The English Blog

Reuters Video: World gears up for New Year

People around the globe prepare to celebrate the coming of a new year. Katharine Jackson reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: As the clock ticks closer to 2012, New Year's Eve organizers flip a switch, illuminating the famed crystal ball set to drop at midnight over New York's Times Square​. Weighing nearly 12,000 pounds, the crystal-encrusted kaleidoscope of 32,000 LED lights dazzles even in daylight as it ascends into the air for a test run. Also well before midnight's strike, confetti rains down on New Yorkers as workers test how the colored pieces of paper float through the air.
JESSICA ARROYO: "It's awesome. I thought it was snowing for a second, but it's exciting to know that there is going to be tons of confetti for New Year's Eve, real excited."
REPORTER: In Rio de Janeiro, tons of fireworks are loaded onto rafts bound for three locations. Most will explode over famed Copacabana Beach at midnight. The beach is already attracting devotees of the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea and fertility. They cast flowers, floating candles and their wishes into the Atlantic before carrying the goddess' figure into the water. Across the globe in in India, women construct intricate chocolate bouquets by wrapping chocolate around a stick and molding it into chocolate flowers bound with ribbon. The chocolate treats are New Year's gifts for friends and relatives meant to begin the new year with cheer. In the Philippines, colorfully wrapped firecrackers draw a crowd looking to stock up before the celebrations begin. Despite some towns' campaigns to stomp out fireworks for safety reasons, many Filipinos practice the Chinese tradition of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve...a bang said to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck for a Happy New Year. Katharine Jackson, Reuters.

ALSO SEE
• Top 10 places for New Year's Eve traditions (The Guardian)

Cartoon: A Death Foretold

This cartoon by Patrick Blower from The Telegraph combines Kim Jong-il's funeral with the death of the euro. In Blower's version the black limousine bearing the remains of the euro is flanked by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, who have spent much of 2011 trying to save the ailing currency. Behind them in the funeral convoy are cars representing euro zone countries (a Fiat for Italy and a Citroën for France). The cars have to be pushed, symbolizing the broken down economies. A banner reads 'The Supreme Currency 1999-2012' (Kim Jong-il was the 'supreme leader' of North Korea from 1994 to 2011).

LANGUAGE
Foretold is the past participle of foretell. If you foretell a future event, you predict that it will happen.

COMMENT
2012 promises to be a make-or-break year for the euro. Will some countries leave the euro zone (Greece, for example)? Will the the euro collapse? Or will the European leaders finally come up with a credible plan to save the single currency?

ALSO READ
• Year In Review: Will The Euro Survive 2012? (RFE/RL)
• The euro: Will it survive another year? (The Independent)
• Will the euro survive 2012 intact? (Economist poll)

Words in the News: Tackle

The Guardian reports that patients will be asked about their smoking, drinking and diets every time they see a health professional. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
If you tackle a a difficult problem or task, you deal with it in a very determined or efficient way. • The Maharashtra government has solicited the help of corporate houses, students and voluntary organizations to help tackle the serious problems of malnutrition affecting some parts of the state.

Cartoon: Stars of 2011

In this cartoon from The Guardian, Ben Jennings portrays some of the people who made a big impact for better or worse in the past 12 months. How many can you identify? And who do you think is missing?

NOTE
Ben Jennings won the 2011 Political Cartoon of the Year award given by the Political Cartoon Society for this cartoon (not the one above). Ben is an undergraduate working toward a BA Honours Illustration degree. On his blog, Ben says that he was 'utterly gobsmacked' to win.

Words in the News: Slap

The Daily Express says families will be hit with more taxes on holidays, making them too expensive. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
If journalists say that the authorities slap something such as a tax or a ban on something, they think that it is unreasonable or put on without careful thought. • Authorities in Oman have slapped a ban on the sale of cough and cold medicines that contain anti-histamine and decongestants for infants.

