跟读练习: Iran war puts global food production at risk: fertiliser boss: BBC Learning English from the News - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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In this programme, Iran war puts global food production at risk, according to Fertiliser Boss.
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Hello, I'm Neil.
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And I'm Georgie.
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In this programme, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
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You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
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So, let's hear more about this story.
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Global food production is being threatened by an interruption of fertiliser supply, according to the boss of one of the world's biggest fertiliser producers.
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Fertiliser is something that farmers put on fields to help plants grow.
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The boss of Yara, a company which makes fertiliser, says that this means the world will be able to produce 10 billion fewer meals a week, and this will hit poorest countries hardest.
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The UN World Food Programme estimates that the Middle East conflict could cause 45 million additional people to experience severe hunger in 2026.
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Let's have our first headline.
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Trade zone, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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And that headline again, Trade Zone, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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And that's from the Business News section of the RBC Bank.
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Now, there's a couple of interesting pieces of vocabulary in this headline.
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We have a perfect storm.
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That refers to a situation, usually negative, which happens because of a combination of circumstances.
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In this context, there's a combination of factors affecting global food production.
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For example, the war in Iran and climate change.
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That's a perfect storm.
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But we're looking at this word rippling.
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Yes, ripple comes from water.
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So if you drop a stone in water, it creates a ripple, a series of small waves in a circular shape.
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Now that's literal, but metaphorically, ripple is used to mean that a problem spreads from one place to another, causing effects as it moves.
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In the headline, ripple is a verb and is followed by a cross, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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The headline is saying that the effects of the war in Iran are felt across the world.
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The effects on food supplies are rippling or spreading beyond the Middle East.
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Yes, now in the headline we see ripple across.
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You're also likely to hear ripple through.
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For example, news of their colleague's resignation rippled through the office.
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It's spread through the office.
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And another common phrase you'll hear is ripple effect.
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That's a situation where an an initial event causes other things to happen.
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For example, her charity donation created a ripple effect.
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Other people were inspired to donate as well.
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We've had ripple spread and affect many places.
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For example, rising fuel prices are rippling through the economy.
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This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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Today we're talking about threats to global food production caused by the war in Iran.
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So why is global food production under threat?
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When the United States and Israel struck Iran on the 28th of February, the Strait of Hormuz, which is a narrow waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, effectively shut down.
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About one third of the world's fertiliser trade normally passes through the strait.
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The strait is also a vital channel for imports to the Middle East, including food, medicines and technological supplies.
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Let's have our next headline.
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This one is from Al Jazeera, an international news organisation.
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As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow.
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That headline again from Al Jazeera.
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As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow.
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Now, this headline is from a couple of weeks ago and it's about fears that the war in Iran will lead to global food catastrophe.
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Catastrophe is similar to disaster, something that is very bad.
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We're looking at the phrasal verb drag on.
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The Iran crisis drags on.
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But what does that mean?
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It probably helps to understand the verb drag in its literal sense.
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Drag means to pull something heavy across a surface, usually the floor.
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So imagine moving a heavy sofa to a new place.
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You might drag it across the floor.
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It's hard and slow to do and it takes a lot of time.
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The phrasal verb drag on means to last for a long time, but it has that same sense that something's slow and difficult.
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It lasts longer than it should or longer than people expect.
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Yes, so the headline says the Iran crisis drags on, meaning perhaps it's lasting longer than people expected.
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Now, war is a very serious context to use this phrasal verb, but it has some more everyday uses as well.
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For example, today's meeting really dragged on, I couldn't wait for it to end.
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Yes, or that film didn't need to be three hours long, it really dragged on.
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We've had drag on last for a long time, perhaps longer than expected.
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For example, teacher strikes dragged on for years because neither side could agree.
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This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.
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We're talking about the impact of the US-Israel war with Iran on global food production.
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The price of fertiliser has increased by 80% since the beginning of the US and Israel's war on Iran.
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One of the regions that will be most affected is Asia and the Pacific, where food insecurity is expected to rise by 24%.
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Food insecurity means that people don't have a reliable source of food.
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In the UK, food inflation – and that means the rising price of food – could reach 10% by December, according to the Food and Drink Federation.
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This is because less fertiliser means less food is grown, and if there is less food available, then prices rise.
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And our next headline is about this.
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This one is from Sky News.
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food price inflation still rising as lower income households feel the squeeze, study says.
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That headline again from Sky News.
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Food price inflation still rising as lower income households feel the squeeze, study says.
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So this headline is about the impact of the Iran war on UK food prices.
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We're looking at this phrase, feel the squeeze.
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Well, think about squeezing a lemon.
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You hold it and press it firmly on all sides so that juice comes out.
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You put pressure on it to make it smaller.
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Yes.
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Now the expression feel the squeeze means you feel financial pressure because things are becoming more expensive.
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The pressure means that you have less money to spend.
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So in this context, households with less money are finding it harder to afford food.
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They're feeling the squeeze.
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The expression feel the squeeze is about money and rising costs.
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So another example, her family's been feeling the squeeze since she lost her job.
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Another useful phrase to use when someone can't afford things, you can say that someone is struggling to make ends meet.
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We've had feel the squeeze – experience financial pressure.
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For example, they're feeling the squeeze since their rent went up last month.
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That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.
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We'll be back next week with another news story.
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And if you're interested in learning more English about the topic of money, you should check out our special page with lots more programmes about money.
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Find it at bbclearningenglish.com.
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Bye for now.
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Goodbye.
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