跟讀練習: The Hardest Test in China - 通過影片學習英語口語
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Thanks to Audible, the world's leading provider of audiobooks, for sponsoring this video.
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Deep in eastern China's Anhui Province, situated in a valley between the mountains, is a small town called Mao Zanchang.
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Of the hundreds of cities and thousands of towns and villages in the world's most populous country, Mao Tanchang is, without a doubt,
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the most boring of them all.
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Unlike even the drabbest of industrial mining or factory towns, here, there's nothing even resembling entertainment.
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No bowling alleys, theaters, water parks, bars, or internet cafes.
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A game shop once opened, but was promptly forced to close after locals led a boycott.
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Its busiest places - a post office,
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grocery store, and a few scattered restaurants - close early and stay quiet enough that they could only be doing so intentionally.
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But make no mistake: Mao Tanchang is not a forgotten pit stop, slowly fading away to history.
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Actually, just the opposite.
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Thousands flock to this 4 ,000 -person town, hours away from any major city one with no historical or religious significance.
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Though there are no jobs to be had, there is a factory, some would argue, though not the kind you'd expect.
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Its private high school is known, across China, as a so -called "study factory",
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where parents bring their children to prepare for the most important exam of their lives.
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Its remote location and lifeless streets are deliberate features.
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There's simply nothing to do but study.
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As the town has grown in prominence, its population has doubled, from 4 to 8 ,000, the new residents being the families of test -takers,
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who, in turn, drive real estate prices sky -high and consume roughly 90 % of the local economy.
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The test is called the gaokao.
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Gao meaning "high" as in higher education, i .e university, and cao meaning "exam".
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These days, around 10 million third -year high school students, graduating seniors in the Chinese education system, take the test each year,
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making it a candidate for the largest anywhere on earth.
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In normal years, the 9 -hour exam begins on June 7th and lasts 2 or 3 days, depending on the province.
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Although the exam is coordinated and synced across the whole of China, excluding the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau,
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the questions and logistics are arranged by each province and provincial -level city.
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For most students, it consists of math, Chinese, and a foreign language - usually English,
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but alternatively Japanese, Russian, or French - plus his or her choice of either humanities, which includes geography, history, and politics,
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or science, meaning biology, chemistry, and physics.
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The questions are mainly multiple choice and short answers, though the Chinese section includes an essay, scored by two random graders.
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Before or afterward, students list the schools they wish to attend.
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By the time scores are released in July, provincial authorities have negotiated their quota for admission to each university,
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which determines its lowest accepted score.
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The maximum number of points is 750, though anything above even 700 is considered legendary,
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thanks to its notoriously inscrutable questions.
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When all is said and done, around 10 % of students receive offers to one of the tier 1 best schools
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and 20 % end up in a second -tier school.
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The highest scores in each province become overnight celebrities, their photos plastered throughout their hometowns,
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parents praised on television, and their choice of school subject to much scrutiny.
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From a distance, the Gaokao may seem like a larger and slightly more elaborate version of the SAT, ACT, A -Levels, or JEE.
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but such an image would be wildly mistaken.
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For starters, the Gaokao is only offered once per year.
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Meaning, that if a student isn't accepted into one of his or her selected schools, of which there can only be a few, they will have no choice but to wait until the following June,
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which many do, sometimes several times over.
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To be precise, only about 8 of the 10 million test -takers are accepted.
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The other roughly 20 % are faced with a very unenviable decision.
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"wait another 365 days" or "give up".
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Parents often resent those students who choose to take the exam again, saying they drive up the average score at the expense of their child,
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sometimes despite already being accepted to one or more schools.
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Gaokao scores are also, in most cases, the only criteria for college admission.
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The concept of recommendations, personal essays, and extracurriculars are so foreign to Chinese families
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that they usually hire a counselor to guide them through this process when applying to an overseas university.
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The gaokao is very much make or break.
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which is why it has spawned such a lucrative industry.
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of which Mao Tanchang is one of the biggest benefactors.
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What sets it apart from all other schools, tutoring centers, and methods is that, quite simply, it really works.
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It claims a 90 % university admissions rate compared to the 30 % of its province as a whole.
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Of course, this success comes at a price, and quite a steep one.
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The campus is run more like a military training academy than a school, with 16 hours of studying scheduled per day.
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Everything is designed and optimized for studying.
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For example, there are no laundry rooms, electrical outlets, or, for many years, even hot water.
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Visitors, including parents, are allowed on campus for exactly three hours each Sunday afternoon.
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The security guards, who drive around on golf carts, ensure these rules are followed.
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Its real secret formula, however, is the way it meticulously ranks,
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rewards, and punishes its 500 teachers alongside their students.