Reuters Video: The economy in 2012

Top economists offer their forecasts for jobs, housing, and the euro zone crisis for 2012. Jill Bennett reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: The US economy faced one headwind after another in 2011, from US budget showdowns, to the Eurozone crisis to ongoing recession fears. 2012 may not be much different. Mark Vitner, Senior Economist at Wells Fargo.
MARK VITNER: "I think in many ways 2012 will look just like 2011, the first half of the year growth is likely to come in below expectations, we're likely to see fears of recession crop up particularly if things in Europe get a little dicey. But, by mid-year or certainly by late summer the data should turn a little bit more positive. Of course, the election will be approaching then too so there will be a lot of things on people's minds."
REPORTER: Vitner expects housing prices to bottom mid-year in 2012 and the economy to grow by 2.2 percent. Beth Ann Bovino at Standard and Poor's expects a more modest 1.8 percent growth for the gross domestic product, and says that is well below what's needed to get all of the unemployed workers back to work.
BETH ANN BOVINO: "You need to see something about 2.3, 2.4 percent just to keep the unemployment rate level as is, I'm expecting the unemployment rate to go up a little bit more stay at 9% through the year and then start to come down as the recovery gets a little bit more momentum."
REPORTER: Yet, Europe remains the single biggest threat to the overall US economy, according to Nigel Gault at IHS Global Insight.
NIGEL GAULT, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT: "The eurozone is the single biggest threat not just from eurozone recession it's from the risk of recession combined with a eurozone financial crisis that develops into a major global financial crisis, in the worst case it could be as bad as we saw in 2008, 2009."
REPORTER: 2012 may be the year the focus turns to debt, both here and abroad - a wild card that could spell yet more trouble for the already staggering economy. Jill Bennett, Reuters.

Cartoon: Sale Meeting

This cartoon by Gary Barker from The Sun relates to the record-breaking post-Christmas sales in the UK.

COMMENTARY
The joke is that the two women talk about seeing each other again but with all the boxes they are carrying they can't actually see each other's faces.

VOCABULARY
"50% off" means "50% off the usual price", ie, half price.

GRAMMAR
We use the reciprocal each other and one another when two or more people do the same thing. Traditionally, each other refers to two people and one another refers to more than two people, but this distinction is disappearing in modern English.

• Peter and Mary helped one another.
  = Peter helped Mary and Mary helped Peter.
• We sent each other Christmas cards.
  = We sent them a Christmas card and they sent us a Christmas card.
• They didn’t look at one another.
  = He didn't look at her and she didn't look at him.

We also use the possessive forms each other’s and one another’s:

They helped to look after each other’s children.
We often stayed in one another’s houses.

NOTE: We do not use reciprocal pronouns as the subject of a clause.

(source: British Council LearnEnglish)

Words in the News: Tearaway

Failure to exclude the worst-behaving children is leading to “serious indiscipline” in a number of Scotland’s schools and leaving staff and fellow pupils “terrorised”. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
If you refer to a young person as a tearaway, you mean that they behave in a wild and uncontrolled way. • A teenage tearaway given acupuncture sessions at taxpayers’ expense to cure his thuggish behaviour has been handed a second Anti-Social Behaviour Order.

