Shadowing Practice: Why no aquarium has a great white shark - Learn English Speaking with Video
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There are some shark species that seem to do okay in aquariums.
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You'll see a lot of nurse sharks, zebra sharks, some reef sharks and sand tiger sharks, but not the great white.
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For decades, aquariums have tried to contain the world's largest predatory fish.
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Institutions like Marineland, SeaWorld and the Steinhardt Aquarium repeatedly took in white sharks during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, at times drawing huge crowds.
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But they never lasted long.
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Some needed help swimming.
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None of them would eat.
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The longest one lasted was just 16 days.
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A 1984 report by the Steinhardt Aquarium put it this way.
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In most cases, it could be said that all of these captive sharks were merely in the process of dying, with some taking longer than others.
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They had constructed an elaborate transport tank with a harness and IV fluids, but still couldn't keep the sharks alive.
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It wasn't until 2004 that the Monterey Bay Aquarium proved
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that it was possible to keep white sharks for at least six months.
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It took a massive effort, and no one's done it since.
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Our approach was one of sort of a systematic, logical sequence of things leading up to our success, and it started with designing the tank.
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium had a million -gallon egg -shaped tank, 35 feet deep, designed for open -ocean animals like tuna and sharks.
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So you need a big tank.
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You also need a small shark.
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Adult great whites reach 15 feet on average.
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium nabbed one in 2004 that was 4 feet 4 inches, less than a year old.
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That made it easier to move and easier to keep.
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When they're young, they feed on fish.
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And as they get older, they transition to feeding more on mammals.
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And so we were targeting the age bracket where we were more able to feed their natural diet it.
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And once they collected the shark, they didn't take it straight to the aquarium.
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Instead, the Monterey Bay team set up a four million gallon pen right there in the ocean.
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That way they could monitor the shark and see
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if it would feed before they moved it into a transport tank to travel from Southern California, where the sharks were born, up to the aquarium.
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Sharks, like all fish, need to have water continually passing through their gills in order to get oxygen.
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Most species can open and close their mouths to pump water through, but white sharks and a couple dozen other species don't do that.
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To breathe, they have to move forward through the water with their mouths open.
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That's why white sharks start to weaken as soon as they're caught in the net.
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And that's why they needed a custom built transport tank for mobile life support.
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Everything from oxygen sensors and video cameras and lighting and filtration systems
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that were needed for the what turned out to roughly be nine to 11 hour transport time.
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Aquarium attendance jumped 30 % while the shark was on display.
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After six and a half months, they decided to release it because it had killed two other sharks.
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Over the next six years, the aquarium displayed five more baby white sharks.
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Some they paid fishermen to hand over, some they caught themselves.
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Their stays ranged from just 11 days up to five months.
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium had succeeded in doing what no one else could.
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But it did take a toll on the sharks.
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They developed visible sores from bumping into the sides of the tank.
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We actually snuck in with photographers
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and took pictures of the sharks as they were beginning to trit and fail due to constant scraping against the wall, basically.
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As we viewed it, it was a vase of flowers that would be kept for the visitors.
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Historically, aquariums kept sharks that lived near the seabed or near reefs.
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That makes sense it's easier to recreate those habitats in a tank.
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But in recent decades, aquariums have wanted to bring in bigger, more pelagic sharks, those that spend time roaming the open ocean.
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They've even been able to exhibit the largest shark in the world, the whale shark, if they have a big enough tank.
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But pelagic sharks are used to being able to swim long distances without obstructions, changing directions only as they please.
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So the faster moving sharks like the white shark, mako shark, and blue shark, They have trouble with walls when they're put in a tank.
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That's what was happening with the Monterey Bay Aquarium's sixth white shark in 2011.
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They decided to release it after 55 days and its tracking tag revealed that the shark died shortly after being released.
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They're not sure why.
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But since then, they haven't tried to bring in another great white shark.
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It's a very, very, very resource intensive program
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and we felt like we had accomplished our goal of introducing the general public to a live white shark.
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It took a huge, carefully planned system to keep a white shark alive.
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And even then, the sharks didn't quite fit there.
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We can't seem to stop trying though.
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Earlier this year, an 11 and a half foot great white shark was taken to an aquarium in Okinawa,
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Japan, after getting caught in a fisherman's net.
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It was the only adult white shark ever to be put on display.
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And within three days, it was dead.
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I wanted to show you a great resource online called the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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It's the product of a couple dozen museums and libraries, all agreeing to scan millions of pages from books related to biodiversity.
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They've got a bunch of great albums on Flickr, including one that's all about sharks.
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Some of these go back to the 16th and 17th centuries, back when naturalists used to call sharks see dogs,
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which is funny because as we now know, sharks were roaming the oceans for about 300 million years before the first mammals showed up.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “Why no aquarium has a great white shark”. Las palabras que más se repiten: shark, aquarium, tank, Monterey, Bay. Este vídeo tiene 27 frases y 989 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 5:49. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 170 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. Solo el 76 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| aquarium sustantivo | /əˈkwɛɹ.i.jəm/ | acuario, pecera |
| resource sustantivo | /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ | recurso |
| oxygen sustantivo | /ˈɑksɪd͡ʒən/ | oxígeno |
| swim verbo | /swɪm/ | nadar |
| reef sustantivo | /ɹiːf/ | arrecife |
| gallon sustantivo | /ˈɡælən/ | galón |
| shortly adverbio | /ˈʃɔɹtli/ | pronto, en breve |
| carefully adverbio | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | cuidadosamente |
| transition sustantivo | /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/ | transición |
| sand sustantivo | /sænd/ | arena |
| custom sustantivo | /ˈkʌstəm/ | costumbre, usanza |
| reveal verbo | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | revelar, propalar |
| flower sustantivo | /ˈfloʊɚ/ | flor |
| institution sustantivo | /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/ | institución |
| nurse sustantivo | /nɝs/ | enfermera, enfermero |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Significado |
|---|---|
| hand over verbo | devolver, entregar |
| move forward verbo | ir adelante, adelantar |
| pass through verbo | atravesar |
| show up verbo | comparecer, personarse |
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | could be said · were born · were needed |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | have tried · have wanted · They've even been |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 14 contracciones y formas reducidas, como they're, didn't, they've. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “th”: sixth /sɪksθ/, breathe /bɹiːð/
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/, obstruction /əbˈstɹʌk.ʃən/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: aquarium /əˈkwɛɹ.i.jəm/, institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, photographer /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ/, repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, elaborate /ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: swim /swɪm/, scan /skæn/, sneak /sniːk/, scrape /skɹeɪp/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: reveal /ɹɪˈviːl/, visible /ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/, intensive /ɪnˈtɛnsɪv/, visitor /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/, captive /ˈkæptɪv/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: resource /ɹɪˈzɔːs/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, visible /ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/, exhibit /ɪɡˈzɪbɪt/, visitor /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como aquarium, resource, oxygen.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.