Learning English

Will Zika affect Rio Olympics?

The World Health Organisation has said the spead of the Zika virus is an international public health emergency. But the governement of Brazil insists there's no risk that the Olympic Games in Rio will be cancelled.

In this programme, Neil and Catherine are joined by BBC Brasil's Fernando Duarte to explore the language being used by the world's media to discuss this story. Watch the programme and learn the words and phrases you need to talk about the news. Then see what you've learned with a short quiz.

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The story

From a BBC report on 2nd February 2016:

Brazil says there's no risk that the Olympic Games in Rio will be cancelled despite the World Health Organisation's assessment that the spread of the Zika virus constitutes an international public health emergency.

A spokesman for President Dilma Rousseff said the lives of athletes and spectators would not be endangered, though pregnant women should not attend.

Fernando Duarte - BBC Brasil

For the population itself it's not a massive deal. However, we do know that there's a suspicion that some cases of microcephaly in babies are influenced by this virus. Until we have the confirmation we cannot speculate much about that. But it's scared the WHO enough for them to do so. So obviously the media's following suit. People are worried for other reasons. Dengue killed 2,000 people in Brazil in the last three years. Having said that, it's a disease that you can try to avoid and in the months of winter - from June to August in Brazil - the cases tend to drop dramatically.

Key words and phrases

the spread of 
the growing area affected by something

constitutes 
considered to be

endangered 
in a situation which could cause harm

outbreak
the sudden start of something, such as an illness or disease

declared
officially or formally announced or stated

nightmare
(here) very frightening or difficult situation

To do

Try these questions to test your ability to use the words from this News Review.

Your challenge

Which of these is NOT an English phrasal verb?

a) To dream up – meaning invent.

b) To dream away – spend your time thinking of pleasant things rather than actually achieving anything.

c) To dream over – to wish things were different.

More

Learn more about this story in News Report.

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Lingohack - our video which teaches you words from the news using the latest BBC World News bulletins.