Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: ALL THE CATS, EXPLAINED

When we made our video about the canine family tree, and the accompanying doggone gorgeous poster, you all liked it a lot.

But one comment kept coming up over and over and over again.

When are we going to make a feline one?

Well, your wish is our command.

Because unlike cats, we actually respond to commands.

Hi, I'm David, and this is Feline Earth.

This is a feline.

And so is this.

And so are all of these kitties.

Wild felines come in all shapes and sizes and live all over the world.

Plus, there are more than half a billion domestic cats!

In this video, I'm going to take you on a tour of the amazing feline family, both wild and domestic, and show off the poster we made to celebrate them.

Okay, let's start off with a few of our favorite extinct kitties.

The largest cat to ever exist was likely Smilodon populator, a saber-toothed tiger who weighed roughly half a ton and had canine teeth up to 11 inches long.

Its massive teeth allowed it to take down big prey including bison and giant ground sloths, likely with just one bite to the throat.

One of my favorite extinct velines is the American cheetah, which used to live all over the US until it died out soon after humans arrived.

It wasn't closely related to the modern cheetah, and it was a lot bigger, but it was probably almost as fast, which helps explain why its favorite meal,

the pronghorn, is still the second fastest mammal in the world today.

Let's go back a little farther in time, 30 million years ago, to meet Proailorus.

It looked kind of like a mongoose and likely lived up in the trees, hunting birds and rodents across most of Eurasia.

it was the very first feline, which means that it was the grand catty of all modern kitties.

So let's get into the modern cats.

Let's start with the largest living cats over here on the Panthera branch.

A few lions still live in a small part of India, but most lions roam the savannas of Africa.

Lions live in social groups known as prides, where the bigger males patrol the territory and fight off rivals, while the smaller, sleeker females take care of the hunting and the cub care.

And as Kate wants me to point out, lions can be even bigger scavengers than hyenas.

In some places, they actually steal more food than they hunt.

Tigers, on the other hand, mostly live in the forests of Asia, and they're usually solitary.

They tend to be ambush hunters, using their stripey camouflage to blend into the grass before launching an attack on an unsuspecting ungulate.

And lions and tigers can get together.

Since felines tend to be much more genetically similar than other mammal families, that means that they can make hybrid babies together easier than other animals can.

Perhaps the most famous example is the liger, the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, which pretty much only happens in captivity.

Ligers are huge, as big as the ancient Smilodons, likely because the genes that limit growth in lions tend to come from the females.

Tigons, which are the offspring of a female lion and a male tiger, look similar, but because of those genes, they're way smaller.

Alright, let's build out this panthera branch a little bit more.

Jaguars and leopards are confusingly similar.

Here's how to tell them apart.

Jaguars live in the Americas, while leopards live in Africa and Asia.

And while jaguars have fur patterns known as rosettes that are large and have a central spot, leopard rosettes are smaller and don't have a spot in the middle.

Also while any member of the panthera branch with a black coat could be called a black panther,

jaguars and leopards are the only species of big cats that regularly produce individuals with extra melanin.

Confusingly, snow leopards aren't actually that closely related to leopards.

They're more closely related to tigers.

These rare cats do live in the snow, though, up in the Himalayas, where their bushy coats and thick tail full of insulating fat help them survive the cold.

Oh, wait, there's also the clouded leopard, which split off from the rest of the Panthera branch a long time ago, so it's not that closely related to either the leopard or the snow leopard.

This slightly smaller kitty, which also lives in Asia, is the best tree climber of all the big cats.

Okay, let's head over to the branch that's more closely related to modern cats, the Fellini branch.

Let's start with the bay cat, one of the rarest cats in the world.

This small kitty only lives on the island of Borneo, and so few have been observed in the wild that we're not even sure what they eat.

The marbled cat lives in Asia and looks like a mini-clouded leopard, except that it has an extra-long tail that helps it balance as it climbs through the trees.

The serval has the longest legs of any cat relative to its body size, and it uses them to pounce on mice in the African savanna.

The caracal, which lives across Africa and parts of Asia, is easily recognizable thanks through the long hairs on the top of its ears.

