This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.
Search BBC
BBC World Service
BBCBBC NewsBBC SportBBC WeatherBBC World ServiceWorldservice languages
 
spacer gif
You are in:Home page >News English > Words in the News
Learning English
spacer gif
 Words in the News
INTRO 
  Israel's Prime-Minister elect, Ariel Sharon, has repeated his determination not to divide Jerusalem. But Mr Sharon also says he wants to bring stability to the Middle East. The BBC's Middle East correspondent Paul Adams reports from Jerusalem.
IN FULL 
 AudioListen to the report in full
Ariel Sharon

8th February 2001

Israel: Ariel Sharon elected

NEWS 1 
 AudioListen to the first part of the report
  Ariel Sharon made two pilgrimages today (7th February): the first, to the grave of his wife, who died last year, and the second to Jerusalem's Wailing Wall. Other victorious prime ministerial candidates have made symbolic visits to the wall but this was an opportunity for the right-wing leader to reaffirm his hardline position on the future of the city.

Jerusalem, he said, was united and indivisible for all eternity. Israelis will remember that the outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, said similar things before being elected in 1999.
WORDS 
 

pilgrimages: a pilgrimage is a journey made to a holy or special place

victorious prime ministerial candidates: other politicians who have been elected as Prime Minister

reaffirm: if you reaffirm something, you state it again

hardline position: if someone takes a hard line on something they have a firm policy which they refuse to change

united and indivisible: united means that all parts are joined together, indivisible that they cannot be divided

outgoing:departing - Mr Barak is leaving his post as Prime Minister

before being elected: before he was elected

NEWS 2  AudioListen to the second part of the report
  One of Mr Barak's legacies is that more Israelis now know that an eventualpeace agreement with the Palestinians will have to involve a deal on Jerusalem. It's likely to be some time beforeserious negotiations resume. Mr Sharon has a government to form and forty-five days in which to do it.

In the meantime, he's sending a team of senior advisers to Washington to outline his vision of peace to the new Bush Administration. Mr Sharon knows that the international community is watching his every move. For the time being, at least, caution is likely to be his watchword.
WORDS  

legacies: they know this as a result of Mr Barak's time as Prime Minister

eventual peace agreement: a formal decision about peace, coming at the end of a process

involve a deal: part of the agreement will be an arrangement about Jerusalem

before serious negotiations resume: before discussions in which both sides are fully involved start again

vision of peace: if you have a vision of something, you have a mental picture of how things might be different

his every move: everything he says and does

caution is likely to be his watchword: a watchword is a word or phrase that sums up the way a particular group of people think or behave

  Read about the background in BBC News Online
BBC copyright
 
Learning English | News English | Business English | Watch and Listen
 
Grammar and Vocabulary | Communicate | Quizzes | For teachers
 
Downloads | FAQ | Contact us