Pratique du Shadowing: What Would Happen If Earth Started to Spin Backwards - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
Création de la leçon...
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Let’s play some “what if”, shall we?
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Our planet rotates around its axis from west to east at a speed of over a thousand miles per hour at the equator!
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And this pattern has lasted for billions of years since the Earth was formed.
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But “what if” one day, our planet suddenly started to rotate backward, from east to west?
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So hey, let’s put a “different spin” on it, shall we?
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Ha ha… It would be one thing if the Earth's continents and oceans were situated symmetrically against the equator when the change of the direction happened.
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In this case, the only change people would notice would be the climate, which would turn into a mirror image of the current one.
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In other words, there’d be no dramatic changes.
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But since life on our planet is rarely about symmetry, the effects of the Earth rotating backward would be way more complicated.
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But keep in mind that everything will depend on how our planet would change the direction of its rotation.
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For example, let's imagine that it happened suddenly!
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Like, one day, the planet was calmly rotating from west to east, and then, in the blink of an eye, it's already moving backward, from east to west.
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Remember, in the very beginning, I told you about the speed of the Earth's rotation?
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So, in the case of an abrupt switch of the direction, an instant change in speed would make about 2,000 miles per hour!
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Well hold onto something!
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That means that everything not fixed to the ground would be hurled eastward.
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Buildings and other man-made structures would collapse, sending tons of debris into the air and creating chaos.
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The sudden change in direction would move all the water on the planet, which, in turn, would create vast tsunamis.
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They’d move across the planet, destroying everything in their path and literally changing the whole structure of the Earth.
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Oh, and don't forget about hurricane-force winds, which would essentially wipe out everything still standing after the massive waves.
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In short, the Earth would turn into a gloomy, muddy mess.
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But let's not dwell on this highly unlikely scenario and, instead, picture how different our planet would be if it rotated from east to west right from the beginning.
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in this case, you would see the Moon and the Sun rise in the west and set in the east.
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But that would be the smallest of all the differences.
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The thing is that the different spinning direction of the planet would create unexpected weather conditions on all the continents, and the Earth itself would be a totally different place!
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Some regions of the world would be colder than they are now.
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For example, western Europe would be plagued by severe, freezing winters every year.
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And, vice versa, Russia would warm up and lose the title of one of the coldest countries in the world.
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Some areas of the world would become much greener than they are as we know them.
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Other regions, on the contrary, would turn into deserts.
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For example, North America would be nothing more than a dry dust bowl.
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In South America, the Amazon rainforests would get replaced by arid sand dunes.
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But the area from the Middle East to Central Africa, on the other hand, would be covered with lush, dense forests.
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And the rest of the deserts would be either covered with grass or scattered trees.
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Do you think such dramatic changes have already happened sometime during the history of our planet? Write about your opinion in the comment section below!
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Anyway, the east-to-west rotation would also influence ocean currents.
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Few people know that nowadays, the climate on our planet is greatly influenced by AMOC - it's an ocean current that transports heat all over the world.
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On the forward-spinning Earth, this current is in the Atlantic Ocean.
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But should the planet start to rotate backward, AMOC would move to the Pacific.
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It’d be a bit stronger than the original current, and it’d bring more heat to eastern Russia.
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In general, there would be much more greenery on our planet, and, therefore, more oxygen for everyone to breathe.
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On the other hand, that might not turn out to be such a great thing.
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Now, the ocean is swarming with phytoplankton bacteria.
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But on that different Earth, instead of plankton, cyanobacteria would dominate.
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These billion-year-old bacteria were some of the first inhabitants of our planet.
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But the problem with them is that they pump out huge amounts of oxygen.
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Now if they replaced all other kinds of bacteria, they would completely transform the Earth's atmosphere.
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Thus, it would contain so much oxygen that people would simply be unable to breathe and, therefore, it would be hard for them to exist on the planet!
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That's why the chances are high that on a backward-spinning Earth, people would be replaced with a completely different species.
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But even if it did happen, we wouldn't know about that, would we?
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In any case, it's almost impossible to imagine the conditions that could make our planet begin spinning backward!
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So, I guess this is just one of those hypothetical questions like, "What if the Earth's core cooled down?" But wait, indeed, what would happen then?
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We’d have quite a cool core of course… Now s omewhere incredibly deep beneath the surface of our planet lies the Earth's core - a ball of scorching-hot iron which is surrounded by boiling liquid metal.
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The temperature of the Earth's core is more than twice as high as the temperature on the surface of the Sun!
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And so far, it seems to work well for all of us.
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But could the planet function if its core turned into a frozen rock?
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One of the things that makes life on the Earth possible is the geomagnetic field.
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It's like a powerful superhero that protects us from all the harmful stuff attacking our planet from space, including highly charged particles from the sun and cosmic radiation.
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What's more, thanks to this geomagnetic shield, solar winds can't strip away the Earth's atmosphere.
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You may ask, "What does the geomagnetic field have to do with the red-hot core of the planet?" The thing is that this very field is created by the Earth's core!
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You don't notice it, but when the planet spins, the speed of its solid inner core, and the speed of its liquid outer core are different.
