跟讀練習: The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained - 通過影片學習英語口語

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One day the last star will die and the universe will turn dark forever.

It will probably be a red dwarf, a tiny kind of star that's also one of our best bets to find alien life

and might be the last home of humanity before the universe becomes uninhabitable.

So what do we know about them and why are they our last hope?

At least 70% of stars in the universe are red dwarfs.

They are the tiniest stars out there, with only about 7-50% of the mass of our Sun.

Not that much bigger than our planet Jupiter, which is still huge though.

They are also very dim.

It's impossible to see them with the naked eye.

You've never seen one in the night sky.

Even with all our technology, we can only clearly observe red dwarfs in our neighborhood.

Approximately 20 of the 30 stars close to Earth are red dwarfs.

Like all stars, red dwarfs fuse hydrogen into helium.

But while more massive stars accumulate all the fuse helium in their cores, red dwarfs stay convective, meaning that the helium and hydrogen constantly mix.

So they use up their fuel incredibly slowly before they're extinguished.

Red dwarfs burn so slowly that their average lifespan is between 1 and 10 trillion years.

By comparison, the Sun will survive for another 5 billion years.

Because the universe is only 13.75 billion years old, not a single red dwarf has reached later development stages.

Every single one of the trillions that exist is still a baby.

Speaking of babies, the smallest star in the entire universe is also a red dwarf, because small red dwarfs are right on the verge of being a star at all,

just a tiny bit less hydrogen, and they are mere brown dwarfs, failed stars that cannot sustain a fusion reaction for long.

So what about aliens, or a new home for humanity?

Since our sun will die one day, we'll eventually need to look for a new home.

And where there are habitable planets, there might also be aliens.

The Kepler Space Observatory found

that at least half of all red dwarfs host rock planets between half and four times the mass of our Earth.

Many of them are in the habitable zone, the area around a star where water can be liquid.

But since red dwarfs burn at relatively cold temperatures, a planet would need to be really close to be hospitable, probably as close as Mercury to our Sun, or even closer.

Which brings with it all kinds of problems.

For example, a planet this close to a star would probably be tidally locked, meaning the same side would always face it.

This side would be incredibly hot, while the shadow side would be frozen, which makes it hard for life to develop.

Although a planet with a big enough ocean might be able to distribute the star's energy and create some kind of stability.

All the gravitational forces of the red dwarf could squeeze the planet

and heat it up so much that it might lose all its water over time.

These planets could end up like Venus, a hot, burning hell.

Another problem is that many red dwarfs vary in their energy output.

They can be covered in star spots that can dim their emitted light by up to 40% for months, which would cause oceans on planets to freeze over.

At other times they can emit powerful solar flares, sudden outbursts of energy incredibly powerful.

These red dwarfs can double their brightness in minutes, which could strip away sizeable portions of a planet's atmosphere and burn it, rendering it sterile.

On the other hand, their extremely long lifespan is a big plus.

A red dwarf with just moderate levels of activity could be an amazing place for a planet that hosts life.

Life on Earth has existed for about 4 billion years, and we have about a billion years left before the Sun becomes so hot that complex life on Earth will become impossible.

We will either die out or leave Earth and look for a new home.

We could build a civilization for potentially trillions of years around a red dwarf with the right conditions.

About 5% of the red dwarfs in the Milky Way may host habitable, roughly Earth-sized planets.

That would be more than 4 billion in total.

But life may not even need a planet like Earth.

Candidates for life around a red dwarf may be the moons of gas giants or so called super earths, really massive rocky planets.

All in all there are an estimated 60 billion potentially habitable planets around red dwarfs and that's in the Milky Way alone.

So red dwarfs might become really important for our survival in the future.

But everything has to die at some point, even red dwarfs.

When in trillions of years the life of the last red dwarf in the universe is about to end, it will not be a very spectacular event.

As its hydrogen runs out it shrinks, becoming a blue dwarf burning out completely.

After its fuel is spent, it's transformed into a white dwarf, an object about as small as Earth,

packed very densely and made of degenerate gases, mostly of helium-4 nuclei.

no more source of energy, it will cool extremely slowly over trillions of years until it becomes its final form, a cold, black dwarf.

White and black dwarfs are so fascinating that they deserve their own video.

Anyway, it's going to be a long time before the last stars in the universe vanish.

It's kind of uplifting to know that if humanity succeeds in venturing into space, we have plenty of time before the universe turns out the lights.

Our videos are made thanks to your support on Patreon.com.

If you want to help us make more of them, we really appreciate your support.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這節 C1 級別的口語課以影片“The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained”為素材。影片中反覆出現的詞有：dwarf, planet, star, Earth, universe。這段影片共有 61 個句子、976 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 5:45。說話人語速自然，每分鐘約 170 個詞，接近日常對話。 82% 的單詞屬於英語最常用的 3,000 詞，其餘的詞建議在練習前先學一下。

影片中的重點詞彙

影片中最難的 15 個單詞，附發音和釋義：

單詞	發音	釋義
helium 名詞	/ˈhiː.li.əm/	氦, 氜
hydrogen 名詞	/ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/	氫 /氫
emit 動詞	/iˈmɪt/	排放, 散發 /散發
lifespan 名詞	/ˈlaɪf.spæn/	壽命 /壽命
fuse 名詞	/fjuːz/	導火線 /導火線, 導火索 /導火索
accumulate 動詞	/əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/	積累 /積累
degenerate 形容詞	/dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/	惡化 /惡化, 墮落 /墮落
extinguish 動詞	/ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/	熄滅 /熄滅, 撲滅 /撲滅
fascinate 動詞	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	誘惑 /誘惑, 迷住
hospitable 形容詞	/hɑsˈpɪtəbl̩/	好客
sterile 形容詞	/ˈstɛɹəl/	不孕的, 貧瘠的 /貧瘠的
vanish 動詞	/ˈvænɪʃ/	消失
brightness 名詞	/ˈbɹaɪtnəs/	明亮
nucleus 名詞	/ˈnuː.kli.əs/	核心, 核
verge 名詞	/vɜːd͡ʒ/	權杖 /權杖

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	釋義
end up 動詞	到達
turn out 動詞	原來 /原來

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	would be frozen · can be covered · is spent
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	You've never seen · has reached · has existed
定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物	Jupiter, which is · frozen, which makes

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 3 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 they're, we'll, you've。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“sh” 和 “zh” 音: extinguish /ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, fusion /ˈfjuː.ʒən/
長單詞——注意重音位置: habitable /ˈhæbɪtəbəl/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, degenerate /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, uninhabitable /ˌʌnɪnˈhæbɪtəbəl/

中文母語者容易讀錯的音：

/v/ — 不要讀成 /w/，上齒輕觸下唇: convective /kənˈvɛk.tɪv/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, verge /vɜːd͡ʒ/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: emit /iˈmɪt/, fuse /fjuːz/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, convective /kənˈvɛk.tɪv/, degenerate /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的區別: gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, sterile /ˈstɛɹəl/

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 helium, hydrogen, emit 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: The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained - 通過影片學習英語口語

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