Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hello Catherine. Hello Neil. Hello everybody.

  Yes, today we've got a weather story. Snow is all over the place in Spain. It's causing massive（厚重的） problems, especially in the area of the capital, Madrid. OK. And if you want to test yourself on any of the vocabulary you learn in today's programme, there's a quiz on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Now, let's hear more about that story from this BBC Radio report.

  That came as a welcome sound to the thousand or so drivers rescued（营救） in their vehicles overnight（一夜）, snow being cleared（清除） from the roads. More than 400 trunk roads are blocked（堵塞）. Bus services in and around the capital have been suspended（延缓） for the day. The mayor（市长）, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, has asked for the army to send in more soldiers to help, but he's also appealed（呼吁） to people to stay home. It could be that snow proves（证明） the great enforcer（实施者）. Movement restrictions（ 限制） are being imposed（把…强加） on 23 more zones（地区） around Madrid from Monday to combat coronavirus.

  Yes, so storm Philomena has hit Spain. It has caused snow chaos（混乱）, in particular in Madrid. Lots and lots of drivers were stuck（刺） in their cars overnight（一夜）. The mayor of Madrid has called in the army to help. It is thought that people, because people can't move, it's going to help in the fight against coronavirus. OK.

  Well, we've got three words and expressions from the headlines（大字标题） connected to this story that can help you talk about it. What are they? We have blankets（毛毯）, reeks, havoc（ 大破坏） and swathes. Blankets. Reeks, havoc and swathes. OK.

  Let's start with your first headline with that word 'blankets', please. We're starting in the US. From Voice of America, the headline is 'Storm Philomena blankets most of Spain with snow'. Blankets covers completely with a layer（层） of something. Yes. B-L-A-N-K-E-T-S and it's a verb, 'to blanket'.

  Yeah, it's a verb. But I know what this thing 'blanket' is as a noun. It's a piece of material that you can cover yourself with to stay warm. So, what's this got to do with snow? You know, it's not warm. Yes, a blanket is normally that big piece of fabric（织品）, usually made of wool（羊毛） or something soft and cosy.

  You put a blanket on your bed or if you're kind（种类） of having a sofa a day, you might get a blanket and cover yourself and it keeps you nice and warm and cosy. Well, the idea is not to be warm and cosy, but it is connected to being covered with something, completely covered with something. So, if you have a blanket on your bed, it will completely cover your bed. And this is the idea, if something is blanketed in snow, if an area is blanketed in snow, it's covered, completely covered in snow. So, not a little bit, but a lot. And we often see these words together, don't we?

  Blanket and snow, also ash（灰）. Yes, when volcanoes erupt（喷出）, like the very famous Mount（山峰） Vesuvius that erupted（喷出） and blanketed the city of Pompeii with ash（灰）. So, moving back to this word 'blanket' as a noun, we can also use it in the expression 'a blanket of something' and that means that the something is the thing that makes up the blanket. Exactly, yes. So, a blanket of snow is covering the city of Madrid right now. Yes, that's right.

  We use 'with' or 'in' in connection（连接） with this word. Yes, you can blanket something with something or you can blanket something in something. And we often use this word in the passive（被动的）, we can say 'Madrid is blanketed with snow' or 'Madrid is blanketed in snow'. OK. Let's have a summary（概要）. We have another story about snow and rescues, this time about some tourists who got stuck on the top of Britain's tallest mountain.

  Where can our viewers（观察者） find this? Yes, the people who got stuck on top of the mountain, all they were wearing is trainers, on their feet at least, and you can find out more by clicking（点击） the link. OK. Let's have a look at your second headline, please. Yes, we're in Germany now with Deutsche Welle, the headline 'Storm Philomena Blankets Spain with Snow and Reeks Havok'. Reeks Havok causes chaos or damage（损害）.

  And we can see also that word 'blankets' that we've just looked at in this headline. But we're looking at reek havoc here. Yes. So, reeks havoc causes chaos or damage. It's a two-word expression. The first word is reeks, W-R-E-A-K-S, and the second word 'havok', H-A-V-O-C.

