跟讀練習: Thomas, a tank engine, is not Thomas the Tank Engine. - 通過影片學習英語口語

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I tried not to make too many videos about trains on this road trip, but the next stop is a story I couldn't resist.

I'm going to ride aboard a tank engine called Thomas.

And also, to my surprise, I'm going to understand why Victorian people might have found trains terrifying.

I parked up at the headquarters of the Neame Valley Railway in Huntingdonshire.

Thanks Boot.dev for sponsoring.

If you want to learn to code, there's 25% off with code TomScott, and more about them in the ad break.

Hello.

How you all?

Well, thank you, how are you doing?

Yeah, good, you?

Yeah, not so bad.

I appear to have arrived just as Thomas steamed off into the distance.

Yeah, he'll be back in about half an hour.

Incredible timing on my part, there.

That is Paul, the locomotive department manager at the Neen Valley Railway.

While I waited for Thomas to return, he showed me round some of the sidings at the railway.

An old Danish locomotive where they were heating up the boiler, ready for testing the next day.

A steam-powered crane that can lift 40 tonnes.

The workshop where they're restoring and refitting trains.

An old set of Pacer carriages on a turntable and a Polish tank engine from 1959.

I didn't know what a tank engine was until I looked it up.

It's a steam locomotive that carries its water, and usually its fuel, on board, instead of it being hooked up to a separate car called a tender.

Tank engines were more likely to be used for local services than big, long journeys.

Something being a tank engine isn't a name, it's just a fact.

Anyway, after that tour and a cup of tea, we were back on the platform, and Thomas was heading back.

The Neen Valley Railway is one of those branch lines

that was closed in the mid-20th century as the motor car came to dominate, and you can hear the consequences of that in the background, and see it most clearly from the air,

because the station is right next to the A1, one of the main routes from London to the north.

The A1 used to go over the level crossing, which is behind us, so that's what they call the Great North Road, Great Old North Road, so that was the A1 in its day.

And of course the A1 is just there where the footbridge is now.

Yeah, as I was driving in, there was a plume of smoke from under me.

Absolutely, so that would have been Thomas going through the tunnel.

So he's in there at the moment because you can see the smoke that was created when he went through.

Thomas is now pushing that smoke out.

Any moment a cheeky little face is going to appear through the smoke.

The tunnel in question is just over half a kilometre long.

And allegedly the tunnel is haunted as well.

Oh, and there's a face.

Oh, now.

There we go.

That's about— I'm going to have to do an extreme zoom on that from this camera.

But yes, that's face first through the steam.

Thomas' branch line runs from here to Yarwell through the tunnel and back.

And we do this about every month from April to September.

So this is his last day for this year on his branch line.

He loves his little branch line.

He poodles off up there through to Yarwell, to his little countryside station.

I think most people watching this will be familiar with some version of Thomas.

The character was created in 1946 by the Reverend Audrey as

part of his railway series of books about trains with minds of their own.

And while Thomas wasn't even in the first book in the series, he became the breakout star.

When the books were adapted for television in the 1980s, the show wasn't called The Railway Series, it was Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Or in some parts of the world, just Thomas and Friends.

The rights to the series, to what became a massive, globally recognised franchise, were bought and sold over the years,

and the characters have been owned by the toy company Mattel since 2012.

And this is definitely Thomas, as illustrated by Reginald Payne in 1946.

But there is no license agreement with Mattel here.

So Thomas is going to uncouple, and he's going to go out over the river bridge and then back through Platform 3, and he'll come back and join on this side here.

Can we join him for that?

Yeah, yeah, we can go down, yeah.

There were old carriages with slam doors.

No fancy electric sliding doors or central locking here, just faith that no one's going to be reckless enough to open the door while traveling.

Some kids clearly didn't want to leave the train, but turns out that was fine.

The thing is on our branch line days, you just pay for one ticket and you can travel all day.

Oh, that's nice!

Thomas's job today was just to go up and down the branch line for about a mile.

So what they're doing now, they're just uncoupling the train.

Oh, OK.

Try and sneak past here, joining all the other folks with cameras.

So when you say uncoupling, that is physically...

It's not just some little magnetic connection.

No, absolutely not, no. There is a steel coupling that goes over, which is on a threaded bar, And then what Tony's doing there,

he's just splitting the vacuum pipe, so it's vacuum braking.

Right.

So it's got a continuous brake through it all the way through.

So they're uncoupled now, so at the moment the crossing gates will open.

Oh, yeah.

