Transcript
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Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Phil.
And I'm Beth.
Phil, what makes
home special for you?
Maybe it's sleeping in your own bed,
the view from the window,
or a loved family pet.
What makes you feel
like you're home, Phil?
You know what? I think it's just
relaxing on my sofa in my living room.
Very nice.
Well, you might not realise it,
but for your brain, one of the
strongest identifiers of home is smell.
Listen as BBC presenters
Marnie Chesterton and Tristan Ahtone
describe the smells which give them
the feeling of home.
My grandad's house smelt of pine
and damp and musty books.
I know my mom's perfume,
my dad's preferred soap.
In this programme,
we'll be finding out
why our sense of smell is
so important to feeling at home,
even when we don't notice it.
As always, we'll be introducing
some useful new vocabulary.
And if you head over to our website,
bbclearningenglish.com, you'll find
a transcript of the programme
to read along with as you listen.
And there's a free worksheet too.
Good idea Beth,
but now it's time for my question.
The sense of smell is incredibly
powerful, but not everyone has it.
A small amount of the population
is anosmic, meaning they can't smell.
So, according to research
at the University of Reading,
what percentage
of people have no sense of smell?
Is it a) 2%, b) 5%, or c) 7%?
Oh, I'm going to say b) 5%.
Well, we'll find out the correct
answer later in the programme.
Have you ever come back home from
holiday and noticed a strange smell
in your house?
If you have,
don't worry, it's not bad.
In fact, there's
a scientific reason for it,
as science writer
Tristan Ahtone explained
to BBC World Service programme,
Unexpected Elements.
One thing I've been thinking about is
that every house or home has, well,
a smell to it.
You might really notice this
in your own home
when you come back from a long trip
and you step through your front door
and things smell, well,
just kind of a bit weird.
While there's a good chance
your house might smell strange
because it's been closed up
for a few weeks,
there's also a chance
you might be smelling your home
as it usually smells, but you just
don't notice it when you're there.
Tristan says that when
you return home after being away,
there's a good chance
your house smells weird,
an adjective meaning strange
or unusual.
If you say there's a good chance
that something will happen,
you mean there's a high likelihood
or probability of it.
The truth is that every home has a
smell, although we're so used to it,
we usually don't notice.
When we breathe in,
receptor cells in the nose detect
molecules in the air and send them to
olfactory organs in the brain.
These analyse the smells for danger.
The reason you can't smell your own home
is that it isn't a threat to you.
Here's science writer Tristan Ahtone
again explaining more
to BBC World Service programme
Unexpected Elements.
Well, by filtering out common,
non-threatening smells,
it makes it easier to detect things out
of the ordinary that might be dangerous.
So, for example,
if you forget about your toast
and it starts to burn,
you can typically smell that quickly
because there's a change
to the environment that you're in.
Then the other parts of your brain kick
in to understand the smell of smoke
as a potential harm or threat.
But even if we can't smell our own
homes, the scent of them still matters,
because it's entangled with our
recognition of comfort and security.
By filtering out familiar smells,
our brains are able
to detect other smells which are out
of the ordinary, unusual or uncommon,
and which may be dangerous.
To 'filter something out' means to
remove or separate something unwanted
from something else.
For example, filtering out the smell
of home means we notice the smell
of burning toast or other smells
alerting us to possible danger.
Even though we don't usually notice the
scent, the particular smell, of our home,
it still has an effect
on the brain's limbic system,
which handles memory and emotion.
This explains why smell has
such a strong effect on our feelings,
and why we feel comfortable and safe
at home.
Right, Phil, isn't it time to reveal
the answer to your question?
Yes, it is. I asked you what percentage
of the population is anosmic.
That means they can't smell.
And the answer is b) 5%,
which is what you said, I think.
It is, yeah.
Well done!
OK, let's recap the vocabulary
we've learnt in this programme
starting with 'anosmic', meaning having
no sense or a limited sense of smell.
The adjective 'weird' means strange,
odd or bizarre.
When someone says 'there's
a good chance' something will happen,
they mean it's quite likely
to happen.
The phrase 'out of the ordinary' means
unusual, uncommon, or exceptional.
If you 'filter something out',
you remove or separate something
unwanted from a substance.
And finally, a 'scent' is a distinctive
smell, often a pleasant one.
Although it can also mean
the smell made by an animal.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
but if you enjoyed listening to
this programme, you'll find many more,
along with a worksheet
with a quiz you can try,
on our website bbclearningenglish.com.
See you there soon.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15identifier
word
0:32
"something that helps the brain recognise or identify a person, place or thing."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Explore the powerful connection between smell and memory, and why certain scents make us feel at home in this 6 Minute English episode.