Hello. This is Gill at engVid, and today we're going to have a lesson which involves reading
a news article. Okay? So, I'm going to show you a recommended website, which I think it would be a
very good one for you to look at on a regular basis. Okay? And there will be a quiz at the
end of this lesson, so be prepared for the quiz. And so let's just have a look then. I'll show you
the website. Here we go. So, this is the BBC News website, so it's the UK news service, the BBC,
which stands for British Broadcasting Corporation. And this is the... The website,
which is bbc.co.uk/news. I'm going to be reading this article with you today and explaining a few
things about the vocabulary in it, if there are any unusual words, maybe some idioms and metaphors
that you often find in a piece of written journalism. And I hope you find it an interesting
subject as well. So, okay. And also, just to say, the BBC News is a very high standard, so
the BBC always try to be accurate and well-balanced, unbiased. They try not to have
any political bias. They try to give you the full story and look at all the different aspects. Okay.
So, it's something you can go back to every day, if you like. And you can see at the top here,
there are different tabs you can click on to look for news in different subject areas as well. So,
it's a very good place to go, more or less. I look at it every day myself and read articles
all the time. Okay. So, the article we're looking at today, then,
comes from the 19th of June, 2019, so it's a little bit back in time. And it's... The title is
"Why are Nike trainers washing up on beaches?" Okay. So, it's a rather unusual subject about
Nike trainers washing up, like this, on beaches. So, there's a rather sad-looking Nike trainer,
all muddy, in a terrible state, which is washed up on a beach. So, let's have a look. So,
I also recommend reading aloud, which is obviously what I'm doing here, for you to hear me reading
the piece. If you read anything from the website or from anywhere else, I do recommend reading aloud
because it helps you to, kind of, experience the words vocally. Okay. So, I'm going to read
aloud, which is what I'm doing here, for you to, kind of, experience the words vocally,
not just inside your head, but you say the word and you hear yourself saying it, and I think it's
a very good thing to practice, even if you read maybe one or two paragraphs a day out loud in
English. It's very... Very good practice. Okay. So, that's what I'll be doing, obviously,
so I hope hearing me reading all these words aloud will be useful for you for pronunciation
purposes as well. Okay, so let's have a look then. So, here's the story.
Over the past year, from Bermuda and the Bahamas to Ireland and Orkney,
hundreds of pairs of unworn shoes have washed up on beaches. But how did they get there,
and why are scientists so interested in where they are being found? Okay, so we'll see a couple
of maps later on in the article. So, Bermuda, Bahamas, Ireland. Orkney is up in Scotland,
but we will see it on the map a little bit later. So, on both... Basically, on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda and the Bahamas on the western side of the Atlantic, and Ireland and
Orkney on the eastern side of the Atlantic, these shoes have been washing up on the beaches,
on the beaches, coming up out of the sea, and people have been finding them, which is a bit
of a mystery. But then we find out why it is by the end of the article. Okay, so let's have a look.
In September 2018, on Flores Island, in the remote Atlantic archipelago of the Azores,
Gui Ribeiro began noticing strange items washing ashore. So, the Azores are, you probably know,
islands in the Atlantic which belong to Portugal. Okay, so the name Gui Ribeiro is a typically
Portuguese name. Okay. Okay, so at first they appeared in small numbers and could be dismissed
as ordinary artefacts lost by individuals, mere flotsam among the churn of man-made waste that
inhabits the world's oceans. Okay, so the word artefacts, an artefact, it's usually a piece of
art, like an object, an ornament, or a statue, or something like that. But here they're using it
as just like an item, ordinary items lost by individuals. And then this word flotsam is very
unusual. It means things that float around on the surface of the water, usually rubbish. And
there's another word that goes with flotsam, although this writer hasn't used it. It's flotsam
and jetsam. So, you sometimes hear those two words together, flotsam and jetsam, that refer to the
same thing. And then the churn of man-made waste, it means things sort of going round and round.