And the train, the engine will go round.

I was able to put some cameras on Thomas for this bit of the run.

The crossing gates opened, you can see the signaller cranking the heavy control wheel up in the box there, and when all was safe,

the signal dropped and Thomas steamed forward as many, many people took photos.

And I'll say this, that train goes surprisingly fast.

Thomas braked at one end, and after a quick whistle, headed back the other way on the other track, again, going much faster than I would have expected.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

At which point I realized I needed to be at the other end of the platform for this.

It actually took about five minutes in total, I needn't have rushed.

Thomas changed direction again, switched tracks again, and pulled in to be coupled to the other side of the carriages.

I've been very careful with wording so far.

I have called the locomotive Thomas, and I can accurately describe it as a tank engine.

But I have not described it as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Thomas was named Thomas.

By the Reverend W.

Audrey.

Yep.

Author of the famous Thomas the Tank Engine books.

Absolutely, on the 26th of June 1971 and

that was at the British Sugar Factory in Peterborough which is now long since gone.

But the reason why Thomas was called Thomas is

because in his working day in the British Sugar Factory he was painted blue.

100

Right, simple as that.

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So when Reverend Daughey found out that the engine was blue and he looked exactly the same as Thomas, he came down and named him Thomas.

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Yep, far before there was a TV series.

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Absolutely, absolutely.

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So this is the original Thomas.

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The only one, the only one that's named.

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The Thomas character is licensed by Mattel to a lot of heritage railways around the world.

107

They'll take an engine that looks the same, paint it up, put a face on it, and sell tickets to a day out with Thomas.

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And Mattel will get a cut of that.

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Or they might use a whole dummy unit with no engine

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at all to put on the front of a diesel locomotive that's actually doing the pushing.

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Some of them even speak.

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There is a lot of money in brand licensing.

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Luckily, because we have the history and the provenance and the photographs of Reverend Audry naming him Thomas,

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we seem to be left alone at the moment, because we don't breach any of the copyrights out there, because he is the original Thomas,

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and that's why we only refer to him by his first name.

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Is that legally sound?

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Here's the thing about copyright and trademarks almost always.

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The answer is, eh, it depends has been some challenges but

119

because of the history we've got and the proven history we've got

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and the documentation we seem to be okay just by having him as Thomas.

121

Also it would be such a terrible publicity job for the company to come back.

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Well it is and is

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that we you know we haven't had a challenge for some time now

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but we do also get positive out of being challenged.

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People support us that way and it's good oh leave them alone they're a charity and things like that so So, it also highlights our Thomas as well,

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because it puts Thomas into the news, you know.

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If some other railway set up their own Thomas day, you can bet that Mattel's lawyers would come down on them like a ton of bricks or a ton of coal.

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But the Neen Valley Railway has a very fair argument

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that the author himself gave the name to Thomas years before there was any trademark of it.

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And if Mattel did argue, there would be so much bad publicity that it just wouldn't be worth it.

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Anyway, Thomas had been recoupled, and it was time for me to take a ride.

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Which end up being a lot more scary than I expected it to be, because now I understand why trains used to be terrifying.

133

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135

I've enjoyed playing around with their lessons over the last few days, and playing is the right word, because, look, I haven't played video games in years,

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and when I did, they weren't RPGs.

137

But Boot.dev is an RPG, a role-playing game, and if you understand that format, you will definitely understand them.

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There are quests and XP and levelling up, and an item shop where you can spend gems on armour and potions, and also baked salmon for Boots,

139

the magical wizard bear companion that helps coach you, and which is the only AI in the system.

140

They credit their human artists.

141

But I did ask the team at Boot.dev, isn't AI going to do all this for us soon?

142

Why learn to code?

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Welcome back.

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It's time to get on board Thomas.

154

The first part of the trip wasn't the scary part.

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So, um, today was always going to be a little bit chaotic, I didn't quite know what was happening,

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but I just got invited to run round when we changed and we've gone there, so I'm gonna get on board Thomas.

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And specifically, just Thomas.

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Full stop.

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I didn't explain what was about to happen very well, did I?

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Thomas was going for a run down the branch line about a mile, where he'd have to change ends again for the trip back.

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And I'd been invited to be in the cab, on the footplate, for that change of ends.

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I wasn't going to turn that down.

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But for the first bit, I had to be a regular passenger.

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Away we go.

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Now, I've deliberately sat just up in a quiet corner, or at least as quiet as I can reasonably make it.

166

because a lot of families on this train come for a ride on Tops.

