BBC 6分钟英语 你能保守秘密吗

6 min

English from BBC learning english dot com.

Hello. This is 6 min English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Beth. Can you keep a secret, neil, or are you someone who spills the beans?

That's an idiom, meaning to tell people a secrets.

I'm pretty good at keeping secrets,

beth, unless it's giving away the ending of a movie.

I'm always doing that. Whether you find it hard to keep secrets or take them with you to the grave, keeping secrets is often considered something bad.

But what if some secrets could actually make your life better?

Now, as psychological studies are uncovering a more positive side to secrets, suggesting that keeping good news to yourself can actually make you feel more alive, especially if you plan to share your secret with someone later in this program, will be discussing the advantages of keeping secrets, and, as usual, will be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But 1st, I have a question for you, neil.

One very famous secret is the recipe for the world's favorite soft drink, coca Cola.

While traveling in Indonesia, BBC TV presenter Joanna Lumley, I believes she discovered the unknown secret ingredients.

So is Coca cola's secret space a cinnamon, b nutmeg or see ginger?

Well, I don't know, so I'm going to guess it's not OK, I'll reveal the secret at the end of the program.

This year, a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology introduced a new term to the discussion positive secrets.

Here, the study's author, doctor Michael Slepion of Columbia University, discusses positive secrets with BBC World Service program Newsday.

Yeah, so what's interesting about the idea of positive secrets is, you know, there's, there's a set of them where the the plan is to never reveal them.

You know, we might say a guilty pleasure or something we enjoy, but don't want to tell other people about.

And then there's other secrets that the whole point of keeping them secret is to reveal them.

You know, the surprising marriage proposal, the pregnancy announcement, um, unwrapping a gift that you've that you've wrapped doctor slapy.

And distinguishes between positive and negative secrets.

Negative secrets hurt people and damage relationships.

They're like a guilty pleasure, an activity you really enjoy doing, but which also gives you a feeling of guilt or shame for doing it.

Positive secrets, on the other hand, include things like marriage proposals, the act of asking someone to marry you.

Revealing positive secrets lets us share and celebrate those things with others.

In fact, the whole point of positive secrets is to reveal them.

Here, the phrase the whole point is used to mean the most important reason or purpose for something, because positive secrets give us the feeling we are in control of our emotions.

They energize us. However, doctor slepian's research comes from the United States.

Would the results be the same in other cultures and countries?

Here's Doctor slap In again, talking with BBC World Service Program and Newsday.

It is said that if it's a good news, especially around pregnancy, don't share it till the time you know it's safe, because they feel that it may lead to some negative vibes, evil lie, as many people call it.

Is there also a part of what you found why people keep secret?

Are there any kind of cultural influences when they keep the good secrets and the positive secrets?

Yeah, it's interesting you bring this example, because we're studying it right now.

We have this intuition that pregnancy and secrets around pregnancy in early and early in earlier periods, that it looks more like a burdensome secret, and when it's later, and, you know, people feel comfortable discussing it more like positive secrets.

In some cultures, secrets about pregnancy are related to the evil eye superstition, in which someone causes injury or bad luck through a look.

It could be bad luck to reveal a pregnancy too early.

And Doctor Slepian calls these secrets burdensome, meaning worrying, troublesome or distressing.

It seems secrets do vary from culture to culture.

But what everyone wants to know is the missing ingredient in Coca Cola.

So come on, beth, tell us the secret answer to your question.

OK, I asked about TV presenter Joanna Lumley, who thinks she's found out Coca cola's secret spicy ingredient.

Well, I guessed that it was nutmeg, and that was the correct answer.

Good guess, neil. Traveling in Indonesia, joanna noticed lots of nutmeg being grown, and asked who was

buying it, only to be told, coca Cola.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this program, starting with the idiom spill the beans, meaning to reveal a secret.

A guilty pleasure is something you really enjoy doing, but which also gives you a feeling of guilt or shame.

A marriage proposal is the act of asking someone to marry you.

The phrase, the whole point of something describes the most important reason or purpose for it.

The evil eye is a superstition in which someone causes injury or bad luck through a look.

And finally, the adjective burdensome means worrying, troublesome or distressing.

Once again, our 6 min are up, but I'll tell you a secret.

You can join us again next time for more topicical vocabulary here at 6 min English I could buy for now.

Bye. 6 min English from BBC learning english dot com.

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