10 Serious incidents

BBC Learning English
How to…
Tell someone about a serious incident Neil:

Hello, welcome to ‘How to…’ with me, Neil Edgeller. In this programme we’ll take a look at how to tell friends, or people you know quite well, about serious things which have happened to you. Perhaps you’ve been unlucky enough to have been attacked, or maybe you’ve seen something frightening, like a road accident. How do you introduce the topic to your friends? How do you tell the story, and how do you finish it? Listen and find out more in this week’s How to…

Neil:

I’ve just come into the office here at BBC Learning English after the weekend and asked my colleagues how they are. Unfortunately, something serious has happened to each of them. First of all, listen to
Carrie. What happened to her?

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Neil, you’ll never guess what’s happened this morning. I was on the train on the way into work just coming into London and about five minutes before we got into the station there was this huge bang and the train just came off the rails I think. Everybody was thrown about, luggage got thrown about and it was so scary. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.
Neil:

Carrie was in a train accident. People and luggage were thrown about the train and it was very scary. How did she start telling the story? She says,
“Neil, you’ll never guess what’s happened this morning.”

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Neil, you’ll never guess what’s happened this morning.
Neil:

This is a good way of introducing shocking and serious events to a friend or colleague you know quite well. It’s for informal situations. After she

How to…
Tell someone about a serious incident

© BBC Learning English 2007
Page 1 of 4 bbclearningenglish.com introduces it, she can then tell the story. At the end, she comments on the story. Insert
…it was so scary. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.
Neil:

She says, “…it was so scary. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.

…” It’s typical with