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Today, we meet the English word “worth”, and a famous cosmetics company that tells us that we are “worth it”.

“Worth” means simply the value that something has. Sometimes we use it in a literal way, to mean “how much money would people pay?” But often we use it figuratively, to mean “how much time and effort and energy would people pay?” Here are some examples:

Kevin is, as I am sure you know, a fan of the loudest punk rock group in the world “Futile Vendetta”. He has all their records and CDs. His collection of records and CDs is worth about £300, which means that – if Kevin sold them – he might get £300 for them. But he is not going to sell them. They are worth much more than £300 to him.

Kevin’s friend George lives in a flat. George owns the flat – he does not rent it from a landlord. George wants to move to another flat, closer to his work. The first thing he does is to ask an estate agent to look at his flat and tell him how much it is worth – that is, how much somebody might pay for it. When he knows this, George can work out how much he can afford to pay for a new flat.

Last summer, Kevin and Joanne went for a holiday in the Lake District in the north-west of England. They climbed a mountain called Scafell Pike. Scafell Pike is less than 1,000 metres high, but it is still the highest mountain in England. It was a long climb. After about an hour, their legs were tired and their feet were sore. They were out of breath and it had started to rain. Their clothes were wet, and Kevin had water in his boots. Eventually, they reached the top. Suddenly, the sun broke through the clouds. They could see all the way to the sea, far away to the west and the south. They could see the other mountains around, and the valleys and lakes far below. It was magic. It was worth the aching legs and the wet clothes. Or, as we often say in English, “it was worth it”.

If you say that something is “worth it”, you mean that that thing has a bigger value than the money you paid, or the work you did, or the time you spent, or the emotional upset which you had, in order to get that thing. Here are some other things which are “worth it” (or “not worth it”):

Kevin’s football team, United, has paid £10 million for a new striker. The first time he played for United, he scored twice. He was worth it.

Joanne wants to see a new film. But the only cinema which is showing it is on the other side of town. It would take nearly an hour to get there. “Is it worth it?” wonders Joanne.

George’s Dad grows vegetables in his garden. It is hard work, but George’s Dad says that fresh, home-grown vegetables are worth it.

Jimmy and Carole, whom we met in an earlier podcast, and who were doing fine the last time we saw them, have had a row. Joanne finds Carole in tears. “Don’t get so upset,” says Joanne. “He’s not worth it.”

And finally, we come to the French cosmetics company L’Oreal. L’Oreal sells industrial chemicals that people put on their bodies to make themselves look younger or smell sweeter. Some of their products are quite expensive. But, as L’Oreal tells us in their advertisements on TV, “You’re worth it.” They mean, “You are wonderful and beautiful. You want to stay wonderful and beautiful. So, it is worth spending lots of money on our products, and worth spending time putting them on your face and taking them off afterwards. Trust L’Oreal. You are worth it.”

There is a quiz on the website about the word “worth”. And that is the end of today’s podcast. I hope you think that it was worth it.

  

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Today we will learn some words connected with volcanoes; and we will find out that volcanoes are bad for aeroplanes, and why people in west London can now hear the birds sing.

Volcanoes are mountains, or other places, where the inside of the earth comes to the surface. Volcanoes sometimes throw a large amount of hot gas and ash high into the atmosphere, or they spill very hot melted rock, called lava, over the land. We call events like these “eruptions” and we can say that a volcano “erupts”. An active volcano is a volcano that erupts from time to time, like Mount Etna in Italy. An extinct volcano is one which does not erupt any more, like Kilimanjaro in Africa. And a dormant volcano is, well, just sleeping and might wake some time and erupt again.

There are several active volcanoes in Iceland, and last week one of them erupted. It sent a huge cloud of gas and ash into the air. The ash has drifted south-east-wards towards Britain and the rest of Europe and for the last several days, there has been a cloud of volcanic ash over most of north-west Europe. We cannot see it from the ground, but it is visible on satellite pictures.

