Did a civilisation exist on Earth before humans?

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Do you believe that life exists on other planets? Well, here's an even more mysterious idea: Have you ever considered that there might have been another civilisation with advanced technology on planet Earth... before humans? Beth and Phil discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

Find a full transcript, worksheet and interactive quiz for this episode at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/the_reading_room

THE READING ROOM Improve your reading here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the_london_letter_challenge/

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/newsletters

FIND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE: Visit our website ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/followus

LIKE PODCASTS? Try some of our other popular podcasts including: ✔️ Learning English Stories ✔️ Learning English from the News ✔️ Learning English for Work

They're all available by searching in your podcast app.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	What's best? A morning shower or an evening shower?
0:10.2	What can magic teach us about the brain?
0:12.9	Making friends as you get older.
0:15.4	These are all topics you'll discover in the reading room.
0:18.8	Our new series of magazine-style articles on our website.
0:22.5	They each come with highlighted vocabulary,
0:25.1	comprehensive questions and an audio download.
0:27.9	Learn about the world and improve your reading skills
0:31.0	with the reading room at BBClearningEnglish.com.
0:36.1	6 Minute English from BBClearningEnglish.com. 6 Minute English from BBC learning English.com
0:40.3	Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Beth.
0:49.3	And I'm Phil.
0:50.3	Phil, do you believe there's life on other planets?
0:53.3	Well, there's a lot of other planets, so yeah, I think there must be.
0:57.9	Yeah, I agree.
0:59.2	Well, it's a question that interests American astrophysicist Adam Frank,
1:04.8	who discussed it with his colleague, Gavin Schmidt,
1:07.7	director of NASA's Institute for Space Studies. Here, Adam recalls their
1:13.1	conversation for BBC World Service program, Crowd Science. We know that there's been no other
1:18.5	civilization on Earth, and he stopped me and said, how do you know that? And my jaw just
1:23.7	dropped down to the floor. Adam's jaw dropped, an idiom for when someone looks shocked and surprised.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.