Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Sam. The Olympic Games happen every four years and the most recent games were held in Tokyo this summer. Did you watch them, Sam?

  Yes. I saw British swimmer Adam Peasey win a gold medal（奖章） and my personal favourite was 13-year-old Skye Brown competing in an exciting sport which was added to the Olympics this year skateboarding. Olympic athletes inspire（激发） people around the world to take on new challenges, eat healthily and get fit. So, it seems strange that some of the companies that sponsor（发起者） or pay for the Olympic Games also sell food and drink which is linked to obesity（肥胖）, heart disease and diabetes. Tobacco（烟草） advertising was banned from international sport in 2005 because of the harmful（有害的） effects of smoking but other companies selling less than healthy products still sponsor（发起者） big sporting events. These could be sugary drinks companies or others who sell fast food hot food like hamburgers that is quick to cook and serve but which is often unhealthy.

  In this programme we'll be asking whether it's right for companies selling unhealthy products to sponsor sporting events. But first it's time for my quiz question, Sam. McDonald's had a long history with the Olympic Games until the company ended the partnership（ 合伙） ahead of the 2024 Games in Paris. But why did McDonald's choose to quit? Was it because they wanted to change the name of French Fries to Muck Fries, they didn't want to call their hamburger Le Big Mac or they wanted to be the only company selling cheese for cheeseburgers? I think maybe it's because they wanted to call French Fries Muck Fries.

  OK, Sam, we'll find（找到） out the answer later in the programme. Someone who is worried about the relationship between fast food and sport is Dr Sandra de Maio. He worked for the World Health Organisation specialising in obesity before starting his own public health agency（经办） in Australia. Here is Dr de Maio speaking with BBC World Service programme The Food Chain about the problem with unhealthy brands and food products. By having their brand alongside（ 在旁边） a young person's favourite sporting hero on the chest of their national team, it does two things. First of all, it creates brand attachment（依恋）.

  So if you're a young child and you build the connection in your mind that basically（基本上） fast food equals success. At the same time, it also gives a health halo to that brand. Then you start to think in your mind, even subconsciously, that it can't be that bad. You've probably heard of brand loyalty（忠诚）, where people have a favourite brand they always buy. But Dr de Maio is concerned（有关的） about brand attachment（依恋）. Brand attachment is the emotional（感情的） connection between humans and brands.

  It goes deeper than loyalty so that people mentally connect a particular company with feelings of winning, being healthy and success. The problem comes when these feelings attach to companies that aren't healthy at all. Dr de Maio says this creates a health halo – the belief that something is good, like an angel（天使）'s halo – even though there is little evidence to support this. On the other hand, fast food and fizzy drink companies invest large amounts of money in sport, over $4.5 billion since the 2016 Rio Olympics, much of it supporting athletes around the world. Yes. With travel, training and equipment, the costs of being an Olympic athlete can be huge.

  And depending on your country and your sport, there may be little financial help. Many athletes are desperate（不顾一切的） for any sponsorship they can get. Does that make it right to promote unhealthy eating in return? Not according（使一致） to Dr de Maio, who thinks people should worry about the nutritional（ 营养的） value of fast food. As he explained to BBC World Services, the food chain. When we think about foods and beverages of public health concern（关心）, we tend to start by talking about highly processed（加工） foods, particularly ultra-processed foods.

  These are foods that have been really broken down to their kind of basic elements and then built up. They're more products really than foods. You know, they're made in a laboratory, not a kitchen. Dr de Maio mentions unhealthy foods and beverages – another word for drinks. He's concerned about the public health risk of ultra-processed food – foods containing extra ingredients like chemicals, colourings and sweetness（甜蜜） that you wouldn't add when cooking homemade food. A potato, for example, is natural – minimally processed.

  Bake a potato and it becomes processed. Make French fries and it's ultra-processed. And speaking of French fries, Neil, what was the answer to your quiz question? Yes, I asked Sam the reason behind the decision McDonald's made not to sponsor the 2024 Paris Olympics. And I said it was 'A' because they wanted to call French fries 'McFries'. Which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid.

