BBC Learnings · Section 9

Could you give up booze for a month

So, we're well into 2020 now. How are your New Year's resolutions going, Rob?

Level: B2 · 129 sentences

Transcript

So, we're well into 2020 now.
How are your New Year's resolutions going, Rob?
Ah, resolutions. You mean promises people make to themselves
to stop or start doing something.
I promise to start running and to stop eating biscuits
and to give up alcohol for a month.
But I failed on all of them.
Dear. Yes, I lasted a few days
and then I started to crumble.
Well, you're not alone.
Many people try to kick bad habits
and get healthy when a new year begins.
Their intentions, their plans to do something, are good.
Yes, giving up drinking is particularly
good to do, if only for the health benefits.
Well, we'll be talking more about that as soon
as I set up today's question.
According to historians, which people were thought
to be the first group to make New Year's resolutions?
Was it the... a Romans, b Native Americans, or c Babylonians?
I haven't got a clue,
so I'm going to guess a the Romans.
OK Rob, I'll let you know
if that was a good guess
at the end of the programme.
Now let's talk more about giving things up
for New Year and specifically giving up alcohol.
It's a time often called Dry January.
Dry refers to not drinking alcohol.
It's not about the weather.
And the beginning of the year seems like a good time
to start doing something to improve your health.
But it's easy to give in to temptation, isn't it, Rob?
Oh yes, and it's tough to give up drinking in the first place.
As Millie Gooch, founder of the Sober Girl Society knows,
She spoke to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme
and explained why it was hard
to quit in the first place.
I think it's the peer pressure and, you know,
it's just so expected of us.
It's so ingrained in us.
Alcohol is everywhere and it's not just
alcohol itself, it's like alcohol merchandise.
So, you know, you've got Christmas jumpers
that have been saying Prosecco, ho,
ho, ho, and you can't buy a birthday card
without it saying, let the fun begin.
It's just absolutely everywhere. It's so hard to avoid.
So that's Millie, who's right when she says
that, in the UK at least, we sometimes drink
because we give in to peer pressure.
That's the influence a group of similar people
have on you to behave like them.
We want to be part of the group,
so we copy what they do.
And we are expected to do so because, as Millie said,
drinking alcohol is ingrained in us.
Well, in some cultures anyway.
And when an attitude is ingrained,
it means it's been that way for a long time.
It's difficult to change.
And although it may be harmful,
we see jokes about drinking through things like merchandise,
a word for goods we buy and sell.
And Millie goes on to say we can buy jumpers
that joke about the Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco,
which say Prosecco ho ho ho.
And birthday cards have the message let the fun begin,
a play on the word begin.
With all this social pressure, it's hard not to give in.
And that's even worse when you're trying
to fulfil your resolution not to drink.
For Millie, enough was enough when drinking
started to have a negative effect
and she had to do something about it.
Let's hear from her again.
I started realising that alcohol was actually really affecting my mental health,
so I was getting that really bad hangover anxiety,
that hangover fear and dread, and I kind of noticed
that that was permeating my everyday life.
I was a binge drinker rather than like an everyday drinker,
so I just decided that, yeah,
it wasn't suiting my life anymore
and I wanted to give it up.
So Millie there described the negative effects of a hangover.
That's the sick and tired feeling you
get after drinking too much alcohol.
She also said she felt anxiety
and this feeling was permeating her everyday life.
When something permeates, it spreads through something
and influences every part of it.
So drinking was affecting her everyday life
and it didn't help that she was a binge drinker.
When you binge, you do something occasionally but too extreme.
Well, Millie managed to quit drinking
and hasn't touched a drop since.
There are many benefits to remaining sober.
That means not being drunk.
And one of them is hearing the answer to today's question.
Earlier I asked you, according to historians,
which people were thought to be the first group to make New Year's resolutions?
Was it the a Romans, b Native Americans, or c Babylonians?
And Rob, what did you say?
I had a wild guess and said it was the Romans.
Sorry, Rob, you are wrong.
Many historians think it was the Babylonians
who made the first ever New Year's resolutions about 4,000 years ago.
According to the history.com website,
at New Year, which they celebrated in mid-March,
Babylonians made promises to the gods to pay their debts
and return any objects they had borrowed.
I wonder if they managed to keep
their resolutions for longer than I did.
Anyway, let's keep one of our regular promises
to recap the vocabulary we've discussed today, starting with resolution.
Which in the context of New Year's resolution
is a promise to yourself to stop or start doing something.
Peer pressure is the influence a group of similar people
have on you to behave like them.
Engrained describes an attitude or idea
that has been done in a certain way
for a long time and is difficult to change.
And merchandise is a word for goods we buy and sell.
We also mentioned a hangover. That's the sick,
tired and sometimes anxious feeling you
get after drinking too much alcohol.
And permeating describes spreading through something
and influencing every part of it.
Like the vocabulary in this programme, Sam.