Pratique du Shadowing: The Most Insane Weapon You Never Heard About - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
Choisissez un mode d'entraînement
Chaque mode ouvre une salle d'entraînement en plein écran.
168 phrases
Si les phrases sont trop courtes ou trop longues, cliquez sur Edit pour les ajuster.
1
In the 1950s, the US began the top secret project, Sundial.
2
Most of it is still classified.
3
The goal?
4
A single nuclear bomb so powerful it would destroy all of human civilization.
5
Conceived in cold logic from the mind of a genius scientist, Sundial had the energy equivalent of 10 billion tons of TNT,
6
a pyramid of explosives 13 times taller than the actual Great Pyramid.
7
3,000 more than all the bombs dropped during World War II.
8
If you dropped the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima every minute, it would take you over 15 months to match sundial.
9
How was it even possible for us to achieve this insane level of madness?
10
Everything is different forever.
11
Let's set the stage.
12
If you were 40 in 1945, that means you were born in 1905.
13
Back then, monarchs ruled over much of the world.
14
Only 3% of homes in the US had electricity, cities were dominated by horses, the first experimental planes had just flown.
15
Less than 100,000 soldiers died in war each year.
16
Imagine growing up in this world and seeing change almost too fast to keep up with.
17
By 1945, 24 million soldiers and 50 million civilians had died in two world wars.
18
And suddenly, there were TVs, microwaves, jet planes and nuclear bombs.
19
They kind of broke the brains of the people alive back then.
20
Overnight, nowhere from the edge of space to the bottom of the ocean was safe.
21
It's hard for us today to understand the level of terror this instilled in people.
22
The implications were wild.
23
Without nuclear weapons, it seemed you'd stand no chance in future conflicts.
24
Nations without that power would get trampled by those that did have it, no matter how big their armies were.
25
There was one brief moment where it could all have been stopped.
26
In 1946, the US proposed the Baruch Plan and promised to get rid of their atom bombs, share nuclear technology with the world,
27
and set up an international authority to make sure no one ever built such weapons again.
28
But the military advantage of nuclear bombs was too great to let go.
29
Just three years later, the Soviet Union detonated their first atom bomb.
30
This caught everyone by complete surprise.
31
The Soviets were not decades behind American technology, but had just pulled even.
32
Shock turned into fear, and fear makes people do crazy things.
33
The whole concept of what war was and how it would be won was overturned in a hot second.
34
In a world where your enemy could fly over your soldiers and vaporize your cities, the only answer seemed to be a nuclear arsenal that could strike faster and harder.
35
The nuclear arms race began.
36
In 1946, there were just nine nuclear bombs in the world.
37
In 1950, the number was 300.
38
In 1960, it would be 20,000.
39
In a way, the nuclear arms race was pretty daft.
40
One superpower would develop a powerful new bomb and detonate it.
41
And then the other side would build something more powerful and blow it up, and this would continue endlessly.
42
A dirty and wasteful game of creating more and more horror that seemed totally reasonable at the time.
43
Superpowers spent trillions to have thousands of the most intelligent people show off how hard they could destroy humanity.
44
Fear had to be met with much greater horrors and one man knew how to make nightmares real.
45
But what if we destroy humanity even harder?
46
Edward Teller was a brilliant Hungarian theoretical physicist.
47
He was among the first people to realize that the fission chain reaction in uranium could make a bomb.
48
And he helped to build it.
49
But for Teller, the bombs were not powerful enough.
50
He was ready to pay any price for security.
51
And to be more secure, to be less afraid, he urged that larger bombs were the answer.
52
Even in the 1950s, this was a pretty hot take and many scientists were appalled by his ideas.
53
He didn't care one bit and incessantly lobbied scared politicians to green light more devastating nuclear weapons.
54
And lucky for him, his timing was just right.
55
Terrified by the rapid nuclear progress of the Soviet Union, he got a blank check from the military to bring his most destructive fantasy to life.
56
It took him only a few years to make them a reality, the hydrogen bomb.
57
A hydrogen bomb is so powerful that it needs a regular atom bomb just to trigger it.
58
It's basically a nuke, the first stage next to a capsule of fusion fuel, the second stage encased by dense materials like lead.
59
When the atom bomb is detonated, it releases ungodly amounts of X-rays that get channeled onto the capsule.
60
The capsule surface explodes, pushing inwards and compressing the fusion fuel so violently that for a brief moment it simulates a star.
61
When this bomb was first tested in 1952, it instantly erased a Pacific island from the map.