167

I don't really want to get kids in the background, the shot if I could avoid it.

168

While we're setting off, let me give you a quick tour of Thomas.

169

It's on the inside.

170

I kept my camera to the quieter parts of the train, but there was a choice of seating, from the more modern facing seats with tables through to a buffet car with a full bar.

171

Side note, you generally don't need a license to sell booze in England if you're on a journey on a train, or plane, or hovercraft.

172

And in the carriage after that, if you preferred some privacy as a passenger, there were old-school compartments.

173

Caution, do not lean out the window.

174

It's very, very good advice because the clearance is very small.

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Now, I have checked with the team here.

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This little bit of camera work is fine.

177

It's a very small camera.

178

But you don't stick your head out of windows on trains.

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Right.

180

Into the tunnels.

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The tunnel was obviously pitch black, and Thomas's first pass through filled it with steam and smoke.

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That will be important shortly.

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But after a minute or two, we were out the other side, and arriving into Yarwell Station.

184

I quickly got out and joined the folks in the cab.

185

Because, of course, Thomas is not a magical, sentient train.

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He did not drive off.

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It did not drive off by itself.

188

In the cab were Andy, Tom, and Tony, and they were actually driving the thing.

189

We're going to run round to get onto the front of Thomas again and go back into one space.

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Right.

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You might as well come on for that as well.

192

Oh blimey, alright, thank you very much, folks.

193

Right.

194

Don't trip over the coal and go flying, Tom, that would be a bad idea.

195

So, more coal needed.

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Well, if you took in, there's holes in the fire, where we've gone through.

197

Oh, right.

198

You plug all the boats.

199

Oh, so you're not just shovelling coal in your Amy.

200

Oh, gotcha.

201

If I just threw it on willy-nilly, it'd be all completely uneven and you wouldn't get complete combustion.

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Right.

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So there's a lot of visitors and art form to it.

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Tom undid the handbrake.

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Tony, who was out checking the track switch, waved his handkerchief, and Andy set us off for the turnaround.

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If it was Doug, he'd have a green torch.

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Right.

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We stopped before the buffer, Tony switched the points, and away we went past the carriages.

209

Is that some rain coming down?

210

Is that just...

211

No, that's steam condensing, isn't it?

212

Yeah, well, sometimes the water's a little bit too high, and carry on over and it fits on out.

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Right.

214

I'm all right.

215

We stopped at the other side, and this time Tom changed the points.

216

It was a well-practised routine, this.

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They knew what they were doing.

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Get them out of your way.

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There we go, start on board, stick together.

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Thank you, Walter.

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This is...

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I was coming here to film a nice little light thing about a train with a history.

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Did not expect to be on the footplate!

224

Thomas arrived back in the station, Tony got to work coupling it up, and I was making ready to go back to the carriages behind,

225

but the folks in the cab asked me if I wanted to stay on the footplate for the full journey back, and of course I did, I just didn't expect it to be scary.

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That's sucking air in, isn't it?

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You can see it!

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So I've got the blower on, which is essentially creating a vacuum in the smoke box, controlling air through the boiling tubes, so it's pulling air across the fire.

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All right.

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And bike off.

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It's a lot of heavy physical work to drive a steam train.

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They'd start getting everything ready at about 5am, and it'd be a 12-hour shift.

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Paul, earlier, had told me that every shovelful of coal that Tom puts into the boiler, that costs about three pounds, maybe five US dollars.

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Steam trains are not cheap to run.

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You've really got to enjoy doing this, don't you?

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I've really got to buy trains to want to do this.

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And off we went, Thomas belching out steam and smoke.

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Driving a steam train is not like pushing an accelerator and off you go.

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They do sort of have an accelerator, the big red bar is called a regulator, and that's kind of like a throttle.

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But managing the power that the throttle has needs some planning.

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So if you start holding the fire, or something like that, or a very thin fire, after a while that pressure will start coming down.

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Right.

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Because it's not making enough steam.

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It's not a direct thing of chuck more coal in, more power.

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Chuck Will Collins, wait for the fire to build up, manage 10 to fire, and then you might have it.

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You have to do everything ten minutes in advance of what you want it to happen.

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Right.

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So like a diesel, put your button and off you go.

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Yeah.

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It's a living, breathing machine.

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And after a couple of minutes, we were headed into the tunnel.

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And all of a sudden...

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WHOOOOOO!

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That team's got nowhere to go.

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Yeah.

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Thomas had already filled that tunnel with steam and smoke on the way out.

