跟讀練習: How to fix clean energy’s storage problem - 通過影片學習英語口語

選擇練習模式

每種模式都會開啟全屏練習室。

72 句

如果句子過短或過長，請點選 Edit 進行調整。

This is the typical demand for electricity on a spring day in California.

It starts growing around 6 a .m., then rises again around 6 p .m.

Now, this line shows when wind power feeds the California power grid.

Wind is variable, but often picks up at night.

Solar panels, on the other hand, kick into gear around 7 a .m., generate a lot of electricity until the sun sets around 7 p .m.

On most days, neither comes close to meeting the peak demands of the day.

So, the power company relies on fossil fuels, like natural gas, to make up for the gap, which widens significantly when people use electricity the most.

Since the power company can't store the solar and wind energy, it has to use fossil fuels at these times,

which can be stored in barrels and tanks.

It's kind of the big gap in our renewable energy system right now.

If we don't figure out a way to store renewable energy, there's a chance that we're going to be still dependent on fossil fuels.

So, how do we store some of this solar and wind energy for later?

Right now you might be thinking, just use a battery.

And you're not wrong.

Batteries have improved immensely over the past few years, particularly lithium -ion batteries, which use a chemical reaction to store energy.

Individual homes that have solar panels often use lithium -ion batteries to store energy.

But there's a few reasons lithium -ion isn't perfect for the grid.

This is Neil Dinesha, a founding writer at Heatmap, a climate news site, and he wrote about this for Vox in 2022.

One is just the scale that's needed.

We would need a lot at a level that we just don't really have right now.

That's a challenge because lithium is only found in a few places on earth.

But more importantly, like we need lithium -ion batteries for other things.

Lithium -ion battery is really good for stuff that moves because it's relatively light.

Meaning it's better suited for things like electric cars and portable electronics, not power grids that stay still.

Luckily, there's another energy storage solution that's actually been around for a long time.

This is the site for the first pump storage hydroelectric station in Southern Ireland.

This is a type of energy storage called pump storage hydro.

They were first built in Europe.

The U .S built one in 1929.

And many more were built in the 1970s and 80s as a way to store nuclear power.

Today, these facilities are all over the world.

There are 39 of them in the U .S.

And they store energy in a really fascinating yet simple way.

When energy demand is low,

renewable or fossil fuel energy is used to pump water from a reservoir or river up a mountain into a higher reservoir.

Basically converting this energy into what's called potential energy.

So potential energy, you might kind of remember from high school physics.

When a thing is up at a height, it has stored potential energy.

When it's let go, it turns into kinetic energy.

When that energy is needed, the water is released down the mountain,

where it's converted into kinetic energy that spins a turbine and generates electricity for the grid.

It's a way of combining water, a mountain, and gravity into a battery, and it can be about 90 % efficient,

meaning only 10 % of this energy is lost in the process.

Pump storage hydro works really well, but it's difficult to build more.

Well, for starters, you need a mountain, and you need to haul out a mountain to put pumps inside it,

and it takes a lot of money, and we don't have mountains everywhere.

So the ideal way to store renewable energy would be something that's cheaper and smaller than a pump storage hydro plant,

but works in roughly the same way.

One company, Energy Vault, is also using gravity to store renewable energy, but without the water or mountain.

Instead, renewable energy is used to lift heavy blocks of concrete up into the air, where it becomes potential energy.

Then when it's needed, the blocks are released, spinning a turbine, which converts the potential energy back into electricity.

Energy Vault calls this gravity energy storage, and while it's still being tested, the company claims it could be more than 80 % efficient.

A company called QuidNet is working on a different version of the same principle.

Their geomechanical pump storage unit uses renewable energy to pump water underground into a pressurized hole, where it can be stored as potential energy,

then released back up to the surface to spin a turbine and generate electricity.

Both techniques are betting on potential energy as a solution for storing renewable energy for the grid.

I think this partly because potential energy has shown itself to be pretty efficient.

Also, realistically, fewer moving parts.

If all you're doing basically is using gravity to work with you, you have a pretty massive force of nature on your side right there.

But potential energy isn't the only possible solution.

Other companies are using renewable energy to superheat salt, insulating it, then releasing that heat to create steam or hot air to drive a turbine.

Basically storing renewables by converting them to thermal energy.

Then there's a company that's betting on rusted iron.

They're called iron air batteries and what they do is they utilize the chemical reaction

that creates rust to store and discharge energy.

This thing

that we all sort of think of as an inconvenience could be really useful is just kind of beautiful to me.

Right now these ideas are all in various stages of development, but they are attracting investors.

And the hope is that several will work because one might not fit every power grid.

The grid, renewable energy overall, is going to be a sort of patchwork solution.