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Their salaries are already higher than average, but what drives them to essentially give up on their lives, quit their jobs, hold off on starting a family,
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and move to the middle of nowhere, are the bonuses.
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If a student is accepted to China's famous Peking or Tsinghua universities, say, then 50 ,000 RMB,
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or about 8 ,000 US dollars, is divided between all of his or her teachers.
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A good educator, therefore, can easily double or triple his or her salary.
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On the flip side, the lowest -ranked teachers each year can expect to be fired.
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To many people, these descriptions elicit pity, if not outrage.
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Whenever an image or anecdote of a six -foot pile of books or the school's 16 -hour schedule goes viral,
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a certain fury follows: "How dare someone trying to pay to game a test?"
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or "What an incredible waste of young people's lives." In reality, the vast majority of Mao Tanchang students are not rich kids from the city,
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rural families who have saved for years.
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For them, the Gaokao is a route, their only route, to upward social mobility, and Mao Tan Chang is their golden ticket.
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Which is why, when the day finally comes, it's one of hope and celebration, not dread or hatred.
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To an observer, June 7th may look like the beginning of a festival.
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Parents book hotel rooms near the testing venues.
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Rows of buses full of students roam the cities, escorted by a parade of their families.
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Cars are forbidden from honking their horns, construction sites within half a mile are ordered to stay silent,
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and over one million supervisors across the country proctor at 7 ,000 exam sites.
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Then, on their final day, After their final stroke is written, Students overwhelmingly report the same unexpected feeling.
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Loss While these nine fateful hours have consumed nearly every second and thought of the last few years of their lives,
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if not entire education, the Gaokao also acts as a powerful goal.
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A singular milestone far in the future and yet close enough to always instill urgency.
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The Gaokao is not a thing to be romanticized.
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Critics rightly emphasize the unfathomable mental strain it places on students, strain which sometimes spirals into permanent damage.
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The years of lives it robs of every boy and girl.
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the unnecessary rote memorization which is never recalled.
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and the permanent destiny it prescribes to those deemed unfit.
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But such an all -encompassing task also provides a concrete purpose that drives students forward,
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and a universally accepted excuse to all failures non -academic.
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One can be bad at just about everything, and still be celebrated for scoring highly.
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In some ways, the Gaokao is a mask, hiding all accomplishments and challenges behind a single, person -defining number.
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And not only at the level of the individual,
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Social and economic inequalities are also rationalized and upheld by the meritocratic nature of the Gaokao.
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It suggests that everyone gets what he or she deserves, providing an excuse for huge differences in opportunity.
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And while there have been many moves to reform the Gaokao, and even discussions about replacing it entirely,
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the great irony is that those who suffer the most - families and students themselves - are also sometimes its most vocal supporters.
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To them, the Gaokao may be the hardest test in China,
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but it's also their only ticket to a better life. by Brian Kaplan.
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It explains what so many of us think but don't have the eloquent words to prove.
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為什麼要通過這個影片練習口語？
通過觀看和跟讀此影片，您可以在一個實際的語境中提升自己的口語能力。這段影片討論了中國高考的背景，涉及到教育、競爭和個人努力等主題。通過模仿影片中的講解方式，您可以學習如何在類似的情境中進行流利的表達。這樣的練習不僅能夠提升您的詞彙量和發音，還能夠幫助您在面對學術或正式場合時更自信地表達自己。
語法和表達方式分析
在影片中，講解者使用了一些關鍵的語法結構和表達方式，以下是幾個例子：
- 被動語態: "The test is called the Gaokao" 通過此句，學習者可以理解如何使用被動語態來強調動作或事件的承受者，而不是施事者。
- 定語從句: "a small town called Maotanchang" 這種結構幫助描述名詞，為學習者提供更復雜的句子構建技巧。
- 條件句: "if a student isn’t accepted..." 在討論條件的同時，瞭解這種句型的使用可以幫助學習者表達假設的情況。
通過"看YouTube學英語"，練習這些結構將有助於提高您的語言能力和表達的準確性。
常見的發音誤區
在影片中，某些詞彙和短語的發音可能對學習者來說比較具有挑戰性：
- Gaokao (高考): 此詞的發音在拼讀時應注意音調，正確的發音對理解非常重要。
- Province (省): 非母語者有時會發錯音節的重音，注意應將重音放在第二個音節上。
- Accommodate (適應): 此詞的兩個“m”常常被誤讀，確保清晰地發出每個音節。
通過在這個影片上 shadowing，您可以練習這些詞彙的正確發音，從而避免常見的發音陷阱，讓您的口語更順暢。
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 | be had · is known · is called |
| 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 | has grown · have negotiated · has spawned |
| 定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物 | students who choose · memorization which is · those who suffer |
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。