跟讀練習: Everything is better than it used to be — or is it? | Agustín Fuentes - 通過影片學習英語口語
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26 句
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- Traditionally, when you measure success, evolutionarily speaking, it's about a species or a population's ability to sort of continue through time, to successfully adapt, and to grow.
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So under that definition, there are 8 billion humans living everywhere on the planet.
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We are super successful in the traditional sense.
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At the same time, there's 8 billion humans living on the planet, many of them suffering horribly.
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The planet is suffering horribly.
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The climate crisis; a variety of other really horrible things are going on.
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There's a massive extinction event where plants and animals are disappearing at an unbelievable rate because of human action.
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So one might ask, "Is this evolutionary success?" "Just based on sheer number of humans, is that the way to measure it?" In the recent past, and today, there are many people who argue that like, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't complain so much, humans are doing better than they ever have done.
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There's air conditioners, there's warm showers, there's restaurants, and food, and yeah, so there's some inequality- some people don't have as much as others, but overall, we are living longer and doing better than we ever have done." So I have three responses to that: Number one, who is "we"?
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Are we talking about the entire human species?
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Well, it turns out that different humans are living very, very different lives.
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So we need to clarify that.
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Before one says, "We are doing better," let us define who that we is.
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The second problem I have with that is that these arguments are coming from one broad culture- this sort of Euro-American cultures, these intellectual traditions of a particular way of being in the world, of a particular political and economic process saying, "Well, this is the way it should be, things are better." Well, there are other ways of being in the world.
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There's lots of societies, lots of languages, lots of cultures, lots of people; many of whom have suffered enormously from this particular way of being.
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So again, how do we rectify that?
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How do we understand that?
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And the third thing, my third response to people saying, "Hey, stop complaining, things are better, we're living longer," is "Look, what is the measure of success for humans?" It has to do with how are we doing the human thing?
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How are we being human?
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And how can we minimize, not get rid of, but minimize suffering and injustice?
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Humans are always gonna have inequity and injustice: there's a lot of us, and human history always have hierarchies, and some have more and some have less, there's these incredible dynamics.
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But when it comes down to it right now, we can see that the inequity, the discrepancy in political, economic, technological, health, and many other outcomes for humans is bigger than it ever has been in the entirety of human history.
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If that's the case, something is wrong, 'cause that direction is not good for humans; we already have data that suggests and shows that it's not good for the planet.
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So, to those who say, "Calm down, everything is better than it used to be." I say, "No, it's not." It's not just surviving longer, it's not just having more, it's not just having access to technology- to really understand success, evolutionarily speaking in humans, we need to also talk about the capacity for flourishing.
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Are human bodies and societies reaching at least these minimal levels of flourishing, of health, of security, of interaction, and of well-being.
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So, I would argue, in the modern context, to understand evolutionary success for humans, we need to understand the capacity for human flourishing, and how that is distributed across our species.
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本課的詞彙與口語要點
這節口語課以影片“Everything is better than it used to be — or is it?”為素材。 影片中反覆出現的詞有：success, planet, flourishing, suffering, measure。 這段影片共有 26 個句子、619 個單詞可供跟讀。 講話部分時長為 3:56。 說話人語速自然，每分鐘約 157 個詞，接近日常對話。 89% 的單詞屬於英語最常用的 3,000 詞，詞彙容易理解。 全部 26 個句子中有 7 個是問句，適合練習疑問語調和簡短回答。
影片中的重點詞彙
影片中 15 個值得學習的單詞，附發音和釋義：
| 單詞 | 發音 | 釋義 |
|---|---|---|
| suffer 動詞 | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | 受苦, 遭受 |
| flourish 動詞 | /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/ | 繁榮 /繁榮 |
| argue 動詞 | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | 辯論 /辯論, 爭辯 /爭辯 |
| complain 動詞 | /kəmˈpleɪn/ | 抱怨, 發牢騷 /發牢騷 |
| injustice 名詞 | /ɪnˈd͡ʒʌs.tɪs/ | 不平, 不公平 |
| minimize 動詞 | /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmaɪz/ | 最小化 |
| horrible 形容詞 | /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ | 可怕的, 可畏 |
| define 動詞 | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | 界定 |
| intellectual 形容詞 | /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/ | 智力的, 思想的 |
| interaction 名詞 | /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/ | 相互作用 |
| disappear 動詞 | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | 消失 |
| dynamics 名詞 | /dɑɪˈnæm.ɪks/ | 動力學 /動力學 |
| unbelievable 形容詞 | /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/ | 不可思議 /不可思議 |
| technological 形容詞 | /ˌtɛk.nəˈlɑ.dʒɪ.kəl/ | 技術性 /技術性 |
| sheer 形容詞 | /ʃɪɚ/ | 透明 |
影片中出現的短語動詞
| 單詞 | 釋義 |
|---|---|
| calm down 動詞 | 冷靜下來 /冷靜下來, 平靜下來 /平靜下來 |
| turn out 動詞 | 原來 /原來 |
值得反覆跟讀的句子
影片中簡短而完整的句子，可以直接用在日常對話裡：
- Are we talking about the entire human species?
- How do we understand that?
- How are we being human?
影片中的語法
說話人最常用的結構，並附上影片中的原話：
| 結構 | 影片中的用法 |
|---|---|
| 現在完成時 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去發生但與現在仍有關聯的事 | have done · have suffered · has been |
| 定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物 | people who argue · those who say |
需要注意的發音
說話人用了 4 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, gonna, we're。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。
- “sh” 和 “zh” 音: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/
- 長單詞——注意重音位置: evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, unbelievable /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/
中文母語者容易讀錯的音：
- /v/ — 不要讀成 /w/，上齒輕觸下唇: evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, unbelievable /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/
- 詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, injustice /ɪnˈd͡ʒʌs.tɪs/, minimize /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmaɪz/, dynamics /dɑɪˈnæm.ɪks/, adapt /əˈdæpt/
- /r/ 和 /l/ 的區別: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, horrible /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, clarify /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.faɪ/
如何用這段影片練習
- 先完整聽一遍影片，不要開口，記下不認識的單詞。
- 先用 0.75 倍速逐句跟讀，熟練之後再回到正常速度。
- 錄下自己的聲音並與原聲對比，特別注意 suffer, flourish, argue 這類單詞。
什麼是跟讀法？
跟讀法 (Shadowing) 是一種有科學依據的語言學習技巧，最初開發用於專業口譯員的培訓，並由多語言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。這個方法簡單而強大：您在聽英語母語原聲的同時立即大聲重複——就像是一個延遲1-2秒緊跟說話者的影子。與被動聽力或語法練習不同，跟讀法強迫您的大腦和口腔肌肉同時處理並模模擬實的講話模式。研究表明它能顯著提高發音準確性，語調，節奏，連讀，聽力理解和口語流利度——使其成為雅思口語備考和真實英語交流最有效的方法之一。