If an aeroplane flies through a cloud of volcanic ash, the engines may suck the ash in. The ash may then cause corrosion and abrasion. (“Corrosion” is when the ash reacts chemically with the steel and other materials in the engine; “abrasion” is when the ash scratches and wears the surface). Aircraft engines are very hot, and they may melt the volcanic ash into a material like glass. So, altogether, volcanic ash is bad news for aircraft engines. In the 1980s there were some frightening cases where an aeroplane flew through a cloud of volcanic ash, and all the engines stopped working.

At the end of last week, therefore, the air-traffic control authorities in Britain and other European countries decided that it was not safe to let aeroplanes fly through the volcanic ash. The airlines which normally fly businessmen to meetings in New York or Hong Kong, or holidaymakers to sunny places in the Mediterranean, have stopped flying. They have cancelled all their flights. To cancel something means to decide that it will not happen. An airline might cancel a flight; a railway company might cancel a train. Recently the lead singer in Kevin’s favourite group, Futile Vendetta, had a sore throat – poor man! – and the band had to cancel two concerts.

Because all flights in and out of Britain have been cancelled, people who were visiting Britain as tourists or on business are stranded. And many British people who are away from home are stranded as well. If you are “stranded” it means that you cannot leave somewhere. If you miss the last bus home, you may be stranded until the next morning. If you run out of money while you are on holiday, you may be stranded. Other words which mean almost the same as “stranded” are “stuck”, “trapped” and “marooned”. There are no flights and I am stuck in Berlin. I have lost my money and my passport and I am trapped in Greece. I arrived at the airport too late and now I am marooned in Spain.

The volcano in Iceland is still erupting, and the cloud of volcanic ash shows no signs of clearing. No-one knows when it will be safe to fly aeroplanes again. Life without air travel is a bigger problem for Britain than for other countries because Britain is an island and you cannot simply drive your car over the border into a neighbouring country. All the ferries and the Eurostar train service are fully booked with people trying to get home. Our government has decided to help British people who are stuck abroad by flying them to Spain (where the airports are still open) and bringing them home by coach or by ship.

But it is not all bad news. In Britain, we have a General Election at the beginning of May. Normally, the newspapers and television would be full of politicians telling us why we should vote for them, but for the moment the volcano is the big news. And people who live near airports have been able to do something very unusual – they have been able to sit in their gardens in the sunshine and listen to the birds singing.

If you have been stranded, by the volcano or for some other reason, why not tell us about it by leaving a comment on the website.

  

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There is a well-known line in Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” which goes, “The course of true love never did run smooth”. It means that when you fall in love, there are always complications, and accidents and difficulties. That is the theme of today’s podcast. And there are plenty of phrasal verbs as well, and there is a separate Grammar and Vocabulary note to explain some of them.

Kevin and Joanne invite about 20 friends to a party. Among the guests are Jimmy and Carole. They have never met before. Kevin introduces them to each other, and they get talking. And they keep talking all evening, except when Kevin plays music by his favourite punk band “Futile Vendetta” so loudly that no-one can make themselves heard. It is obvious that Jimmy and Carole get on well with each other. Before they leave at the end of the evening, Jimmy asks Carole if she would like to go to the cinema with him the next weekend, and Carole says yes. Isn’t that romantic!

Now Jimmy is outside the cinema. It is 7.30. Carole agreed to meet him at 7 o’clock. But perhaps he did not hear her properly (Futile Vendetta were singing their all-time hit “I Loathe the World” at the time). Perhaps Carole actually meant 7.30 or even 8 o’clock. So Jimmy waits and waits. But still no Carole. Perhaps she has forgotten. or perhaps she has decided not to come. It seems that Carole has let him down. She promised to go to the cinema with him, and now she has not turned up.

Meanwhile, outside a different cinema, Carole is looking at her watch. She agreed to meet Jimmy at 7 o’clock. So where is he? Has Jimmy stood her up? She too feels disappointed. She rather liked Jimmy and was looking forward to seeing him again.