If you think of the sea and the waves coming in and out all the time, anything floating on the
water is going to be sort of moving around, churning around. Okay. So, a lot of pollution,
sadly, in the oceans, including these shoes. Okay, so next paragraph. "Soon, though,
it became clear these Azorean arrivals were part of a greater group. Trainers, flip-flops,
and a selection of other footwear were appearing with a regularity that singled them out
from the other tidal deposits." So, trainers, I think everyone knows what trainers are,
sports shoes. Flip-flops are the ones that just flop around when you're walking,
and other footwear. Tidal deposits, the tide, that's the waves coming in and out,
so referring to the tide. Tidal deposits, meaning things washed up by the tide. Okay.
Okay, let's carry on. "They were the same brands in the same styles, and for some of the trainers,
at least, the same production dates were printed on a label sewn into the tongue of each shoe.
Moreover, every item of footwear appeared to have been unworn." Okay, so these shoes were all made
at the same time, same production dates from the factory. And the label sewn into the tongue of the
shoe, the tongue is the part where... When you lace up your shoe, and there's that piece that goes
under the lace, that's the tongue because it's, like, the shape of your tongue, like that. And
then this word "moreover", you may not be familiar with that. It just means "also" or "as well".
"As well as this, every item appeared to have been unworn", meaning nobody had ever worn them.
They weren't... They didn't look as if somebody's feet had ever been inside them, so they were new.
Apart from being damaged by the sea, they were completely new. Okay. So, "In the months that
followed, Mr. Ribeiro retrieved about 60 Nike trainers, along with a host of other brands."
So, again, "host" is a bit metaphorical. "A host" means "a lot", "a lot of other brands".
And news of the findings began to spread, so people started talking about it. So here's...
Here's a trainer in the sand, found on the west coast of Ireland. So that's just on the very
eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Ireland is here. Before you get to England, the mainland,
England, Wales, Scotland, here, you've got Ireland here. So Ireland is closer to the Atlantic than
we are here in England and the UK, the rest of the UK. So... Okay, so this guy in Ireland found
well over 100 shoes, so he found more than 100 shoes. Okay. So, "Seven months later and 1,400
miles", or you can say 1,400 miles is another way of saying that number, "2,250 kilometres away
in Cornwall, UK." So Cornwall is in the southwest of the UK. "Tracy Williams started noticing a
similar trend." Okay, similar thing happening. So she says, "A friend in Ireland asked me if I had
found any," says Miss Williams. "I went out the next day and found quite a few." Beach cleaners
or beachcombers tend to network. So if a certain item is washing up, we quickly find out about it
and we're then on the lookout. So beach cleaners, that's obvious, people who clean the beach.
Beachcombers, if you think of a comb that you put through your hair, beachcombers are people
who look very closely at everything they find on the beach. So she says these people tend to
network, meaning they communicate with each other, they share information. So they... the story
spreads between them. And then we're on the lookout, looking out for things they know what
they're looking for. Okay. So, "As well as the Azores and southwest England, specimens of this
scattered footwear flotilla have so far been found on beaches in Bermuda, the Bahamas, France, Ireland,
Orkney, and the Channel Islands." So this is both sides of the Atlantic, as I said earlier.
And the Channel Islands are just near the French coast. Okay. So this scattered footwear flotilla,
a flotilla is things floating. Quite often a group of boats or ships are called a flotilla.
It's a group of things all floating together. And I think also journalists like to play with
the sounds of the words. So footwear flotilla, two words beginning with F, you know, it's a bit
poetic really. Okay. And specimens, meaning examples of the shoes. Okay. "The source of
all these shoes is believed to be a single ship. Through the research I have done," Mr. Ribeiro
says, "everything indicates they may have been from some of the 70 to 76 containers
that fell overboard from the Maersk, Shanghai." Okay. So big containers, if you think a big ship
has more than 70 big metal containers with shoes inside them, that actually fell overboard into
the sea, fell off the ship into the sea. Okay. So, "In early spring last year, the Maersk,
Shanghai, a 324-meter, 1,063-foot vessel capable of carrying more than 10,000 shipping containers
was traveling from Norfolk, Virginia, down the east coast of the U.S.", that's USA, America,
"to Charleston, South Carolina." So going down the coast, the east coast of America.
