BBC Learning English

Words in the News

Challenges remain after Sandy
5 November 2012
It's a week since superstorm Sandy hit the US east coast and the day before the
general election around a million people are still without power. Temperatures have
been dropping and tens of thousands of people need to find new homes. From New
York, Alastair Leithead reports.
The clean-up is still going on across New York and New Jersey a week after
superstorm Sandy smashed into the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands of
people are still without power, tens of thousands will have to find
accommodation as their houses are ruined and temperatures are dropping fast.
There's an urgency to the clean-up operation as another storm is forecast to
hit the region later in the week. Officials say they hope there'll be the
minimum amount of disruption on election day. Polling stations are being
moved, generators brought in for the electronic voting machines, but turnout
is expected to be lower in places where there's still no power, or people
have been driven from their homes.

Words in the News

bbclearningenglish.com

British Broadcasting Corporation 2012

Page 1 of 2

Vocabulary and definitions

clean-up

the process of cleaning or tidying something

smashed

made something loudly break into many pieces

dropping

falling

urgency

sense of urgent necessity

disruption

confusion or disorder

polling stations

places where you go to vote

generators

machines which produce electricity

turnout

the number of people who vote in an election or

attend an event

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/11/121105_witn_sandy_challenges.shtml

Read more about this story online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20201687

Words in the News

British Broadcasting Corporation 2012

Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com