How do you feel about the words Brexit and Grexit? Do you know what they mean? Below, you will find one opinion. Before you start reading, guess what the following expressions (word games)  refer to. Check your answers on the basis of what you learned from the article below and remember the key expressions marked in bold.

Brexit                   Grexit                     Brentry

Brexit, Grexit, with the possibility of Spexit. Whose bright idea was this?

Peter Bradshaw, Friday 12 June 2015 17.18 BST

There are times in life when you feel like you missed a meeting. Or were on holiday when a vital email went round. Somehow you got distracted by something and ignored some crucial memo. So I guess I must have been off sick when everyone else got told about the word “Brexit”. And also the word “Grexit”.

Estonia’s departure would be known by the simple, almost Zen-like term: Exit. And what about the Brentry of 1973?

I was not in the office when Moses toured the world’s newspapers and media organisations with a new stone tablet, saying: “Thou shalt use the ugly and fantastically annoying word Brexit to mean British exit from the EU, and the even more annoying word Grexit to apply to the Greeks, and thou shalt do this with maximum smugness.”

At first I couldn’t understand why commentators were suddenly talking about some brand of denture adhesive or breakfast cereal in the middle of an article about the EU. But there it is. Brexit. It will not be long before pundits start warning of Portugexit, Spexit and Irelexit. Luxembexit and Cyprexit would be awful. But Frexit and Germexit would be unthinkable. Estonia’s departure would be known by the simple, almost Zen-like term: Exit. Before that, commentators can take to the airwaves, denouncing the Brentry of 1973.

Read the complete article here

WORD LIST

to be distracted by something: to stop giving attention to something (because you are busy with something else)

to ignore: not to give attention to something

memo: (from memorandum) : a message written between colleagues within a company/organisation

smugness: being too pleased about your own achievements

pundits: experts often asked to give their opinions in public

I must have been off sick = I am sure I was off sick then

Image courtesy of domdeen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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