"On the evening of the 3rd of March, 17 miles from the Oregon Inlet, off the coast of North
Carolina, it was caught in a storm. While battling high winds and rough seas, a stack of its cargo
laden containers toppled overboard." So battling high winds, a battle is usually people fighting
with weapons as well, guns, and so on. But the ship, metaphorically, the ship was fighting against
the... The strong winds and the rough seas, and some of the containers fell off into the sea.
Okay. So here's another nice picture of a... Here's a flip-flop, the sort that flops around when you're
walking. And it says, "Which appears to have had bites taken out of it." Something's been eating
it. You can see little bits of damage here. I don't know what has been eating it, maybe some
sea creatures. And I don't know... This looks a little bit like seaweed, this green stuff that's
got stuck to it, and bits of wet sand. So this is Tracy Williams' photo from, I think, from Cornwall.
Okay. So, "At the time, the Maritime Trade Press reported that aircraft crews sent to locate the
missing containers had found nine of them, nine containers floating, but that seven had later sunk."
So maritime, meaning anything to do with the sea, anything happening on the sea,
they reported this missing containers floating, but then out of those nine, seven actually went
down to the seabed. Okay. "It is not possible to say with certainty all the recovered footwear
originated from the Maersk Shanghai. The vessel's operator, Zodiac Maritime, did not respond to BBC
questions on the matter." Sometimes the BBC say this. They've asked somebody to answer a question
and they don't get a response, and they tell everybody about it. They did not respond to BBC
questions on the matter. So you think, "Ah, okay." So anyway, "Nike also chose not to comment when
contacted." So that's two people who didn't want to respond, because it's a bit embarrassing for
them, I suppose. Okay. So, "However, two footwear brands, Triangle and Great Wolf Lodge, confirmed
the examples of their products that had been retrieved did originate from the ship." So at
least they were prepared to admit that it was some of their products. "And Mr. Ribeiro is not the
only beach cleaner to be convinced they came from the Maersk Shanghai. Liam McNamara from County
Clare on the west coast of Ireland has found well over a hundred shoes, mostly Nike trainers, that
in his opinion most definitely came from that vessel. One company has admitted to losing stock
from that shipment, and another admitted losing stock at sea," he says. "They've been turning up
all over the place." So this "turning up" is a slightly informal phrasal verb, but it's a very
... The phrasal verb "to turn up" means "to appear". So it's... It's a more informal way of saying,
not "they've been appearing all over the place", but "they've been turning up". It's... It's a
phrasal verb, a more conversational way of saying it. Okay. And then this lady, Tracy Williams from
Cornwall, says, "It would be good if companies could be more open about cargo spills, if they
could put their hands up and say, 'Yes, there's been an incident.'" "Put their hands up", again,
a bit metaphorical, but it means they... They should admit, they should be honest and say,
"Yes, there has been an incident. We did lose some shoes." Okay. So, what impact can events like this
have? Whatever it is, if it is sinking to the bottom of the sea or washing up on beaches,
it's going to have a detrimental impact to the marine wildlife, says Lauren Iles from
the Marine Conservation Society. So, this is the pollution issue. Detrimental impact means a bad
effect on the marine wildlife, meaning the fish and other sea creatures in the sea. All that
plastic isn't going to be good for the... The creatures living in the sea. So, she continues,
"The shoes will be breaking down to microplastics over years, which will have huge impacts on the
amazing wildlife we have, both in the UK and worldwide. Estimates vary, but it is thought
about 10 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans each year." Okay. So, "to end up", that's
another phrasal verb, meaning they arrive, they get into the sea. Their final destination is the
sea, "to end up somewhere", which is a bad thing when it's plastic in the sea. "Asked how big a
role container spills play in that pollution, Miss Iles says it is not fully understood." So,
how much, you know, containers falling into the sea, how often does that happen?
She says, "I don't think there's enough data on it to draw proper conclusions", she explains.
