BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Animals ' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English.

I'm Sam.

And I'm Neil.

Sam, do you remember

an old children's television show called 'Lassie'?

Yes, I grew up watching the

adventures of schoolboy, Timmy,

and his pet dog, a collie named Lassie.

Whenever Timmy got lost

or into trouble, Lassie sensed

danger and came to the rescue.

If you believe shows like 'Lassie',

pets know when their human owners

feel afraid or in danger.

But in real life

do animals know, or

care, about human feelings?

Now, Neil, obviously we're not

talking about wild animals, right?

We're talking about domesticated

animals - types of animals which are

under human control and have been

living closely with people for centuries.

They include pets,

like cats and dogs, working

animals and farm animals,

like cows and sheep.

So, what about dogs like our friend, Lassie?

Do you think they can

sense human feelings?

It's hard to know what's really

going on behind a dog's big, brown eyes.

Unlike humans, pets

can't talk to say how they're

feeling, and this makes it easy

for us to misunderstand them.

People often anthropomorphize

their pets - treat them as if

they were human by giving

them human characteristics.

In cartoons, Micky Mouse can

talk and Donald Duck dances and

sings, but we know mice and

ducks don't really

do that in nature.

Exactly. But recently, new

research has suggested that

sometimes pets do respond to

their owner's feelings.

OK. Well, before we find out

more, I have a quiz question

for you, Neil.

'Lassie' wasn't

the only TV show to feature a

boy and his pet companion.

A similar show, Skippy, was set

in Australia - but what type of

animal was the star?

Was Skippy:

a) a rabbit?

b) a frog?

or, c) a kangaroo?

Well, if Skippy was Australian,

I'll guess he's c) a kangaroo.

OK, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

Now, Neil, earlier you

mentioned that because animals

can't speak, it's difficult to know

their feelings about us.

Difficult, yes ... but not impossible.

Recently, anthrozoologist,

Dr Karen Hiestand, designed an

experiment to test whether

our pets really do care about us.

She filmed pet owners pretending

to be hurt and observed the

reactions of their dogs and cats.

Here's Adrian Washbourne, producer

for BBC World Service programme,

Health Check, pretending to

hurt his leg at home, where he

lives with his two pets, a cat and a dog.

And now I'm going to fake an

injury, and we'll see how they respond.

Ouch!

Ow!

Well, the tail wagging has

got a bit more, there's a bit of a yawn.

So, I don't think they

were particularly sensitive or

bothered that I was squealing

around the floor in agony,

holding my leg up in the air,

trying to feign an injury.

Meanwhile the cat, who's

on the windowsill, is

looking at me with wide eyes.

Adrian didn't really hurt his

leg - he feigned, or pretended, to be hurt.

He pretended to be

in agony - extreme physical

pain, to see what his pets would do.

Adrian's dog wagged his tail

and gave a yawn.

The cat, meanwhile, just looked at

him with wide eyes...

Little evidence of pets

showing care or concern there,

you might think.

But, according to Dr Hiestand,

the animals' behaviour makes

perfect sense when you

remember where they came from.

Dogs are descended

from ancient breeds of

wolves - very social animals

who live together in packs,

so it makes sense that a dog

would sniff and come closer

to investigate what

was happening.

Cats, on the other hand,

are solitary creatures,

descended from wild cats who

lived and hunted alone.

Dr Hiestand thinks this explains

the reaction of Adrian's cat,

as she told BBC World Service

programme, Health Check.

What we're seeing typically

is cats staying much more still...

that they're looking and looking

at their owner, so they're

definitely paying their owner

an awful lot of attention when

they're displaying a negative

distress emotion, comparing to

during the control procedure

where they're just doing cat

things – walking around,

grooming... that kind of thing.

The experiment showed the

different responses of cats

and dogs to human distress -

feelings of worry,

sadness or pain.

In the experiment, dogs were

visibly concerned, while cats

simply paid more attention to

what was going on.

Some cats did nothing, except carry on

grooming - cleaning themselves

using their tongue and paws.

The experiment confirms the

idea we have of cats being

cold and antisocial.

