First Arab Woman in Space: BBC News Review | by 700 Eth | May, 2023 | Medium
‘A dream come true' says the first Arab woman in space. This is News Review from BBC Learning English I'm Neil. And I'm Beth. Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video, and try the quiz on our website.
Now, the story. The first Arab female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, has blasted into space. She is part of a crew of space tourists who are visiting the International Space Station for eight days. As well as having a holiday, the tourists will conduct independent research, according to space company Axiom. You've been looking at the headlines, Beth, wants the vocabulary? We have ‘out of this world', ‘swoop' and ‘paves the way'.
This is News Review from BBC Learning English. Let's have a look at our first headline. This is from 9 News Australia. So, this headline is saying that the International Space Station welcomed astronauts in this landmark mission — ‘landmark' means that it was very significant and important. But, what we are looking at is ‘out of this world' — an expression which contains lots of familiar words, but put together.
What's the meaning? Well, it's used as an adjective, and ‘out of this world' means ‘incredible'. In fact, it's so good that it's not even from this planet. So, the welcome that the astronauts received at the International Space Station was incredible. But, it's being used literally in this case — they were out of the world because they are in space.
And normally, we're not in space when we use this expression. So, we use it metaphorically. That's right. The headline writer is having a little bit of fun here because it is a story about space, and an expression about space. But, we can use in normal situations too. For example, Neil, yesterday I had a slice of cake.
It was incredible, it was out of this world. Well, I went to a concert and the music was out of this world. It was so good. Let's look at that again. Let's look at our next headline. This is from Futurism: So, this headline is about the Space X tourists arriving at the International Space Station. We are looking at the word ‘swoop'.
Now, Beth, ‘swoop' is something that birds do. It is. Yeah. So, ‘swoop' means to ‘fly easily, quickly and often downwards'. So, for example, if a bird swoops, it might be trying to catch a mouse. Yeah. So, this sounds like quite a kind of dramatic word. Why is it being used here? Well, the astronauts reached the International Space Station in a rocket, and ‘swoop' here means that they flew quickly, and they docked with the space station.
Now, take notes, though, because ‘swoop' doesn't always have to be used with flying does it? No, it can mean a sudden attack. So, for example, the police can swoop on a gang of criminals. It means that they can enter their house quickly. Let's look at that again. Let's have our next headline.
This is from Wired: So, this headline says that this mission might pave the way for a future commercial space station. We're looking at ‘pave the way' and ‘pave' means to create a hard surface to travel along. It does. You might know the word ‘pavement', which is the bit next to the road that you walk on.
But, ‘pave' in ‘pave the way' means create a metaphorical path. It's not real. Yes. So, it means to do something for the first time to create future possibilities. That's right. So, this expression is often used with science and experiments. Maybe there's a successful medical trial, and that paves the way for new drugs. That's right.
Let's look at that again. We've had ‘out of this world' — ‘incredible; very good'. ‘Swoop' — ‘fly quickly and efficiently'. And ‘paves the way' — ‘makes something possible'. If you want to watch another video about women is space, click here to learn about Mars.
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