Hello my beautiful students and welcome back to English News Pod, the best way for you to learn practical English through the news. I’m your host and teacher, Caroline.
Now, let’s take a look at today’s top news. You can find a full transcript of this podcast episode in the description.
The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos was gutted in a fire late last night. The Moria camp is the largest refugee camp in Europe, as it housed over 13,000 refugees, mostly from Afghanistan. The island of Lesbos is Greek, meaning that it is within the European Union. Due to the island’s close proximity to Turkey, Lesbos is a hotspot for refugees trying to come to Europe. However, the conditions in the camp are less than humane, and many have labeled the camp as a humanitarian crisis in itself. At the moment, it is unclear where the refugees will live.
Let’s take a look at some grammar:
- Refugee - a refugee, in simple terms, is a person who cannot return to their country. This is usually for political reasons, such as escaping war.
- Gutted - when something is “gutted,” it means it is emptied. This word can be used as a verb in many contexts. For example, to gut a fish means to clean and cut a fish. We can also use the term as an adjective to describe emotions. For example, he was gutted when he didn’t win the game. Meaning he was upset or sad that he didn’t win the game.
- Proximity - “proximity” means distance. In this case, we are saying that the island has close proximity to Turkey, or is not far away from Turkey.
- Hotspot - the word “hotspot” is a noun which means a popular place. Think of the word in 2 - “hot” and “spot.” For example, the Greek island of Lesbos is a hotspot, or popular place, for refugees because it is close to Turkey but inside the European Union.
- Humane - “humane” is an adjective which means showing compassion or making sure something is not painful for someone else. In our example, the Moria camp has been described by many people as inhumane, or a place that is not good for humans to live.
- Crisis - a “crisis” is a difficult or dangerous time. We use this word to describe wars, natural disasters, a bad economy, and more. In this example, we are talking about the camp, and how it is a humanitarian crisis - or a crisis for people.
- Bonus: Did you notice some sentences were backwards? Listen again:
- Due to the island’s close proximity to Turkey, Lesbos is a hotspot for refugees trying to come to Europe.
Instead of saying:
- Lesbos is a hotspot for refugees trying to come to Europe due to the island’s close proximity to Turkey.
Hear the difference? I put nonessential, or incomplete information at the beginning of the sentence. This is something we do often. This can only be done when the information cannot be a sentence by itself.
For example, I can say:
-Lesbos is a hotspot for refugees trying to come to Europe. This is a complete sentence.
But, I cannot say:
-”Due to the island’s close proximity to Turkey...” is sentence incomplete. Therefore the incomplete part of the sentence can go to the beginning of the sentence.
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