BBC Learning English
Words in the News
2 January 2013
The fruits of hard labour
Transcript:
The poignant fruits of a prison courtyard.
On South Africa's Robben Island, famous for its jail, volunteers are harvesting
vines planted in a garden once tended by its most famous inmate, Nelson
Mandela.
Over the years many people have been accused of trying to cash in on the
Mandela brand but the participants in this scheme see it as a way of cherishing
his memory.
Vocabulary:
poignant
causing a strong emotional feeling
tended by
looked after by
inmate
prisoner
to cash in on
to take advantage of a connection or association with a person or event, often
for financial gain
cherishing
affectionately protecting
Watch the video online: The fruits of hard labour http://bbc.in/X0pqOg
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Exercise:
Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from
news reports.
Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence
correctly.
poignant / tended by / inmate / to cash in on / cherishing
1. Alexander Solzhenitsyn described a day in the life of a prison camp
_______________ , Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.
2. The exercise courtyard of Saint-Martin-de-Re prison in western France is home to
a [vegetable] patch which prisoners are allowed _______________.
3. The spiralling cost of education in many parts of the world, coupled with the ease
of finding out about foreign courses on the internet, mean that more and more
students are deciding to study abroad.
And English-speaking nations like the Philippines are primed _______________
this trend.
4. We rightly _______________ our back yards and green spaces, and we'll
defend them passionately when projects are announced.
5. The bell towers - like that of Mirandola's Duomo, ravaged by gaping cracks - are
in some ways the most _______________ architectural victims of all.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Answers:
1. Alexander Solzhenitsyn described a day in the life of a prison camp inmate, Ivan
Denisovich Shukhov.
Source: Solzhenitsyn's One Day: The book that shook the USSR
http://bbc.in/QqzChk
2. The exercise courtyard of Saint-Martin-de-Re prison in western France is home to
a patch which prisoners are allowed to tend.
Source: French prisoners 'cultivated cannabis' at Saint-Martin-de-Re
http://bbc.in/NIuxel
3. The spiralling cost of education in many parts of the world, coupled with the ease
of finding out about foreign courses on the internet, mean that more and more
students are deciding to study abroad.
And English-speaking nations like the Philippines are primed to cash in on this
trend.
Source: The Philippines: The world's budget English teacher
http://bbc.in/Tryd7a
4. We rightly cherish our back yards and green spaces, and we'll defend them
passionately when projects are announced.
Source: Is Britain experiencing a golden age of engineering?
http://bbc.in/VxTOi0
5. The bell towers - like that of Mirandola's Duomo, ravaged by gaping cracks - are
in some ways the most poignant architectural victims of all.
Source: The race to save Italy's Renaissance treasures
http://bbc.in/10DFdmf
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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