62
Two years later, he tested an even bigger nuke, 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
63
The world recalled in horror.
64
With weapons this powerful, war stopped being about winning, and total human annihilation became very real.
65
Teller celebrated.
66
In just two years, he had enabled the creation of American warheads a hundred times more powerful.
67
He had stolen the nuclear fire from the gods and awoken cosmic horrors, but he insisted that it was still not enough.
68
His dream was to have a bomb of almost unlimited power.
69
And once again, his timing was pretty great.
70
When the Soviet Union detonated its own hydrogen bomb, it sparked a new wave of fear.
71
This is where we get the top secret Project Sundial.
72
The bomb to make all other bombs irrelevant.
73
The final bomb.
74
Teller skipped right to the end.
75
The end of the nuclear arms race.
76
He wanted to build a world destroyer, something so breathtakingly destructive, so incredibly scary, that it made no sense to continue playing.
77
Almost everything about it is still classified, but what we do know about it is terrifying.
78
Work on it actually began, and tests were planned.
79
Sundial wouldn't be some warhead loaded up onto a bomber and dropped on a target.
80
No, it would be a backyard bomb.
81
After all, if a bomb can destroy the world, why bother moving it at all?
82
No need to bring it close to your enemies, you could as well just put it in your backyard.
83
Maybe it would have actually been put in the center of the country, maybe it would have been put on a remote island, or stored on a ship.
84
We don't know what the actual plans were.
85
But this underlines how insane this weapon was, and that Teller knew exactly what he was proposing.
86
In his mind, the rationale was the ultimate deterrence.
87
If you attack us or our allies, we will destroy the world.
88
On a technical level, his concept was not even that complicated.
89
It was probably some kind of nuclear matryoshka doll.
90
The truly breathtaking thing is the idea itself and that he actually attempted to make it real.
91
From what we know, Sundial would have weighed at least 2,000 tons, as massive as a 250 meter long cargo train.
92
It would explode with the power of at least 10 billion tons of TNT, a number so big it doesn't mean anything anymore.
93
So let's make this a bit more graphic and explode it in Nevada.
94
One wild thing about it is that humanity never tested anything remotely like it, so this is the best speculation we developed together with experts.
95
For a brief moment, a fireball of pure energy appears, up to 50 kilometers in diameter larger than the visible horizon.
96
It radiates blistering heat at the speed of light.
97
Everything within 400 kilometers is instantly set on fire.
98
Every tree, house, person.
99
The energy would reach much further, but the explosion is so big that the Earth's horizon curves away from it.
100
The surrounding deserts turn into a field of glass.
101
Then comes the blast wave.
102
The atmosphere above the explosion is violently shot into space, a magnitude 9 earthquake shakes the United States, while the sound of the blast reverberates around the world.
103
North American forests burn, adding their soot to the bomb's radioactive fallout to create toxic death clouds
104
that shroud the world like a dark curtain.
105
Sundial is like a nuclear war happening all at once, but it's more like a giant volcano erupting or an asteroid striking than a nuclear war.
106
Sundial would bring about an apocalyptic nuclear winter where global temperatures suddenly drop by 10 degrees Celsius.
107
Most water sources would be contaminated and crops would fail everywhere.
108
Most people in the world would die.
109
So, hmmm, congratulations, you won.
110
Good news.
111
Wait, no, bad news.
112
The good news is that Sundial was never built.
113
Most details are still top secret, But we know that scientists reacted with horror, and politicians who were secretly informed responded with disbelief.
114
Even the US military thought this was a bit much.
115
In the insane world of nuclear arms, this madness was too much.
116
Building it considered a crime against humanity.
117
And it had other problems too.
118
A single apocalypse weapon leaves you no wiggle room.
119
Would you press the button if enemy soldiers crossed a distant country's borders, or attacked one of your distant bases?
120
Would you end the world if your rival overthrew a friendly government?
121
Can you protect an ally with a bomb that would kill them too?
122
The elephant in the room is that while Sundial is clearly insane, humanity still kind of did build it.
123
At the peak of the Cold War, humanity had over 70,000 nukes.
124
Even today, we still have about 12,000 nuclear weapons, enough to destroy human civilization.
125
Instead of a single world burner, the superpowers built tens of thousands of nuclear weapons of all types and sizes,
126
hidden in submarines or waiting in bunkers and silos.
127
And this sounds so much more reasonable, doesn't it?
128
But this also makes them a much more credible threat.
