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Oh, six minutes English.
From bbclearningenglish.com Hello and welcome to Six Minute English, I'm Sophie.
And I'm Neil.
How was your weekend, Neil?
Well, not great.
I hadn't got anything planned, so I didn't see anyone for two days.
And to be honest, I felt very lonely.
There was a real physical feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Well, poor Neil, you do sound really down in the dumps,
and that means unhappy.
Well, the subject of today's show is loneliness.
And loneliness is sometimes described as a social pain,
a pain that tells us that we're isolated or lacking contact with others,
which motivates us to seek out companionship.
I had no idea that feeling lonely had a biological explanation.
How does being sociable help us as a species then, Sophie?
It's all about cooperation or working together to get something done.
For example, finding food.