Вздыхая | 6 Minute English | Подкасты

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Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English –

the programme where we bring you an interesting topic and six items of vocabulary.

I’m Dan.

And today we’re talking about…

Sighing.

I’m Catherine.

Now –

was that a real sigh –

or just one to demonstrate the meaning?

That one was just for educational purposes,

of course,

Dan.

We’ll be looking at why we sigh,

and learn how sighing keeps us alive!

Yes,

very interesting.

And it’s not just humans that sigh,

is it,

Dan?

Indeed,

most mammals sigh.

And that brings me to today’s question.

How many times does a mouse sigh in an hour,

on average?

Is it?

a) Twice

b) 10 times

c) 40 times

I’m going to say the poor little thing will sigh about 40 times an hour

OK.

Let’s find out if you’re right later on in the programme.

Now,

what is a sigh,

exactly?

Let’s hear from Dr Lynne Barker,

a cognitive neuroscientist from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

It’s a typically cardio-respiratory kind of resetting mechanism,

and most mammals will engage in sighing of some kind.

Because people who don’t sigh would eventually die.

It is a survival mechanism.

So sighing keeps us alive.

Dr Barker called it a survival mechanism.

To survive means to continue living,

especially in difficult circumstances.

A mechanism,

here,

means a system of behaviour.

So,

a survival mechanism is something the body does automatically in order to survive.

But,

Dan,

why is sighing a survival mechanism?

It’s because sighing can reset the lungs.

To reset is to return something to its original settings.

We often use this verb when talking about technology.

You can reset a computer or a phone.

OK,

that’s fine.

But how does a sigh reset the lungs?

Well,

scientists from UCLA,

that’s the University of California,

Los Angeles,

found that a sigh is a special kind of very deep breath that keeps the tiny sacs of air in our lungs,

called alveoli,

working properly.

And without sighing,

these alveoli would collapse and we would die.

We need the alveoli to transfer oxygen from our lungs to our blood.

Thankfully,

we don’t have to think about this need to reset our lungs.

Sighing is in fact a reflex.

Boo!

Argh!

There –

you jumped!

And that was a fabulous reflex,

Dan!

It’s something our bodies do without thinking,

something you do unconsciously or automatically.

I meant…

argh…

like a man.

Thank you for that,

Catherine.

You’re welcome.

Do you sigh a lot?

Well,

I sigh when I’m tired,

and I sigh when I’m relieved.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

To breathe a sigh of relief –

that’s a great expression.

It means what you think it means –

to sigh when you feel good that something bad has not happened –

but it’s often used metaphorically.

It relates more to the feeling of relief than the act of sighing.

That’s right.

Now,

I breathed a sigh of relief when I found my mobile phone the other day.

I thought I’d lost it.

It was new.

I was so pleased when I found it!

What about you,

Dan?

I tend to sigh to show frustration.

And sometimes resignation.

Now,

frustration is what we feel when things aren’t going well,

when things are annoying us and they don’t work.

When things are frustrating.

And resignation is what we feel when we finally accept that something bad has happened,

that we can’t change.

We feel resigned to something.

So,

relief,

resignation,

frustration,

resetting our lungs.

It sounds like we humans never stop sighing!

Well,

actually,

we humans sigh on average 12 times an hour.

But what about…

mice?

Well,

I said,

I reckon they sigh about 40 times an hour.

Well,

in fact,

it is 40 times an hour.

The hearts of mice beat faster –

so they need to regulate their lungs more than humans.

Let’s review today’s vocabulary.

We had the phrase survival mechanism.

Something we do without thinking that keeps us alive.

We often use this phrase,

and the related phrase defence mechanism,

when talking about what people do to cope with difficulties in life.

Next,

we had reset.

You can reset a computer,

or a machine –

to make it work again.

This usually means switching it off and on again.

And you can reset a password –

this is a little bit different.

It means to set –

or choose -

a new password.

We also had the word reflex.

This is a physical action or reaction that you can’t control.

For example…

Catherine?

Yes?

There,

you closed your eyes.

Another reflex.

And we had to breathe a sigh to relief.

Which means to feel better after something bad doesn’t happen.

I breathed a sigh of relief when my friend recovered from her illness.

But we sigh for other reasons too.

Two useful sighing words were: frustration and resignation.

Frustration is the state of being frustrated.

We can say something is frustrating.

It’s frustrating when the boss doesn’t listen to me.

But let’s say you move beyond feeling frustrated and start feeling resigned.

Yeah,

and that would be when I finally accept the boss will never listen to me.

And that’s when I’ll resign!

To resign also means to voluntarily leave a job!

Please,

Catherine,

tell me that’s just another vocabulary example?!

Of course it is,

Dan.

I love my job!

I only ever sigh,

what,

12 times an hour?!

Which is perfectly average.

And that’s it for today’s 6 Minute English.

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Bye!

6 minute English from BBC.