跟讀練習: Why Are Things Creepy? - 通過影片學習英語口語

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Hey, Vsauce. Michael here.

Fear gives us life. Being afraid of the right things kept our ancestors alive. It makes sense to be afraid of poisonous insects or hungry tigers, but what about fear when there is no clear and obvious danger?

For instance, a Teddy Bear with a full set of human teeth...or a smile.jpg.

There's something a little off about these images. Too much mystery, and strange-ness, but no obvious threat, the way there is with a gun or falling rock. But, yet, they still insight fear, because they are creepy.

But why? What gives us the creeps? What causes something to be creepy?

We are now in my bedroom, the bedroom I grew up in, in Kansas. Like a lot of children my age, I was terrified of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." But the very first book that ever scared me was "The Curse of the Squirrel." To this day, I still haven't finished the book...but that's just me.

Psychologist James Geer developed the "Fear Survey Schedule II," which he used to find out what scared us the most. Combined with the results of a more recent Gallup poll, these are the things that scare most of us, the most. All of these things are scary, but are they creepy? Let's get more specific.

I love the way Stephen King delineates three types of scary stuff. The first is the "gross-out".

This is something disgusting, morbid, diseased. The second is "horror". Horror, to King, is the unnatural: a giant spider, or being grabbed in the dark when you thought you were alone.

The third, "terror," is different, creepier. He says terror is coming home to find that everything that you own has been replaced with an exact copy. Terror is feeling something behind you. It's breath on your neck. Knowing that you will be grabbed, but then turning around to find that there was never anything there in the first place. Not a lot of research has been done on that feeling, the creeps. But many theories and ideas involve vagueness, ambiguity. For instance, masks, and why clowns are creepy.

Claude Levi-Strauss wrote that the facial disguise temporarily eliminates from social intercourse the part of the body, which reveals personal feelings and attitudes. Part of the reason even a neutral or happy mask can be creepy may have to do with ambiguity. A mask hides the true emotions and intentions of the person underneath. I don't know if the person wearing that mask is a threat or not.

Vagueness is creepy when it comes to the human form. This is the famous Uncanny Valley.

On a chart of humanness, there's a zone where something can be almost entirely human, but off by just a little. Not so wrong that it's clearly fake or funny, or so good that it's indistinguishable. Instead, it's just troubling.

The creepiness of the Uncanny Valley is wonderfully demonstrated by John Bergeron's Singing Androids.

Watch these videos when you're alone.

A similar, uneasy feeling comes from ShayeSaintJohn, a character created by Eric Fournier. Funny to some, nightmare fuel to others.

Uncanny humanoids, like all creepy things, straddle a line between two regions that we can understand and explain with language. Francis T. McAndrew and Sara Koehnke describe being "creeped out" as an adaptive human response to the ambiguity of threats from others.

Creepy things are kind of a threat maybe, but they're also kind of not. So, our brains don't know what to do. Some parts respond with fear, while other parts don't, and they don't know why. So, instead of achieving a typical fear response, horror, we simply feel uneasy, terror, creeped out. Between the mountains of safety and danger, there is a valley of creepiness, where the limits of our knowledge and trust and security aren't very clear.

Will looking at this cause you to die one week later? Impossible, right? Maybe that's the terror of ambiguity.

We don't do well with ambiguity. When it involves our own intentions, it can make us lie. And when it involves danger, but no recognizable threat, it can make us think and feel some pretty weird things. Have you ever peered over a ledge, a railing, way high up, like, so high up it made you nervous and dizzy and felt something pushing you? Maybe even an urge to jump? Have you ever stood on the ledge with a loved one and realize that you could push them? It would be that easy. You really could do it, and maybe you do want to do it, or maybe it's just cognitive dissonance. The fact that your brain is having to deal with ambiguity.

