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Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Sam.
If you live in a city, you're probably
familiar with this very modern sight:
a man walking his dog drops a
little black plastic bag into a
rubbish bin. Inside the bag is
dog poo.
It might make it seem that humans
are hygienic creatures - certainly
cleaner than dogs, who go to the
toilet wherever they want. But is
this the whole story?
How do us humans compare
with other animals when it comes
to keeping ourselves and our
environment clean? In this
programme, we ll be asking
whether humans as a species
are naturally clean and tidy.
In fact, from dumping raw
sewage into rivers to littering
the streets with trash, humans
aren't always good at
dealing with waste.
While some animals, on the
other hand, are
instinctively clean.
Right - cats for example dig a
hole to bury their poo.
In the past, humans got rid of
their waste by throwing it into
the street or into streams and
rivers, hoping the water
would wash it away.
Out of sight out of mind! That's
a phrase used to say that it's
easier to forget something
when you can't see it.
But this doesn't always work, as
we'll discover from my quiz
question, Sam. In Victorian times,
the population of London boomed
and so did all the pee and poo
being thrown into the River Thames.
It got so bad that by the 1850s
the awful smell had its own name,
but what? Was it: A) The Great
Stench?, B) The Great Stink?,
or C) The Great Smell?
Ugh! All sounds pretty
disgusting, Neil, but I'll go
for A) The Great Stench.
OK, Sam, we'll find out if
that's right later. Earlier you
mentioned cats as examples
of animals who hide their
waste, but leaf-cutter ants
go even further: they kill
any dirty ants trying to
re-enter the group!
Zoologist, Professor Adam Hart,
has spent years studying ants
and other clean creatures.
Here he is speaking with BBC
World Service programme,
The Conversation:
Some animals, you'll be
watching, and it is just pouring
out of the back end and they
don't seem to care. Other animals
will go to quite great lengths
to go to a specific area. Some
antelope for example will go
to a sort of latrine area. It's
really linked to their ecology so
quite often animals are
using dung and also urine
as marking posts and territorial
markers to say to other groups
of animals and other individuals
that, well, this is my
territory not yours.
Like cats and ants, antelopes
go to great lengths, meaning
they try very hard to do
something, in this case to
leave their poo - or dung - in
a specific area, away
from their home.
Antelopes leave smells, called
territorial markers, secreted in
urine, or pee, to tell other animals
that an area of land is
already occupied.
OK Sam, but just because
most of us don't pee at the
bottom of the garden, does
that necessarily mean
humans are dirtier?
Well, no, not according to
psychologist, Dr Michael De Barra.
He thinks that human attitudes to
cleanliness are related to the
problem of infectious diseases,
something we've all experienced
during the Covid pandemic.
Here is Dr De Barra, explaining
more to BBC World Service's,
The Conversation:
So, in humans it seems like
the emotion disgust is a big part
of how we deal with infectious
diseases problems. It's
characterised by avoidance,
by sometimes feelings of
nausea and what's interesting
about it is that it is elicited
by many of the things that
are infectious disease threats
in our environment - so that
might be particular smells, or
particular substances, body
wastes, physical signs of
infectious disease - coughs, sneezes.
Our natural reaction to something
which is dirty, and which therefore
may be diseased and harmful to
us, is disgust - a strong feeling of
dislike or repulsion.
We might feel so disgusted
at the sight or smell of human
waste that we actually want to
vomit - a feeling known
as nausea.
These bodily reactions are
the immune system's way of
saying: keep away!
this will make you sick!
So, although getting a bit dirty
won't kill you (unless you're a
leaf-cutter ant), human
evolution has developed a
psychological way of keeping
us clean. What's the
matter, Sam? You look a little green!
I am, Neil! All this talk of pee and
poo is disgusting! And just
image how bad it must have
been in the old days.
Like in Victorian times, before the
invention of modern sewers
and sanitation. In my quiz
question I asked you what
people called the awful smell
in London in the 1850s.
And I said it was, A) The
Great Stench. Was I right?
You were wrong! In fact the
answer was B) The Great Stink,
which stunk up the River Thames
all the way to Westminster.
It was only when the smell
reached the noses of politicians
in Parliament that something
was done about it.
So starting another useful phrase
'to raise a stink about something',
meaning to make a
strong public complaint.
OK, let's recap the other
vocabulary, starting with out
of sight, out of mind, a phrase
meaning that it's easier to
forget something when
you can't see it.
To go to great lengths means
to try very hard to
achieve something.
Territorial markers are smells
in animals - dung or urine
marking their territory.
These may fill you with disgust -
a feeling of strong dislike
or repulsion. Or even give you
nausea - the feeling that
you are going to vomit.
And that's all for this stinky
edition of 6 Minute English.
Join us again soon for
more topical chat and useful
vocabulary. Bye for now!
Bye!