Hey everyone and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
My name is Oliver and today we are going to try something new.
What I am going to do is I am going to read you a news article in English.
And I'm going to read it slowly and more simply than usual.
And I will explain difficult words to you to help learn new vocabulary.
So I hope this will be helpful.
And I want you to let me know in the comments below or on Spotify comments in the question what do you think about this new style of episode?
Of course I won't do it every episode but, for example, if I did one of these per month, what you would think?
So let's get started.
I am going to read about something which happened in London last week.
So the title is Four Injured After... Oh, one second.
So the title is Four Injured as Runaway Military Horses Bolt Through Central London.
Okay.
Take a deep breath.
That is a difficult title with lots of complicated words.
But let's break it down.
So four injured.
This means four people were injured.
And to be injured is to get hurt.
So for example, to hurt your arm, to break your leg, to get hit in the head.
An injury is something bad happening to your body.
So something sore or something that hurts.
Let's continue with the title.
So four injured, four people injured as runaway military horses.
So runaway.
Runaway means that they have escaped.
They have got away from where they are meant to be. military horses.
These are horses that belong with the British military.
So, four injured as runaway military horses bolt through central London.
The last difficult word here is bolt, and this means to run very fast.
So four injured as runaway military horses bolt through central London.
We can read this, as four people have been hurt, as escaped horses ran across central London very fast.
And that is basically what this news title means.
So let's read a little bit about what happened.
Four people were taken to hospital after these five runaway horses.
So horses that got away threw off their riders.
So a rider is someone who is on the horse.
So they fell off the horses.
The horses got scared and started to run.
And they ran across the centre of London.
Can you imagine?
It must have been crazy to see.
And the horses caused chaos.
So lots of craziness, lots of problems as they roamed the city centre, so as they ran across the city centre,
And they hit vehicles, so cars, including a double-decker bus and taxi.
A double-decker bus is a double-deck bus.
So a bus with two floors.
And you might know some of these famous big red buses from London or England.
These horses, they damaged, they hit these cars and buses, which caused a lot of chaos, a lot of problems.
So why did this happen, you might ask?
Why were horses running wild, running crazy through the centre of London?
Well, what happened was there was a military exercise, a usual parade or exercise, and the horses became spooked, so scared by loud construction.
Lots of workmen, for example, working on the road or a building, and there was loud noise like do-do-do-do-do or a loud bang.
And this scared the horses and they started to run very fast.
Military officers said the horses had been recovered and returned to camp.
Recovered.
This means that they got them back.
They found them and got them. and brought them back to the camp.
The horses managed to run around five miles from where the incident began.
An incident is something which has happened.
So it may be a problem or something big that has happened.
Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
There was only four people with small injuries, which was good news.
And the horses are now receiving veterinary care.
So care for animals.
Like picture an animal hospital.
So they are helping the horses to get better again.
Okay, so that is all I'm going to read of the article.
I hope it wasn't too difficult.
At the time, I saw lots about this story.
There was lots of videos, as you can imagine, from London of people filming this on their phones and it seemed crazy, especially because it happened quite early in the morning.
The roads thankfully, were not too busy, and all you could see is these horses running through London on their own, which was really a crazy sight to see.
I would recommend watching some of these videos online.
You might find it very interesting.
Okay, let's summarize this story.
Four horses ran through London.
They were military horses and they were in a military exercise or parade, something like that.
The horses then got scared or spooked by loud construction noise so people working on a building or the road and then they started to run very fast.
The riders, the people on the horses fell off and onto the ground and the horses ran on their own through the roads of central London.
While they ran, They hit or collided with a bus, a double decker bus.
That is a bus with two floors and a taxi.
And then one person was injured.
So the riders were injured.
That means they got hurt and one member of the public, one person, random person.
The horses were then recovered, so they were found, they were caught, and returned to the camp.
And now they are in veterinary care, so in an animal hospital, getting better again.
I hope that was clear and that the summary helped to understand.
You can re-listen to this as many times as you need.
Let me know what you think of this type of episode in the comments below or in the question section on Spotify.
Thank you for listening and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Goodbye.
