跟讀練習: Why is Russia So DAMN BIG? - 通過影片學習英語口語

選擇練習模式

每種模式都會開啟全屏練習室。

292 句

如果句子過短或過長，請點選 Edit 進行調整。

This video was sponsored by Skillshare,

which is a place where you can learn basically anything you want for less than $10 a month.

Anyway, let's get to it.

Russia.

Here we go.

Like, this page and this page.

This is Russia.

It's huge.

It doesn't even fit on one of these pages.

I ripped the page.

Let's look at Russia.

But wait, yes, this is Russia,

but Russia is also this, and this, and this.

This one country encompasses over 100 languages spread across 11 time zones.

I mean, the place is freaking huge.

Countries aren't really supposed to be this big.

So how did this happen?

How did Russia become so damn big?

Countries come in all shapes and sizes.

You have really small countries like here in Europe,

the country of Monaco is tiny.

It's literally two square kilometers,

like smaller than most cities.

Now that's obviously an outlier.

So let's look at a more average size country like Belgium.

More like 11,000 square kilometers.

Then you have even bigger countries like France with like 550,000 square kilometers.

Over here in the United States where everything is apparently bigger,

you have states that are bigger than France.

Like the state of Texas is 695,000 square kilometers.

All 48 of these continental United States are huge by European standards at least.

This whole continental United States is 8 million square kilometers.

So you have all these different sizes of countries.

The The average sort of looks like this.

And then you have the second largest country on Earth,

which is Canada, huge.

But now take a look at the size of the largest country on Earth.

Russia is huge.

It is more than double the size of the continental United States.

17 million square kilometers.

Makes up one eighth of the total habitable area on Earth and it's almost double the next biggest country on this list.

I mean, it's mind-blowing.

Russia is a part of Europe.

It also shares a beach line with Turkey,

but then you go all the way over here and it has an extensive border with China and North Korea.

Keep going and it stretches all the way up here to where you could literally swim from Russia to the United States,

assuming you can swim, you know,

like two and a half miles.

So yeah, Russia is huge.

It's giant.

But not that long ago, Russia wasn't huge.

In fact, relative to empires and their borders,

Russia was kind of a small fish.

That's the story I want to tell you.

A thousand years ago, Russia looked like this.

A loose group of Slavic peoples who were a growing

and prosperous society here in Eastern Europe but they had a pretty big weakness.

And that weakness looked like this.

These are flat grasslands, which are very easy to cross if you're an army looking to pillage land.

And that's exactly what a group of horse riding warriors did.

These guys were the Mongols.

And they basically used this path of flat grasslands to traverse across Asia and expand their empire.

40,000 of these Mongol guys on horses with bows and arrows,

eventually made it all the way here to the Slavic peoples of Russia.

Here's an image of them invading the cities and burning them down, conquering these people.

Look how scared these people look.

I mean, I would be too if 40,000 Mongols on horseback rode into my city.

Anyway, so the Mongols take over this little block of Slavic people,

and it really weakens their society.

It breaks up all the cities that were sort of collaborating with each other.

And now they're paying taxes to the Mongols,

like this empire that was from super far away,

like on the other side of the world.

But there was one city in this area that was particularly ready to fight back.

They were quietly getting more powerful.

This city was called Muskovi or Moscow eventually.

And it became the regional epicenter for trading fur,

which is a thing that was becoming all the rage in Europe.

Moscow was also learning how to use gunpowder and guns and technology from Europe.

And before long, they were able to punch back against the Mongols,

whose big-ass empire was getting really big and hard to maintain,

and it sort of starting to crack.

And Moscow was there to take advantage of this.

I mean, let's be honest,

there's only so long you can keep an empire that looks like this together.

Way too big.

I mean, this is the biggest land empire in history,

but it didn't last long,

even though they had these badass warriors on horseback.

Anyway, so yeah, Moscow started punching back.

They had fur money and they had gunpowder and they were having success pushing the Mongols out and moving east.

One thing's for sure, said Moscow,

which was soon becoming the Russian empire,

we're not gonna let anyone sneak up on us again like the Mongols did.

And everyone over here sort of chuckled in European and said,

don't you realize that the only way to keep people out is to have like mountains and water to protect you?

And the Russians were like,

oh yeah, you mean like these?

And the Europeans were like, nice.

100

So Moscow, which was just a city,

101

but is now becoming the Russian empire,

102

starts expanding towards these mountains.

103

And soon they have like a nice empire sized set of borders,

104

some mountains for protection.

105

They have an economy of fur,

106

They have technology and commerce.

107

They're getting rich.

108

Things are looking good for Russia.

109

But wait a minute.

110

Can we overlay that green layer on the map that shows the super highway of grasslands that the Mongols used to invade?

111

Yeah, that one, that one.

112

Ugh, look, there's a flaw in the plan.

113

Nice try, Russia, but you see that this natural border,

114

which is great, has a huge gap of flat grasslands that people can easily pass directly on their way to Moscow.

115

So it's the middle of the 1500s.

116

Moscow has beat back the Mongols, is expanding east.

117

They're doing their fur thing.

118

They find kind of a natural border,

119

but it doesn't really work.

