BBC 英语学习 通勤

English from

BBC, learning English.

Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Alice. Now, neil, how do you get to work?

I cycle. I didn't know that.

Somehow I hadn't imagined you as a cyclist.

And where's all your bike gear?

Well, I sneak in in the morning, have a shower and get changed.

That's my bike

in the corner over there. Oh, you've got a fold away bike, which means it folds up so it's easy to carry or put away.

Do you wear like Granel? Yes, I do.

It's very comfortable. I wear like her as often as I can.

Liker, by the way, is a stretchy fabric used in tight fitting sports clothes.

Well, I'll have to see if I can catch you on your way into the building.

I'm intrigued about this sporty meal I didn't know about.

Intrigued means to be very interested in something.

Well, alice, I'm flattered. And today's show is about commuting, or traveling between your home and your work.

So how did you commute this morning?

Alice, I got the tube. That's the subway system here in London, also known as the underground.

And it was a nightmare. We stopped in a tunnel for so long that people started talking to each other, and for those of you who aren't Londoners, that's unusual.

Do you ever talk to people on the train?

No. People think you're crazy if you talk to strangers.

Well, maybe now's a good time to talk about today's quiz question.

Alice, what question do you have for me?

All right, then. I know you like my questions, neil, so here we go.

What did the word commuter originally describe?

Was it someone who A, traveled with other people, B, paid a reduced fare to travel, or sea traveled by train to work.

Oh, that's easy. I'm going to go for sea travelled by train to work.

Well, we'll find out later whether you're right or not.

Now, let's listen to a commuter in Nairobi who takes a me tattoo to get to work.

These are many buses used as shared taxes in East Africa.

Can you spot a word? That means being quick to notice things going on around you.

When I'm stuck in the Batatoo, there is a lot of strange things happen around you, so you have to be a lot in Nairobi, when you open, you, you leave your window open, somebody can run away with your belongings.

You may be speaking using the phone, somebody, just not your phone.

You may expect the unexpected. The word used by this commuter in Kenya is alert.

And in these noisy, crowded buses, you need to be alert in case someone runs away with your belongings.

Belongings are the things that you own.

Right? Somebody might snatch your phone.

Snatch means to take something quickly.

Public transport in Nairobi sounds stressful.

If I was taking the bus, I'd want to have a nap or short sleep.

Yes? Well, people have done research on commuting and stress levels, and interestingly, women are more likely to experience stress during their journey than men.

Why is that? Well, they're more likely to do something, which is being called trip training, where they make one or more stops on the way to work or going home, e.g.

to drop off or pick up the kids from school.

And this makes it more likely that something will go wrong with their journey.

Even if you want trip training, it's no fun being stuck in a traffic jam that's a large number of vehicles close together, moving slowly, or being packed into a crowded train like sardines.

Let's face it, travelling by car or by public transport can be really miserable.

Yes, packed in like sardines describes people standing so close together that they can't move like fish in a can.

So let's hear how longer commutes can affect your health.

From us. Researcher Christine Heiner My study found that adults who committed longer distances from home to work were less physically active, less physically fit, weighed more and had higher blood pressure than those people who had shorter commutes.

The American researcher must be talking about commuters who aren't engaged in active travel, mustn't she?

If you cycle a longer distance, then you are being more physically active.

Hmmm, I think you're right for one sneer, and I better start going to the gym more.

I don't like the sound of high blood pressure.

Why don't you hop on your bike alice?

Then we can both wear liker to work.

That's a fantastic idea. Ill Moving on, here's the answer to today's quiz question.

I asked What did the word commuter originally describe?

Was it someone who A, traveled with other people, B, paid a reduced fare to travel, or C, traveled by train to work.

And I said, see, travel by train to work.

It must be right, and you are wrong, I'm afraid.

No,

it's B someone who paid a reduced fare to travel.

The Oxford dictionary says the word commute comes from Latin Commutari, from com Altogether, plus mutare to change The word was used in the US in

the 1840s, when people paid a reduced or commuted fair to travel by rail from the suburbs into the city.

OK? Can you tell us the words we heard today again?

Alice Of course I can. Here they are, fold away by Likera.

Intrigued commuting the tube, alert belongings Snatch traffic jam packed in like sardines.

Commuted. Well, that's the end of today's journey.

With six minute English Please do join us again soon.

Good Bye. Bye.

扫码查看听力音频