And of dogs being our best friend.

But according to

Dr Hiestand’s findings, cats

also feel human distress - they

just show it in a different way.

Well, if the experiment

included Lassie, she'd probably

phone the emergency services,

then make Adrian a cup of tea!

Ha! And what about Skippy?

Ah yes, in my quiz question

I asked Neil about the

Australian TV star, Skippy.

I guessed that he was

c) a kangaroo.

Which was the correct answer!

Over two metres high and able

to jump nine metres in a

single hop, you'd be in safe

hands with Skippy the Kangaroo.

Right, let's recap the

vocabulary from this programme

starting with domesticated - a

word to describe animals

which are not wild and live

under human control.

To anthropomorphize means to

give animals human qualities

and characteristics.

If you feign illness, you

pretend to be ill when you are not.

To be in agony means to be

in extreme physical pain.

Someone who's in distress,

feels worry, pain or sadness.

And finally, grooming is how

some animals clean themselves

using their tongue and paws.

That's all the time we have

for this programme.

Bye for now!

Goodbye!

Hello, and welcome to 6 Minute English.

I'm Neil.

Hello. And I'm Catherine.

Now, Catherine, how do you

feel about cephalopods?

Er ...cephalopods?

Yeah.

You do know what

cephalopods are, don't you?

Yes, of course I do.

It's a new kind of iPod, isn't it?

Not exactly, no.

A cephalopod is a kind of sea creature,

like a squid or octopus.

Oh, cephalopods, yes, of course, I know what

a cephalopod is.

Of course you do.

Well, today's programme is all

about one of these squishy

creatures, the octopus, which

apparently is a pretty clever animal.

To start, here's today's quiz question.

What is the correct

plural form of octopus?

Is it a) octopuses,

b) octopodes or c) octopi?

What do you think, Catherine?

OK. I think this is a trick question.

I think people think that it's 'octopi', but

it's actually, there's a technical term for it, which

is the correct term and that's 'octopodes'.

But some people think, like children

and stuff, they just put

the plural 's' on so they say 'octopuses'.

So, I'm going for answer b) octopodes.

Wow! Listen out for the answer

at the end of the programme,

just to see how right or wrong you are.

Now, apparently, the octopus is

a remarkably intelligent creature.

They have the ability to

solve some complex

problems and in one famous

case one was even able to

predict the result of

World Cup football matches.

Oh yes, that was Paul the psychic octopus.

I don't think he was really psychic though.

It was just a publicity stunt by the zoo that had

him, as a way to promote their zoo.

It may have been a publicity stunt,

but he was actually quite accurate.

In fact, he correctly predicted the

result of 12 matches out

of 14 - that's 86 percent.

Not bad, eh?

That's amazing.

I didn't know he was that good.

Anyway, Neil, tell us more about the octopus.

Well, I'll leave that to

Peter Godfrey-Smith, philosopher

of science and author of

Other Minds: The Octopus,

the Sea, and the Deep Origins

of Consciousness.

He is quite

a fan of our eight-tentacled friends.

On the BBC Radio 4

programme Start the Week he

said that humans and the

octopus have a common ancestor.

This is a term in science

which means 'a creature from

which both species evolved'.

Like a very distant relative.

How long ago does he say this

common ancestor lived?

We got the octopus as a

very special evolutionary product.

It's an animal that's

removed from us by a lot of

evolutionary distance.

The common ancestor that we

share with an octopus lived

about 600 million years ago

or actually even a bit longer than that.

But it has a large nervous system

in a range comparable to vertebrates.

So, our common ancestor lived

about 600 million years ago -

or maybe a little bit longer than that.

And he says that the octopus

has a nervous system that is

comparable to vertebrates.

Comparable means 'similar to',

like, and vertebrates is the

term for the group of animals

that have a spine or backbone.

We humans are examples of vertebrates.

So what Godfrey-Smith is

saying is that the squishy

octopus has a nervous system

which has some similarities

to our own in that it's quite large.

And a large nervous system

is a sign of intelligence.

He goes on to talk a bit

more about how we might be

able to relate to the octopus.

