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New Year, new
record high temperatures, already.

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This is News Review from BBC
Learning English.

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I'm Neil and I'm Beth.

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Make sure you watch to the end to learn
vocabulary to talk about this story.

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Don't forget to subscribe
to our channel, like this video

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and try the quiz on our website.

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Now, the story.

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The hottest January day
ever in Europe.

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At least seven countries reported
the warmest New Year's Day

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on record. One village in Poland

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recorded nineteen degrees Celsius
compared to its usual temperature

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of around one.

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Climatologists are calling it

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the most extreme heatwave ever seen
in Europe.

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You have been looking
at the headlines,

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Beth. What's the vocabulary?

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We have topples, go downhill
and shattered.

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This is News Review
from BBC Learning English.

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Let's have a look
at our first headline.

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This is from The Independent.

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'The most extreme

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heat wave ever seen
in Europe': Warm January

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topples records.

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So there is a heat wave in Europe,
which is a bit strange

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because it's in the middle of winter,
but temperatures are unusually high.

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The word we're looking at
from the headline is 'topple'.

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Now, Beth,
you know that game

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where there's a stack of bricks and
you have to take one from the bottom

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and put it on the top, over and
over again and eventually it can...

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Yeah. You have to pull them out
and then it kind of gets unbalanced

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and it topples over.

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Yeah. That's right.
So 'topple' means fall.

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But, as we can see in the headline,

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it can be used metaphorically as well
to mean break – break a record.

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Yeah, that's right.
So, our headline is saying

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that January has toppled the record.
So, the temperatures have broken

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any previous records that there were.

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Now, are there other things
that 'topple',

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apart from games with stacks
of bricks and records?

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Yeah. So, physically,
imagine there's a storm,

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there's a lot of wind and
then a tree might topple. Also a baby,

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when it learns to walk, they're quite
unsteady, unbalanced on their feet,

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so they might topple over.

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Yeah. And these are all things
that are unbalanced.

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You can actually actively topple

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something – knock it over.

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Yeah. You can. So, again,

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if we've got that game full of bricks
and you just decide to push it over,

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then you topple it.
But we also use this metaphorically

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to talk about removing someone
from power. For example,

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you can topple a leader.

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Yes. And when you topple a leader,

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often it's used in the passive voice

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so we can say
that someone has been toppled.

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Let's look at that again.

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Let's have a look
at our next headline.

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This one comes from The Times.

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'Ski holiday hopes go downhill
as Alpine snow melts away.'

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OK. The headline is saying
that the snow is melting –

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that is obviously very bad

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if you have planned a skiing holiday.

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But we are looking at the expression,
'go downhill'.

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I know 'go', I know 'down'

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I know 'hill' but together,
Beth, what is the sense?

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Well, if something goes downhill
then it becomes worse.

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So, the headline means that
people's real chances of going skiing
are becoming less and less possible.

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Yes, temperatures are so high
that the snow is melting.

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This is a bit of a clever headline,
though, isn't it?

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There's a double meaning
which we often see.

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Yes. So, obviously, when people go
skiing, they actually go downhill.

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So the headline writer has used
this expression to be a bit clever.

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It's got a double meaning.

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Yeah. So, generally speaking, 'go downhill'
means that something is getting worse.

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Let's think of some other examples
of things getting worse.

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A business could go downhill.

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Yes. Your health
might go downhill as you get older.

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Yeah. Your English
could go downhill

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if you don't study regularly

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so stick with us.

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OK, let's have a look at that again.

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Our next headline,
please.

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This is from The Washington Post.

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Thousands of records shattered

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in historic winter
warm spell in Europe.

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The headline says

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that temperature records have
been shattered. Now, Beth, when I hear

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the word 'shatter', I think
of glass breaking,

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smashing everywhere.
Yeah and that's not that surprising

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because when glass shatters, it breaks
into lots of tiny pieces and

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it's very dramatic.

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So, when we hear
about a record being shattered, again

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we're talking
about something dramatic.

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Yeah. So think about the Olympics.

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Athletes often shatter records –
they break them dramatically.

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So we've got this word 'shatter'
with records and, earlier,

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we heard 'topple' with records.

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Is there a difference?

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They're basically the same, but
'shattered' is always quite dramatic.

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Now we can also use 'shattered'
to describe big emotions.

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So, for example, if
you hear something really terrible,

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then you might say
that you are shattered by the news,

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or you might feel shattered.

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That just means you're really
upset.

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Yes, and 'shattered' can also
mean extremely tired.

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We've just finished our Christmas
and New Year holidays,

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lots of travelling, visiting people,
late nights, early mornings.

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Beth, I was shattered.

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Well, I hope you're not
too shattered to finish News Review.

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I think I can just about manage.
Let's look at that again.

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We've had
topples – falls,

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go downhill – become worse,
shattered – broken, dramatically.

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Don't forget, there's
a quiz on our website at

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BBCLearningEnglish.com
Thank you for joining us,

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and goodbye. Bye.