Learning English

Dam at risk of bursting

The tallest dam in the United States is damaged and may collapse. Thousands of people have been told to leave their homes while urgent repairs are carried out. 

Language challenge

Which of these clock idioms means '24 hours a day'?

a) round the clock
b) watch the clock
c) turn back the clock

Watch the video and complete the activity

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The story

Thousands of people living beneath the tallest dam in the United States have been ordered to leave their homes because a damaged overflow channel, or spillway, is in danger of collapse.

Engineers have been releasing water from the Oroville Dam in California and are using helicopters to drop rocks onto the site.

Key words and phrases

evacuate
leave a place because of danger

overflow
spill liquid because there's too much

race against the clock
try to complete something urgent in a short space of time

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here. 

Language challenge - answer

a) round the clock

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Pronunciation in the News - our video which takes a word from the latest news headlines and shows you how it's being said.