Текст песни BBC — The English We Speak

Feifei: William, how much do you know about China?

William: Er... Not much. Why are you asking?

Feifei: Well, I was flicking through the papers and I came across this quiz.

William: Oh no, not quizzes, I'm rubbish at them.

Feifei: Oh, well. Let's see. Here is the first one – name the capital city of China.

William: That's easy, Beijing.

Feifei: Yes. Which province is famous for its hot and spicy cuisine?

William: Em, I think Sichuan food is quite spicy.

Feifei: See, you are doing well! How about this one – roughly how many characters are there in the Chinese language?

William: Oh, loads. 5,000?

Feifei: No. Try again.

William: 7,000?

Feifei: Well, actually, roughly 42,000.

William: Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know it was that many. How can people possibly learn them all? It's totally mind-boggling!

Feifei: What is mind-boggling?

William: Mind-boggling describes something overwhelming and amazing, like really impressive numbers or facts. It's made up of two words: mind and to boggle. Let's hear an example.

Woman 1: I took my son to the Science Museum on Sunday.
Woman 2: Did you go to the space mission area?
Woman 1: Oh yes. There were rockets, space suits, even parts from a satellite - so many mind-boggling things to see.

Feifei: I really want to learn more about the universe. It’s a fascinating subject.

William: Well, astronomy, the study of stars, has lots of mind-boggling theories.

Man: I was at a physics workshop last month in Munich. There were seminars on black holes and antimatter. It was totally mind-boggling stuff; I think I might have understood about five percent of what was discussed.

Feifei: Well, I think I now know what mind-boggling means and how to use this phrase. And here is one final mind-boggling question – How many stars are there in the Milky Way?

William: Er, is it 42,000 again?

Feifei: No, no! Some people say there are over 200 billion stars in the Milky Way but no one knows for sure.