129
Because if people feel they can risk setting off a smaller nuke, they might actually get launched.
130
And we don't know what kind of chain reaction this might trigger.
131
So, in reality, the difference between Sundial and what we have today is not even that big.
132
Humanity didn't build a doomsday bomb, but a doomsday machine.
133
Today, the world may be on the verge of another nuclear arms race.
134
The US is on track to spend a trillion dollars on nuclear modernization programs,
135
while China is expanding its arsenal and might have more than 1,000 nuclear weapons ready to be deployed by 2030.
136
So far, we've escaped the existential threat these weapons pose, but if an alien visited Earth, it might ask us if we're okay and need a hug.
137
We should ask ourselves as a species if we really want to be ready to destroy ourselves at a moment's notice.
138
Pfft, that was a lot.
139
Science is never inherently good or bad.
140
It's up to us to use our sense of curiosity and exploration for something positive.
141
If you want to impart this spirit onto the kids in your life from early on, our sponsor KiwiCo is a great start.
142
This is one of their science project crates that delivers you all the ingredients for a science adventure right to your doorstep.
143
Let's explore.
144
There's a wooden board and pieces, a motor and wires, some marbles and googly eyes.
145
It's the Maze Arcade Kit that teaches kids about the intersection of mechanics and physics in a playful and intuitive way.
146
This crate is part of the new KiwiCo Labs Learning Club, a program that takes you along on a learning journey for young scientists to be.
147
Consecutive hands-on projects help develop and strengthen problem-solving skills on things like science, engineering and robots over time.
148
There are also different programs available on topics like world geography or art and design, all with their own high-quality crates and exclusive online content to unlock.
149
This holiday season a KiwiCo subscription could be the gift that literally keeps on giving for your kids or any niece,
150
nephew, godchild or other little one in your life with a new box of wonders arriving every month.
151
We like KiwiCo because with their new Learning Club program, they're fostering a mindset of making learning something that's an ongoing exploration, just like we want to.
152
If you want to try out the new KiwiCo clubs, click on the link in the description
153
or use the code KORTSGASACHT to get 50% off your first crate of a monthly club with KiwiCo.
154
It's time to reveal our darkest secret.
155
This may come as a surprise to you, but Korsgesagt is not actually run by burbs, but by humans.
156
Now you might wonder, how's this possible?
157
So many people spending hundreds of hours on research, writing and animating the Kurzgesagt videos that are then released for free.
158
Well, the answer is simple.
159
It's possible because of our shop.
160
Our products are a piece of Kurzgesagt that you can touch, read and have around you.
161
Just like our videos, they're a vital part of our dream to inspire people all around the world.
162
Our carefully researched infographic posters are now part of so many people's homes teaching them about evolution, black holes in the night sky.
163
While our gratitude journal helps improve lives every day.
164
A special thanks goes out to everyone who appreciates our weirder product ideas.
165
Every Kurzgesagt product you buy directly funds another moment we get to spend working on our videos.
166
And you get a special piece of Kurzgesagt in return.
167
Thank you so much for being a part of our story and for making this channel possible.
168
The burb humans of Kurzgesagt are eternally grateful.
Télécharger l'application
Tout pour parler couramment
Prononciation IAChaque phrase notée
Phonétique (IPA)Maîtrisez chaque son
VocabulaireEnrichissez votre lexique
Jeu de vocabulaireApprenez en jouant
Même chaîne
C14
How Caffeine Works
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C250
We Made A New Channel!
University StudentsWorking Adults
C15
We Traveled Back in Time. Now Physicists Are Angry.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C121
Queen Ant Clones Another Species
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C113
Would You Upload Your Mind?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! 3/3
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C111
You Will Only Like Half of This Video
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B26
YOU Own the Moon. And Mars. And Venus.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1149
How Antidepressants Work
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B238
Your Brain Peaked at Birth
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C173
We Won’t Explore the Galaxy...
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B26
Dozens of Nukes Are Missing. Why? HOW?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C1153
Something Travels Faster than Light
University StudentsWorking Adults
C14
How to Destroy a Black Hole
University StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Why Beautiful Things Make us Happy – Beauty Explained
University StudentsWorking Adults
B22
Do we Need Nuclear Energy to Stop Climate Change?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C182
The Deadliest Thing in Your Kitchen
University StudentsWorking Adults
B214
The Injection That Stops HIV
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C114
Let’s Tie All Planets Together
University StudentsWorking Adults
C17
Can You Escape a Black Hole?
University StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Vidéo recommandée
C15
128 phrases
The Most Insane Megaproject You Never Heard About
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C14
25 phrases
How Radioactive Are Your Teeth?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C16
224 phrases
Why Does Time Stop at the SPEED OF LIGHT? Feynman's Mind-Blowing Truth
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
22 phrases
How The Universe Could Destroy Life On Earth
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
28 phrases
How to Blow Up the Earth - Nuclear Engineer Reacts to Zack D. Films
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
9 phrases
Our Greatest Delusion
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C16
32 phrases
Anti-matter & nuclear weapons: Why technology is always a double-edge sword | Don Lincoln
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C14
287 phrases
Flying the Air Force's $320M Supersonic B-1 Bomber
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
246 phrases
The CIA's new tech doesn't make sense
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
76 phrases
The Nucleus: Crash Course Chemistry #1
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C110
144 phrases
What Did Ancient Humans Do at Night?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
602 phrases
World War II: The Complete Story (1939–1945) 🌍⚔️ | Learn English Through History
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon
Cette leçon d’expression orale de niveau C1 s’appuie sur la vidéo « The Most Insane Weapon You Never Heard About ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : bomb, nuclear, sundial, weapon. Cette vidéo contient 168 phrases et 2288 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 13:38. Le locuteur parle à un rythme naturel d’environ 168 mots par minute, proche d’une conversation courante. Seuls 81 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais, le vocabulaire est donc exigeant.
Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo
Les 15 mots les plus avancés de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| sundial nom | /ˈsʌnˌdaɪ.əl/ | cadran solaire |
| atom nom | /ˈætəm/ | atome |
| detonate verbe | /ˈdɛtəneɪt/ | détoner |
| nuke verbe | /n(j)uk/ | atomiser, anéantir |
| capsule nom | /ˈkæps(ə)l/ | capsule |
| hydrogen nom | /ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/ | hydrogène |
| classify verbe | /ˈklæs.əˌfaɪ/ | classifier |
| doomsday nom | /ˈduːmz.deɪ/ | jour du Jugement dernier, jugement dernier |
| superpower nom | superpuissance | |
| terrify verbe | /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪ/ | terrifier |
| violently adverbe | /ˈvaɪ(ə)ləntli/ | violemment |
| pyramid nom | /ˈpɪɹ.ə.mɪd/ | pyramide |
| explode verbe | /ɪkˈsploʊd/ | détoner, exploser |
| backyard nom | /bækˈjɑːd/ | arrière-cour |
| destructive adjectif | /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/ | destructif |
Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| get off verbe | descendre, faire descendre | |
| keep up with verbe | aller de pair avec | |
| set up verbe | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | mettre en place, installer |
| show off verbe | crâner, faire le malin | |
| try out verbe | essayer, expérimenter |
Des phrases à répéter
Des phrases courtes et complètes de la vidéo, à réutiliser dans la conversation de tous les jours :
- We don't know what the actual plans were.
- Would you end the world if your rival overthrew a friendly government?
- It's time to reveal our darkest secret.
- Now you might wonder, how's this possible?
- It's possible because of our shop.
La grammaire de cette vidéo
Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :
| Structure | Dans la vidéo |
|---|---|
| Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait | is still classified · were born · were dominated |
| Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant | have been stopped · we've escaped |
Prononciation à surveiller
Le locuteur utilise 12 contractions et formes réduites, comme didn't, doesn't, don't. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.
- Les sons « th »: breathtakingly /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ.li/, breathtaking /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ/, theoretical /ˌθi.əˈɹɛt.ɪ.kəl/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/
- Les sons « sh » et « zh »: civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, fusion /ˈfjuː.ʒən/, annihilation /əˌnaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, rationale /ˌɹæʃ.əˈnæl/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/
- Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: violently /ˈvaɪ(ə)ləntli/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, annihilation /əˌnaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, apocalyptic /əˈpɒ.kə.lɪp.tɪk/, breathtakingly /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ.li/
Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :
- /h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: hydrogen /ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/, horizon /həˈɹaɪ.zən/, inherently /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/, hmmm /hm̩ː/
- /tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: hydrogen /ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/, verge /vɜːd͡ʒ/, geography /d͡ʒiˈɑɡɹəfi/
- /r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: hydrogen /ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/, terrify /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪ/, pyramid /ˈpɪɹ.ə.mɪd/, destructive /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/, horizon /həˈɹaɪ.zən/
Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo
- Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
- Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
- Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme sundial, atom, detonate.
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.