The world’s five biggest oil companies made profits of 60 billion dollars in three months. This news comes at the same time as energy bills for consumers continue to rise to record levels.
Neil and Beth look at the vocabulary used in the headlines about this story.
Key words and phrases
profiteering
making large, unfair profits
- That bank is profiteering. A 70% interest rate is way too high.
- They charged $20 for a drink at the concert. That’s just profiteering!
laughing all the way to the bank
making a lot of money easily
- I was laughing all the way to the bank when I sold my car for a high price.
- He was made redundant, but the pay-out was so big that he laughed all the way to the bank.
shatter
break dramatically
- She shattered the 100m record.
- His dreams of playing international football were shattered by a serious leg injury.
For a quiz and downloads, check out our website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/newsreview-2022/unit-1/session-30