He talks about the protean

nature of its body.

'Protean' is an adjective

which means 'adaptable or

changeable', and the octopus's body

is certainly that.

Why might that be a problem for us?

The sensory world of an octopus

has, in some way it's recognisable.

They're very visual animals,

they're very taste-oriented

animals and those things make sense to us.

But the absence of hard parts, the protean

nature of the body and the sort of extent of the

sensitivity makes it a hard thing to think about.

This is interesting, isn't it?

So the octopus uses its senses

of vision and taste, like

we do, and this is something

we can recognise, but what

is tricky for us is that

its form is so completely

different from ours.

The octopus isn't a vertebrate

so it can change its form

and its shape very easily.

Yes, we're not used to

thinking of soft squishy

things having intelligence.

And speaking of intelligence,

we've been very careful

not to use the plural of

octopus so as not to give

away the answer to today's

quiz question which was: what's the

correct plural form?

a) octopuses, b) octopodes

or c) octopi?

Catherine, you said ...

Well, I said that some people

think it's 'octopuses', a lot

of people think it's 'octopi',

but the actual answer is 'octopodes'.

And you're completely right.

Congratulations!

Yeah! Thank you.

So, let's review today's vocabulary.

Cephalopod is the

name of the group of animals

to which the octopus belongs.

'A publicity stunt' is

something a company might

do to grab your attention

and promote its products.

Like claiming an octopus can

predict the winner of football matches.

A 'common ancestor' is a

distant relative from which

two different species evolved.

'Comparable' to means

'similar to' and vertebrates

are animals that have a spine.

And then finally we had

'protean', this adjective means 'adaptable

and changeable'.

Time now for us to say

goodbye but remember you

can find us on ­­Instagram,

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

as well as our website,

bbclearningenglish.com.

So, be sure to check us

on one, several or all of

those before joining us again.

Goodbye.

Bye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

In this programme, we'll be hearing

a news story linked to the

'Nature versus Nurture' debate,

not concerning a human, but a rhinoceros!

The extremely rare Northern

White Rhino of East Africa

w as on the brink of extinction

when the second-to-last

living male, Suni, died

in 2014, leaving behind two

females, Najin and Fatu -

the last living creatures

of their species.

Conservationists started an

artificial breeding programme,

using eggs from the females

and sperm from Suni to

produce an embryo - an unborn

animal in the very early

stages of development.

Recently, there's been a

new development in the story,

but before we hear more,

it's time for my quiz question.

The name, 'rhinoceros', comes from

the ancient Greek, but

what exactly does it mean?

Is it a) thick skin,

b) horned nose or

c) small eye?

That's a tricky one,

because rhinos have all three!

OK, I'll guess c) thick skin.

OK, Sam, we'll find out later.

Now let's get back

to the story of those precious

Northern Rhino embryos.

Well, the good news is that

so far five embryos have been produced.

They're being

frozen until they can be

implanted in Southern rhinos -

the Northern species' more common cousin.

Conservationist Thomas

Hildebrandt runs the rhino

breeding programme.

He spoke to BBC World Service's

Science in Action, who asked him

whether the embryos were

genetically from the

Northern species.

Absolutely right.

They're not

hybrids, they're pure Northern

White Rhino embryos which

were generated with the

desired breeding partner,

Suni, who died in 2014.

So, we have embryos which

have a very high quality -

there's no inbreeding effect

on these embryos, and it's

so important to make the

next step, to transfer these

embryos because we can

preserve life, biological

material, in liquid nitrogen,

but what we can't do ... we

can't preserve social knowledge

and therefore we need

desperately a calf on the

ground so that these two

existing Northern White

Rhinos, can teach the new

calf how to behave as a

Northern White Rhino.

Having genetically pure

embryos prevents the birth

of hybrids - animals that

have been bred from two different species.

It's also important the

embryos have no inbreeding -

breeding of a young animal

from two closely related

parents, because this can cause disease.

Fortunately, Thomas and his

team have preserved five

healthy and genetically pure

Northern Rhino embryos in liquid nitrogen.

