シャドーイング練習: Cambridge Ielts 16 Reading test 2 Passage 2 - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

レッスンを作成中...
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contain multitudes.
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Wendy Moore reviews Ed Yong's book about microbes.
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Microbes, most of them bacteria, have populated this planet since long before animal life developed and they will outlive us.
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Invisible to the naked eye, they are ubiquitous.
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They inhabit the soil, air, rocks and water and are present within every form of life, from seaweed and coral to dogs and humans.
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And, as Yong explains in his utterly absorbing and hugely important book, we mess with them at our peril.
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Every species has its own colony of microbes,
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called a microbiome, and these microbes vary not only between species but also between individuals and within different parts of each individual.
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What is amazing is that while the number of human cells in the average person is about 30 trillion, the number of microbial ones is higher about 39 trillion.
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At best, Jung informs us, we are only 50% human.
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Indeed, some scientists even suggest we should think of each species and its microbes as a single unit, dubbed a holobiont.
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In each human there are microbes that live only in the stomach, the mouth or the armpit and by and large they do so peacefully.
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So, bad microbes are just microbes out of context.
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Microbes that sit contentedly in the human gut, where there are more microbes than there are stars in the galaxy, can become deadly if they find their way into the bloodstream.
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These communities are constantly changing too.
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The right hand shares just one-sixth of its microbes with the left hand.
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And, of course, we are surrounded by microbes.
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Every time we eat, we swallow a million microbes in each gram of food.
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We are continually swapping microbes with other humans, pets and the world at large.
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It's a fascinating topic and Yang, a young British science journalist, is an extraordinarily adept guide.
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Writing with lightness and panache, he has a knack of explaining complex science in terms that are both easy to understand and totally enthralling.
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Yang is on a mission.
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Leading us gently by the hand, he takes us into the world of microbes a bizarre, alien planet in a bid to persuade us to love them as much as he does.
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By the end, we do.
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For most of human history we had no idea that microbes existed.
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The first man to see these extraordinarily potent creatures was a Dutch lensmaker called Antony van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s.
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Using microscopes of his own design that could magnify up to 270 times,
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he examined a drop of water from a nearby lake and found it teeming with tiny creatures he called animalcules.
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It wasn't until nearly 200 years later that the research of French biologist Louis Pasteur indicated that some microbes caused disease.
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It was Pasteur's germ theory that gave bacteria the poor image that endures today.
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Young's book is in many ways a plea for microbial tolerance, pointing out that while fewer than 100 species of bacteria bring disease,
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many thousands more play a vital role in maintaining our health.
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The book also acknowledges that our attitude towards bacteria is not a simple one.
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We tend to see the dangers posed by bacteria, yet at the same time we are sold yogurts and drinks that supposedly nurture, friendly, bacteria.
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In reality, says Yang, bacteria should not be viewed as either friends or foes, villains or heroes.
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Instead we should realize we have a symbiotic relationship, that can be mutually beneficial or mutually destructive.
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What then do these millions of organisms do?
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The answer is pretty much everything.
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New research is now unraveling the ways in which bacteria aid digestion, regulate our immune systems, eliminate toxins,
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produce vitamins, affect our behavior and even combat obesity.
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They actually help us become who we are, says Young.
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But we are facing a growing problem.
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Our obsession with hygiene, our overuse of antibiotics and our unhealthy,
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low-fiber diets are disrupting the bacterial balance and may be responsible for soaring rates of allergies and immune problems, such as inflammatory bowel disease, IBD.
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The most recent research actually turns accepted norms upside down.
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For example, there are studies indicating that the excessive use of household detergents
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and antibacterial products actually destroys the microbes that normally keep the more dangerous germs at bay.
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Other studies show that keeping a dog as a pet gives children early exposure to a diverse range of bacteria, which may help protect them against allergies later.
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The readers of Yang's book must be prepared for a decidedly unglamorous world.
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Among the less appealing case studies is one about a fungus
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that is wiping out entire populations of frogs and that can be halted by a rare microbial bacterium.
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Another is about squid that carry luminescent bacteria that protect them against predators.
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However, if you can overcome your distaste for some of the investigations, the reasons for Yang's enthusiasm become clear.
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The microbial world is a place of wonder.
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Already, in an attempt to stop mosquitoes spreading dengue fever a disease
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that infects 400 million people a year mosquitoes are being loaded with a bacterium to block the disease.
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In the future, our ability to manipulate microbes means we could construct buildings with useful microbes built into their walls to fight off infections.
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Just imagine a neonatal hospital ward coated in a specially mixed cocktail of microbes
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so that babies get the best start in life.

このレッスンの語彙とスピーキングのポイント

この動画には、シャドーイング用の文が59文、単語が895語あります。 音声の長さは5:24です。 話す速さは1分あたり約166語で、日常会話に近い自然なペースです。 英語の頻出3,000語に含まれる単語は73%だけなので、語彙は難しめです。

この動画の重要語彙

動画に出てくる覚えておきたい単語15語を、発音と意味つきで紹介します。

単語発音意味
indicate 動詞/ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/示す, 指す
mutually 副詞/ˈmjut͡ʃuəli/互いに
mosquito 名詞/məsˈki.toʊ/蚊, カ
allergy 名詞/ˈæl.əɹ.d͡ʒi/アレルギー
topic 名詞/ˈtɑpɪk/話題, テーマ
pet 名詞/pɛt/ペット, 愛玩動物
exposure 名詞/ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/露出
naked 形容詞/ˈneɪkɪd/裸
soil 名詞/sɔɪl/土, 土壌
stomach 名詞/ˈstʌmək/胃, 胃袋
journalist 名詞/ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/記者, ジャーナリスト
sixth 形容詞/sɪksθ/六番目
ward 名詞/wɔɹd/被後見人
coat 名詞/ˈkoʊ̯t/コート, 外套
reader 名詞/ˈɹi.dɚ/読者, リーダー

動画に出てくる句動詞

単語意味
point out 動詞指す, 指し示す
wipe out 動詞一掃する

注意したい発音

  • 「th」の音: sixth /sɪksθ/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/, enthrall /ɪnˈθɹɔːl/
  • 「sh」と「zh」の音: exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, infection /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, specially /ˈspɛʃəli/, obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/
  • 長い単語(アクセントの位置に注意): eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, supposedly /səˈpoʊ̯.zɪd.li/

この動画での練習方法

  1. まず声を出さずに動画を最後まで聞き、知らない単語をメモします。
  2. まず0.75倍速で一文ずつシャドーイングし、慣れてきたら通常の速度に戻します。
  3. 自分の声を録音して元の音声と比べます。indicate, mutually, mosquitoなどの単語に特に注意しましょう。

シャドーイングとは?英語上達に効果的な理由

シャドーイング(Shadowing)は、もともとプロの通訳者養成プログラムで開発された言語学習法で、多言語習得者として知られるDr. Alexander Arguelles によって広く普及されました。方法はシンプルですが非常に効果的:ネイティブスピーカーの英語を聞きながら、1〜2秒の遅延で声に出してすぐに繰り返す——まるで「影(shadow)」のように話者を追いかけます。文法ドリルや受動的なリスニングと異なり、シャドーイングは脳と口の筋肉が同時にリアルタイムで英語を処理・再現することを強制します。研究により、発音精度、抑揚、リズム、連音、リスニング力、そして会話の流暢さが大幅に向上することが確認されています。IELTSスピーキング対策や自然な英語コミュニケーションを目指す方に特におすすめです。

シャドーイングのやり方: ステップ別の完全ガイドを読む →