And so the more we try these solutions,

the closer we get to figuring out exactly what the right mix is for what we need for the greater future.

下載應用

流利口語所需的一切

AI 發音評分逐句打分

音標練習掌握每個音

詞彙學習建立你的詞庫

詞彙遊戲邊玩邊學

掃碼

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

同頻道

FOR YOU

本課的詞彙與口語要點

這節口語課以影片“How to fix clean energy’s storage problem”為素材。影片中反覆出現的詞有：energy, renewable, store, potential, pump。這段影片共有 72 個句子、1011 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 5:21。說話人語速較快，每分鐘約 189 個詞，會出現較多連讀和弱讀。只有 79% 的單詞屬於英語最常用的 3,000 詞，詞彙難度較高。

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
renewable 形容詞	/ɹɪˈnu.ə.bl̩/	可再生
pump 名詞	/pʌmp/	泵, 唧筒
grid 名詞	/ɡɹɪd/	網格 /網格, 格子
lithium 名詞	/ˈlɪθi.əm/	鋰 /鋰
fossil 名詞	/ˈfɑsl̩/	化石
turbine 名詞	/ˈtɜː.baɪn/	渦輪機 /渦輪機, 輪機 /輪機
efficient 形容詞	/ɪˈfɪʃənt/	高效率
spin 動詞	/spɪn/	轉動 /轉動, 自轉 /自轉
hydro 名詞	/ˈhaɪdro/	電費 /電費
reservoir 名詞	/ˈɹɛz.ə(ɹ).vwɑɹ/	儲備 /儲備
rust 名詞	/ɹʌst/	鏽 /鏽, 鐵鏽 /鐵鏽
technique 名詞	/tɛkˈniːk/	技術 /技術, 技巧
concrete 形容詞	/ˌkɑnˈkɹit/	切實的 /切實的, 具體的 /具體的
ideal 形容詞	/aɪˈdi(ə)l/	理想的
physics 名詞	/ˈfɪz.ɪks/	物理學 /物理學

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	釋義
figure out 動詞	弄清楚

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
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	can be stored · is only found · were built
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 improved · that's actually been · has stored

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 10 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, isn't, you're。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“th” 音: lithium /ˈlɪθi.əm/, thermal /ˈθɜːməl/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, pressurize /ˈpɹɛʃəɹaɪz/
長單詞——注意重音位置: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/, inconvenience /ɪnkənˈvinjəns/, hydroelectric /ˌhʌɪdrəʊɪˈlɛktrɪk/

中文母語者容易讀錯的音：

/v/ — 不要讀成 /w/，上齒輕觸下唇: gravity /ˈɡɹævɪti/, convert /kənˈvɝt/, reservoir /ˈɹɛz.ə(ɹ).vwɑɹ/, variable [ˈvæɹ.i.ə.bl̩], investor /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/
詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: pump /pʌmp/, grid /ɡɹɪd/, convert /kənˈvɝt/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, generate /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的區別: renewable /ɹɪˈnu.ə.bl̩/, electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, roughly /ˈɹʌf.li/, principle /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/, partly /ˈpɑɹtli/

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 renewable, pump, grid 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。

影子跟讀法: 閱讀完整分步指南 →

跟讀練習: How to fix clean energy’s storage problem - 通過影片學習英語口語

選擇練習模式

下載應用

How Democrats swept the midterms

Why no aquarium has a great white shark

Inside the secret race to build artificial intelligence | The Gray Area

How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump

How to be less neurotic | The Gray Area

The Ticketmaster monopoly is over, now what?

The biggest peach myth in America

How to solve problems like a designer

The origin of the '80s aesthetic

Why “Buy one, get one free” isn’t a great deal

How F1 drivers survive their own cars

White, pink, and brown noise, explained #shorts

Why 350°F is the magic number for baking

Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere now

How China is designing flood-resistant cities

The real reason Boeing's new plane crashed twice

Putin's war on Ukraine, explained

The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history

Why AI art struggles with hands

Why is everything getting so expensive?

The Truth About How Data Centers Use Water And Power To Keep Cool

The Craziest Ways Ancient Humans Made Fire #AncientHumans #History #Survival

The unstoppable green revolution: Adam Tooze on the "most dramatic story in the history of energy”

How Quantum Batteries Break Every Rule of Charging

How To Clear Icy Roads, With Science

Digital twins for smarter power grids | Vietnam Today

How Agri-Voltaics are Changing Agriculture | The Power of Solar Panels | EyeTech

Radioactive Waste - The Journey to Disposal

Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found

How do microSD Cards Store 2 TB in such a TINY space?

How will the Iran war affect Ireland's electricity prices? | RTÉ News