【明報專訊】Pat runs into Bill on the street. She looks so excited. What fascinates her so much?

“ Pat: The robot made by Dr Panda has been nominated the best local invention of the year! Please break the news to him! ”

“ Bill: Wow, sure! ”

“ Bill: Hey Dr Panda! Pat asked me to break the news! ”

“ Dr Panda: Well... no news is good news. ”

■Culture tips

A night that had no news

It has been more than a century since the radio was invented. With the advancement of digital media, nowadays news forms an indispensable part of our daily life, be it on social networking sites or instant messaging apps. But at 8:45pm on Good Friday, 18 April 1930, the audience could only hear the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)'s broadcaster say "there is no news" before a piano piece was played for the rest of the fifteen minutes. It might be true that no news is good news, but it is always beneficial for us to keep up with what's going on.

■English highway﹕Break the news

If someone break the news to somebody, he or she is the first person to tell it to somebody.

e.g. Tom had won the badminton match. He broke the news to Mary.

■Glossary

invention (n) 發明

indispensable (adj) 不可或缺的

instant (adj) 即時的

broadcaster (n) 播音員

[Smarties' Power English 第214期]