The tufts likely act as acoustic amplifiers, allowing the cat to hear small prey like birds nearby.

The Cod Cod is so small, it looks like a jaguar kitten.

It prowls around the forests of Chile looking for its favorite food, a little bird known as the Wet Wet.

The Oncilla is another itty bitty South American cat.

It uses its spots as camouflage while it hunts little prey like lizards.

About 20% of Oncillas though are totally black.

That's likely because Oncillas do most of their hunting at night, so the darker color also works well as camouflage.

The margay is a small cat that lives in Mexico and Central and South America.

When the margay is hunting its favorite food, the tiny monkey known as the tamarin, it sometimes mimics the monkey's call to draw its prey closer before it pounces.

There are a lot of ocelots down in the Amazon, and one of their go-to meals is mice.

Ecologists think that their rodent-heavy diet actually helps the forest grow, as many of their victims leave stashes of buried seeds behind that, instead of getting eaten, germinate into new plants.

The bobcats of North America are called bobcats because it looks like their tail was cut off, or bobbed, but no one really seems to know why that is.

It's possible that there's no real evolutionary reason.

Perhaps some mutation caused them to grow a short tail, and it didn't help or hurt, so it just sorta stuck around.

Lynx are closely related to bobcats and share the same tiny tails.

They also have cool facial roughs that look like horseshoe mustaches.

The larger Eurasian lynxes love to eat roe deer.

On average, each lynx takes down more than 60 deer every year.

Okay, let's take a look at another bough of this branch of the feline tree.

The cheetah, which lives across Africa and parts of Asia, can run faster than any other land animal because every part of a cheetah is optimized for speed.

They have a flexible spine that acts like a coiled spring, a small aerodynamic head, enlarged lungs, and a tail that acts like a rudder when they turn at high speed.

The puma is another record setter.

It can leap distances of almost 40 feet, making it the best jumper in the animal kingdom.

Pumas live all over the Americas, and different people in different places call them everything from cougars to mountain lions to catamounts to panthers.

The puma's closest relative is the jaguarundi of Central and South America, which is sometimes called an otter cat.

That's because the jaguarundi not only looks like an otter, it also tends to live close to rivers and will even jump in and catch fish.

Okay, let's check out the final part of the tree, the wild cats most closely related to our furry pets.

The leopard cat looks like, well, like a tiny leopard.

And while leopard cats are not the ancestors of modern domestic cats, there's evidence that long ago in China, some of them were kept as pets.

This is a Pallas' cat.

Its dense gray fur and low round ears make it look sort of like a grumpy smurf, but it's perfectly adapted to the cold plateaus of Mongolia and Tibet where it lives.

In fact, when there's lots of snow around, it often sits with its paws on its tail to to keep its little toesies warm.

The tiny sand cat has large ears relative to its size, allowing it to hear prey scurrying around in the North African desert from as far as half a kilometer away.

Then there are the cats that are just called wild cats.

The African and European species of wild cats are slightly larger than most modern domestic cats, but otherwise they look very similar.

And that's no coincidence, since domestic cats are directly descended from wild cats.

In fact, wild cats probably started habituating themselves to people around 10,000 years ago, around when humans first invented agriculture.

Once we started storing things like grain, rodents moved in, and the wild cats likely followed soon after.

Over the millennia, domestic cats started to differ from their wild cat ancestors.

While wild cats almost exclusively eat meat, domestic cats are able to better digest plant matter in order to feed off of our scraps, and they become a little less skittish.

One of the first places that we fell in love with our new feline companions was ancient Egypt.

Egyptians literally worshipped cats, and the modern breed, known as the Egyptian Mao, is likely descended from those cats.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that cat species can make hybrid babies more easily than other animals can?

Well, the bangle cat is the hybrid of a domestic cat, usually an Egyptian Mao, and a leopard cat.

It's the only pet cat that has rosette markings.

And even though most bangles are now the product of several generations of domestication, they're still illegal to own in some areas.

100

Speaking of hybrids, there's also the Savannah Cat, which is part serval and part domestic cat.

101

Okay, let's get into some of the other domestic cat breeds.

