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  • Is laughter a cure for heart disease?

  • This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Beth.

  • And I'm Phil.

  • Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.

  • And remember to subscribe to our channel, like this video, and try the quiz on our website.

  • Now the story.

  • Laughter can make your heart stronger, new research suggests.

  • The study revealed that being shown TV comedies increased the amount of oxygen being pumped around heart patients' bodies.

  • This Brazilian investigation also suggests that laughter therapy could reduce inflammation in blood vessels.

  • You've been looking at the headlines, what's the vocabulary?

  • We have "having a laugh," "literally," and "first-of-its-kind."

  • This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

  • Let's have a look at our first headline.

  • This is from the Mirror: Having a laugh twice a week could help reduce the risk of heart disease: trial fines.

  • This headline says that laughter therapy can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

  • Now, we are going to look at the expression "having a laugh."

  • Now, this doesn't refer to laughing twice a week, does it?

  • No. Now, using have with laugh is interesting.

  • Having a laugh means having a good time.

  • And here it's talking about sessions of laughter therapy, using comedy programs rather than two individual laughs.

  • Now, this study is talking about the act of laughing.

  • But we do often use it like you said to just mean, having a good time.

  • Now, Phil, didn't you meet some friends after work yesterday?

  • Yes, we had a great laugh; we had a great time.

  • And actually, there is another use of this. Beth, I'm gonna tell you something amazing.

  • You could learn a new language in just three weeks.

  • No, you're having a laugh. And that, I mean, I don't believe you.

  • Yes, it's just a little joke. I'm having a laugh.

  • Let's look at that again.

  • Let's have our next headline.

  • This is from the New York Post: Laughter can heal a broken heart - literally: cardiac health study.

  • We're going to look at the word "literally," which is an adverb.

  • Here it refers to the adjective broken.

  • Now, Phil, when can a heart be broken literally?

  • OK. The headline he's using broken in the sense of doesn't work.

  • And it's because the study is about people with heart problems.

  • In this context, literally means the real actual meaning of the word.

  • So it's a clever headline because broken heart is not usually used literally.

  • It's more common to use it metaphorically to refer to when somebody is sad, often at the end of a relationship.

  • But here we see how literally can be used for emphasis and it's often used in a surprising situation.

  • Here's a surprising situation.

  • The trains were so bad this morning that it took me literally hours to get to the studio.

  • Literally hours like two of them.

  • That's really annoying. And there are literally seconds until we look at this headline again.

  • Next headline please.

  • This is from the Independent: First-of-its-kind study finds laughter is indeed good medicine, especially for the heart.

  • This study is unlike previous research, we are looking at the expression "first of its kind."

  • Now, Phil, can you explain what kind means here?

  • Yes, kind means type here.

  • So if something is the first of its kind, there's nothing like it before.

  • It's the first of it type and we use it usually for innovations.

  • If you think about the first smartphone, it was the first-of-its-kind.

  • Now, this study is the first-of-its-kind according to the headline because it's looking at laughter therapy with heart patients, which hasn't been looked at before.

  • Ok, let's look at that again.

  • We've had having a laugh - enjoying yourself joking.

  • Literally, it's actually real.

  • First-of-its-kind - different to anything before.

  • Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, we think you will love the 6-Minute English where we found out why laughter is the best medicine.

  • Click here to watch.

  • And don't forget to click here to subscribe to our channel so you never miss another video.

  • Thanks for joining us.

  • See you next time.

  • Bye. - Bye.

Is laughter a cure for heart disease?

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