2024-04-02 15:51:02
Listening Transcript
BethHello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Beth.
NeilAnd I’m Neil. Phew! I've spent all day in meetings, then shopping, then
collecting the kids from school - I'm
exhausted, Beth! What have you been doing today?
BethOh, not much, just
sitting around doing nothing…relaxing and kicking back.
NeilLucky you! Don’t you have work to do?
BethIt may not look like it, Neil, but I’m actually as busy as a bee! If you’ve seen
nature documentaries about worker bees flying from flower to flower, you
probably think animals
are always on the move. But the s
urprising truth is, away from the cameras, most animals spend most of the time doing absolutely nothing at all.
NeilIn the natural world where finding food and
shelter is hard work, why have some animals
evolved to do nothing? And if it’s good enough for animals, would being lazy work for humans too? That’s what we will be discussing in this programme, and as usual, we’ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
Beth Of course, some animals have a
reputation for
lounging about – lions, for example, can sleep up to twenty hours a day! But what is the s
lowest moving animal on Earth? Is it:
a) the giant tortoise
b) the three-toed sloth or
c) the koala?
NeilWell, I think it’s the three-toed sloth.
BethOK, Neil. I’ll
reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme. Now it’s no surprise that lazy lions love relaxing, but even animals with reputations for being busy spend time doing nothing. Look carefully into an ant's
nest and you’ll see around half of them just sitting there
motionless.
NeilWe think ants are
industrious, or hard-working. Groups of ants, called colonies, seem
tiny, perfect societies where everyone works hard
for the good of the group.
BethThen why are so many of them
inactive? One possible answer is that they’re
reserve ants, ready to
step in if
disease or disaster strike. But could it simply be that they don’t work because they don’t need to. Would you get out of bed on Monday morning if you didn’t have to?
NeilMaybe the ants can
teach us a thing or two about relaxing. But wouldn't it get boring just sitting around all day?
Instead of fearing boredom we can open up to its benefits by
switching off - stopping worrying or thinking about something and relaxing. Slowing down helps too - something we can definitely learn from our animal cousins.
BethI think now’s a good time to reveal the answer to my question, since we have nothing else to do.
NeilYou asked me to name the world’s slowest animal and I guessed it was the three-toed sloth. Was I right?
Beth That was the correct answer! OK, let's recap the vocabulary that we've learned from this programme starting with the phrase kicking back – stop doing things and relax completely.
NeilThe adjective industrious means hard-working.
BethA colony is the name given to a group of certain animals including ants and some seabirds.
NeilAnd finally, to switch off means to stop worrying or thinking about something and relax.
13.7K viewsمحمد جواد احمدیان, 12:51
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