102

Ragdoll cats are known for their large size, long hair, blue eyes, and tendency to go limp when they get picked up.

103

Ragdolls are sometimes called puppy cats since they are super affectionate and quickly pick up tricks like retrieving.

104

Maine Coons are the most popular cat breed, and the longest one.

105

The longest domestic cat ever measured was a Maine Coon named Stewie, who stretched out to more than four feet from nose to tail.

106

In addition to their size, Maine Coons also often exhibit polydactylism, that is, extra toes, since the gene associated with it is common among their breed.

107

Scottish Folds are instantly recognizable thanks to the very cute way their ears bend down over their heads.

108

Two of Taylor Swift's cats are Scottish Folds.

109

Unfortunately, that fold is due to a genetic condition that causes cartilage to grow abnormally, and that means that pretty much all Scottish Folds also develop arthritis.

110

The American Shorthair is the descendant of working cats that came over to the US from Europe on ships, including the Mayflower, and were tasked with protecting the cargo from mice and rats.

111

The British Shorthair is the most popular cat breed in England, and it's a relatively chonky boy.

112

It's got a thick build and a wide face that makes it look super content.

113

No wonder it was the inspiration for the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.

114

Siamese cats have a triangular face, long ears, and an elongated slender body.

115

Their distinct color pattern is due to the fact that all Siamese cats are sort of temperature-controlled albinos.

116

The warmer parts of the cat end up as white, while the cooler parts are pigmented.

117

Persian cats are easy to identify due to their long hair, short legs, and extremely flat faces.

118

In the movie Austin Powers, Dr. Evil's cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, was originally played by a Persian cat.

119

But when Mr. Bigglesworth comes back from being cryogenically frozen, he's bald.

120

They didn't shave the Persian though.

121

Instead, they swapped it out for a Sphinx cat, which is naturally hairless due to a genetic mutation.

122

Turkish Angoras look very similar to Persian cats, except that their faces are not nearly as flat.

123

Angoras are more likely than other cats to be heterochromatic, meaning that they have different colored eyes.

124

The Devon Rex is a small kitty with a short curly coat and wide set ears, which to me makes it look like a mischievous kitty from a fairy tale.

125

It kind of looks like the sort of cat a pixie would have.

126

The long and lean Abyssinians look pretty regal with their beautiful coats, But they're known as the jokesters of the cat world due to their playfulness and actual interest in human company.

127

Norwegian forest cats have long fur and dense water-resistant undercoats that keep them warm as they play in the snow.

128

Despite their bulk, these cats are great climbers.

129

But the vast majority of cats out there aren't purebred.

130

They're the feline equivalent of mutts.

131

You might have heard these cats referred to as domestic shorthairs or longhairs, unless you're British.

132

If so, you probably call them moggies.

133

And since there's no real selection in these cats for specific appearance genes, These kitties come in all sorts of colors and patterns.

134

Let's go through a few of them.

135

A tabby is any mixed breed with a striped pattern on its coat.

136

Approximately 80% of domestic cats are tabbies.

137

It turns out that the stripy genes cats inherited from their feline ancestors are pretty strong.

138

That said, there are lots of other color patterns too, including solid color cats, which are usually black.

139

Black cats are often associated with bad luck and witchcraft, mostly thanks to religious texts from the Middle Ages that associated them with the devil.

140

All calico cats are female because that orange, white, and black pattern is linked to the X chromosome.

141

The name comes from the Indian city of Calicut, which is famous for its colorful printed fabrics.

142

Tortoise shell cats are also female, again because the genes that control the orange and black pattern are on the X chromosome.

143

But unlike calicos, they are way less white and the colors tend to be more blended, like those on a tortoise's shell.

144

Bi-colored cats have just two colors, often black and white.

145

Occasionally this pattern forms so that the kitty looks like it's wearing socks or a dress shirt.

146

In fact, the tuxedo version of the bicolored cat is the basis for Mr. Misopheles, the magical cat in the musical Cats.

147

The feline family makes for an amazing catalog of cats.

148

We love our cats here at MinuteEarth and we loved making this video.

