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Words in the News

Chile school protests
28 June 2013
_____________________________________________________
The police in Chile have arrested 122 people, many of them children, in raids on 28
secondary schools that had been taken over by their pupils. The schools are due to be
used as polling stations in primary elections this weekend.
Gideon Long reports for the BBC:

The police launched the raids in the early hours of the morning, clearing away chairs and
tables that the pupils had used to barricade themselves inside. The students took over
the schools earlier this month as part of their two-year campaign for education reform.

But on Sunday, they'll be used as polling stations. Chileans are due to elect candidates
for November's presidential election. Many of those arrested in the pre-dawn raids are
children and are unlikely to be charged.

The police action followed a day and night of violence in Santiago, centred around a
student march. More than 100 people were arrested when the march ended in clashes
between youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, and police, who responded with
tear gas and water cannon. Ten police officers were injured.

The clashes continued overnight. Protesters set fire to a bus, gutting it completely. The
violence was among the worst in Chile in two years of protests against the centre-right
government of President Sebastian Piera.

Words in the News

bbclearningenglish.com

British Broadcasting Corporation 2013

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Vocabulary and definitions

raids

sudden and unexpected entries into a building by

police in order to arrest people

barricade

block (using a temporary structure)

education reform

changes to how and what students are taught

polling stations

places where people go to vote

pre-dawn

before sunrise

clashes

fights

Molotov cocktails

a simple type of bomb made with a bottle filled with

petrol

gutting it

destroying the inside

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/06/130628_witn_chile_kids.shtml
Related story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15431829

Words in the News

British Broadcasting Corporation 2013

Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com