‘Cure for cancer is on the horizon’, uh-huh… ‘politician criticizes doctor as out of
reach’ okay, ‘three hundred and thirty thousand Pounds down the drain in the bank
scandal’ what do we mean by “down the drain”? Down the drain means something is
wasted completely. Don't worry do you get confused when you read such idioms in the
newspaper? That's our topic for the day. Today we are learning idioms from the newspaper
and you can stay with me, my name is Michelle and we are going to wrap up this topic once and forever.
So here we are guys with the newspaper idioms that I shared with you in
the beginning of the lesson. So the newspaper that I was reading this morning had some very
interesting words and idioms that I picked out especially for you so that we can cover
them in this lesson and find out what they mean. So the first news that I read was about
a doctor, alright? So politicians “slacked” the doctors because of delayed treatments.
Now slacking means to criticize someone heavily, alright? Slacking means to criticize heavily.
So the politician slacked the doctors because of delayed treatments which means that possibly
the doctors do not know how much the patients suffer when the treatment is delayed. The
reason that the politicians slack the doctors was because he said that the doctors were
“out of touch”. Now out of touch means that they are not aware of the recent developments
in the field of medicine. So out of touch means unaware of recent developments. Alright
so the doctors are out of touch and for that reason they were slacked by the politician.
Okay so just let you know again this means criticism and the second one means to be unaware
or to be out of touch. The next one we have is “down the drain”. So I read this idiom
on the economic page of the newspaper or the business page of the newspaper where they
talk about the economy around the world or in a specific country. So I read that three
hundred and thirty thousand Pounds were down the drain. So what does that mean? Three hundred
and thirty thousand Pounds were down the drain, it means that, that amount of money was wasted.
So the reason that this money was down the drain was because of a bank scandal. Okay
now down the drain means that something is wasted, so you know what a drain is where
the waste water goes, the same way when we say that something is down the drain it means
that it goes as a waste, goes off as a waste. Okay now the next one we have is when something
“falls on deaf ears”. What happens when something falls on deaf ears? No one's hearing
them, alright? So no one's hearing someone's plea. I read this when they were talking about
a country where people raised a request that their building should not be destroyed however
their request fell on deaf ears which means that no one heard their plea and no action
was taken. So falls on deaf ears means a request that goes unheard. So while I was still reading
the business page I came across this phrase which is “start-ups”, alright? So it said
that the start-ups of going to face a huge problem because of the recession. Now what
are start-ups? Start-ups are small business set-ups okay which are aiming at the market,
alright? They're trying to make money through the market at that point of time and they
are small business set-ups. So according to the news headline it said that the start-ups
are going to face a lot of problem because of recession. So start-ups means a small business
set-up.
Okay so as I told you that there were some people who were raising a plea, who were raising
a request that their buildings should not be destroyed but their requests fell on deaf
ears which means no one heard them and no action was taken and their buildings were
actually destroyed. So their houses where they were living were just destroyed for some
other buildings which were supposed to be erected in that area. So what happened as
a result those people “took to the streets” which means that they started protesting against
the government so they had slogans and they had placards and placards in their hands and
they were raising requests alright? They were very angry and agitated. So at that time they
were protesting against the government. So when we say someone has taken to the streets
or took to the streets it means that they were protesting against the government. It's
like a demonstration. Protesting against the government. Okay and on the same page I read
a good news which said that the cure for cancer was “on the horizon”. So whatever is on
the horizon, do you know what a horizon is? So when you see that the Sun is setting and
you see the Sun and the earth the land almost meeting, it appears like they're meeting and
they are very near the same way this phrase means something is very near. So if the cure
for cancer is on the horizon it means that the cure for cancer is very near and very
soon we are gonna have a proper cure for it which may not even have chemotherapy. Alright
so on the horizon means something that appears near. Alright now we look at the next idiom
that we have so this idiom I did not read on the front page, I did not read on the business
page but I read this in the gossip page of the tabloid newspaper. So “sounds like sour
grapes” this was… so basically there was this actor who made a negative comment against
another actor and the newspaper reported that his comment sounded like sour grapes which
means that possibly he is very jealous of another actor’s success that's why he's
making a negative comment against him or her. Okay so sounds like sour grapes when you call
someone's criticism as sour grapes that's when you're saying that that person does not
have something and they're very jealous that's why they're making a negative comment against
another person. So sour grapes means comment out of jealousy or envy. Right, so because
he was quite jealous of his another actor, alright, of another co-actor that's why he
made a negative comment which sounded like sour grapes. So the grapes were we're not
very sweet they were very sour for that actor. Okay so with this we look at the next one,
“sitting pretty”. I came across this particular phrase in the sports page. Can you imagine
someone sitting pretty in a sports page of the newspaper? It's possible. So they used
this phrase against a team that had won the match, right? So there was a cricket match
that they were that the newspaper reported about and they said that the winning team
was now sitting pretty, which means that they were in a good situation. So good situation.
So according to the newspaper the winning team was sitting pretty which means that they
were in a good situation and they were ready to face the other matches. And while I was
still reading the sports page I came across another idiom which is, “have what it takes”.
So this reporter reported about a new a rising football player alright, she commented saying
that this football player has what it takes to be a star player this means that he has
got the correct talents or the needed talents to be a star football player. So have what
it takes means to have the needed talent. So this rising football star has what it takes
to be a star football player which means that he has the needed talent. So I’ll just do
a quick go through for you again, slacked means when someone is criticized heavily.
So the doctors were criticized heavily or the doctors were slacked for being out of
touch. And three hundred and thirty thousand dollars thousand dollars or pounds went in
the drain which means that they were entirely wasted. And when a request falls on the deaf
ears it means that it goes unheard and when a request falls on deaf ears then people take
to the streets which means that they start protesting against the government. And as
we know the good news that the cure for cancer is on the horizon and I hope it comes soon
because we are really hoping that it's very near to us. The next one is something that
sounds like a likes sour grapes which means that a negative comment that someone makes
out of jealousy. Then sitting pretty is to be a good situation especially related to
sports in this case but can also be related to money. So if a person has a lot of money
then that person is sitting pretty because they are in a good situation. The next one
we have is to have what it takes which means that they have the needed talent to achieve
something and startups as I told you I read along with down the drain which means a small
business set-up that is trying to aim the market. Okay now with this we come to an end
of today's lesson which is about idioms related to the newspaper which you often read in the
newspaper. I had done another lesson where you are going to find words related to newspaper
headlines don't forget to watch that as well you'll probably find the link in the description
box of this video. Thank you so much for staying with me I hope you had a great time, bye-bye.