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Hello, I'm Catherine.
Welcome to Six Minute English, where we engage in some lively debate and discuss six stimulating items of vocabulary.
And let's start.
Here's your cup of coffee, Rob.
Ah, thanks.
But what took you so long, Catherine?
Oh, sorry, Rob.
I bumped into someone I knew in the cafe and we stopped for a chat.
OK, well, that fits well with today's show where we're talking about cafes or coffeehouses.
Did you know, Catherine, that coffeehouses were originally a meeting place for lively debate and intellectual discussion?
Really?
I didn't know that, Rob.
And a debate, by the way, means a discussion that a lot of people take part in.
So how long ago was this debating society?
Well, the first coffeehouse was set up in Oxford in 1650,
but they quickly became popular and soon they were all over London too.
You paid a penny to get in, and this included access to newspapers and stimulating conversation.
If something is stimulating, it encourages ideas and enthusiasm.