But while they can preserve

'nature', what Thomas's team

can't provide is 'nurture' -

the social knowledge that a

young Northern rhino, or calf,

can only learn from other Northern rhinos.

And since Najin and Fatu,

the last remaining Northern

rhinos on Earth, are getting

old, the race is on to breed

a young rhino calf before they die.

The good news for the survival

of the Northern White Rhino

is that experiments to

implant the delicate embryos

in Southern rhinos have been successful.

Here's Thomas Hildebrandt

again talking about these

recent experiments with

BBC World Service programme,

Science in Action.

We will, for sure, not wait

until this pregnancy is

completed because it takes

16 months for a full pregnancy in a rhinoceros.

So, if this embryo implants - and we

can see that on ultrasound

and - forms a nice placenta,

that is the goal for us

to proceed with the next step on the Northern

White rhino embryos.

Normally, it takes 16 months

for a female rhino to

complete her pregnancy -

the state in which a woman

or female animal has a

baby developing inside her.

But in the case of the

Northern rhino, the race is

on to birth calves who can

learn the rhino rules of

social behaviour from

Aunty Najin and Granny Fatu

while they're still alive...

... which is why

conservationists are

monitoring the pregnancy using

ultrasound - a procedure using

sound waves to create images

of internal body parts, or

in this case, growing rhino babies.

It's an unusual episode in

the ongoing 'Nature versus

Nurture' debate.

And, hopefully, a big step

towards restoring the Northern

White Rhino population so

that future generations get

to see these magnificent

creatures with their thick

skin, horned nose and ...

... and small eyes, Neil?

So, what was the answer to

your quiz question?

Yes, I asked you what the

name 'rhinoceros' meant.

What did you say, Sam?

I guessed it was a) thick skin.

Was I right?

Well, rhinos certainly

do have thick skin, but

their name actually comes

from the Greek meaning, 'horned nose'.

Well, luckily I've got a

thick skin too, so I won't

take it personally!

Let's have another look

at the vocabulary we've

learned, starting with

embryo - an unborn animal

or human still inside

its mother's womb.

A 'hybrid' is an animal

or plant that has been bred from two

different species.

'Inbreeding' is when a

young animal is born from

closely related parents.

A calf is the name for

the young of several

large mammals including

cows, elephants and

whales, as well as rhinos.

'Pregnancy' means being

pregnant or growing a baby inside you.

And finally, 'ultrasound'

is used to see internal

organs or a baby developing inside a woman.

And that's all from this species-saving edition

of 6 Minute English.

Goodbye!

Bye bye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English,

I'm Neil.

And joining me is Rob.

Hello.

Rob, when we think of Easter, what do you think of?

Chocolate!

Well, yes chocolate Easter eggs

are an obvious symbol of Easter.

But there is an animal people

often associate with Easter...

Rabbits!

Cute, adorable and fluffy - what's not

to like about a rabbit?

Well, not everyone is a fan

of them - by not a fan of

I mean they don't like them.

Some people think they are a pest.

But we'll be telling you more about

rabbits shortly.

That's good to know.

Well, I'll tell you what

I am a fan of and that

is your quiz questions -

so, what are you going

to ask me today?

It's all about wild rabbits.

In the last rabbit survey

in 1995, how many were

estimated to exist in the UK?

Is it a) 370,500,

b) 3,750,000 or

c) 37,500,000?

I know rabbits are

everywhere in the UK

but not 37 million of

them - so, I'll go for

b) 3,750,000.

Well, you'll have to wait

until the end of the

programme to find out.

But you're right when

you say rabbits are

everywhere in the UK.

It's probably true in other countries too.

You could say they are

endemic - meaning very

common or strongly

established in a place or situation.

But are they a typically

British wild animal?

They are now but it's believed

they were brought to the

country by invaders - some

say The Romans, others The Normans.

But they eventually spread across the UK.

Victoria Dickinson is author of a book called

Rabbit and she's been

telling the BBC Radio 4

programme Costing The Earth

about what helped them spread.

It was really by the middle

of the 17th Century when

people really started to

think about rabbit as

being particularly British...

and certainly there were more

rabbits in Britain than in

the rest of Europe.

