More Brexit woes :-)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Ra-c46fwU7GJ5qQEP62rKSWn5S1GZoj/view?usp=drivesdk
Today's phrase is “to be at risk”. To be at risk. And to be at risk, means to be in a situation where there's a possibility of something negative. A negative outcome, which could be dangerous orcould be illness or maybe it's just something, which will expose you to a particular event that youdon't want.Now, just to clarify, to be at risk indicates exposure to circumstances which you may finddifficult. Let's do some examples so I can explain a little bit more. It's always better when wemake examples.If you don't study English. Then the English that you have may be at risk.An investor putting all their money into one place is at risk of losing their whole Investment.A student, who's struggling with his studies is at risk of falling behind in school.A homeless person who's sleeping on the streets is at risk of catching an illness or violence orexposure to bad weather conditions.To be at risk. Now, let's just pick up for a moment on this issue of your English being at risk. Forthose of you who know me, I'm very into creativity. I'm very much into this idea of bringingEnglish alive but if you simply study grammar all the time, just to make your English good,you're missing out on the practical examples and because of that Your English may be at risk.It becomes dry and uninteresting because you've spent your time just studying the rules aboutit, It's like walking around the swimming pool reading a book about swimming. And then saying,“okay, I know how to swim”. But yet, when you're in the water actually doing the swimming, it's alittle bit better.So of course with your English if you're simply walking around the edge saying,” ah, yes now Iknow how to make the present perfect”. It's not really going to help you. Just picking up again onthis idea of swimming... walking around the swimming pool saying, “Now I know how to do thisparticular type of swimming, the back stroke or the front stroke”. It would be better if someonejust pushed you into the water and then you would learn quickly and more easily. So that's oneway in which your studies could be at risk. Also, your job might be at risk. If your boss tells youthat the company is having problems.Now, let's look at a few examples of “at risk” from the media.... one headline in one of ournewspapers today is all about Brexit. They’re saying that because of Brexit, UK drug shortagesare putting lives at risk. Now, when it says drug shortages, it means medicine. In AmericanEnglish and here as well we often call very specific types of medicine,drugs. And it says here“drug shortages are a new normal in Britain caused by Brexit”. And, one of the advisors to theGovernment is saying that we need to be very careful because a recent surge in the number ofdrugs unavailable is creating serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, The Health Service andof course, the people who take them. There's a number of warnings from drug companies, that'smedicine supply companies. About impending supply problems..... impending means somethingthat's just about to happen.Last year 648, drugs were unavailable and that's risen now to 1634. Now I don't think I've readthat properly so I'm going to read exactly what it says here because it's not last year.It's from2020. It says “the number of warnings, drug companies have issued about impending supplyproblems has more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1634 last year”. So, It's 648 from 2020,not 2023. And it's saying this is becoming quite normal now particularly for Diabetes, Epilepsy.And Attention Deficit Syndrome.So, I don't know what's going to happen. You know, many of us here in the UK have diabetes.So that's a bit of a big issue. To be honest, I haven't heard of any problems in supply, where Iam. But it's saying that these are impending... waiting to come in.