Reuters Video: U.S. retailers offer huge discounts

US shoppers head out to stores looking for bargains after the Christmas holiday. Sasha Salama reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: The nation's retailers are focusing on the final week of 2011 as make or break for their bottom lines. John Long is a retail analyst with Kurt Salmon.
JOHN LONG: "The week between Christmas and New Year's is one of the most critical weeks of the holiday season for retailers because it really closes out the four or five weeks of huge holiday selling."
REPORTER: So far, Kurt Salmon says holiday sales are up 3.6% over last year, right in line with expectations. But retailers want to do even better, so they're slashing prices in hopes that consumers will shop til they drop.
SHOPPER: "I think most of the people are looking for big discounts nowadays."
REPORTER: How big a discount do you want to see?
SHOPPER: "As much as I can get."
REPORTER: Analysts expect consumers to spend the most on electronics, sporting goods, apparel and accessories. And retailers are offering huge discounts to try and attract those consumer dollars. Bill Pandolfo is a manager with J.C. Penney.
BILL PANDOLFO. SALES SUPPORT MANAGER, J.C. PENNEY: "Throughout the store, we're offering 50-75% off much of our clearance in the store which is our seasonal merchandise. We're making way for our new merchandise to be coming in."
REPORTER: Even though U.S. unemployment stands at 8.6%, consumer confidence hit an eight month high in December. That may be a sign the nation's retailers can achieve what's become their goal - to ring up almost one-quarter of all their revenues during the holiday season. Sasha Salama, Reuters.

Cartoon: Holiday's Over

This cartoon by Gary Barker from The Sun relates to news that the Duke of Edinburgh has left hospital four days after having surgery to help unblock a coronary artery. He rejoined the Royal Family's festive get-together at their Sandringham estate. According to The Sun, "the Duke proved he is bang on target to make a full recovery — by joining a Royal shooting party hours after he returned". Read more >>

The cartoon shows a pair of pheasants. One of them, spotting the gun-toting Duke being driving up in his Range Rover, says to the other, "Holiday's over'.

LANGUAGE
If you say that the holiday is over, you mean that a positive period has come to an end. It doesn't have to be an actual holiday: The holiday's over for the euro—and it's back to crisis time. In the cartoon the expression has a double meaning: both the birds' break from being shot at and the Christmas holiday have finished.

Words in the News: Outlaw

The Daily Telegraph says drinkers will pay a minimum price for alcohol under new plans instigated by the Prime Minister. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
When something is outlawed, it is made illegal. • Turkey has reacted with fury to a vote by French MPs to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide.

Cartoon: Did You Keep The Receipt?

This cartoon by Christian Adams from The Telegraph is a comment on Britain's disenchantment with the European project.

Angela Merkel has given Cameron an EU jumper for Christmas. Cameron asks her, "Did you keep the receipt?", which is what people typically say when they are given an unwanted or inappropriate gift (if you've got the receipt, you can change the gift, or get your money back). The jumper can be seen as a metaphor for further EU integration, to which Cameron, the Conservatives (and, according to opinion polls, a majority of UK citizens) are opposed.

PRONUNCIATION
The 'p' in receipt is silent. Say 're-seat' with the stress on 'seat'.

ALSO SEE
• Britain's Mounting Distrust of Germany (Der Spiegel)

Video: Britain's Busiest Boxing Day Ever?

An estimated four million shoppers cram the UK's high streets for the Boxing Day sales - with spending hitting record levels. Asha Tanna reports on the battle to beat off economic gloom. Read article >>

ALSO SEE
• Stores enjoy 'strong' Boxing Day sales (BBC News)
• Boxing Day Sales

Cartoon: Screen Time

This cartoon by Brighty from The Sun is a comment on the the fact that watching TV is not as popular as it used to be, especially at Christmas time. A man suggests watching telly (ie, watching TV or watching the television), but the rest of his family are more interested in other types of screen: the grandmother is using an iPad, the son a laptop, and his wife (or daughter?) a mobile phone.

LANGUAGE
The pattern 'Call me a _____ but ...' means 'You may think that I'm a _____ but ...'. For example, 'Call me a male chauvinist, but I'd still say that women are not suited to top management positions.' You can also use an adjective: 'Call me old-fashioned, but I think children should respect their parents'.

Words in the News: Stealth Tax

The Independent claims Britain's poorest people will be hit by a £2.5bn "stealth tax". Full story >>

VOCABULARY
A stealth tax is a tax levied in such a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a tax. • The local vehicle tax has been something of a stealth tax in Wisconsin — easily and quietly adopted, then invisibly collected year after year.