149

And if this video was the perfect catnip for you or someone you like, you'll be psyched to learn that you can buy this awesome poster from our DFTBA shop.

150

It will look great on your wall or your classroom

151

and it's also the perfect gift for any cat lover in your life.

152

Just go to dftba.com slash MinuteEarth right meow.

153

And if you buy both our canine and feline poster together, you'll get 15% off.

154

Thank you and thanks for supporting MinuteEarth.

📺 Cùng kênh

✨ Video gợi ý

19 câu

8 Ancient Animals Scarier Than Dinosaurs

Daily ConversationUniversity Students

228 câu

living alone vlog in NYC 🚕 cafe hopping, trying on new clothes, running errands

TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students

130 câu

How humans are helping Australian animals make a comeback | Landline

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

131 câu

What is a Meerkat? - Fascinating Facts about Meerkats!

TeensHigh School StudentsUniversity Students

226 câu

Why Pandas Are Impressively Bad at Existing

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

30 câu

Unit 2 The Lion s Roar

University StudentsWorking Adults

201 câu

The Psychology of People Who Love Cats

University StudentsWorking Adults

387 câu

I Added Animals Into My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

99 câu

How to Survive the Most Aggressive Animals

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

48 câu

Hyenas: The Misunderstood Predators (Quiz Edition)

Daily ConversationUniversity Students

Từ vựng và ghi chú luyện nói cho bài học này

Bài luyện nói trình độ B2 này dựa trên video “ALL THE CATS, EXPLAINED”. Những từ được nhắc lại nhiều nhất trong bài: cat, leopard, feline, domestic, wild. Video này có 154 câu và 2642 từ để luyện shadowing. Phần lời nói dài 12:30. Người nói nói nhanh, khoảng 211 từ mỗi phút, nên sẽ có nhiều chỗ nối âm và nuốt âm. Chỉ 76% số từ nằm trong 3.000 từ tiếng Anh thông dụng nhất, nên từ vựng khá khó.

Từ vựng quan trọng trong video

15 từ khó nhất trong video, kèm phiên âm và nghĩa:

Từ	Phiên âm	Nghĩa
leopard danh từ	/ˈlɛp.ɚd/	báo, beo
jaguar danh từ	/ˈd͡ʒæɡ.wɑɹ/	báo đốm, báo đốm châu Mỹ
prey danh từ	/pɹeɪ/	mồi
cheetah danh từ	/ˈt͡ʃiːtə/	báo săn, báo bờm
poster danh từ	/ˈpoʊstɚ/	bích chương, áp phích
ancestor danh từ	/ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/	tổ tiên
bobcat danh từ	/ˈbɔb.kæt/	linh miêu đuôi cộc
hybrid danh từ	/ˈhaɪ.bɹɪd/	tạp chủng
calico danh từ	/ˈkæ.lɪ.koʊ/	mèo tam thể
chromosome danh từ	/ˈkɹoʊməˌsoʊm/	chất sinh sắt, nhiểm sắc thể
lynx danh từ	/lɪŋks/	linh miêu
mammal danh từ	/ˈmæməl/	động vật có vú, thú
otter danh từ	/ˈɑtɚ/	rái cá, rái
mutation danh từ	/mjuˈteɪʃən/	đột biến
panther danh từ	/ˈpænθəɹ/	báo đen

Cụm động từ bạn sẽ nghe

Từ	Nghĩa
pick up động từ	nhặt, lượm
check out động từ	tính tiền, trả phòng
go back động từ	trở lại
show off động từ	khoe

Ngữ pháp trong video

Những cấu trúc người nói dùng nhiều nhất, kèm đúng cụm từ trong video:

Cấu trúc	Trong video
Câu bị động be + quá khứ phân từ — nhấn vào việc xảy ra, không phải người làm	could be called · have been observed · are called
Mệnh đề quan hệ who / which + mệnh đề — thêm thông tin về người hoặc vật	feline, which means · Tigons, which are · America, which is

Phát âm cần chú ý

Người nói dùng 19 dạng rút gọn, ví dụ they're, aren't, didn't. Hãy nói theo dạng ngắn đúng như bạn nghe.