There was a calculation done

that there are over 400

villages and towns in Britain

with the word 'warren' in their name.

So, the rabbits

were raised in Britain but

they really kept to their

warrens until there was

the rise of fox hunting -

when their predators

disappeared rabbits do

what rabbits do best, and

they started to multiply

and become wild, feral

rabbits throughout the land.

So, Victoria knows a thing

or two about rabbits - and

said the word 'warren'

used in town and village

names, is evidence that

they've been in the UK

since the mid-17th Century.

A warren is the area

underground where rabbits

live with lots of holes

and connected passages.

But today we use the word

warren to mean a building

or a part of a town where

there are lots of confusing

passageways or streets.

It's a kind of place

where you get lost.

But it was rabbit warrens

where rabbits would live

until hunting, particularly

fox hunting, was introduced

and that killed many of the rabbit's predators.

A predator is an animal that hunts

and kills another animal.

Now, Victoria was talking

about feral rabbits - so,

wild rabbits - not the

sort people keep at pets in a rabbit hutch.

Moving on - I'm interested to know why

not everyone loves these

cute little creatures, I mean,

think of the rabbit characters in the

Beatrix Potter stories.

Well, they weren't always well behaved.

And Victoria Dickinson

spoke to the Costing the

Earth programme about this.

What word did she use to

describe rabbits having the

two opposite sides

to their character?

The rabbit is a paradoxical

animal; it has a lot of

faces if you will.

It's both

wild and tame, it's timid

but also has its reputation

as trickster rabbit - if

you think of Peter Cottontail,

or you think of Br'er Rabbits -

and I think our relationship

with rabbit is the rabbit of

the nursery rhyme, the

rabbit of childhood or

you think of Peter Rabbit.

She said that rabbits are

paradoxical animals - that's

the word that describes

them having two

opposing characteristics.

Yes - we think of them as

wild, maybe a trickster -

someone who deceives people

to get what they want.

Like Peter...

what a cheeky rabbit!

But we also think of rabbits

as tame - we have nursery rhymes

about them, kids have soft

cuddly rabbit toys.

I say that they're the perfect symbol for Easter.

OK, Rob, if you say so.

But now let me answer the

question I set you earlier.

In the last survey of the

rabbits in 1995, how many

were estimated to exist in the UK?

Was it a) 370,500

b) 3,750,000

or c) 37,500,000?

Rob, what did you say?

I said b) 3,750,000.

Well, you're wrong, Rob!

A government survey put

the population in the

UK at 37.5 million - so, a lot more.

But despite its reputation, a recent

survey suggests rabbit

numbers in the UK have

declined by around 60 percent over the

last 20 years.

That is sad news.

But let's cheer ourselves up

with a recap of the

vocabulary we've discussed today, starting

with a fan of.

When someone is a fan of

something, they are keen

on it, they like it a lot.

If you're not a fan of something -

you don't like it.

We mentioned 'endemic' -

meaning 'very common or

strongly established in

a place or situation.

And we talked about a

'warren' - an underground

area where rabbits live,

but also a building or

a part of a town where

there are lots of

confusing passageways

or streets where it is

easy to get lost.

A 'predator' is an animal

that hunts and kills another animal.

'Paradoxical' describes

things that have two

opposing characteristics

making it hard to understand.

And a 'trickster' is

someone who deceives people

to get what they want.

Well, I'm no trickster,

it really has been six

minutes so it's time to call it a day.

Please, join us next time.

Bye for now.

Goodbye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

In English, there are

many expressions which use

an adjective to compare

humans with animals.

For example, you might

say, 'She's as busy as a bee.'

'As hungry as a horse.'

But you probably won't

hear someone say...

'She's as clever as a chimpanzee'

...which is strange,

because of all the animals

it's our close cousins,

chimpanzees, or chimps

for short, who are most like us.

Just like humans, chimps

are highly intelligent.

They live in social groups

and just like humans these

groups have leaders.

Also, like humans, chimps

have a desire for power.

