BBC Learning English – Words in the News / A good year for smelly fruit

Transcript

It may look delicious but this fruit’s pungent smell makes it an acquired taste.

Durians, the so-called “king of fruits”, are something of a national obsession in Singapore.

And 2015 is shaping up to be a very good year for durian lovers, with a bumper crop in neighbouring Malaysia.

That means prices are coming down and sales are going up – much to the delight of buyers and sellers alike.

That’s it from me. I’ll leave you with today’s words and phrases once again.

Vocabulary

pungent
strong and unpleasant taste or smell

an acquired taste
something you start liking the more you try it

is shaping up
developing into

bumper crop
larger amount of fruit than normally grows

delight
great pleasure/ happiness

To do

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports.

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

pungent/ an acquired taste/ is shaping up/ bumper crop/ delight

1. Apple growers in Worcestershire say they are harvesting a __________ due to almost perfect weather conditions.

2. Residents in Ryde, Isle of Wight, have been living with a stench from rotting seaweed which smells like raw sewage. The warm weather has made the odour from the seaweed so __________ it is making people feel sick.

3. More than 330 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in the UK in the year to April 2015 – a third more than the previous year. Crucially, the average age of those being arrested has been falling, with almost a fifth under 20. In other words, given that the self-proclaimed caliphate isn’t going away anytime soon, this ____________ to be an enduring security problem.

4. With more than half the ballots in, results from the Greek referendum suggest voters have decisively rejected the terms of an international bailout.For “No” voters, as these pictures show, there was __________ at the result.

5. Higgs’ vocals are something of __________. They flit flamboyantly between a raspy alto and the keening siren of his falsetto. One review of the new album called it “almost unlistenable” as a result – although the vast majority of critics awarded it five star ratings.

Answers

1. Apple growers in Worcestershire say they are harvesting a bumper crop due to almost perfect weather conditions.

See story

 2. Residents in Ryde, Isle of Wight, have been living with a stench from rotting seaweed which smells like raw sewage. The warm weather has made the odour from the seaweed so pungent it is making people feel sick.

See story

3. More than 330 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in the UK in the year to April 2015 – a third more than the previous year. Crucially, the average age of those being arrested has been falling, with almost a fifth under 20. In other words, given that the self-proclaimed caliphate isn’t going away anytime soon, this is shaping up to be an enduring security problem.

See story

4. With more than half the ballots in, results from the Greek referendum suggest voters have decisively rejected the terms of an international bailout.For “No” voters, as these pictures show, there was delight at the result.

See story

5. Higgs’ vocals are something of an acquired taste. They flit flamboyantly between a raspy alto and the keening siren of his falsetto. One review of the new album called it “almost unlistenable” as a result – although the vast majority of critics awarded it five star ratings.

See story

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