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A lot of it was still in there, and while I was prepared for that in theory, the actual reality, it was almost pitch black.

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No light at the end of the tunnel because the smoke was in the way.

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The only light was coming from the screen on my camera and the faint glow of the fire, occasional burning embers sparking out.

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All the noise from the engine was being reflected back off the walls towards us, so suddenly it was dark and smoky and intensely loud, and the train was still accelerating, so the noise was getting louder and faster,

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and what seemed like small movements out in the light suddenly felt like big pitching

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and rocking motions that could send me off the footlight to be crushed under the wheels.

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I found myself holding on for my life.

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I wasn't in any actual danger, provided I kept my grip, but to be suddenly in that environment.

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And then there was the light at the end of the tunnel.

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And the good thing about not having a license from a toy company is that I can give you a PG-rated reaction, even if it is still very British.

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Bloody hell!

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We slowed down and started to brake for the station.

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And you'll know how rattled I was, because you're about to see the only time I flinched at that loud whistle.

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I can now see why when steam trains first came along, folks were terrified of them.

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Pig splashed, loud, rattly, screaming.

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That was a tiny tunnel at 25 mile an hour.

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That was 25?

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Imagine being in those tunnels going down the London on East Coast Main Line.

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Woo!

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That's so, so much different to being back there with a bit of light on.

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Yeah, tumbling along.

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Woo!

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You're like Hank Raikers on!

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No, no, no, no!

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Come on, man.

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Absolute pleasure.

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Tom, thank you so, so much.

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Bloody hell.

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Next time, or right now, on Nebula, I try to learn the squop and the penhaligon, and realize that a childhood game was far more complicated than I thought.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這段影片共有 285 個句子、3421 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 17:53。說話人語速較快，每分鐘約 191 個詞，會出現較多連讀和弱讀。 83% 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 15 個值得學習的單詞，附發音和釋義：

單詞	發音	釋義
tunnel 名詞	/ˈtʌn(ə)l/	隧道, 地下道
railway 名詞	/ˈɹeɪlˌweɪ/	鐵路 /鐵路, 鐵道 /鐵道
boot 名詞	/but/	靴子, 長靴 /長靴
locomotive 名詞	/ˌloʊkəˈmoʊtɪv/	機車 /機車, 火車頭 /火車頭
scary 形容詞	/ˈskɛə.ɹi/	恐怖
vacuum 名詞	/ˈvæ.kjuːm/	真空
gate 名詞	/ˈɡeɪ̯t/	門口 /門口, 門 /門
passenger 名詞	/ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒɚ/	乘客, 旅客
copyright 名詞	/ˈkɑpiˌɹaɪt/	版權 /版權
diesel 名詞	/ˈdisəl/	柴油
publicity 名詞	/pʌbˈlɪsɪti/	宣傳 /宣傳
brake 名詞	/bɹeɪk/	剎車 /剎車, 制動器 /制動器
wizard 名詞	/ˈwɪzɚd/	巫師 /巫師, 覡 /覡
whistle 名詞	/ˈwɪs(ə)l/	哨子, 口哨
boiler 名詞	/ˈbɔɪlɚ/	鍋爐 /鍋爐

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	釋義
come down 動詞	下來 /下來, 降
come back 動詞	回來 /回來, 返回
go down 動詞	下降, 下去
go through 動詞	通過 /通過
come along 動詞	陪伴, 陪同
end up 動詞	到達
find out 動詞	找出, 查明
go up 動詞	上昇 /上升, 上去

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
條件句 if + 從句，will/would + 動詞 — 條件及其結果	if Mattel did argue, there would be · if you understand that format, you will definitely
“used to” used to + 動詞 — 過去的習慣或狀態，現在已不再如此	used to go · used to be
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 been owned · have rushed · I've been
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	being hooked · was closed · was created

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 71 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, you're, didn't。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“th” 音: thin /ˈθɪn/, breathe /bɹiːð/, throttle /ˈθɹɔ.tl̩/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: rush /ɹʌʃ/, shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/
長單詞——注意重音位置: locomotive /ˌloʊkəˈmoʊtɪv/, publicity /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, continuous /kənˈtɪn.juː.əs/

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 tunnel, railway, boot 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: Thomas, a tank engine, is not Thomas the Tank Engine. - 通過影片學習英語口語

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

影片中的重點詞彙

影片中出現的短語動詞

影片中的語法

需要注意的發音

如何用這段影片練習

什麼是跟讀法？