📙 Part 2: Describe an article on health you read in a magazine or on the internet

This episode's vocabulary

Steer clear of (phrase) – to avoid something. → I try to steer clear of articles.

Clickbaity (adjective) – designed to attract attention and clicks online, often misleading. → Articles can be a bit clickbaity.

Read up on (phrasal verb) – to read a lot about a subject. → I did read up on something I saw about men's health.

Satirical (adjective) – using humor or exaggeration to criticize something. → The article was a satirical one about weight loss.

Outrageous (adjective) – shocking or extreme. → It shared all of these outrageous tips.

To the detriment of (phrase) – causing harm to something. → People can become focused on one thing to the detriment of all others.

For the sake of (phrase) – for the purpose of or in the interest of something. → Losing weight for the sake of it.

Reality check (noun) – something that makes you realize the truth of a situation. → It gave me a bit of a reality check.

Get carried away (phrase) – to become overly excited or enthusiastic about something. → I had a habit of getting a bit carried away.

Overly serious (adjective) – too serious about something. → People are so overly serious about notions of health.

Set out to (phrase) – to start doing something with a clear intention. → I hadn’t set out to find it.

Go over (phrasal verb) – to examine or read something carefully. → I used to go over it in detail.

Short of (phrase) – except for or other than. → Short of hiring a personal trainer.

Afford to (phrase) – to have enough money, time, or ability to do something. → We could all afford to keep that in mind.

Body dysmorphia (noun) – a mental health condition where a person worries a lot about their appearance. → The rise of things like body dysmorphia.

Headline (noun) – the title of a news story or article. → The headline caught my attention.

Skim (verb) – to read quickly to get the main idea. → I skim articles before deciding to read them fully.

Feature article (noun) – a detailed piece of writing on a particular subject. → The magazine had a feature article on mental health.

Source credibility (noun) – the trustworthiness of the place you get information from. → Always check the source credibility.

Opinion piece (noun) – an article expressing someone's personal views. → I like reading an opinion piece now and then.

Questions and Answers

Maria: You should say what it was, where you read it, why you read it, and how you felt about it.

Rory: Oh god, usually I read books on health and wellbeing and try to steer clear of articles since they're a bit, well, clickbaity or potentially misleading. At least in my experience. But one time I did read up on something I saw about men's health. Fittingly enough, this was in a magazine called Men's Health. And the article itself was a satirical one about weight loss, highlighting all the possible ways someone could lose weight, ranging from small actions like shaving off all of your hair to starting to cut off body parts, just to lose the weight of your arm or your leg.

I think the overarching point of sharing all of these outrageous tips was that people can become excessively focused on one thing to the detriment of all others, even your own health. And of course, losing weight should be about being healthy rather than just losing weight for the sake of it and thinking that's what makes you healthy. I think it was, well, I thought it was absolutely hilarious at the time and I still do. And it gave me a bit of a reality check in the midst of my own personal journey towards being healthier, since I had a habit of getting a bit carried away with these things. It's important to have a reminder of that, especially nowadays, when people are so overly serious about notions of how to be healthy and what being healthy actually means and what it might look like.

When it comes to why I read it, well, I hadn't set out to find it. It was just there in the course of my reading of the magazine. I used to buy it every month, you see, and go over it in detail to get advice and see what worked for other people. This was back before the days of internet influencers on social media, so it was one of the few places you could get good advice, short of hiring a personal trainer. Which was, and still is, kind of expensive.

If I hadn't read it, I don't think I'd have suffered too much. But like I say, it was a funny reminder that there are more important things in life than just losing weight. And I think we could all afford to keep that in mind these days, especially with the rise of things like body dysmorphia and other mental health problems or conditions like that.

