uptodate3 tipping point transcript, Languages, English, Learning, bbc, BBC Radio Learning, words in the news, keep ... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Keep your English up to date
Tipping point
Professor David Crystal
Tipping point. The point of no return. The point at which
something tips over into a new state, or something
becomes dramatically more common – ‘something has
reached the tipping point’. The idea started in physics
where a small amount of weight added to an object in a
balance causes it to topple over, you know, add a little bit
and it’s alright, add a bit more and it’s alright, add a bit
more and it’s alright, and then suddenly, whomph! – over
it goes. That is the tipping point.
So it started in hard science, but then it was taken over by
sociology and popular psychology. Malcolm Gladwell wrote
a bestseller in 2000 called ‘The Tipping Point: How Little
Things Can Make a Big Difference’. And it became a very
attractive notion and everybody suddenly started using this
phrase. And you hear it a lot in the news now, when
suddenly something causes a fuss. For instance, people talk about the
build up of immigrants in a country being steady and then suddenly,
there’s some panic because there’s trouble somewhere, and they say
‘we’ve reached the tipping point’.
I guess I’ve heard it most often recently in relation to global warming.
Global warming seems to have reached ‘the tipping point’, at least as far
as the mind set of many people is concerned. In fact, it’s used so often
these days that it’s almost a cliché. It’s as if ‘tipping point’ has reached
its tipping point!
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2007
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]