Then Jimmy has a bright idea. The modern world contains things called mobile phones. Perhaps Carole has a mobile phone. Unfortunately, Jimmy does not know her number. He tried to ask her at the party, but Futile Vendetta prevented effective communication. But Kevin and Joanne will know, so Jimmy rings them to find out. Kevin answers the phone. Yes, he can help. He looks at the list of phone numbers on the wall beside the telephone, and reads out Carole’s number. “Thanks”, says Jimmy, and rings off. Unfortunately, Kevin has given him the phone number of Joanne’s Aunt Carole, who is a large lady in her 50s with three dogs and six cats. Jimmy has an interesting telephone conversation with Aunt Carole, in which he asks her what she is doing, and she says that she is watching television and eating a box of chocolates, and – no – she does not remember agreeing to go to the cinema with him.

Meanwhile, Carole also thinks about telephoning, and she too rings Kevin and Joanne. This time Joanne answers, and tells her Jimmy’s number. Except that it is the number of Jimmy the hairdresser, and not of Jimmy who is standing in the rain outside the cinema wondering where Carole is. Jimmy the hairdresser tells Carole that she would look simply divine, darling, if he could cut her hair and dye it green.

Jimmy and Carole are now both very fed up. Jimmy thinks that Carole has let him down. Carole thinks that Jimmy has stood her up. Jimmy decides to get a bus back home. Carole starts to look for a taxi. Then Jimmy turns a corner and sees Carole on the other side of the road, getting into a taxi. He shouts and waves but Carole does not hear. So Jimmy jumps into another taxi and says to the driver, “Follow that cab!” The taxi driver, who watches bad spy movies in his spare time, has always wanted someone to jump into his taxi and shout “Follow that cab!” He rises to the occasion, drives through three red traffic lights and pulls up behind Carole’s taxi just as Carole is getting out.

So Jimmy and Carole finally meet up. They have a “where were you – no. I was there, where were you” sort of conversation. And they laugh, and go to the pub round the corner for a drink, and agree to go to the theatre next week to see a play by Shakespeare called, very appropriately, “All’s Well That Ends Well”.

And Kevin says to Joanne, “I still don’t understand why Jimmy the hairdresser is going out with your Aunt Carole.”

  

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Last Sunday, in the early hours of the morning, a whole hour disappeared. It was the beginning of summer time. Every year, at the end of March, we change the time on our clocks and watches. We move the time forward by one hour, so that, for example, 1.00 am becomes 2.00 am. It is light for longer in the summer than in the winter. However, extra daylight early in the morning is not much use to us, because we are still in bed. We want the extra daylight in the evening, when we can go outside and dig the garden or take a picnic to the park. By changing the clocks, we move an hour of summer daylight from the morning to the evening, when we can enjoy it more. In winter, therefore, we have winter time, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In summer we have summer time, or British Summer Time (BST) as it is officially called.

Instead, we could of course all get up earlier in the morning during the summer. We could all start work, or school, or college, an hour earlier. And then we could go home an hour earlier as well. But we English do not like getting up early in the morning. In Germany, many people arrive at work at 7am or even earlier. We English are more sensible. We stay in bed. And it would be difficult to get everyone to agree to start work an hour earlier. So we change the time on our clocks instead.

During the Second World War, we had a sort of double summer time – we moved the clocks forward by one hour in the winter and by two hours in the summer. We did this to save energy and increase productivity in the factories. But at the end of the war, we went back to the old winter and summer times. Every few years, for the last 50 or 60 years, we have had a national debate in the press and in Parliament about permanently changing our time, in the same way that we did during the war. A new campaign to change our time has just started. It is called “Lighter Later” and you can read about it on its website.

“Lighter Later” says that if we move our time forward by an hour, it will solve almost all the problems of the world:

• it will save energy, because we will not need to use so much electricity for lighting in the evenings.
• our carbon dioxide emissions will fall.
• there will be fewer road accidents.
• it will be good for tourism, and help to create jobs in the leisure and tourism industries.
• it will be easier for us to play sport or go jogging in the evenings, so we will all be fit and lose weight.
• it will reduce crime.
• it will make everyone happy, rich and famous.

