It’s been a busy month in the news and there have been a lot of interesting stories all over the world. Here’s some of he most interesting vocabulary that I’ve spotted in the news over the last few weeks.
Hacked someone hacked into Twitter and stole the user details of up to 250,000 people. We can use ‘hacked’ to describe when someone gets access to a computer system illegally. This article also uses the word ‘breached’ to talk about the hackers breaking through the protection on the site.
Standoff there was a standoff in the US when a man kept a boy hostage and wouldn’t let him go. A standoff is a situation where no progress is made because people refuse to compromise, are too evenly matched or are waiting to see what the other person will do next.
To break a record Garrett McNamara broke the record for surfing the biggest wave in the world. To break a record is when you do something bigger or better than the previous biggest or best. This is nice pun when talking about waves because when a wave becomes white foam, we say it has ‘broken’, so the headline has a double meaning.
Unveil Iran unveiled a new fighter plane. ‘Unveil’ means to show something for the first time. In the past, sculptures and paintings were covered with fabric (a veil), then the fabric was removed (they were unveiled) when they were shown to the public for the first time. Now we use it for showing other things, too. For example, Blackberry unveiled their new phones to the public. Are you going to buy one?
Did you spot any other interesting words or phrases in the news this month?
image: NS Newsflash
