Today's Headlines:

EU and Africa heads discuss migrant crisis

Russia's weapons threat

Rare diamond sells for more than $28m

Transcript:

More than 60 leaders from Europe and Africa are in Malta for a two-day summit on how to stem the flow of migrants into the European Union. The European Commission is offering €1.8bn to start a trust fund for development in Africa.

President Putin has declared that Russia is working on weapon systems that can penetrate any anti-missile shields: relations with the West, it seems, still deteriorating. Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern over the expansion of an American ballistic missile defence system into Eastern Europe. At a meeting of Russian defence chiefs, he said his country would take all necessary retaliatory steps.

A rare pink diamond – the largest of its kind ever to appear at auction – has sold for $28.5m. The cushion-shaped diamond weighing 16 carats and graded vivid fancy pink was the star lot at a Christie's jewellery sale in Geneva. The price narrowly beat its pre-sale estimate that was $23m to $28m. The diamond, owned by an American family, has been bought by an unidentified Hong Kong buyer who is said to have named it 'The Sweet Josephine'.

Words and phrases and definitions:

stem the flow
stop the movement

deteriorating
becoming worse

retaliatory steps
action to harm someone because they have harmed you

star lot  
(here) most popular item in an auction

Exercise:

Use one of the words or phrases from Lingohack to complete each of these sentences. Note that you may have to change the form of a word or phrase to complete the sentence correctly.

stem the flow / deteriorating / retaliatory steps / star lot

1. We decided not to walk up the mountain when we saw the weather was _______ .

2. There was so much rain that we had to use blankets and towels to try to _______ of water coming under the door.

3. I decided to bid for the ________ but someone else offered a much higher price.

4. I told my lawyer to take ________ against the newspaper that published false stories about me.

Answers:

1. We decided not to walk up the mountain when we saw the weather was deteriorating.

2. There was so much rain that we had to use blankets and towels to try to stem the flow of water coming under the door.

3. I decided to bid for the star lot but someone else offered a much higher price.

4. I told my lawyer to take retaliatory steps against the newspaper that published false stories about me.