英语听力精选进阶版 13864

BBC Learning English 

Words in the News  

13 June 2012 

Psychic¹ fish 

Transcript: 

First there was Paul the Octopus² predicting World Cup results two years ago… 

Now a psychic fish in Singapore is being used to forecast the scores of matches 

at Euro 2012. 

The dragonfish, known as Big Huat, was spot on with one-all for the football 

tournament’s opener between Poland and Greece. 

Its younger nephew, though, was wide of the mark suggesting the Poles would 

win. 

Vocabulary: 

predicting  

saying something will happen in the future  

psychic  

having the ability to predict the future  

forecast  

statement of what will happen in the future  

spot on  

exactly right  

wide of the mark  

wrong  

Exercise: 

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from 

BBC news reports.  

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence 

correctly. 

predicting / psychic / forecast / spot on / wide of the mark 

1.  Former President Franklin D Roosevelt may have been __________ when he 

declared: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But markets driven by fear 

are never pretty.  

2. The Met Office has __________ heavy rain for the East, South West and 

South East of England including London. 

3. Emma is an intelligence officer who works at MI5's headquarters with people 

like Shami who are out on the ground. Like Shami, her preconception of MI5 was 

__________.  

4. A prominent scientist thinks that pets have a __________ ability that gives 

them a telepathic relationship with their owners. 

5. Some are __________ that the outcome³ will affect the outcome of 

November's presidential election. 

Answers:  

1.  Former President Franklin D Roosevelt may have been spot on when he 

declared: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But markets driven by fear 

are never pretty.  

2. The Met Office has forecast heavy rain for the East, South West and South 

East of England including London. 

3. Emma is an intelligence officer who works at MI5's headquarters with people 

like Shami who are out on the ground. Like Shami, her preconception of MI5 was 

wide of the mark.  

4. A prominent scientist thinks that pets have a psychic ability that gives them a 

telepathic relationship with their owners. 

5. Some are predicting that the outcome will affect the outcome of November's 

presidential election. 

1 psychic   

n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的

参考例句：

• Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
• She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能，能预知未来。

2 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

3 outcome   

n.结果，出口，演变

参考例句：

• The outcome of the experiment is in the lap of the gods.实验结果尚难预料。
• The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。