So, there's not enough information to be sure how serious it is. But here's a map anyway, to show,
here's the Atlantic Ocean. So, there's the Azores, and they belong to Portugal, which is here.
And then there's Bermuda and the Bahamas on the western side of the Atlantic. There's North
America. Here's the UK and Europe, and Ireland there, North and South, Northern Ireland, and
then the Republic of Ireland. So, things are arriving on the coast of Ireland here. And then
there's a bigger map here of that. So, here's Cornwall. Here's the west coast of Ireland.
There's the coast of France, Brittany. The Channel Islands are just off the coast of France.
And here's Orkney, one of the islands in the north of Scotland. So, all of these places,
shoes have been... have been washing up on their beaches. Okay. Now, this next section,
I'm not going to read all of it. So, I suggest that because there's a quiz, and I'll be asking
questions in the quiz partly from this section, I suggest that you go to the link yourself after
this lesson and read this in more detail so that you're able to answer all the questions in the
quiz, because I know you'd love to get 10 out of 10. So, you'll need to do that to get the full
marks. Okay. So, we'll skip this bit because we're a bit short of time now. And then here's
another nice map. Don't you love maps? I do. Showing the currents in the sea, the way the sea
moves around. And this is how these shoes have been moved around from place to place, round and
round in circles sometimes, I think. So, you've got the Canary Current there, the North Equatorial
Current, and then the Gulf Stream going round like this. Okay. Right. So, I think also this
section two, we're a bit short of time, so if you'd like to read that section as well, it's all
very interesting information. Okay. And then here's a picture of the sea. So, you've got the
picture of someone, if that's Tracey Williams herself, then someone else must have taken the
photo, but there she is keeping her local beach clean and doing a very nice job. It's beautifully
clean and a lovely picture of the sea there in Cornwall, in the southwest of the UK. So,
let's just finish at the end here. So, for Miss Williams, who goes down to clean beaches near her
home in Newquay, Cornwall, multiple times a day, there is no easy solution.
"Nobody wants their goods spread across beaches and polluting the ocean," she says.
"But I think it would be good if companies could be more open about cargo spills, if they could
put their hands up and say, 'Yes, there has been an incident.'" So, we read this earlier.
"These things are going to happen, but there doesn't seem to be any responsibility when they
do," Mr. McNamara adds. So, I mean, what can you do if a container has fallen and sunk,
gone to the bottom of the sea? It would be expensive to get it back, but, you know. Anyway,
"The bottom line has to go back to the shipping companies. They're responsible for their cargo."
Okay. So, the bottom line also is a metaphor, an idiom, and it comes from accounting, adding
up figures. When you do accountancy, you have columns of figures, and then you get a total
at the bottom. And usually in accounts, it might be income and expenditure, it might be profit
and loss. And in any company, the profit is really important, obviously, to stay in business.
So, the bottom line means that the total, hopefully, the profit you've made in the year
is more than the money you've had to spend during the year. Otherwise, the company can be in
trouble. So, that's the bottom line, meaning the important thing, the bottom line has to go back
to the shipping companies. They're responsible for their cargo. Okay. And then just to show you
at the bottom here, this is a very good feature on the BBC News website. You have these related
topics, topics relating to the article that we've just read. So, it means you can look at any of
these and click through to them and read more about the particular places, the shipping industry,
trainers, Nike, pollution in the ocean, plastic pollution, generally. So, it's a very well
designed website. I really do recommend it. I hope you'll have a look at it and find topics
of interest for yourself. So, there we are. So, I hope you've enjoyed that reading, and
do have a look at the quiz. I hope you found it an interesting subject. And I do think the BBC
website, you know, it's very educational. You learn a lot just from reading articles on there,
on different subjects. You'll become, you know, very well informed on a lot of different subjects.
And of course, you'll be reading it in English, which is, again, helping you with your English
vocabulary as well, and English style, good style of writing, and so on. Okay. So, I hope that's
been interesting for you. Thank you for watching. Do subscribe if you haven't already, and see you