Âm “th”: panther /ˈpænθəɹ/, arthritis /ɑːˈθɹ(a)ɪtɪs/
Âm “sh” và “zh”: camouflage /ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/, mutation /mjuˈteɪʃən/, affectionate /əˈfɛkʃənət/, ambush /ˈæm.bʊʃ/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/
Từ dài — đặt trọng âm cho đúng: abnormally /æbˈnɔɹ.mə.li/, aerodynamic /ˌɛəɹəʊdaɪˈnæmɪk/, affectionate /əˈfɛkʃənət/, amplifier /ˈæm.plə.faɪ.ə/, captivity /kæpˈtɪvɪti/

Những âm người Việt thường gặp khó:

Cụm phụ âm cuối — đọc đủ từng âm, đừng nuốt âm cuối: lynx /lɪŋks/, descend /dəˈsɛnd/, extinct /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/, blend /blɛnd/, dense /ˈdɛns/
Âm /tʃ/, /dʒ/ và /ʒ/ — tiếng Việt không có, đừng đọc thành “ch” hay “gi”: jaguar /ˈd͡ʒæɡ.wɑɹ/, cheetah /ˈt͡ʃiːtə/, camouflage /ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/, cartilage /ˈkɑɹ.təl.ɪd͡ʒ/, enlarge /ɪnˈlɑɹd͡ʒ/
Âm /æ/ — mở miệng rộng hơn âm “e”: jaguar /ˈd͡ʒæɡ.wɑɹ/, ancestor /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/, bobcat /ˈbɔb.kæt/, camouflage /ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/, bangle /ˈbæŋ.ɡəl/

Cách luyện với video này

Nghe hết video một lần, chưa cần nói, và ghi lại những từ bạn chưa biết.
Bắt đầu ở tốc độ 0,75×, nói đuổi từng câu, rồi quay lại tốc độ bình thường khi đã quen.
Ghi âm giọng mình rồi so với bản gốc, chú ý các từ như leopard, jaguar, prey.

Phương Pháp Shadowing Là Gì?

Shadowing là kỹ thuật học ngôn ngữ có cơ sở khoa học, ban đầu được phát triển cho chương trình đào tạo phiên dịch viên chuyên nghiệp và được phổ biến rộng rãi bởi nhà đa ngôn ngữ học Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Nguyên lý cốt lõi đơn giản nhưng cực kỳ hiệu quả: bạn nghe tiếng Anh của người bản xứ và lặp lại to ngay lập tức — như một "cái bóng" (shadow) đuổi theo người nói với độ trễ chỉ 1–2 giây. Khác với luyện ngữ pháp hay học từ vựng bị động, Shadowing buộc não bộ và cơ miệng phải đồng thời xử lý và tái tạo ngôn ngữ thực tế. Các nghiên cứu khoa học xác nhận phương pháp này cải thiện đáng kể phát âm, ngữ điệu, nhịp điệu, nối âm, kỹ năng nghe và độ lưu loát khi nói — đặc biệt hiệu quả cho người luyện IELTS Speaking và muốn giao tiếp tiếng Anh tự nhiên như người bản ngữ.

Phương pháp shadowing: đọc hướng dẫn từng bước đầy đủ →

Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: ALL THE CATS, EXPLAINED

Why Do India And China Have So Many People?

Why Haven't We Domesticated Monkeys?

Where Did Earth's Water Come From?

The Heaviest Part of a Forest Is NOT What You Think

Why Don't Blue Whales Eat Fish?

Why We Faint (When Other Animals Don't)

How To Kill A Volcano

Three Specific Ways AI Could Kill Us All

Why is it Hot Underground?

MinuteEarth Explains: Cats vs Dogs

Why Don't Snakes Poison Themselves?

The Best Dragon (According to Science)

Why Do Rivers Curve?

How High Can Birds Fly?

Why Do We Have More Boys Than Girls?

MinuteEarth Explains: Microbes

Why Don't Our Bones Keep Growing Forever?

Could This Thing Really Fly?

There’s Really Only One Way To Die

You've Been Misled About The Water Cycle