Catherine Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Catherine…
Neil And I’m Neil. You know, Catherine, 6 Minute Vocabulary is great because you can listen to each programme again and again…
Catherine You can, Neil. You can reuse them…
Neil You can! And the word reuse is a clue to today’s topic…
Catherine It is, we’re talking about prefixes – those are the two or three letters we can add to the beginning of words to change their meaning …
Neil …like re-, in reuse.
Catherine We’ll tell you more about re- later and we’ll also tell you aboutthe prefixes pre- and pro-.
Neil We’ll explain what all three prefixes mean and give you lots of examples.
Catherine There’ll be a quiz at the end …
Neil … and a top tip for learning vocabulary.
Catherine But first, let’s hear from Katie. She’s an environmental campaigner. While you listen, try to answer this question: What do teachers do with cereal boxes? Here’s Katie.
INSERT Katie Most food in supermarkets nowadays is prepacked in plastic and cardboard. This creates so much waste. Takeaways and precooked meals also use a lot of packaging. We have to re-educate people to cook for themselves so they don’t just reheat meals … and people really need to become more proactive in recycling materials. Teachers in preschool are great at this – they reuse cereal boxes to make fantastic models of robots and spaceships with the kids.
STING
Catherine So we asked you: What do teachers do with cereal boxes?
Neil And the answer is: They reuse them to make models of robots and spaceships.
Catherine That’s right. They make something new with the boxes. But instead of saying ‘they use the boxes again’, Katie said the word reuse. Now, the prefix re-, spelt r-e, in front of a word means again.
Neil So re- plus use means use again. We also had re- plus cycling, which also means to use again. Listen out for more words with re- in this clip.
INSERT CLIP 1 We have to re-educate people to cook for themselves so they don’t just reheat meals.
Catherine Katie used the word re-educate. That’s re-, which means again, plus educate, so re-educate means educate again. And in this case, re-educate means teach people to behave in a different way so they start to cook for themselves.
Neil Another other word with re- was reheat. That’s re- plus heat, making reheat, which means heat again.
Catherine Let’s have another clip. See if you can spot a different prefix.
INSERT CLIP 2
Most food in supermarkets nowadays is prepacked in plastic and cardboard. Takeaways and precooked meals also use a lot of packaging.
Catherine We heard prepacked and precooked. Both start with pre-, spelt p-r-e, which means before or already. So a lot of the food in supermarkets is already packed in cardboard and plastic – it’s prepacked.
Neil And you can buy meals that have been made and cooked before you buy them. Pre- plus cooked means already cooked…
Catherine And the children Katie talked about were in preschool.
Neil That’s pre- plus school, that’s preschool. It’s a place children go before they go to proper school.
Catherine So that’s re- and pre-. Now let’s talk about pro-, spelt p-r-o.
Neil Katie said people need to be more proactive in recycling. Pro- means in support of or in favour of something.
Catherine So being proactive: pro- plus active - in recycling means making more effort to recycle things. Neil, are you a proactive recycler?
Neil Yeah. Well, we’ve got two bins. One for recycling and one for all the food. So, I suppose I am.
Catherine Very good.
Neil Now, another word with the prefix pro- that is used a lot when talking about food is probiotic. Probiotics are good bacteria that help to keep you healthy.
IDENT You’re listening to BBC Learning English.
Neil And we’re talking about the prefixes re-, pre- and pro-.
Catherine And now for a quiz. Number one: Which prefix goes before the word school to make the word for a place for very young children. Is it a) re- b) pre- or c) pro-?
Neil And the answer is b) pre: it’s preschool.
Catherine Good. Number two: What would you do with a ready-made meal? Would you a) preheat it b) reheat it or c) proheat it?
Neil And the answer is b) re: that’s reheat it.
Catherine Great. And, number three: If you want to improve your English, should you be a) reactive, b) preactive or c) proactive when you’re learning new words?
Neil And the answer is c)it’s pro: that’s proactive.
Catherine And that’s the end of the quiz – well done if you got them right.
Neil And now, here’s today’s top tip for learning vocabulary: try to group new words by their prefixes. This will help you to remember their meaning.
Catherine There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.
Both Bye! _______________________________
Session Vocabulary
precooked already cooked or partly cooked
prepacked wrapped, often with plastic or in a box, before being sold
preschool nursery school
proactive taking action in support of something
probiotic containing good bacteria that keeps you healthy
recycle to collect and change rubbish so that it can be used again; to use something again for a different purpose
re-educate to teach someone to think or behave in a different way