Transcript
Tap a time to jump · select words to save
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute
English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Beth and I'm Neil.
In this episode
we're talking about allergies.
Allergies are when a certain food
or material makes you feel sick.
Do you have any allergies, Beth?
Yeah.
So, I am actually allergic to dairy,
so I can't have anything with milk.
So no cheese, no butter.
What about you, Neil?
Have you got any allergies?
Well, I'm not great with dairy
either, but it's not an allergy,
more of an intolerance,
so it just makes me feel a bit bad
rather than actually making me sick.
But I do have hay fever,
so I'm allergic to pollen.
That means in the summer months I'm
sneezing and coughing all the time.
I get runny eyes and a runny nose,
and it also gives me a little bit
of asthma, so it's a bit of a pain.
Oh yeah, that sounds really horrible.
Now scientific evidence shows that
more people are developing allergies.
In this programme, we're going to
find out about what it's like living
with an allergy and where in the world
has the highest rate of allergies.
But first,
I have a question for you, Beth.
What is the most common allergy
in the world?
Is it a) peanuts, b) pollen or c) dairy?
I'm going to say pollen.
A lot of people
I know have hay fever.
Including me. Well, we'll find out
the answer at the end of the show.
Now, Beth, you're allergic to dairy, but
imagine if you had over 50 allergies.
That's the situation for Mia Silverman,
who runs a social media account,
Allergies with Mia, where she talks
about living with lots of allergies.
My 50 plus allergies include all nuts
and their oils.
I'm allergic to all fish except
for cooked tuna and cooked codfish.
Life for Mia involves a lot
of planning,
as she told BBC World Service
programme, What in the World?
And having these 50 plus allergies
impacts my life every single day.
So, when it comes to going
to restaurants,
having to call ahead of time,
talk to the manager,
talk to the chef to make sure
that the restaurant can accommodate me,
that they can make me something safe
and use protocols to prevent any sort of
risk of any allergens touching my dish.
When it comes to socialising,
it can be kind of hard sometimes,
because I want to make sure that
my friends don't feel inconvenienced
or feel like I'm being a burden.
If Mia wants to go to a restaurant,
she has to call ahead of time
to tell them about her allergies.
If you call ahead of time,
you phone somewhere,
like a restaurant, before you go.
We can also say call ahead.
Mia needs to find out
whether restaurants can accommodate
her allergies.
Accommodate in this context means
give someone what they need.
Because Mia has so many allergies,
she has to visit restaurants
which have protocols
to stop the food she is allergic to
touching her meal.
Protocols means a set of rules
for a process to make sure
things are done properly.
Now, most people who have allergies
don't have as many as Mia,
but scientists believe
more people are developing allergies.
And there is one place where the number
of allergies is particularly high.
Australia.
In fact, Australia is called
the allergy capital of the world.
When we describe somewhere as the
capital of the world in something,
we mean that it's known
for that thing.
So the allergy capital of the world
is the place in the world
with the most allergies.
BBC journalist Frances Mao is
from Australia
and explains some of the allergy data
to BBC World Service podcast,
What in the World?
You're from Australia, which has been
called the allergy capital of the world.
What is it about Australia in particular
that is making people more allergic?
Australia's termed the allergy capital
of the world because, due to the research
and the data, that shows that almost one
in ten infants have marked a allergy.
And often that's a food allergy
or a respiratory allergy,
and that does drop off
once they're a bit older.
Age six or so,
it goes down to about 6%,
and then as an adult goes down
to like 3%.
Frances talks about the high numbers
of Australian infants,
that's babies, who have allergies.
But she says the numbers drop off
as children get older.
If numbers or rates of something
drop off, they get lower.
By age six or so.
Australian children are
less likely to have allergies.
We can use or so in informal speech to
show that the number is an estimate.
It's not exact.
So Beth, is there anything we can do
about all these allergies?
Well, scientists are investigating
giving babies vitamin D,
which can be shown
to reduce allergies.
Another technique is immunotherapy,
which involves scientists
giving children tiny amounts
of the thing they are allergic to and
then building up their baby's tolerance.
Interesting. And I think it's time to
find out the answer to my question.
I asked you, what is
the most common allergy in the world?
I said pollen. Was I right?
You were right. Well done.
OK. Let's recap the vocabulary
we've learned,
starting with call ahead of time,
which means to phone somewhere
like a restaurant before your
appointment or before you go there.
If you accommodate someone,
you give them what they need.
Protocols are strict rules
for how something is done.
If somewhere is the capital
of the world for a particular thing,
it's known for that thing.
For example, London is sometimes called
the theatre capital of the world
because we have lots of theatres.
If numbers drop off,
it means they get lower.
And we can add or so
to a number in informal speech
to show that the number is
an estimate.
It's not exact.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
but you can test your knowledge
even more using the interactive quiz
on our website.
Visit bbclearningenglish.com.
Bye for now.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15allergy
word
0:17
"a condition in which a certain food or material makes you feel ill."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Explore why allergies seem to be on the rise and what modern science is doing to understand and treat them in this 6 Minute English episode.