Hello, and welcome to news Review the program where we show you how to use the language from the latest news stories in your everyday English.

Hi, I'm Shaan.

And joining me today is Katherine.

Hi, Katherine.

Hi, Sean.

Hi, everybody.

What story do you have for us today?

Today?

Some.

We have a story about a very hot topic.

Can you guess what it is?

Let's find out from this.

BBC Radio Four News bulletin 2016 is on course to be the warmest year on record, and it will be the third year in a row that a new record has been set.

The findings were announced at a meeting of the U.

N Weather Agency's The World Meteorological Organization in Marrakech.

In Morocco, climate scientists said that although the El Nino weather phenomenon had had an impact, carbon emissions were the most significant factor.

16 of the 17 warmest years in history have been recorded this century, so a story there about the earth's temperature on 2016 is almost definitely going to be the hottest year since humans started recording the temperature peso A worrying story.

It's quite serious Yeah, on So what?

Words and phrases are being used by new sites online to talk about this story.

Okay, well, we're going to look at two groups of words.

The first group of three words all have a very similar meaning and the words are sweltering, sizzling on scorching.

Our second group of phrases also have very similar meanings to each other.

And they are on course on track, on on pace.

Okay.

And how were the first group of words appearing in the new stories?

Okay, so let's look at the headlines and we have global news.

Website tells us scorching 2016 on pace to be hottest year on record.

Secondly, from the Australian website In daily, we have sweltering 2016 to set heat record on In the story itself, we're told the world is set to notch up a new heat record in 2016 after a sizzling 2015.

All right, so we have scorching, sizzling and sweltering, which are all extreme adjectives, Meaning very, very, very hot.

Very, very, very hard.

Yes, on they all have pretty much a similar meaning Is not ones more extreme than the other, is it?

No, not at all.

All of the mean very, very, very hot.

They're not particularly graded.

So if you want to describe a situation where something is extremely hot, use the one use your favorite might.

Nice, because headlines convey vary their language with all these different synonyms they do.

And they're all quite dramatic as well.

Good for headlines.

Yeah, and as their extreme, we have to use an extreme adverbs.

We can't use very sweltering.

Can we not?

It'll know you would say absolutely scorching.

Now we've both got quite thick jumpers on today.

Well, it was Hold on the way to work this morning I waas in this office.

It's sweltering with all the light it is.

Yes, it is, Actually, I'm feeling quite warm as well.

Yeah, Patmore than quite warm.

This office this studio is sweltering, sweltering, scorching, sizzling on now sizzled.

What the what?

The verb sizzle makes me think of bacon sausages cooking.

You get a frying pan in particular.

So if you've got a pan, you're cooking it in a lots of oil in the pan and something that's quite fatty.

So when you put it in the pan, it goes spitting and hissing bubbling and smelling lovely, and the noise it makes in particular sounds like the word sizzle.

So sizzle means cooking something so that it's spitting and making a lot of frying noise.

So sausages sizzle, sizzle.

You're making me hungry.

I'm getting quite hungry as well.

Okay, so let's move on to the next group.

Yeah, that's then what do we have for the next group of words?

Okay, so let's go back to our headlines on We're looking at USA Today 2016 on track for hottest year on record.

Al Jazeera tellers 2016 on course to be hottest year on record on our final one.

Back to global news on, we have scorching 2016 on pace to be hottest year on record.

So almost identical headlines there, which tells her that the woods are probably pretty similar.

Yes, so we have on course on track and on pace.

Yep, and they mean happening in the way we expect, based on what's been happening until now, exactly that, Yes, so there's a kind of you know what's gonna happen.

The result will be because of what happened leading up to this moment.

Often it's used for plans So for plans, all things you want to happen.

So, for example, your school you want to get a final grade A at the end of the year.

If you look at all your essays and your great you've had so far, but maybe four A's and two B's.

So looking at that, you're likely to get a final grader.

You're on course to get a final Grade eight because you've had quite a few Grade A's up till now, so it's often quite positive.

But in these stories, it's not positive uses.

They used for something quite negative.

It is, and it's quite unusual, But I think it works, and they've used it because we're talking about the hottest year on record.

So it's kind of record is actually something that's never been done before, and often that's quite positive.

Think of Olympic athletes breaking records, so even though this result will be negative, we're using it in this kind of record way.

So, generally speaking on course and on track off a positive things here, it's being played around with a little bit.

Yeah, and we're using it here because 2016 isn't over yet.

We're in November so we can't say for definite because something may happen.

Yep, we may have a cold spell in in December.

Yeah, it may change it, but it's yucking likely.

It's looking very, very likely.

And that's a key with on course.

On track on Pace is looking very likely none coursing on track, a much more common not later than on pace.

Yeah, much more common.

Yes, on course.

On track.

Those are the ones we will see more often.

The newspapers chills on pace, but I think it's less less common.

Yeah, and it kind of if you think about the literal meaning of a course and track, it makes sense.

Doesn't execute on course on track.

You on a journey somewhere on a route.

Yeah, course under path are often literally like pavements, or you go to a stadium.

There's a running track where athletes runs.

It was literally what you move on.

Yeah, on what follows.

If we want to use a noun or a verb, what structure do we use yet?

We're with on course, and on truck you can use.

You can follow them by four plus a noun phrase, or you can follow them both by to be and a verb phrase, and it's the same for on pace, but again, just a little more unusual to see those structures.

Okay, thank you very much.

Now, before we recap, let's look at our Facebook challenge.

So we asked you.

We've been exploring some idioms related to track, which these track idioms can we use when we travel to places where not many people go a make tracks be lose track or C go off the beaten track?

What kind of responses did we have?

Fantastic responses.

Always.

We caught a few people out with make tracks.

A few people thought that the answer was make tracks that wasn't quite correct.

The answer we were looking for was answer C, which was, um, off the go off the beaten track for well done.

John Lopez, Aisha, Mark and Yuko, now Connie as well as everybody else who got that correct well done.

And to find out the meaning of those other two track idioms, go to our website BBC leading english dot com.

Now, before we make tracks, Catherine, can you recap of the words and phrases we've heard today?

Most definitely So we had sweltering, sizzling and sculpturing, which are all extreme adjectives, which means very, very hot.

Then we had on course, on track and on pace, which refer to things which are happening the way we expect them to, based on what has happened until now.

Okay, and if you'd like to test yourself on these words and phrases, go to our website BBC learning english dot com.

Now I think it's time for us to leave the sweltering studio.

So you soon.

Goodbye, Goodbye.

He's a review from BBC Learning English.