BBC 6 Minute English 2018 Do opposites attract
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BBC learning english.com hello and
welcome to six minute English
I’m Sophie and I’m nail so Sophie the
subject of today’s show is attraction do
you believe in love at first sight no I
don’t I think it takes time to get to
know somebody well enough to know if you
love them but I have a friend who says
when she saw her husband for the first
time that was before they got married
that’s right when they met for the first
time that was it a bolt out of the blue
and they got married three months later
a bolt out of the blue means something
totally unexpected well that sounds very
romantic and leads me on to today’s quiz
question Sophie what percentage of
Americans said they believed in love at
first sight is it a 26 percent be a 56
percent or cat6 percent I’m not an old
romantic like you Neal so I’m going to
go for a 26 percent well we’ll find out
later on in the show if you’re right to
be skeptical or not Sophie and skeptical
for those of you who don’t know means to
have doubts about something I think you
can be physically attracted to somebody
straight away I just don’t think you can
fall in love with somebody so easily
love is about other things
compatibility personality and a good
sense of humor yes humor is important
but apparently Sophie for men it’s all
about the waist-hip ratio according to
research the ideal waist-hip ratio for
women is 0.7 where ratio means the
relationship between two sizes and you
get this figure by dividing the waist
measurement by the hip measurement I see
and why do men find naught point 7 so
irresistible well let’s listen to doctor
and a match in an evolutionary
anthropologist from the University of
Oxford explaining what a man is looking
for he’s going to look up signs for
fertility and what we call for Kunda tea
and good health and the major indicator
of that in women is the waist hip ratio
and the waist-hip ratio the absolute
ideal what men find most attractive
regardless of culture this has been
tested in many different cultures around
the world is 0.7 and that’s really your
classic hourglass figure and the reason
why that universally is attractive it’s
because it’s tied to the health of that
individual there’s a very strong
relationship between someone’s
circulating estrogen and testosterone
obviously we want the east region to be
high their testosterone to be low for
women to be fertile and also her general
health so 0.7 is linked to lower risk of
heart disease lower risk of diabetes and
certain sorts of cancers so a waist-hip
ratio of 0.7 correlates or has a strong
relationship with good general health
and fertility in women and men find this
attractive because it identifies fertile
women women who will be able to conceive
or get pregnant and have babies
successfully dr. machen also mentions
that 0.7 is the classic hourglass figure
which means curvy do you like curves
naome mind your own business Sophie but
all this waist-hip theory of Attraction
isn’t very romantic is it you’re right
it isn’t and whilst we do judge people
by the way they look we also use our
sense of smell to sniff out our ideal
mate or sexual partner apparently we can
detect whether people are genetically
different to us by the way they smell
and parents who have different immune
systems create healthier babies so it’s
back to having babies again all biology
and chemistry and not about feelings at
all well let’s leave chemistry behind
for a moment and listen to Professor
David parrot at the School of Psychology
and neuroscience at st. Andrews
University in Scotland he talks about
other factors that play a role in
attraction classic surgery really
doesn’t count for much in the end and
you could be with somebody who’s
aesthetically very beautiful but if they
don’t smile and react then that counts
for much less so we can change your
faces by interacting with others and
doing so in a pleasant manner and that
will aid our attractiveness and make
others interested in us
what does aesthetically mean Sophie it
means judging something by the way it
looks and whilst we all enjoy a pretty
face most of us are looking for more
than that we are looking for people who
appear friendly and approachable and who
we share interests with exactly and
personally I think kind eyes are very
important with a bit of a twinkle what
about you Sophie I like a good sense of
humor very good now remember I asked you
Sophie what percentage of Americans said
they believe in love at first sight is
it a 26 percent B 56 percent or C 86
percent I said 26 percents sorry that’s
the wrong answer Sophie 56 percent of
Americans believe in love at first sight
and the percentage is even higher for
married people and those in
relationships according to a poll
conducted by the website cbs.com in 2013
well Americans are a romantic Bunch
me too and I’m British now here are the
words we heard today bolt out of the
blue sceptical ratio correlates fertil
conceived hourglass figure mate
aesthetically well that’s the end of
this edition of 6 minute English join us
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