Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute
English. I'm Neil.
Catherine: Hi! And I'm Catherine.
Neil: Now, Catherine, when was the last
time you went for a walk in the country for
fun, for exercise or relaxation?
Catherine: People do that?
Neil: Well, believe it or not, they do.
Catherine: Interesting, people are strange.
Neil: Well, it sounds like you should pay
close attention to today's programme
because it's all about how fewer and
fewer people are venturing out into the country.
Catherine: Well, I wonder if that word is
part of the problem. To venture out
somewhere suggests that it's a big
challenge, or even a risky activity.
Neil: I don't think a walk in the country
is a particularly dangerous activity, even
in bad weather. It's not one of the reasons
people gave in a recent survey for why they
don't do it. In fact, one of the biggest
reasons people gave was that it wouldn't
look good on their social media.
Catherine: Well, of course, why would you
go for a walk in the rain in the country if
you couldn't get good snaps for your
social media account?
Neil: Interesting you should say that
because it's the topic of this week's quiz
question. In the survey what percentage
of people gave the poor social media
photo opportunity as their reason for
not wanting to venture out into the
countryside. Was it:
a) around 10%, b) around 30% or c)
around 50%? What do you think?
Catherine: To be honest, I don't think that
would be a good excuse at all, so I'm
going to say it's just 10%.
Neil: Listen out for the answer at the end
of the programme. Annabel Shackleton is from
an organisation called Leaf - Linking
Environment and Farming. They want to
encourage more people to visit the
countryside. She recently appeared
on the BBC's Farming Today radio
programme. She gave her response to
the survey we mentioned which revealed
that many of us prefer to stay indoors.
What does she say a quarter of people
in the survey know and believe?
Annabel Shackleton: I can't believe that 4
in 10 millennials think they should spend
more time in the countryside and a
quarter of them know and believe that it's
much better and easier to relax in the
countryside but they're just not going out.
It's phenomenal.
Catherine: She was talking about a group in
the survey which she called millennials. This
term refers to people who are young
adults now, people who were born in the
1980s and 1990s.
Are you a millennial, Neil?
Neil: No, I'm actually Generation X, the
age group before millennials. We were
born in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.
Shackleton said that a quarter of
millennials know and believe
that it's better and easier to relax in the
country, but they just don't go.
Catherine: She thought it was
phenomenal. Now this adjective means
that something is
incredible, unbelievable. It's often used
for something that is positive, something
that is very impressive or amazing.
Neil: In this case though she is using it
to say how shocked and surprised she is that
people know going out in the country is
good and a great way to relax but they
still don't do it. So what explanation does
she have for this phenomenal behaviour.
Here's Annabel Shackleton again.
Annabel Shackleton: There are just so
many other distractions and it's just so
easy for people to stay indoors.
You know and they're using excuses like
they haven't got the right
clothing, it's not instagramable, would you
believe it? And yes, it's a shame.
Catherine: She said that there are many
other distractions. A distraction is
something that takes your attention
away from doing something.
Usually we think of a distraction as
something that delays us from
doing something more important.
Neil: These days we have a lot of
distractions or things that offer us easy
entertainment.
So it's very easy to come up with an
excuse for not taking the time to go outside.
Catherine: Another very good excuse of
course is the weather. It's not a lot of fun
to go out if it's cold
and pouring with rain.
Neil: Well, a very wise person once said
that there is no such thing as the wrong
weather, just the wrong clothing!
Catherine: True, Neil, but you have to have
the right clothing in the first place and
if the weather is terrible you might not be
able to get good pictures for your
Instagram account. They might not be
instagramable.
Now you're not going to find that word in
the dictionary, but you probably know that
the suffix able means 'possible'. So put 'able'
on the end of Instagram and you get
instagramable.
Neil: And that brings us neatly back to our
question. What percentage of people in the
survey said that they wouldn't go out in
the country because they wouldn't get
good pictures for social media?
Was it around 10%, 30% or
50%. What did you say, Catherine?
Catherine: I said 10.
Neil: And the answer was about 30%!
Catherine: What is the world coming to?
Neil: I don't know what the world is
coming to, but we are coming to the end
of the programme,
so time to review today's vocabulary.
Catherine: We started off with to venture
out somewhere, which simply means to
go out somewhere,
but usually when the conditions are
bad, for example - it was pouring with rain
but I still decided to venture out to the
shops.
Neil: We heard about millennials and
Generation X. Different age groups,
millennials are those who became adults
in the early 21st century, and Generation X
are from the previous generation,
who became adults in the 1980s and 1990s.
Catherine: Something phenomenal is
amazing, surprising and unbelievable.
Neil: And then we had distractions for
activities that prevent us from doing more
important things.
Catherine: And one of the biggest
distractions is social media. Put the suffix
able onto the end of the name of a
social media platform and you create a
word that describes something
that is suitable for posting, so
instagramable.
Neil: bbclearningenglish is certainly
instagramable, facebookable, tweetable
and youtubeable. You can find us on
all those platforms as well as on our
website. So do check us out there
before joining us again for more 6 Minute
English. Goodbye.
Catherine: Goodbye!