We are looking at a new word every day that is being used in the British media about the Olympics. You can see a translation, example sentence and definition. Then read a short article containing the word and its common phrases. Plus learn a few more bits of vocabulary that a re written in bold and explained in the vocabulary glossary below Olympic Word of the day No#5 –
RELIEF
sollievo, alivio, soulagement, kabartma, помощь, 救済, 緩解, допомогу, ulga, ارتياح, megkönnyebbülés, ανακούφιση, рељеф, 구조, תבליט, úľava
Definition
Noun: a feeling of relaxation and reassurance after anxiety or distress Example: It was such a relief to get his exam results and get his place at university
Olympic Story
What a relief! The goldrush has finally started for the Olympic host nation and Team GB. First it was the rowing pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning and then the already legendary cyclist, Bradley Wiggins that landed Britiain's first gold medals of these games. There had been some earlier silver and bronzes won by the Brits, but the nation collectively breathed a sigh of relief as we finally came first in an event. Some great chances of placing first had already been wasted, most notably Mark Cavendish in the Road Cycling event, so it was a comfort to finally get the ultimate prize. Team GB management had predicted before the Games that we would collect around 70 medals, but they had already downgraded that estimate to around 60 after the first few days. I'm sure now, everyone is expecting that the floodgates will open and see the gold medals snowball. London 2012 Chairman, Sebastian Coe said that, "Winning is infectious" and that Team GB was now "in full stride". So, people in the UK are hoping that there's plenty more where that came from!
What's your opinion?
Will the Brits start to win lots of medals now? Is 60 medals too high an estimate?
Vocabulary Glossary
- goldrush
- here – winning lots of sporting events and gold medals being won
- to breathe/heave a sigh of relief
- to blow out air and make a osund to show that you are suddenly happy again after being worried about sth
- sth to waste sth
- to have the chance/opportunity to do sth good, but then not to do it, i.e. to miss the chance/dd>
- to downgrade sth
- to reduce sth to a lower level of grade or importance
- the floodgates will open
- after a long wait, suddenly it will be possible for sth to happen a lot
- to snowball
- to increase rapidly in size/importance
- infectious
- here – to quickly influence other people
- to be in full stride
- to be progressing at a good speed/ moving forward at the best speed
- there's plenty more where that came from
- there will be more than one occasion where this thing happens, in fact there will be LOTS more