Discussion

Maria: So, dear listener, the task is to describe an article on health. Maybe you read it in an online magazine or somewhere on the internet. Maybe you read a post on social media. It could also be an article. If you haven’t read anything on health, you can say, well, I don’t remember reading an article on health, but I am going to tell you about a book I read about food, or diet, or, I don’t know… Something you read about health. Or you can just imagine that 20 years ago you read something about health, ok? And just imagine that it was yesterday, and tell your story. Books on health. We can say not “about” health, but “on” health, books on health, and wellbeing. Well-being is the general idea of being well.

Rory: It's so hard to explain, and I understand this completely because I had to write an essay about this for university. And there are so many differing definitions of health and what well-being is that it becomes extremely hard to explain to people in a universal way.

Maria: Rory tries to steer clear of articles. So he doesn't usually read articles. So you can say that I try to steer clear of. Steer means to control. We usually steer a boat.

Rory: But steer clear of is to avoid.

Maria: Yeah, it's an idiom. Steer clear of someone or something. C2 level, band 9. To avoid someone or something that seems unpleasant, dangerous, or likely to cause problems. Yeah. So, for example, I steered clear of controversial issues like religion, politics, or like children should steer clear of drugs. And Rory tries to steer clear of articles because he thinks that they're a bit clickbaity.

Rory: Yeah, clickbait is... I suppose the best way of describing it is it's an article with a title that's designed to get you to pay attention to it. So it will have an outrageous title or something like this. Whether the subject matter is actually outrageous or not is not the point. It's just to get you to click the article. So the advertising revenue is generated.

Maria: Yeah. And usually, like, we read something like, if you drink coffee, you'll die. Like death.

Rory: Or coffee gives you cancer or something like this.

Maria: Oh, yeah. So this is like a clickbaity title, right? So if something is clickbaity, usually it's used about an internet story, title, or image. It intends to attract attention. So to encourage people to click on it, to click on the link. So we usually talk about a clickbaity headline, a clickbaity article. So I try to avoid articles, steer clear of articles, because they are a bit click baity. Or potentially misleading. So they can mislead you. They can give you some wrong information. Coffee makes you fat. What? So misleading. Causing you to believe something that is not true, misleading information. And then worry, remember that: one time I did read up on something I saw in this magazine. So I read up on health. I read up on something on health. And you can name the magazine. I already read something in Men's Health. Or it could be some article online. I don't remember the website.

Rory: There's another one called women's health. If you're a lady and you're looking for the equivalent. Not to advertise for certain companies. But generally speaking, something with the word health in the title is probably a good place to start when looking for this kind of article.

Maria: The article was about weight loss. Losing weight.

Rory: Becoming lighter.

Yeah. Weight loss. Loss is like losing weight and a noun. Weight loss. Or this article was about our diet of healthy food. I don't know. Keeping fit. Doing sports.So anything. But choose the topic wisely. So choose something you can talk about. I think the easiest one is, again, like weight loss or food, for example. Healthy food. Or fast food, for example. How to avoid fast food. And the article highlighted all the possible ways a person could lose weight. So the article highlights. It kind of gives information.

Rory: Oh, no. If it highlights something, then it focuses your attention here.

Maria: It kind of like focuses your attention. The report highlights how to lose weight. So the report focuses your attention. How to lose weight. And then there were different ways of how to lose weight. And Rory used this, ranging from. So the article highlighted different ways someone could lose weight, ranging from small actions to something more serious.

Rory: I owe a thank you to my Cambridge exam preparation students for pointing this out. Because this was in one of their preparation exams or their mock tests. And I was marking it. And I was like, oh, that's a useful collocation to have. I hope I get the chance to talk about this later. And I did.

Maria: Yeah, it's a very useful verb. We sometimes use it to describe graphs in IELTS Academic Writing Part 1. When we have a lot of figures. And then we say, oh, like the prices were higher in Japan. Ranging from blah to blah. So they were different. Starting from blah to blah. So the article was a bit strange. It was about how to lose weight by shaving all your hair off. What? Cutting off your body parts.

