Name: Iceland prepares for volcano: BBC News Review
Uploaded: 2023-11-06T08:00:14.000Z
Duration: 5 min 53 s
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Thousands evacuated in Iceland ahead of expected volcanic eruption.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English, where we teach you how to understand the news in English. I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn the words that you need to talk about this story.

And to learn more about the world in English, don't forget to subscribe to our channel.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in Iceland after a state of emergency was declared.

Cracks have appeared in roads after a series of earthquakes and there are fears the Fagradalsfjall volcano will soon erupt.

A huge eruption in 2010 in Iceland disrupted air travel around the world.

You've been looking at the headlines. What's the vocabulary that people need to understand this news story in English?

We have 'imminent', 'swarm' and 'frantic'.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

This is from Sky News: Cracks appear in roads amid fears of imminent volcanic eruption.

Now, this story tells us that roads have been damaged as worries grow about a potential volcanic eruption.

We're going to look at the word 'imminent'.

Yes, we often use 'imminent' with bad things, like a volcano preparing to erupt, and it means that we think it's going to happen very soon and it's scaring us.

OK, so we use it with bad things are about to happen.

Well, we might talk about an 'imminent disaster', an 'imminent attack' or an 'imminent crisis' and it has this idea that there is a bad thing hanging over a situation that we think is about to happen soon.

It reminds me of a similar word 'impending'.

'Impending' is used in a similar way to say something negative is about to happen.

This is from TTG Media: Iceland declares state of emergency amid intense swarm of earthquakes.

Now, this is about the earthquakes which could be a sign that a volcanic eruption is imminent.

We're going to learn about the word 'swarm'.

What has that got to do with volcanoes and earthquakes?

Well, it's a large group of insects that all fly together.

For example, if you disturb a hive of bees all the bees will come out.

OK, so there's a large number and when seismologists, that's people who study earthquakes, talk about a 'swarm of earthquakes,' they mean that there is a large number of them close together that appear in a short space of time and that's often a sign of volcanic activity.

OK, so there are two things about the word 'swarm'.

One - it's a large number and two - it's something negative.

Now, we can also use 'swarm' for people, but usually only when we think that they are a problem.

OK, yes, so if there were a lot of tourists, you might say there's a swarm of tourists because you think it's a problem.

Celebrities might be chased by a swarm of journalists, which doesn't sound very pleasant.

It doesn't. OK, let's look at that again.

This is from Edinburgh Live: Frantic Edinburgh couple race home from Iceland after travelling despite warnings.

So, this story is about tourists in Iceland who are worried about what's happening.

The word that we're looking at is 'frantic'.

Well, this story's about tourists, but there's probably a lot of people feeling like that right now.

You said 'worried', but frantic is a bit more than that.

It's about being so worried that you find it hard to do things or hard to control yourself, even.

OK, so if you're frantic, it's a little bit like you're panicking and you might even do the wrong thing because you're so worried.

Yeah, because we often use this to talk about the way we do things, we can use the adverb 'frantically' to describe things done in a hurry because you're worried or scared.

And 'frantic' - worried and out of control.

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