Learning English

Brazil wins a gold medal in athletics

Da Silva shocks the crowd by winning the men's pole vault final, giving Brazil its first athletics gold medal of the Olympic Games.

Language challenge

Complete this idiom to describe someone who is embarrassed:

She has egg on her…

a) face
b) head
c) brain

Watch the video and complete the activity

The story

In Rio, the Brazilian pole vaulter, Thiago Braz da Silva has won the host country its first athletics gold medal of the games. In a thrilling final, he broke the Olympic record to defeat the world record holder Renaud Lavillenie of France.

Steve Backley - BBC commentator

The whole of Brazil will be egging this man Da Silva to go clear. A national record beckons 6.03 second attempt. He's got it! No way in your life have you ever seen drama such as this.

Note: Steve misses out the preposition on after egg here. 

Key words and phrases

an upset
when someone beats the team or player that was expected to win

pull something off
to succeed in doing something that is difficult

egg somebody on
encourage someone or urge someone to do something (especially something they shouldn't do)

pandemonium
a situation in which there is a lot of noise or craziness because people are excited, angry, or frightened

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

Downloads

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Language challenge - answer

The answer is: a) She has egg on her face

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Lingohack - our video which teaches you words from the news using the latest BBC World News bulletins.