In fact, chimpanzees have

their own politics which is

surprisingly similar to human politics,

as we'll be discovering in this programme.

Research shows that the

reason chimpanzee behaviour

so closely resembles human

politics is because

biologically we are almost identical.

Did you know that

a chimp is more like a

human than like a gorilla?

So, Sam, my quiz question

is this: biologically,

how close are chimpanzees to humans?

Is it a) 79%,

b) 89% or c) 99%?

Well, Neil, if chimps and

humans are almost identical,

I'll guess c) 99%.

OK, Sam, we'll find out the

correct answer at the end of the programme.

In human societies, of course, not

everyone gets to be a political leader.

It's usually the most powerful

or ambitious person who becomes president.

In chimpanzee society

this is called the 'alpha male' - the most

successful and powerful

male who leads the group.

Professor Frans de Waal is

an expert on chimpanzee behaviour.

Here he is on BBC World Service

programme, The Why Factor,

telling presenter, James Tilley, about one

example of chimp behaviour

which closely mirrors human politics.

Older males who are over

the hill and cannot be

alpha males any more,

they start grooming a

certain young male who

they think has a future,

and they may end up making

that young male the

alpha male with their help,

meaning that they are

essential to the power

of that young male...

They're the power behind the throne, really...

Yeah - these older males...

and you see that in human

politics all the time,

these older males who have a lot of

influence still...

Professor de Waal calls

chimps who are too old

to be alpha males,

'over the hill' - a phrase

describing someone who is

old and no longer useful or attractive.

Older chimps try to control

younger males in order to

maintain their own power and influence.

In other words, they

are the power behind the

throne - an expression

meaning someone with no official

power but who secretly controls

things in the background.

Another example of chimp politics

is when several weaker males gang

up and overthrow a stronger

alpha male.

By working together

weaker chimps can increase their

power and the benefits, like

food, which power brings.

According to Simon Hicks, professor

of political science at the

London School of Economics, human

alliances work in exactly the same way.

Here is Professor Hicks speaking

with BBC World Service programme,

The Why Factor.

So, for example, if you imagine

three parties in a parliament,

one big one and two small ones,

you might think that naturally

the most likely coalition is

the big party with either one

of the two small ones, whereas,

in fact, minimum winning

coalition prediction would

suggest the two smaller ones

should get together, if together

they can reach more than

50 percent of the seats,

because they can divide up

the spoils between the two of them.

Whereas, if either one

of them form a coalition

with a big party, the big party

would dominate, and they

wouldn't get many of the

spoils for themselves.

Professor Hicks recommends

that smaller political parties

get together - join together in

a group to combine their power.

These smaller parties could

form a coalition - a collection

of different political groups

who unite for a limited time

to form a government.

In human politics, making coalitions

improves your chances of

winning an election.

And in chimpanzee politics, coalitions

are a good way for young male chimps

to defeat the alpha male and

divide up the spoils between themselves.

Here, the word

spoils means the benefits

obtained by winning a war or

being in a strong position.

For ambitious alpha chimps

the spoils might include getting

first choice of food

and female partners.

While for human politicians'

power can bring wealth and fame as well.

And there's something else

alpha chimpanzees and human

politicians have in common -

they like to show their

softer side by kissing babies!

It looks like chimps and humans

share many similar behaviours

after all - which reminds me of

your quiz question, Neil.

Yes, in my quiz question

I asked Sam how similar we are to chimps.

What did you say, Sam?

I said that, biologically

speaking, we're c) 99% the same.

Which is... the correct answer!

Well done, Sam - you're as

clever as a chimp!

Ah, thanks, Neil!

And you're definitely not over the hill!

Let's recap the vocabulary from

today's programme about chimp politics,

starting with alpha male - the most

successful and powerful male in any group.

Over the hill is used to

describe someone who is old

and no longer useful or attractive.

Someone who is the power behind

the throne secretly controls

things but has no official power.

Get together means join

together as a group.

A coalition is when different

political groups temporarily

unite to form a government.

And finally, the spoils are

benefits or advantages

gained by winning a war.

That's all for this programme.

Bye for now!

Goodbye!