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| Words in the News
Wednesday 10 October 2001
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Freed journalist tells of her Taleban ordeal
Summary: The British journalist Yvonne Ridley is expected to fly back to the UK later today after being released by the Taleban. Ms Ridley has given an account of her experiences during the 11 days spent in detention. This report from Elizabeth Blunt:
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| | The News | |
| | | It was a scoop Yvonne Ridley would probably have been happy to do without: when the air raids on Kabul began, she was the only Western journalist in the city. But she was locked in Kabul prison, after being caught inside the country without a visa.
She tells how she was being held in a room where weapons were stored, sleeping with a rocket-propelled grenade under her bed. She could hear explosions and see tracer fire from anti-aircraft guns, but she said her main fear was that she would become the focus for a riot once people knew that she was in the prison.
Ms Ridley's accountbears out claims by the Taleban authorities that she was well treated. In Jalalabad, where she was first held, she was treated for fever and insect bites by a doctor, who expressed great concern that she was refusing to eat.
She admits that she had been uncooperative with her jailers, but finally they seem to have been impressed by her stubborness. As she left, they presented her with an embroidered Afghan dress and told her, "Ridley, you are a man!" She says she took it as a compliment.
ELIZABETH BLUNT, BBC, LONDON
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| | The Words
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| | | a scoop
here - an exciting news story which is reported in one newspaper before it appears anywhere else
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| | | would have been happy to do without
would prefer not to have had the experience at all
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| | | tracer fire
fire by bullets or shells whose course is made visible, usually by a line of smoke left behind it
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| | | the focus for a riot
the reason for and target of a riot (when there is a riot, crowds of people behave violently in a public place - for example, they fight, throw stones or damage buildings)
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| | | account
a written or spoken report of something that has happened
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| | | bears out
supports, confirms
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| | | she was well treated
here - her captors behaved well towards her (if you treat someone in a certain way, you behave towards them or deal with them in that way)
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| | | she was treated for fever
she received medical care to help her get rid of her fever (if you treat a patient or an illness, you try to make the patient well again)
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| | | admits
if you admit something, you recognise or agree, sometimes unwillingly, that it is true
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| | | uncooperative
here - not prepared to do what her jailers asked her to
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