8 ways to live longer: BBC News Review

The eight habits that could make you live longer.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

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and try the quiz on our website.

Now, the story.  

Eight healthy habits

in middle age may increase your life by more than twenty years.

According to research,

you can lengthen your life by doing regular exercise,

having a healthy diet, positive social relationships

and a regular sleep routine, and avoiding stress,

smoking, opioid drugs and too much alcohol.

The study was carried out over eight years and

more than 700,000 Americans took part in it.

You've been looking at the headlines, Beth.

What's the vocabulary? We have:

kicking habits, longevity and adopting. This is News Review from

BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from The Independent.  

Kicking these eight habits could help you live 20 years longer,

scientists say. So, kicking these habits

can help you live longer. A habit is something that you do regularly.

Sometimes a good thing, like exercise.

Sometimes a bad thing, like smoking. But 'kick'? You kick a football.

You can kick something away, but kick a habit?

Well, think of the literal action of kick.

If you kick a football,

then you move it out of your way, possibly quite quickly and violently.

So, if you kick a bad habit, like smoking or drinking too much alcohol,

then your metaphorically forcing it away from you.

You're stopping the habit.

Yeah. And we use 'kick' and 'habit' together very regularly,

especially to talk about something that you really want to stop doing.

Beth, have you kicked a habit or is there one

you really want to kick?

Well, I'm trying to stop eating as much chocolate,

but I haven't quite kicked the habit yet.

What about you? I really want to kick the habit

of checking my phone all the time. I do it so often.

And it's a really bad thing. I want to kick that habit. Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from WorldHealth.net.

  These habits may help to extend your longevity by decades.

So, this headline says that these habits will extend your longevity.

'Longevity' is the word that we're looking at.

I can see it's got 'long' in it. Is there a connection?

There is. 'longevity' is a noun and it means living for a long time.

So, this headline is saying that having these habits will make you live longer.

But there is another meaning to longevity, isn't there?

Yes, if something is popular or useful for a long time

we can say that it has longevity.

Now, for example, flexible working

could be important for longevity in a job,

meaning that people will want to stay in their job longer

if it's flexible. And take note –

this word is quite formal,

so it is usually seen more in writing than speaking.

I wouldn't say

'Did you know that doing exercise helps your longevity?'

I would say 'it helps you live longer'.

Yes. Now take note about the pronunciation of this word –

it's a little bit strange.

It's longevity, so we have the /ŋ/ at the end of 'long' as normal,

but then there's this /dʒ/ sound as well – longevity.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from Perth Now. Adopting eight simple

healthy habits could help increase your lifespan by decades,

a survey finds.

So, this headline is saying you can achieve 'longevity',

that's the word that we just looked at, by adopting these habits.

'Adopting' is the word

we're looking at now. Now, Beth,

there was a kitten living in our street and it didn't have a home,

so we brought it into our home to live.

We adopted it.

Well, that's very cute. 'adopt'

can be when you take responsibility for something, like your kitten.

If it's a child, then

that is a legal process – you adopt a child.

Now, Neil, when you adopted your kitten

it became yours.

And that idea is the same as in the headline with 'adopt'. It means taken

and now belongs to you.

Yes. So the headline is saying that you can take these healthy habits

and apply them to yourself.

Now, it's not just these habits that you can adopt, or kittens, or children.

You can also adopt a new approach,

for example. Or a person might adopt a new attitude.

That's right. I watched a documentary about being vegetarian.

Could I say that I have adopted a new diet?

You could – it does sound a little bit formal.

I understand what you mean,

but probably you'd just say I've changed my diet, or I've changed the way I eat.

Let's look at that again.

We've had: kicking habits – stopping bad habits.

longevity – living or lasting a long time,

and adopting – taking as your own.

Now, if you're interested in longevity

We recently asked

could humans live to 140 years old?

Click here to watch that video

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Thanks for joining us. Bye!