BBC 英语学习 News Review 笑有助于心脏健康

Is laughter a cure for heart disease?

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Beth, and I'm Phil. Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.

And remember to subscribe to our channel, like this video, and

try the quiz on our website.

Now the story Laughter can make your heart stronger.

New research suggests the study revealed that being shown TV comedies increased the amount of oxygen being pumped around hot patients bodies.

This Brazilian investigation also suggests that laughter therapy could reduce inflammation in blood vessels.

You ve been looking at the headlines, what's the vocabulary?

We have Having a Laugh, literally, and 1st of its kind.

This is news review from BBC, learning English.

Let's have a look at our 1st headline.

This is from The Mirror. Having a laugh twice a week could help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Trial finds this headline says that laughter therapy can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Now we are going to look at the expression having a laugh.

Now, this doesn't refer to laughing twice a week, does it?

No. Now, using have with laugh is interesting.

Having a laugh means having a good time.

And here it's talking about sessions of laughter therapy using comedy programs, rather than two individual laughs.

Now, this study is talking about the act of laughing, but we do often use it.

Like he said, to Just me, having a good time.

Now, phil, didn't you meet some friends after work yesterday?

Yes, we have a great laugh.

We had a great time. And actually, there is another use of this, beth.

I'm gonna tell you something amazing.

You could learn a new language in just three weeks.

No, you're having a laugh. And there, I mean, I don't believe you.

Yes, it's just a little joke.

I'm having a laugh. Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. This is from The New York Post.

Laughter Can heal a broken heart?

Literally? Cardiac Health study. We're going to look at the word literally, which is an adverb here.

It refers to the adjective broken.

Now, phil, when can a heart be broken literally?

OK, the headline is using broken in the sense of, doesn't work, and it's because the study is about people with heart problems.

In this context, literally means the real, actual meaning of the word.

Ah. So it's a clever headline, because broken heart is not usually used literally.

It's more common to use it metaphorically, to refer to when somebody is sad, often at the end of a relationship.

But here we see how literally can be used for emphasis, and it's often used in a surprising situation.

Here's a surprising situation. The trains were so bad this morning that it took me literally hours to get to the studio, literally hours, like two of them.

That's really annoying. And there are literally seconds until we look at this headline again.

Next headline, please. This is from the Independent 1st of its kind.

Study finds laughter is indeed good medicine, especially for the heart.

This study is, unlike previous research, we are looking at the expression 1st of its kind.

Now, phil, can you explain what kind means here?

Yes, kind means type here. So if something is the 1st of its kind, there's nothing like it before.

It's the 1st of its type.

And we use it usually for innovations.

If you think about the 1st smartphone, it was the 1st of its kind.

Now, this study is the 1st of its kind, according to the headline, because it's looking at laughter therapy with heart's Patience, which hasn't been looked at before.

OK, let's look at that again.

We ve had having a laugh.

Enjoying yourself, joking, literally. It's actually real,

1st of its kind, different to anything before.

Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, we think you will love the six minute english where we found out why laughter is the best medicine.

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another video. Thanks for joining us.

See you next time. Bye bye.

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