The Coronavirus

and Bournemouth

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

heat	look like	degree (2)
selfish	impatient	bad/worse/worst
declare	incident	resurgence
defy	gridlock	temporary
advice	drunken	emergency
storm	lockdown	incredible
rule	marshal	see/saw/seen
phase	standby	nightmare
easing	waste (2)	going out the window
undo	achieve	social distancing
risk	concern	get on top of it
spread	major (2)	think/thought/thought (2)
law	stay away	a cause for concern
venue	licensing	welcome (2)
extend	keep safe	residential
hope	customer	take away (2)
head to	outbreak	make sense
feasible	model (3)	at the end of the day (2)
wet	outbreak	dispensary
tempt	capacity	know/knew/known
coast	wave (3)	get our feet wet
deal (2)	concern	start up (2)

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Baking with little else to do.

This is what almost thirty-three (33) degree heat looks like after three months of lockdown — Bournemouth Council’s worst nightmare.

A major incident declared after thousands of people defied advice to stay away. Illegal parking, thirty-three (33) tons of waste, drunken fights and gridlock on the roads.

Dorset Official: “These are incredible numbers. I mean beautiful. Dorset is a beautiful place to go . . . but half-a-million people; it’s the product of a perfect storm really. And some of the actions that we’ve seen, very selfish behavior that we’ve seen on Bournemouth, is not what Britain should be about during this emergency.”

Further down the coast in Brighton, marshals were on standby, ready to shut down the beach should similar crowds occur.

Impatient for the next phase of lockdown easing, social distancing rules seem to be going out the window.

Could this undo everything we’ve achieved in lockdown?

Medical Expert: “The closer people are together, the greater the risk is that the virus will spread. And we’ve seen a resurgence of covid-19 in countries around the world that thought they got on top of it. So this is a real cause for concern.”

Hot and nowhere to go, this is what you get.

Government plans to temporarily change licensing laws so that more restaurants, pubs and cafe will be able to serve food and drinks outside from July the fourth are certainly welcome.

Of course that only works at venues that have the space to extend out into. On a residential street with little room outside, the best Brighton Beer Dispensary can hope for is that its customers still want take aways.

Even on the Fourth of July, people we let into the pub is really tiny; we don’t have a massive capacity. So it doesn’t make sense for us here to start up again. It’s just not feasible really. It’s not a good business model for us.

At the end of the day, it’s all about keeping everyone safe. That’s what we want. Nobody wants to be the first pub to have to deal with a big outbreak, you know.”

Without foreign holidays and with temperatures higher than Ibiza, as tempting as it might be to head to the coast to get our feet wet, there’s genuine concerns scenes like these could a second wave of outbreaks.

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Questions

1. England always have cold, rainy weather. True or false?

2. “It’s the product of a perfect storm really. And some of the actions that we’ve seen, very selfish behavior that we’ve seen on Bournemouth.”

“Impatient for the next phase of lockdown easing, social distancing rules seem to be going out the window.” What does these statements mean? Describe the situation in

3. Besides spreading the coronavirus, were there other negative aspects of the going to the beach?

4. Law enforcement officials told everyone to disperse and go home, or be arrested. Is this right or wrong?

5. Do health experts and government officials agree with the beach goers? Do they sympathize with them?

6. The pub owners are very optimistic. Is this correct or incorrect?

7. What may be the consequence of having fun at the seaside?

 

A. In my country or region, people enjoy going to the beach. Yes or no?

B. Have authorities imposed strict lockdowns? What happened?

C. How do people feel about staying indoors? How do they feel about staying home from school and work?

D. Every nation faces a dilemma. What do you think?

E. What should governments and people do?

F. What might happen in the future?