  So, let's look at this second word, havoc. Havok means chaos, complete disorder（混乱）, pandemonium, complete and total（全部的） mess（混乱）. And the verb reek means cause. So, if you reek havoc, you cause complete and total destruction（破坏）, chaos, a mess. So, in this case, we can say that the snow in Madrid has reeked havoc. It has caused chaos.

  People can't move anywhere. There may well be power cuts（ 伤口）. People can't get to work. There's lots and lots of problems caused by this snow. So, reeks havoc means causes a really difficult, chaotic（混乱的） situation. Now, these two words, reek and havoc, they are what we call a very strong collocation.

  They go together. These words go together very strongly（强烈地）. Very strongly indeed（真正地）. There are not many other English words that you will use after the verb reek, but reeks havoc is a very strong phrase. Now, we've used it in this Spanish example here to describe a very serious situation, but we can also use it for kind of personal situations. If somebody's cooking in your kitchen and you go into the kitchen and you see pots（锅） and pans（平底锅） and dishes everywhere and packets（小包(裹)） and things, food on the floor, you can say, 'My God!

  They've reeked havoc in the kitchen.' And it just means they've made lots of mess. Yeah. And this lockdown, lots of people have noticed this lockdown has reeked havoc on my hair, Catherine. Yes, it has. Most definitely.

  I've watched it getting worse and worse over the weeks and months. Yes. I would like to point（指向） out to everybody that it is not possible to get a haircut at the moment, and this is too much of a mess for me to deal with on my own. Yes. We're going to need industrial（工业的） hair clippers（ 快速帆船） for you, Neil. No pair of scissors is strong enough.

  Okay（好）. There is another word, reek, which is spelled differently, but sounds exactly the same. It has a very different meaning. Yes, r-double-e-k. If something reeks, it smells very strongly and usually quite badly. But it's a completely different – r-e-e-k, not to be confused（使混乱） with w-r-e-a-k.

  Okay. Let's get a summary of that word. So, as we all know, the coronavirus has been reeking havoc across the world and has been for about a year now, and it's also having a really bad effect on people's mental（智力的） health. We have a programme about that if you are interested. We do. Where can our viewers find it?

  Yes. To see more about this topic, just click the link and you'll go straight there. Time now for our next headline. And we're finally looking at Euronews, the headline in pictures. 'Swaths of Spain under drifts（漂流） of snow as weather alerts（ 警报） remain（剩下） in place.' Swaths.

  Large areas. Yes. Swaths. S-W-A-T-H-E-S. The pronunciation is particularly（特别） noteworthy. 'Sway（ 摇摆）-thz'.

  And it's got that 'v-z' at the end. Neil, would you like to demonstrate（证明）? Yes. Two challenging（ 具有挑战性的） sounds for a lot of learners. At the end of the word, we have 'v' followed by 'z'. 'Sway-thz'.

  Yes. And the S-W at the beginning doesn't make it any easier. One more time, it's 'sway-thz'. Now, 'sway-thz' means large areas, often of land. So, we can have large areas. 'Sway-thz' of land.

  'Sway-thz' of forest. 'Sway-thz' of countryside（乡下）. 'Sway-thz' of trees. And it literally（照字面地） means large areas. In this example, we're talking about 'sway-thz' of Spain, I think it said. Yep.

  'Sway-thz' of Spain means large areas, or Spain, or covered in snow. Yep. So, 'sway-thz' followed by 'of' and then the thing. Yes. This is about large areas, isn't it? So, I couldn't say 'sway-thz' of my garden are covered in weeds（杂草）.

  But if I did say that, it would mean that I had a huge garden, and I can tell you I don't... You wouldn't be working here, Neil, if you had 'sway-thz' of land. Yeah. So, it's about very large areas. Let's get a summary. Time now for a recap of our vocabulary, please, Catherine.

  Yes. We had 'blankets' – covers completely with a layer of something. We had 'reaks' – havoc – causes chaos or damage. And finally, we had 'sway-thz' – large areas.