A recent study by Jennifer Hames at Florida State University dubbed this the High Place Phenomenon. When approaching a ledge and a dangerous drop, your survival instinct kicks in and you pull yourself away. But, your balance and motor systems don't get it. Nothing is pushing you and you don't normally fall or leap randomly. So, what's going on? The part of your brain that processes intention might resolve this by determining that something must be pushing you. Or, that you might actually want to jump or push your friend, even if none of that is true.

Now, we're not done with ambiguity yet because our language reflects the gray area of terror and creepiness. Take a look at the word "terror" itself. We have "horrible" and "horrific." "Terrible" and "terrific." Why is that? Well, through history, we never really figured out what to call powerful experiences, because they're both. They are full of awe...awesome.

And, they are full of aw...awful. We need them to survive. We need fears and the creeps, to understand our size, our weaknesses. But, on the other hand, avoiding them is pretty great too...The creeps is a physical reminder that the world is vague and full of ambiguity, but that we are cunning, always trying to figure things out but, nonetheless, fragile.

Is that terrible or terrific? Well, it's both. Which, as a creepy ghost would say, is kind of boo-tiful.

And as always, thanks for watching.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這段影片共有 25 個句子、1034 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 8:27。說話人語速平穩，每分鐘約 122 個詞，很適合跟讀。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 個不太常見的單詞，附發音和釋義：

creepy /ˈkɹipi/ (形容詞) — 詭異 /詭異, 嚇人 /嚇人. Moving by creeping along.
terror /ˈtɛɹɚ/ (名詞) — 詭異的事物 /詭異的事物, 恐怖. Intense dread, fright, or fear.
mask /mæsk/ (名詞) — 面具, 面罩. A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection.
horror /ˈhɒɹ.ə/ (名詞) — 恐懼 /恐懼恐怖, 驚悚 /驚悚. An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
scary /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ (形容詞) — 恐怖. Causing fear or anxiety
scare /skɛɚ/ (動詞) — 嚇唬 /嚇唬, 使害怕. To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
bedroom /ˈbɛdˌɹum/ (名詞) — 臥室 /臥室, 寢室 /寢室. A room in a house, apartment, hotel, or other dwelling where a bed is kept for sleeping.
chart /t͡ʃɑɹt/ (名詞) — 圖表 /圖表. A map illustrating the geography of a specific phenomenon.
awful /ˈɔːfʊl/ (形容詞) — 壞 /壞, 糟糕. Very bad.
gray /ɡɹeɪ/ (形容詞) — 灰色. Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.
gross /ɡɹoʊs/ (形容詞) — 粗, 總. remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.
hungry /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ (形容詞) — 飢餓 /飢餓, 餓 /餓. Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
mystery /ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/ (名詞) — 謎 /謎, 謎團 /謎團. Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown.
horrible /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ (形容詞) — 可怕的, 可畏. Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
reveal /ɹɪˈviːl/ (動詞) — 透露, 顯示 /顯示. To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden.

影片中出現的短語動詞

look at (動詞) — 觀察 /觀察, 看. To observe or watch.
bear with (動詞) — 忍耐, 包容. To be patient with.
come from (動詞) — 來自 /來自. To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
figure out (動詞) — 弄清楚. To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
find out (動詞) — 找出, 查明. To discover, as by asking or investigating.

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 13 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, they're, aren't。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“th” 音: breathe /bɹiːð/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, nonetheless /ˌnʌnðəˈlɛs/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: intentions /ɪnˈtɛnʃənz/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, facial /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/, indistinguishable [ˌɪn.dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪ.ʃə.bl̩]
長單詞——注意重音位置: eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/, temporarily /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, ambiguity /æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/, delineate /dɪˈlɪniːeɪt/

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。
用正常速度逐句跟讀，每句重複到你的節奏與說話人一致為止。
錄下自己的聲音並與原聲對比，特別注意 creepy, terror, mask 這類單詞。

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	haven't finished · has been replaced
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	being grabbed · has been replaced

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: Why Are Things Creepy? - 通過影片學習英語口語

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