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Words
in the News
Wednesday 04 December 2002
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find
explanations of difficult words below.
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Tanker blacklist from Brussels
Summary: The European Commission has agreed to ban certain oil-carrying ships from its waters.
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The
News 
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There are time bombs circulating off our coastlines. That, according to the European transport commissioner, is what ageing, non-seaworthy ships are when they're carrying noxious cargo and they venture close to shore.
The European Commission is often the place for dry, technocratic announcements, but the Spanish commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, was angry. If European Union member states had listened to the Commission after the last oil spill three years ago, she said, the Prestige disaster would not have happened.
And so the Commission has today published a list of sixty-six ships which it says should be banned from European waters. Further, it wants an end to tankers with a single hull carrying heavy fuel oil. The problem, as the Commission accepts, is that heavy fuel oil is cheap and low-grade and that means there's reluctance to transport it in more expensive ships. There's also the old difficulty of persuading all European Union countries to act in unison.
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The
Words
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time bombs
things that will have a major effect on a situation at a later date, and cause a lot of damage
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Non-seaworthy
not fit for a sea voyage
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Noxious
harmful or poisonous
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Dry
dull and uninteresting
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Technocratic
overly technical
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Spill
leakage
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Single-hull
only one layer between the oil and the sea
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Reluctance
unwillingness
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In unison
in complete agreement
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Read
more about this story |
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Other Words in the News archives
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