Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Beth. And I'm Neil. I have a confession（忏悔） to make, Neil. I love the hot weather.

  It's a chance to get outside, maybe get a suntan, but sometimes it gets too hot, even for me. Yes, depending where in the world you live, you've probably noticed that it's getting hotter year after year. 2023 is the hottest year on record, with heat waves in many countries around the world, even Britain. When it gets too hot, the human body knows how to cool（使…冷却） down. It sweats, passing salty water, called sweat, through the skin to lose heat. But unlike（不象…） the body, houses don't know how to keep cool, and in hot parts of the world where air conditioning is unavailable（难以获得的） or unaffordable, this is a real problem.

  In this programme, we'll be hearing about an innovative（革新的） new idea for keeping houses cool in one of the hottest countries on Earth India. And as usual, we'll be learning（学习） some useful new vocabulary as well. But before we hear more about this sweaty（出汗的） subject, I have a question for you, Neil. Living in cities where summer temperatures regularly（定期地） exceed（超越） 45 degrees Celsius, Indians have been finding（找到） clever ways to keep their houses cool for over 5,000 years. One of them is called jali. But what exactly is it?

  Is jali a tall house designed to reduce sunlight, a honeycomb（蜂巢） pattern used in windows, or a system for spraying cool water? Well, I guess jali is a honeycomb window pattern. OK, Neil. We'll find out the answer later in the programme. In May 2022, the temperature in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in North India, reached 49.2 degrees Celsius. Roshni Devaka is a consultant（顾问） for the Mahila Housing（房屋） Trust（信任）, an NGO helping poor Indian women to heat-proof（试验） their houses.

  These women often work（使工作） from home, while their husbands are out in the heat working on construction（建造） sites. Here, Roshni describes a typical house to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing the World. They live in a small one-bedroom house with no windows, no natural ventilation（通风设备）. They don't necessarily（必然） have illegal（[法] 非法的） electric connections（连接）. And even if they do, they don't have electricity 24 hours a day. There are power cuts（ 伤口）, especially in the summer months.

  Many of them have thin roofs, which of course will really heat up. Health gets affected because their health is affected, their livelihood（生计） gets affected because they're daily wage（工资） owners. If you don't work, you don't earn. Many of the houses have no window, so there's no ventilation, the movement of fresh air around a space. Air conditioning needs electricity, which most families can't afford（担负得起…）, and even those who can experience（经验） frequent（频繁的） power cuts（ 伤口）, periods when the supply（供给） of electricity is stopped. In this heat, sickness is common.

  Often the men can't work, which is a problem because they are the daily wage earners（赚钱的人） someone who earns money on a day-to-day basis（基础）, meaning that they will receive no money if they cannot work. Families spend most of the day outside in the street, and at night it's still too hot to sleep, even on the roof. But fortunately, Roshni has been working on a clever cool roof solution white paint. Painting reflective（沉思的） anti（反对者 a反对的）-solar（太阳的） white paint on the roof can reduce room temperatures by up to four degrees. It may not sound like much, but it makes a big difference and allows families to work, cook and even sleep inside. Here's Roshni again, talking with the BBC World Service programme, People Fixing the World.

  This has honestly（真诚地） been the most successful of the technologies that we've adopted（采用）. We started off by doing it in the city of Ahmedabad, but we've done it across other cities. We've done it in Bangalore, we've done it in Jodhpur. In fact, in Jodhpur we've done it in an entire（全部的） slum（贫民窟）. Mahila Housing Trust gets external（外部的） funding（ 基金） and uses it to subsidise the cost of the paint, meaning communities only end up paying 15-20% of the actual（实际的） price. Roshni's Housing Trust has been painting houses in cities all over India.

  In Jodhpur, a city on the edge（边缘） of the tar（焦油） desert, they painted an entire slum a poor and crowded area of a city with very bad housing conditions. What's more, the Trust subsidises the paint, meaning they pay part of the cost, so even the poorest families can afford it. It's a great example of Indians skillfully（巧妙地） finding（找到） ways of adapting（使适应） to the heat. A modern version（版本） of Jali, you could say. So, what was the answer to your question, Beth? Was my idea that Jali is a honeycomb pattern used for windows correct?

  It was the correct answer. Jali is a honeycomb design with many small holes set（设置） into wooden or stone windows. The small holes keep out the sunlight and cool down the air coming in. OK, it's time to recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme, starting with sweat, passing salty water through the skin to stay cool. Ventilation is the movement of fresh air. A power cut is an interruption（打扰） in the supply（供给） of electricity.

  A daily wage earn-up is a worker who earns money on a day-to-day basis. A slum is a very poor and crowded area of a city. And finally, if you subsidise something, you pay part of its cost. Once again, our six minutes are up.