跟讀練習: Why Don't Our Bones Keep Growing Forever? - 通過影片學習英語口語
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Fish, amphibians, and reptiles –actually, almost all vertebrates– get bigger throughout their lives; they generally keep on growing until they die.
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Then, there are humans, who, by the age of 20 or so, just stop getting bigger… or at least taller.
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Why do we stop growing partway through life?
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Hi, I'm Cameron, and this is MinuteEarth.
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We can think about the question of why humans stop growing –like a lot of other questions about the world around us– in two ways.
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Like, on an individual level, what actually stops our bones from getting longer at some critical moment?
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But then also, on a grander scale, why do humans stop growing at a certain point, while other animals don’t?
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Let's start with the first one.
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Many bones have special layers of cells on each end known as "growth plates"; these cells are constantly dividing and turning into brand-new bone.
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That's what makes both you and, say, an alligator grow.
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And for the alligator, that growth continues throughout its life.
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But in humans, once puberty is complete, our bodies release hormones that harden our growth plates permanently, turning them into "no-more-growth" plates.
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Occasionally, some medical problem –like a hormone imbalance– will block this normal process from happening; that’s how the tallest people that have ever lived, like nine-foot-tall Robert Wadlow, reach their towering heights.
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But, assuming things work as they should, the hardening of your growth plates means you can’t get any taller.
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Now, here's where –if you're thinking what I'm thinking– you're contemplating that bigger question of why this whole growth-stopping process happens at all in us humans.
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And it has to do with the fact that humans –along with other mammals, and birds– are energy-hungry critters.
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Our fast metabolisms allow us to run –or swim or fly– long distances, but they require a lot of energy to sustain, even when we’re at rest.
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And burning all that energy produces a lot of heat.
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And if you recall, as an animal grows, its volume, and therefore the amount of heat it produces, increases much faster than its surface area does – surface that's needed to vent that heat outward.
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Getting too big would burn us up, so it makes sense that there’s a biological process that limits our growth.
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But other vertebrates –like alligators– have much slower metabolisms that don’t burn much energy most of the time.
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Even as they grow bigger – and their relative surface area decreases – they’re generally able to vent the limited amount of heat their bodies produce.
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And since being big does confer a lot of benefits, they might as well keep on getting bigger throughout life.
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Bigger might be better for us humans too.
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After all, it would be nice to be able to reach the highest fruit on the tree or change lightbulbs without a ladder, or something.
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Unfortunately, we just can't take the heat.
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If there’s anything that won’t stop growing, it’s the ridiculous amount of browser tabs I have open at any one time.
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But that’s alright because I use Tab for a Cause, a simple browser extension that lets users raise money for charity for free just by opening browser tabs.
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Right now, Tab For a Cause is working with The Humane League to help end animal cruelty in factory farms.
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Simply download Tab for a Cause at the link in the description, and every tab you open will raise money that will go toward improving the lives of animals.
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為什麼人類的骨頭不會一直生長？邊看影片邊練口語！
你有沒有想過，為什麼魚和鱷魚能一輩子長大，而人類到20歲左右就停止長高了？這個影片裡的講解不僅有趣，還超適合用來做英語口語練習！看YouTube學英語的好處就是能邊學知識邊練表達，今天咱們就跟著這段內容，一起提升英語發音和流暢度。
實用表達積累：這些短語要記牢
- “growth plates” 生長板（注意“plates”在這裡不是“盤子”，而是“板塊”）
- “hormone imbalance” 激素失衡（醫學相關表達，發音要連貫）
- “vent the heat” 散熱（“vent”的意思是“排出”，很生動）
- “confer benefits” 帶來好處（比“bring benefits”更高階）
這些短語在日常對話或科普討論中很常用，記住它們能讓你的英語表達更豐富。
Shadowing挑戰：現在就開口練！
想要練好“shadow speak”，關鍵是模仿語氣和節奏。開啟影片，找到“為什麼人類停止生長”的那段講解（大約從“我們可以從兩個角度思考這個問題”開始），先聽一遍，注意說話人的重音和停頓。然後按下暫停，跟著錄音逐句重複，儘量做到發音、語速都和原音一致。這個方法比單純背單詞有效多了，堅持一週就能明顯感覺口語更流利。如果覺得自己跟不上，可以用慢速播放功能，慢慢提升。
現在很多shadowing site都能提供類似的練習，不過直接用YouTube影片也是個好辦法。畢竟，看YouTube學英語的核心就是“學以致用”，把聽到的內容變成自己能說出來的句子。趕緊開啟影片，開始你的shadowing練習吧！
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。