Voice 1
Hello, I’m Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I’m Rachel Hobson. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Has this ever happened to you? You may be walking down the street. Then you stop. You have a sticky white substance on the bottom of your shoe. You try to remove it. But it sticks to your fingers! You then try to remove the substance from your fingers. But the substance then sticks to something else. You become very angry! Somebody dropped this substance on the ground on purpose. This person did not care that it would become stuck to someone else. And they did not care that it would be hard to remove!
Voice 2
The sticky white substance is probably chewing gum. People place this soft, rubber-like substance between their teeth. Then they move their jaws - they chew. But they do not swallow the gum. This could be very harmful. Instead, they may chew the same piece of gum for hours and hours. Gum-chewers look a bit like cows eating grass!
Voice 1
Chewing is a simple natural action. People cannot swallow food whole. The teeth must break the food down into smaller pieces. This helps the stomach to process it more easily. But people do not swallow gum. So how can it be useful? Often when people are chewing, they find it easier to concentrate. They feel more awake and ready to act quickly. They may also feel less worried about life. And this is not a recent discovery. People knew about the advantages of chewing thousands of years ago!
Voice 2
In fact, in the summer of 2007, one British student made an amazing discovery. Sarah Pickin was in Finland. Sarah was helping some scientists with their project. They were digging in a very old part of the country. They dug deep in the earth. They hoped to find objects from the past. Then they could learn more about how ancient people lived. Sarah dug up an early kind of chewing gum. It was five thousand [5,000] years old! The white mass still had teeth marks in it. Scientists examined the gum. It contained chemicals called phenols. Phenols stop the spread of disease. So the people probably chewed the gum for health reasons. They wanted to protect their mouths from harmful bacteria.
Voice 1
This chewing gum may be the oldest evidence of gum chewing in Europe. But there is evidence from other countries as well. The people of ancient Greece chewed mastic gum. This gum comes from the mastiche plant. This plant has a sticky substance, or resin, in its branches. People found that chewing this resin helped to clean their teeth. It also made their breath smell sweet! Greek women especially liked to chew mastic gum - anything to help them appear more beautiful!
Voice 2
The native Indians of North America also enjoyed chewing. They chewed spruce gum. They cut the wood of the spruce tree. Sticky resin then formed over the cut. The Indians took this resin for chewing. Foreign settlers noticed this. Some of the settlers saw a chance to make money. So they started to buy and sell the gum. And over time, spruce resin gum became very popular!
Voice 1
Modern chewing gum was the result of an accident. Dr Thomas Adams was an inventor. In 1869, the leader of the Mexican army employed him. General Lopez asked Doctor Adams to invent a new kind of rubber. The general wanted Adams to use a substance called “chicle”. Chicle was a resin-like substance. And people in Mexico had been chewing it for years.
Voice 2
Doctor Adams failed to produce a new form of rubber. But by chance, he did produce something else! Adams owned a store. It sold sweets. He knew that people like to have something to chew. But the existing form of chewing gum was not very good. So he combined his failed rubber product with it. The result was a great improvement! Doctor Adams believed that he could sell his new chewing gum to the public. In the past, he often chewed on his pencil instead of writing with it. But now he had gum to chew on instead! This helped him to concentrate. And he was sure that other people would find his chewing gum useful too. He called his new product, Adams New York Number One.
Voice 1
This first “modern” chewing gum did not have a very pleasant taste. And after some time, Doctor Adams sold the right to make gum. A businessman bought these rights. His name was William Wrigley. Wrigley knew about the food business. And he decided to make a few changes to the gum. He added a mint taste to the gum. This made it much nicer to chew. Wrigley also tried other ways to make the gum more popular. He offered free gum to people who bought his other products. Soon, people were buying Wrigley’s products just to receive the free gum! Today, the Wrigley company is the largest producer of chewing gum in the world.
Voice 2
These days, many people across the whole world chew gum. Why? Well, there are health reasons. Doctors claim that chewing sugar-less gum after meals is good. It can prevent tooth decay. Also, people seem to concentrate better when they are chewing. It improves their memory. And people who want to stop smoking can chew special gum instead.
Voice 1
But what do you do with your gum once you have finished chewing it? It is very hard to destroy - just think of that five thousand [5,000] year old piece of gum! People often just drop their gum in the street. So, local authorities have to spend a lot of money cleaning it up. Singapore, in Asia, bans people from chewing gum. The government does not permit anyone to bring gum into the city. If someone does, they face one year in prison and a large fine!
Voice 2
So next time you are chewing gum, just think - you are doing the same thing as someone who lived thousands of years before you. But please, when you finish - be more careful about where you put your gum!
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