BBC 6分钟英语学习 无所事事的好处

Six news English from BBC learning english dot com.

Hello, this is minutes English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Beth, and I'm Neil Hugh.

I've spent a day in meetings, then shopping, then collecting

the kids from school. I'm exhausted.

Best. What have you been doing today?

Not much. Just sitting around doing nothing to relaxing and kicking back.

Lucky you don't you have any work to do.

It may not look at Neil, but I'm actually as busy as a bee.

If youve seen nature documentaries about worker bees flying from flower to flower, you probably think animals are always on the move.

But the surprising truth is, away from the cameras, most animals spend most of their time doing absolutely nothing at all.

In the natural worlds, where finding food and shelter is hard work, why have some animals evolved to do nothing?

And if its good enough for animals, would being lazy work for humans too?

That's what we'll be discussing in this program, and as usual, will be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But 1st Let me work up the energy to ask you a Questionnail.

Of course, some animals have a reputation for lounging about lions, e.g.

can sleep up to 20 h a day.

But what is the slowest moving animal on Earth?

Is it A? The giant tortoise?

B the three toad sloth? Or see the koala?

Well, I think it's the three toad sloth.

OK, now, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the program.

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 ants nest, and you'll see around half of them just sitting there, motionless.

He is Professor Dan Shabano, an expert in insect behavior, discussing the lazy rock ant with Emily Knight, presenter of BBC radio for program Nature.

Bang. Dance research has focused on and colonies, a species called tempnathoraks.

Regardless or the rock ant, I think answer is sort of a symbol of, like, industriousness.

You know, they have this whole, tiny little society going on that's kind of similar to ours.

If some idealized version of what humans might be, if we could only like pull it together and all work together, we could be as industrious as the ends.

But then when you look at it, roughly about half the colonies and activating given time.

We 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.

Then why are so many of them inactive?

One possible answer is that their 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?

Maybe the ants can teach us a thing or two about relaxing.

But wouldn't it get boring just sitting around all day?

Not. According to psychologist Doctor Sandyman, she thinks being productive, working to produce a lot for the amount of resources we use, is overrated.

Boredom has its benefits too. As she explained to BBC radio for program Nature, bang.

Would humans have invented bread or beer or fire?

You know, if we hadn't been bored?

And we're wondering, why on Earth, what happened if we mixed this with this?

You know, are all these sorts of inventions, the mother of boredom.

But in this world of constant stimulation, switching off is harder than it's ever been.

That's why we're constantly swiping and scrolling and looking for the next big thing and the new thing.

And we get bored of things very quickly.

So it's a kind of paradox to get rid of this unpleasant state of boredom, is actually to allow more boredom into your life.

Doctor Man doubts humans would have invented things without the curiosity that comes from being bored.

Boredom is the mother of invention, an idea based on the famous proverb Necessity is the mother of invention.

An idiom, meaning that if you really need to do something, you will think of a way of doing it.

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.

I think now is a good time to reveal the answer to my question.

Since we have nothing else to do, you ask me to name the world's slowest animal, and I guessed it was the three toad sloth.

Was I right? That was the correct answer.

With the top speed of 30 cm/min.

Three toad sloths

move so slowly that algae grows on their coats.

Okay, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this program, starting with the phrase kicking back,

to stop doing things and relax

completely. The adjective Industrious means hard working.

A colony is the name given to a group of certain animals, including ants and some seabeds.

Someone who is productive is able to produce a lot for the amount of resources they use.

The proverb necessity is the mother of invention.

Means that if you really need to do something, you will think of a way of doing it.

And finally, to switch off means to stop worrying or thinking about something and relax.

Once again. Our 6 min are up.

It must be time to sit down, close your eyes and just do nothing.

Bye for now. Bye. 6 min English from the BBC.

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