Session 2

A Stanford psychological study finds that seductive language boosts sales. Dan and Neil teach you the language the world's media is using to discuss this story.

Sessions in this unit

Session 2 score

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    Activity 1

Activity 1

News Review

Seductive vegetables boost sales

A Stanford psychological study has shown that vegetables labelled in a seductive manner sell better.

Language challenge

Vegetables with seductive names sell better, according to a new study. Which of these words is NOT a synonym of seductive?

a) alluring
b) enticing
c) ingratiating

Watch the video and complete the activity

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News Review Teaser News_review_teaser Lingohack: 7 June: Image with headlines/Getty

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The story

(A) psychological study of students in California suggests people are more likely to consume healthy portions of vegetables if they are labelled with seductive names.

They found sales went up by 25% when advertised with indulgent labels such as ‘twisted citrus-glazed carrots’ and ‘sweet sizzling green beans and crispy shallots’.

Key words and phrases

indulgent
allowing you to do something when you shouldn’t

decadent
pleasant but immoral

jazzier
brighter, more colourful and more attractive

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

News Review quiz

3 Questions

Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.

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Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here. 

Language challenge - answer

c) ingratiating

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Pronunciation in the News - our video which teaches you pronunciation using the latest BBC World News bulletins. 

Session Vocabulary

  • indulgent
    allowing you to do something when you shouldn’t

    decadent
    pleasant but immoral

    jazzier
    brighter, more colourful and more attractive