News Exercise #293

1. What did the reporter say during the video of Johnson on the zipwire, and what did the final phrase mean?
2. How did Chris Mason describe Johnson’s private life?
3. What was is academic and occupational path before becoming Prime Minister?
4. As Mayor of London, what were examples of his success and failure?
5. What was said about the red bus?
6. Johnson’s ending sentence used two idioms both containing the word “kick”. What were the two idioms?

Answers:
1. What did the reporter say during the video of Johnson on the zipwire, and what did the final phrase mean?
“Boris Johnson has made a political career out of being different. (We) could have illustrated this with all sorts of pictures but this takes some beating.” The last part meant that the image of him on the zipwire perhaps illustrated him being different the most.
2. How did Chris Mason describe Johnson’s private life?
He said that it was a colourful and complex private life and that he was rather coy about it.
3. What was is academic and occupational path before becoming Prime Minister?
He went to Eaton (school), then Oxford, and he then became a journalist, a Member of Parliament, and then Mayor of London.
4. As Mayor of London, what were examples of his success and failure?
He reduced knife crime and the murder rate, but a “Garden Bridge” project that had cost tens of millions of pounds was cancelled.
5. What was said about the red bus?
During his Brexit campaign, he rode a bus stating that UK paid 350 million pounds a week to the EU, which could instead be used to fund the National Health Service – but it was untrue.
6. Johnson’s ending sentence used two idioms both containing the word “kick”. What were the two idioms?
“Kick the can again and we kick the bucket.” To “kick the can” means to procrastinate, and to “kick the bucket” means to die – either literally or metaphorically.