OK, I invented the last one about “happy, rich and famous”. But it is clear that there are some very strong arguments for changing our time by moving the clocks forward by another hour for the whole year. In particular, it would be a cheap and easy way of reducing our carbon dioxide emissions.

In the past, two groups of people have argued against changing our time. The first group is people who have jobs where they have to start work very early in the morning. Farmers, for example, may need to milk their cows very early. If we changed the time, the farmers say, they would have to start work in the dark all year round, even in the middle of summer. The second group is people who live in Scotland. Scotland is further north than England, and this means that there is less daylight in the winter than in England. The Scots argue that changing the time would mean that Scottish schoolchildren would have to go to school in the dark for several months during the winter.

What will happen this time? Will we finally change our time? Or will the old objections win? There are some signs that the campaign for a change in our time may succeed. There is an urgent need to find ways of reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. The organisation which represents British farmers now says that it is “neutral” about making the change. And the Scots? Well, British politics has changed in recent years. Scotland now has its own Parliament and its own government. Many people in England now say that the Scots can sort out their own problems, but they cannot block changes which are good for England.

To finish, I should tell you that no-one has told the British weather that the clocks have gone forward and it is now officially summer time. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for snow in many places.

  

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Have you ever thought that the English are mad? Of course you have. And after today’s podcast, you will know that it is true.

But first we must meet the English verb “to tumble”. “Tumble” means, simply, to fall down. For example, if you are coming down some stairs and you trip, you might tumble to the bottom. You would fall, perhaps you would roll over, and two seconds later you would be on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, wondering whether you had broken any bones. We can use “tumble” in a figurative way too. We can talk about a stream tumbling down the side of a mountain. Or if a supermarket reduces its prices, it might put notices in the window saying “Prices tumble throughout this store!”

Now for the story in today’s podcast. Last week, we read in the newspaper that an important sporting event will not take place this year. It is not a football match or a horse-race. It is much more important than that; it is the great Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling event.

Cooper’s Hill is not far from the town of Gloucester. It is a very steep hill, covered in grass and trees. Every year at the end of May there is a cheese rolling at Cooper’s Hill. About 15 competitors stand in a line at the top of the hill. Many of them wear batman suits or other fancy dress. A man with a big hat, called the Cheese Master, throws a 3 or 4 kilo cheese down the hill. The competitors run after the cheese. The rules say that if one of the competitors catches the cheese, he or she can keep it. In practice, no-one ever catches the cheese, because it goes too fast. And the competitors do not run after the cheese, because the hill is too steep. Instead, they fall, they roll, they slide on their bottoms – they tumble, in fact.

At the bottom of the hill, there is a line of stewards. They catch the competitors before they can tumble all the way to the M5 motorway. And there is a line of ambulances too, for those competitors who break their ankles on the way down.

There are several races, some for men and some for women, and for the really crazy there are some uphill races too (though, obviously, the cheese cannot go uphill). After the races, those competitors who are not actually in hospital gather at a local pub to drink beer and tell stories of the heroic events of the day.

Obviously, for an important event like the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling, you could not use just any sort of cheese. The cheese is of a type called Double Gloucester. It is made locally by a lady called Diana Smart. She is 83 years old. The cheese rolling is an important part of her business. She is fed up that it has been cancelled this year.

So, why has it been cancelled? For hundreds of years, the only people who came to watch the cheese rolling were local people. But the event is now internationally famous, and lots of people want to come. Last year there were 15,000 spectators, from many different countries. The police and organisers of the event are worried about the safety of the spectators, and about car-parking, and about the fact that there are no toilets, and other problems of having so many people. The organisers think that they can solve the problems for next year, so the Cheese Rolling should take place again in 2011.

My own proposal is that cheese rolling should become an Olympic Sport. Then it could be included in the London Olympic Games in 2012. We could build a super stadium on Coopers Hill, with room for 50,000 spectators, lots of toilets and a car park for thousands of cars. The stadium could have a roof in case it rains. But this year you will have to find a hill in your own country, and throw a cheese down it, and tumble after the cheese. Happy cheese rolling!

  

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