  In fact, McDonald's wanted to be the only company allowed to advertise cheese so it could boost（推进） cheeseburger sales. This didn't go down well with officials（官员） in France, a country with over a thousand different types of cheese. OK, let's recap the vocabulary from this programme, starting with fast food – hot food that is quick to cook but maybe unhealthy. Companies that sponsor sports events pay for them to happen. Brand attachment is a psychological（心理的） connection between someone and a brand. A health halo is the perception（理解感知） that something is healthy for you, even if it's not.

  Ultra-processed foods are foods containing added artificial（人工的） ingredients like colourings and preservatives（防腐剂）. And a beverage is another word for a drink. That's all from us, but if you'd like to find out more about the business, science and culture of food, why not download the Food Chain podcast? It's updated weekly（每周（的）） and available now. Join us again soon for more topical（有关时事的） discussion and vocabulary here at 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

  Goodbye! Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Dan. And I'm Neil. Now, Neil, do you like going to live football matches? Oh yes, I love it.

  Is it better than watching them on TV? Well, you don't really see as much as you do on TV, but then on TV you don't really feel the atmosphere. You can't sing along with the chants and songs at home. Well, it's good you mention the songs and chants because that is today's topic. It seems that for some football clubs, the atmosphere in the stadiums is becoming a bit quiet. Now, before we look at this topic in more detail, here is today's quiz.

  As we're talking about football, in which decade was the first ever international football match played? Is it A in the 1870s, B in the 1890s or C in the 1910s? I could be wrong, but I think it was before the turn of the century, so I'll say the 1890s. Well, we'll see if you're right or not later in the show. Now, songs and chants are part of the experience of football matches. But where do they come from?

  What are they about? Here's Joe Wilson from BBC Sport. Which team name does he mention? Some songs can be witty（(Witty)人名）, honed（用磨刀石磨） specifically to celebrate a certain player or moment in a club's history. Others rely（依赖） more on a hypnotic repetition（重复） of syllables（音节） – United, for example. So which team does he mention?

  Well, he used the syllables from United. This isn't one team as there are quite a few professional teams in Britain that have United in their names. In fact, there are over a dozen（一打）. Perhaps the most well-known though would be Manchester United. I think fans of Welling United might argue with you about that. Anyway, what did Wilson say about the nature of football songs?

  He said they could be witty. Witty means funny but in a clever way. He also said that they could be honed. Honed is an interesting word here. Something that is honed is carefully crafted（精巧地制作）, skilfully created and developed over a period of time. When it comes to witty football songs, Wilson describes them as being honed to be about a particular player or a moment in a club's history.

  But these aren't the only kinds of songs. Another kind of song he describes is the hypnotic repetition of syllables. Something that is hypnotic repeats again and again, like a magical（魔术的） spell（符咒） or chant. What's interesting is that in football songs, words can have more syllables than you would expect. Oh yes, for example, let's take England. Two syllables, right?

  Right. Wrong. At least in a football stadium, it becomes three syllables. England, England... Alright, thank you. Let's listen to Mr Wilson again.

  Some songs can be witty, honed specifically to celebrate a certain player or moment in a club's history. Others rely more on a hypnotic repetition of syllables – united, for example. Now, apparently（显然地） in many stadiums the crowds aren't singing（烧焦） as much as they used to. Some managers have complained that the fans are too quiet and that this has a negative effect on the players. So what are some of the reasons for this? Here's BBC Sports' Joe Wilson again.

  How many reasons does he mention? The decline（ 消减） in singing may be explained by changing demographics（人口统计学的） in football attendance（出席人数）, older supporters, more expensive tickets or by stadium design. All-seater arenas（竞技场） may discourage（使泄气） the instinct（本能） to stand up and sing. So what reasons did he give for the decline in singing, for the fact that singing is getting less common? He gave a number of reasons. He talked about the change in demographics.

  Demographics refers to a section of the population that do a particular thing. It can refer to age groups or wealth（ 财富）, for example. What Wilson says is that the members that make up a football crowd are changing. They are older and wealthier（ 富有的） and perhaps that is a demographic（人口统计学的） or group that is less likely to sing in public.