Hailed as a hero
Today’s word is “hailed” and the context is that Captain Liu is being hailed as a hero. Hailed as a hero. And this means that people are describing Captain Liu as a hero. You want to use “hailed as a hero” when other people are saying someone is a hero. Prior to the accident, Captain Liu was probably a great pilot, but not generally recognized as a hero. But after landing the plane safely, people began saying he was a hero. They were hailing him as a hero.
A man in Tennessee was at a Waffle House restaurant when someone entered with a gun. This man, James Shaw Jr., confronted the gunman and took away the gun, potentially saving the lives of the other restaurant patrons. Mr. Shaw was hailed as a hero for his efforts. He was described and promoted as a hero.
You can’t use “hailed as” with too many words, so I’m going to try to tell you each of them today. You heard hailed as a hero. You can also use it with the word “success.” Something is “hailed as a success” if, first of all, it is successful, and if people describe it as successful. The Olympics were hailed as a success in promoting peace in Asia.
You can say something is “hailed as a victory” or that a painting, perhaps, is “hailed as a masterpiece” if it is described as a masterpiece by experts. But by far the most common way to use this phrase is to say someone is hailed as a hero. And indeed Captain Liu is deservedly hailed as a hero for what he did mid-air over China.
That’s it for episode 50. JR and I thank you for sticking with us for fifty episodes—I know some of them have been better than others, but I think we can hail this podcast as a success so far, at least for the first 50 attempts. We will be back on Thursday with a new episode. Thanks again for listening.
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