Name: Trump acquitted - News Review
Uploaded: 2021-02-16T18:15:16.000Z
Duration: 10 min 10 s
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Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Catherine and joining me today is Tom. Hello Tom.

Hello Catherine. Good morning and hello to our audience.

Today's story is about former US president Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump was acquitted, or found not guilty,

Now, don't forget – if you want more on this story and to do a quiz,

just go to our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear more about this story from this BBC News report:

So, Donald Trump's impeachment trial has ended.

The trial aimed to establish whether Mr. Trump was responsible

for causing the attack on the US Congress last month.

Mr. Trump was acquitted, or found not guilty, in the case

and this is the second time that this has happened.

OK. And you've been looking at the headlines around this story,

haven't you Tom? What words have you picked out for us today?

Our words and expressions for today, Catherine, are:

So, let's take a look at your first headline.

My first headline is from India. It's the Hindustan Times – it says:

Now, what can you tell us about this word, Tom?

Let's begin with 'chapter'. 'Chapter' is a noun: C-H-A-P-T-E-R.

Now, what's this got to do with Trump, Biden, democracy?

Good question. So, if we think about... let's begin with the headline.

The headline talks about Mr. Biden's quote

that Trump's acquittal was a 'sad chapter'

or a negative period for American democracy.

If you think about democracy as a sort of... a lifeline or a story:

marks a negative period in this ongoing story.

OK. Got it. So, a 'chapter' is like a period of life –

in this case, a period of the kind of story of democracy.

So, we can only use 'chapter' when we're talking

about big things like democracy and world events?

Or can you use it to talk about a period of your own personal life?

No, we don't just use 'chapter' for sort of important things;

we can use it a lot in our personal life as well.

that was the start of a 'new chapter' in my life:

it was something completely different that I'd never done before.

'Happy and exciting chapter,' you could say.

OK. Any other expressions that we can use

relating to sort of 'chapters' of our lives?

When a 'chapter' ends, we can use another expression

related to books, which is 'turn the page'.

So, if you 'turn the page' on a chapter, you end it:

Well, it's time to 'turn the page' on this chapter of News Review

and we're going to finish this section with a summary.

So, we're talking today about Donald Trump's second impeachment trial

but a while ago we talked about his first impeachment trial, didn't we Tom?

and you can find that video by clicking the link.

the Financial Times in the UK – it says:

'Rifts' – serious breaks or separations.

It is. It's plural – the singular noun is 'rift': R-I-F-T.

And a 'rift' is a serious break or separation.

And we often use this in geographical terms,

don't we, to describe geographical features?

Yeah. So, literally a 'rift' is a crack, or a break or a split.

So, you could have a 'rift' in clouds or rocks, for example.

Of a valley: if you think about a valley –

you know, two high sides with a space in between them –

a valley is a 'rift'. It's just a really big 'rift'.

You don't get a little 'rift' in a pebble

or a little small rock you can hold in your hand.

Yeah. Like, there are no 'rifts' under my shoe – do you know what I mean?

They... we're using this economy of sort of large – excuse me.

We're using this language of large scale,

so we normally use it for sort of important and momentous things.

So, when we use 'rift' figuratively, we're talking about a split or a division

between people who had been on good terms.

So, let's go back to that headline. It says:

'Senate acquittal exposes deep Republican rifts over Trump.'

What this is saying is that – what the headline says is that

Donald Trump's acquittal has shown that there is a big gap

between Republicans: between his own party.

You know, they're very far away from each other and they've split.

So, they really don't agree and they're not getting on.

OK. And we only use this to talk about kind of big people in politics?

if you really fall out with somebody in your family?

and we can use it a lot in our day-to-day life as well.

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Trump acquitted - News Review

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