • This is from the Guardian.

  • Sweden will complete its long farewell to neutrality

  • with Nato accession. So here in this headline neutrality

  • means that Sweden hasn't taken sides in any war or conflict

  • for two hundred years. But now,

  • they are abandoning that neutrality.

  • The word, though, that we're looking at is farewell.

  • What can you tell us about farewell Phil?

  • OK, well this is quite an old formal English word.

  • Historically, it meant go well or travel well.

  • But, really, it's just another way of saying goodbye,

  • but Phil is it the same as saying goodbye?

  • I've never heard you say at the end of a working day

  • "farewell!" Well, you can say farewell

  • at the end of the working day, but it would sound a bit strange.

  • We tend to use farewell for something

  • that's kind of an emotional goodbye an important

  • goodbye, or something that's very final. Yeah.

  • So if I was going to move to a different country,

  • I might have a farewell party and I might make a farewell speech

  • at that party, but I wouldn't do those things

  • If I was just going home.

  • No. It has this kind of poetic and romantic sense.

  • So we could talk about a fond farewell, an emotional farewell.

  • And if you want a really old fashioned formal English way of saying goodbye,

  • you could say I bid you farewell.

  • Now it's nearly time

  • for us to say goodbye.

  • Not farewell because we will be back next week. Let's look at that again.

  • We've had clears path

  • makes something easier to achieve. Final hurdle

  • The last thing stopping you from doing something

  • and farewell

  • another way of saying goodbye.

  • Now, if you like things about making important decisions,

  • why not check out our leadership playlist?

  • Don't forget to click here to subscribe to our. channel,

  • so you never miss another video.

  • Thank you for joining us and goodbye!

  • Goodbye!

Sweden, traditionally neutral, joins Nato.

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Sweden to join Nato: BBC News Review

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2024 年 02 月 29 日
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