Rory: It's a satirical article. Because it was saying, oh, if you're so focused on losing weight, then here are some ways to do it. And they were all extremely ridiculous ways of doing it. So the point was to make fun of this idea of, like, we must lose weight at any cost. Even if it compromises our entire ability to live. So it was saying you need to calm down and think about what you are doing. Rather than just focusing on the loss of weight.

Maria: Yeah, so the article included some outrageous tips. Outrageous, crazy advice on how to lose weight. And it was humorous. Kind of fun. Humour. It wasn't serious. Like what they were telling you to do with your body.

Rory: At least I hope so. If it were serious, then we have bigger problems. Because, of course, people should not be chopping off parts of their bodies to lose weight. That's crazy.

Maria: And extremely unhealthy, obviously. And the article was about how to be healthier. So remember that we can use, like, more healthy or healthier.

Rory: Probably healthier is better.

Maria: Healthier is better. Okay.

Rory: I would say healthier is better.

Maria: So remember that we said the article was about how to be healthier. And it was hilarious. It was super funny. Some of the things that they wrote. And hilarious means, like, funny in a good way. Ridiculous is funny in a bad way. So some tips were, like, truly ridiculous. Like stupid. Unreasonable. When it comes to why I read it. So when you change the topic, you can say, like, as for when I read it. Or when it comes to why I read it. Like, I don't remember.

Rory: I don't remember. But maybe…

Maria: Yeah, this article just found me. I found it in a magazine.

Rory: Oh, that would be a good chance to say, I didn't find the article. It found me. That's a fun structure to use for just highlighting, well, something funny about finding an article.

Maria: Yeah, you can say that I was going through a magazine. Or I was leafing through a magazine. And then I came across this article. And the title was clickbaity. So I decided to have a go at it. And you can say that this was back before the days of social media. Or at that time, I didn't read social media so much. So I read it in a magazine. If you repeat your idea. Or if you say something similar. You can use the phrase, like I say. So, something about the article. Well, like I say, it was a funny article. I don't usually read articles. But it was quite funny to read about ridiculous health tips. So like I say.

Rory: I think another tip was something like donating organs.

Maria: No.

Rory: You can donate a kidney to lose weight.

Maria: No.

Rory: It's like, what a weird way to lose weight.

Maria: Oh, do you want to lose weight? Okay, chop off your arm. You're gonna get lighter. Oh, that's horrible. Yeah, and if we just Google, dear listener. Like health. If we just Google health.

Rory: Oh god, yes. Let's ask the internet about health. What could possibly go wrong?

Maria: Yeah, but we... Oh yeah, like BBC World Service. There we go, dear listener. And they have... No, they don't.

Rory: See, this is not such an easy task, is it?

Maria: Okay, but we can go to, for example. Scientist.com. And there are... No, there aren't.

Rory: Okay. See what I mean? It's hard.

Maria: It's really difficult to find an article on health. Okay, okay. But if, for example, you read some magazines.

Rory: Men's health or women's health.

Maria: One of the most popular magazines is New Scientist. There we go. And if we go to newscientist.com and type in health, then... So we go... Oh, like how to eat less. AI revolution.

Rory: How is AI going to stop you from eating less?

Maria: I don't know. Something about insect bites. Oh, about something like summers are too hot. Yeah, and also, dear listener, you can go to psychologytoday.com, another popular magazine. And you can just Google health and read an article on health. The first article. Okay, your mental health today test. Yay! Yeah, so to test your mental health. This could also be, you know, considered as an article. Does worrying affect your health, relationship satisfaction, happiness and health? There we go. Happiness and health. Beautiful article. Psychology.com. You're welcome. The physical benefits of happiness. How health affects happiness. Yes, you see, a perfect article for you, dear listener. It's good for speaking part three, for essays, to get ideas from. So lovely. Thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our next episode about health.

Rory: Where we talk even more about health, but hopefully in a more constructive way. Bye!

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