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As a result, the speed difference creates electric currents, which, in turn, generate the geomagnetic field.
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Now, let's imagine that both parts of the Earth's core cooled down for some inexplicable reason.
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In this case, the worst would happen - our planet would simply lose its magnetic field!
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Uh-oh, but if there’s no magnetic field, there's also no atmosphere!
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That's why some time later, the Earth would start to resemble Mars a little bit too much for my liking.
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First, you wouldn't be able to breathe without an oxygen mask and a pressure suit.
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Rocks, gas, water, and everything else wouldn’t be heated by the boiling core anymore.
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The Earth would grow colder and colder.
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There would be no earthquakes; volcanoes would stop spewing lava, and the continents wouldn't be drifting apart bit by bit as they do now.
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Unfortunately, people wouldn't be around to feel happy about the geological stability.
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The eternal cold and lack of oxygen would either finish us, or prevent us from living normal lives.
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And then, there would be the massive problem of protecting the planet from space radiation, remember?
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It's not very clear what exactly would happen to the planet if it lost the electromagnetic field, but it wouldn’t be anything good.
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The Earth would probably see a radioactive wave onslaught, which would overheat it to a degree (to a degree) at which it would become uninhabitable.
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Or it would suffer from solar wind attacks, which would sweep away the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers.
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But whichever guess is correct, the Earth would turn into a lifeless, cold rock in any case.
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Whew! Kinda shakes you right down to the core, huh?
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Well, the only thing I can say at this point is, Let’s take care of this earth, the only home we have in the universe, and “let’s keep spinning, let’s keep spinning”….
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Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a friend!
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And here are some other videos I think you'll enjoy.
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Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!
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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon
Cette leçon d’expression orale de niveau B2 s’appuie sur la vidéo « What Would Happen If Earth Started to Spin Backwards ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : planet, earth, core, east, field. Cette vidéo contient 82 phrases et 1429 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 8:47. Le locuteur parle à un rythme naturel d’environ 163 mots par minute, proche d’une conversation courante. 84 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.
Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo
Les 15 mots les plus avancés de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| rotate verbe | /ˈɹoʊ.teɪt/ | tourner, rotationner |
| backward adjectif | /ˈbækwɚd/ | en arrière |
| bacterium nom | /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/ | bactérie |
| continent nom | /ˈkɑntɪnənt/ | continent |
| rotation nom | /ɹoʊˈteɪʃən/ | rotation, tour |
| equator nom | /ɪˈkweɪ.tɚ/ | équateur |
| boil verbe | /bɔɪ(ə)l/ | faire bouillir, porter à ébullition |
| freeze verbe | /ˈfɹiːz/ | geler, glacer |
| magnetic adjectif | /mæɡˈnɛtɪk/ | magnétique |
| abrupt adjectif | /əˈbɹʌpt/ | brusque, precipité |
| cyanobacterium nom | cyanobactérie | |
| gloomy adjectif | /ˈɡlumi/ | lugubre, sombre |
| greenery nom | /ˈɡɹiːnəɹi/ | feuillage, verdure |
| inexplicable adjectif | /ˌɪn.ɪkˈsplɪ.kə.bl̩/ | inexplicable |
| inhabitant nom | /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/ | habitant, habitante |
Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| cool down verbe | /kuːl ˈdaʊn/ | se refroidir, refroidir |
| drift apart verbe | se perdre de vue | |
| warm up verbe | /ˌwɔː(ɹ)m ˈʌp/ | se réchauffer, se chauffer |
| wipe out verbe | anéantir |
La grammaire de cette vidéo
Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :
| Structure | Dans la vidéo |
|---|---|
| Phrases conditionnelles if + proposition, will/would + verbe — une condition et son résultat | if it did happen, we wouldn't know |
| Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait | was formed · were situated · would be hurled |
| Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant | has lasted · have already happened |
Prononciation à surveiller
Le locuteur utilise 16 contractions et formes réduites, comme wouldn't, don't, it'd. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.
- Les sons « th »: hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, earthquake /ˈɝθkweɪk/
- Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: inexplicable /ˌɪn.ɪkˈsplɪ.kə.bl̩/, inhabitant /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/, phytoplankton /ˌfaɪ.təˈplæŋk.tən/, uninhabitable /ˌʌnɪnˈhæbɪtəbəl/, electromagnetic /ɪˌlɛk.tɹoʊ.mæɡˈnɛ.tɪk/
Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :
- /h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: inhabitant /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/, overheat /ˌoʊvɚˈhit/, uninhabitable /ˌʌnɪnˈhæbɪtəbəl/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, superhero /ˈs(j)upɚhɪɹoʊ/
- /tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: scorch /skɔɹt͡ʃ/, whichever /wɪt͡ʃˈɛvɚ/, geological /ˌd͡ʒi.əˈlɑdʒ.ɪk.əl/, situated /ˈsɪt͡ʃueɪtɪd/
- /r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: rotate /ˈɹoʊ.teɪt/, bacterium /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/, rotation /ɹoʊˈteɪʃən/, freeze /ˈfɹiːz/, abrupt /əˈbɹʌpt/
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 rotate, backward, bacterium.
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.