BBC 6分钟英语学习 能品味文字的人

English from BBC learning english dot com.

Hello. This is minutes English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Sam. Many people have favorites.

My favorite color, my favorite flavor, a favorite word.

What's yours? Neil? Um, my favorite color is green.

My favorite flavor is sweet and sour.

And well, I don't know if it's my favorite, but there is a word I really like saying out loud, ningham poop.

It means a silly person. For me.

It's the taste of coffee and the smell of lavender or freshly baked bread.

Our favorite tastes, smells and colors are controlled by our five senses sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

For most of us, they don't mix.

We see colors and taste flavors, but we can't taste sounds.

But that's not how everyone's brain works.

Imagine being able to taste every word that you hear.

In this program, will meet two sisters from Glasgow, in Scotland, who can do just that, and as usual, will learn some new vocabulary as well.

Julie Macdell and her younger sister, jen Mcreedy have synesthesia, a neurological condition where two or more senses mix together.

When sinist eats, as they are called, hear a word, their sense of taste also becomes activated.

Words produce specific tastes on their tongues, e.g., when Jen hears the name of her daughter Sophia, she tastes pink marshmallows and the name Leo tastes like noodles.

We'll hear more from the unusual sisters later, but 1st I have a question for you, neil.

We've just heard what happens when Jen mc creedy hears the names Sophia and Leo, but what does she taste when she hears the name?

Neil? Is it a eggs and bacon, b spaghetti hoops, or see a jam sandwich?

Well, I don't know what this says about me, sam, but I'm going to guess that it's sea a jam sandwich.

Okay, don't worry, neil, I'll reveal the answer.

Lisa in the program. Synesthesia isn't only about people like Julie and Jane who taste words.

It can be a mixing of any of our senses.

A synescent may hear colors or see sounds.

In fact, there could be as many as 150 different types of synesthesia for the Scottish sisters, having synesthesia as a gift, something Jen explained when she talked with BBC World Service program.

The food chain, it's enjoyable. It's never anything that causes The only thing all we see is it's quite harder to train to eat healthily, because if you hit a word that maybe tastes like chunna, I'll be like, oh, I need to get a chinnabigio.

Now, you know, it's almost like being pregnant to have an acriven words can be so vivid that you just, you want to eat that.

That's all the negative I would say about it.

For Jane, the only thing drawback to synesthesia is that it can be hard to eat healthily, because hearing certain words produces a craving, a strong feeling of wanting a particular food.

That could be because for Jane, the sound of the word is so vivid, clear, detailed and powerful in her mind.

The still much doctors don't know about why some people experience sense mixing, while most of us experience each sense in isolation.

But it's clear that for Julie and Jen, synesthesia makes the world a more interesting, colorful place.

Someone who can explain why so little is known about cynesthesia is Guy lech Sinner, consultant, neurologist at Kings College, london, an author of the book, the man who tasted words.

Here he is speaking to BBC World Services the food chain.

One of the problems with synesthesia is, for many years, it's been dismissed, and it's been viewed as people with an overactive imagination, something not real.

But actually what research in recent years has taught us is that actually does have an underlying neurological and genetic basis.

Guy says that in the past, cenesthesia was often dismissed, considered unimportant or uninteresting.

Cynic seats were labeled people with overactive imaginations, a tendency to imagine things that are not true.

But research is showing that the cause of synesthesia could run in the family.

Julie and jen's brothers don't have synesthesia, but jen's daughter does.

And with an estimated percent of the world population having some form of sense, mixing, a world of new and exciting possibilities is opening up to millions exciting possibilities, like tasting someone s name.

Remember my question I asked what cynic seat gen mcreedy tastes when she hears the name Neil.

OK, well, I guess that Neil tastes like a jam sandwich.

Was I right? Well, neil, no, you don't taste like a damn sandwich.

In fact, when Jen here's the name, neil, she tastes spaghetti hoops.

Oh, well, it could be worse.

The name Robert makes Jane taste rotten eggs.

Sorry to any Roberts

listening. OK, let's recapt the vocabulary we've learned in this

program about synesthesia, a neurological condition where's two or more senses mixed together.

An income poop is an informal way of saying a silly person a craving for something is the strong desire to have it vivid.

Sensation is clear, strong and detailed in your mind.

When something is dismissed, it's considered unimportant or uninteresting.

And finally, an overactive imagination is the tendency to imagine things that are not true.

Once again, our 6 min are up.

If you've enjoyed this look into the weird and wonderful world of synesthesia, we hope you'll join us again next time for more chat, interesting issues and useful vocabulary.

Here at 6 min English by final Goodbye.

6 min English from the BBC.

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