Is Angela Merkel's glass half full or half empty?!
How are you feeling about life? Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
Rob and Finn discuss how science is trying to find out what makes us think positively or negatively.
They also explain how we feel when we say our glass is half empty and when we say it's half full.
So, what kind of person are you? We hear from some of our learners.
This week's question:
Who wrote this famous line? "A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Was it:
a) Winston Churchill
b) Oscar Wilde
c) Charles Dickens
Listen to the programme to find out the answer.
Listen
Glass half full
End of Section
Vocabulary
- an optimist
someone who thinks good things will happen
- a pessimist
someone who always thinks bad things will happen in a situation
- a state of mind
how you feel and what you think
- influence
have an effect (on something or someone)
- trigger
cause / make happen
- depression
a medical condition where someone is very unhappy and cannot lead a normal life
- point of view
how someone judges a situation
- personality
how you behave, feel and think
- drivers
(in this situation) things that make something else happen
- traits
particular qualities or characteristics that someone has
