6 Minute English – 나의 작은 숲

Preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics

But these latest Games are not without controversy – that’s disagreement or argument about something people have strong feelings about.
The Winter Olympics have not been around as long as the Summer Olympics, so do you know when the first Winter event took place?
A discipline in this context is a particular way of doing a sport.
The BBC’s China correspondent
despite the coronavirus headaches, despite the alleged human rights abuses, despite the allegations from a former Chinese Olympian
being in full swing – so, at its highest level of activity – its busiest.
controversy – disagreement or argument about something people have strong feelings about.
for the athletes the clock is ticking, meaning time is running out to prepare.
Looks like I need to brush up on my Winter Olympics knowledge
metaphorically

what counts is not what you eat but how your body reacts.
gut – the tube which includes the large and small intestine.
microbes
5.5 metres : five and half metres
If evidence is flimsy, it’s weak and unconvincing.
realise = realize
if something sticks out of the crowd, it’s noticeable in a good way.
the more diverse someone’s microbes, the better their gut was at digesting food, regulating fat and maintaining health.
that took ‘guts’, which is the second meaning of the word: courage.

Klingon has developed a life of its own.
so it’s not a language proper in the way that we understand it now, because really when we talk about a language it’s not just the vocabulary, it’s the grammar – nevertheless we still kind of look on her as the patron saint of modern conlanging. a conlang, short for constructed language
He wanted to make it easier for people to communicate with each other.
Er, no I got stuck on that one!
And speaking of creatures from outer space, did I get the right answer to your quiz question, Sam? : 그리고 우주에서 온 생명체 얘기가 나와서 말인데,
The story must have been hard to follow but I’m sure the singing was out of this world!

look lifelike
simultaneously : watch the same football match that is simultaneously happening in the park.
She blends the words ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ to make a new word describing this combination: phygital.
sceptical, sceptic
So, the reason, sort of, social networks took off was, we’ve got mobile technologies that let us use it.
rather unwieldy headsets
AR (Augmented Reality) : 증강 현실
Both VR and AR are immersive experiences

in particular
Plants in particular need to have a very efficient immune system for two important reasons. Firstly, they sit at the bottom of the food chain so there are a lot of opportunistic organisms out there, including insect herbivores and microbial pathogens who want to tap into that biochemical energy that is stored in plants. The other reason is plants are rooted to the ground – they cannot escape from the stressful conditions in their environment.
Rabbits eat grass and, in turn, are eaten by foxes.
caterpillars
Our hypothesis would be that, depending on the level of that stress – if it was a really long-lasting drought of a few years, then maybe the tree can remember it for a long time because it needs to adapt to that hostile environment. Now, maybe the hypothesis would be the other way around, maybe if it was a very dry July for instance, maybe the tree is not even that bothered and then it forgets within one year because that memory of stress is gonna be holding it back on its growth, for instance.
drought
They live even longer – over 5,000 years, in fact – all the way back to the Bronze Age.

What do A, B, C have in common?
mathematical instructions
equations
I’m temped to say A but I reckon B.
And their use today can be controversial. Some algorithms have been accused of racial prejudice.
bogyman
inscrutable : people don’t show their emotions so are very difficult to get to know.
in a flash
OK, let’s recap the vocabulary from this programme, starting with equation.