120

So they're still looking for a natural border or water or something to buffer their country to the east.

121

And then this terrible guy comes into power.

122

His name was literally Ivan the Terrible.

123

And he had some pretty big ambitions for expanding Russia.

124

He's like, dude, we don't need to stop at these mountains.

125

Let's see how far we can push this thing east,

126

way past the mountains.

127

What he finds on the other side of these mountains is a very sparsely populated land of ice called Siberia.

128

There wasn't a lot of people here and the people that were there weren't super resistant to this Russian takeover.

129

The main thing that the Russians had to fight against was the cold,

130

but with cold comes furry animals who have thick coats of fur,

131

which again was incredibly valuable in European markets and that helped fuel this race to just keep going east.

132

Is it just me or are they sort of overcompensating?

133

Like, yeah, we get it.

134

You got invaded by the Mongols and you wanna make sure it doesn't happen again,

135

but settle down.

136

They just kept moving east eventually they reached the pacific ocean the edge of the world

137

but they didn't stop there they just kept going i mean listen this is

138

so far away from the original starting point of moscow

139

and it started to get to the point where the government

140

back in moscow was sort of sending out expeditions not really sure what they were doing

141

and what they were taking over

142

because they couldn't really like stay in touch with them they were just sort of of hoping for the best.

143

After one Russian dude went out on an expedition and conquered some remote city in the Far East,

144

a government official back in Moscow said,

145

nobody really knows why he did that and to what end.

146

There is however, something erotic taking place in the borders of our empire.

147

Erotic, I guess that's one way to talk about it.

148

But here's the most interesting part to me about this Russian imperialism

149

that is very different than most imperialism that I've looked into.

150

When the Russians would find a tribe or a people

151

or a culture that was very different than theirs because they were so far from home,

152

they first tried to negotiate with them and convince them to join the Russian empire.

153

If people resisted, it got very predictable imperialism very quickly,

154

but a lot of tribes didn't resist and they found it beneficial to be a part of this growing empire.

155

So this empire grew without a lot of conflict

156

and in the process enveloping a lot of cultures that sort of kept their identity,

157

their language, their culture, far, far away from Moscow.

158

Because of this, Russia today is,

159

yes, this huge land mass,

160

but perhaps a better way to look at it is this.

161

Russia today is divided into 85 territories.

162

22 of these territories are actually called republics.

163

They have their own official language,

164

their own legislature, and basically are totally independent from Russia,

165

except for in international affairs.

166

It's like 22 countries within a country,

167

all with their own unique style.

168

So yeah, while Russia is this,

169

there's also other versions of Russia,

170

and I wanna show you some of those.

171

Stop one, let's look at the Republic of Sakha.

172

It's located way in the east and it's huge.

173

3.1 million square kilometers.

174

Massive.

175

This place is in a time zone six hours ahead of Moscow.

176

The people here don't look like Putin at all.

177

Their ancestors are not from the original Moscow-Russia area.

178

And they speak their own Northern Siberian Turkic language as well.

179

The capital of this Russian Republic is way up here.

180

It's called Yakutsk.

181

It's the coldest large city on earth with an average temperature of minus eight degrees centigrade.

182

And this whole region is full of these giant holes.

183

In these holes, they're looking for diamonds.

184

25% of the world's diamonds are mined in this Republic.

185

So yeah, this is Russia.

186

Next stop down here is Dagestan,

187

which borders the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia.

188

The climate here is so different than what I think of when I think of Russia.

189

It is hot and dry,

190

and people here speak 13 different official languages besides Russian.

191

Plus, there's a bunch of unofficial languages.

192

And 83% of the people here identify as Muslim,

193

which again, like, I don't think of Muslims in Russia,

194

but this is Russia.

195

It's right next to Chechnya,

196

which is another part of Russia,

197

which is politically and culturally very much doing its own thing.

198

The people here declared independence in the 90s,

199

which caused rebel groups to militarize.

200

And then there was war and terrorist attacks and people died.

201

And Putin may

202

or may not have planned a bombing to frame Chechnyan terrorists to then go to war with them

203

so he could get approval ratings,

204

so he could take over the country and become a full return.

205

No, no, no, wait, no,

206

I'm not going down the freaking rabbit hole.

207

I'm doing one of those fun geography videos where we talk about cultural diversity

208

and and like borders and history

209

and not this stuff come on just this once can i

210

just go into a video without having to talk about the fact

211

that some people are really terrible anyway

212

so daga stan down here has all these different languages

213

and people so different than what i think about

214

when i think of russia plus i mean look at this fashion culture okay

215

so there's a republic here right on these mountains these these mountains

216

that we talked about that were sort of a good natural border,

217

but had a big hole in them, the Ural Mountains.

218

This is the Komi Republic.

219

The main thing about this Republic is it doesn't look like the sort of ice swept Moscow streets

220

that I'm used to of Russia.

221

This place is known for its natural beauty,

222

beautiful landscapes, and where the gulags were,

223

the brutal Russian prisons during the Soviet times where they would do terrible things.

224

Anyway, there's these beautiful rock formations that are super unique,

225

and people aren't supposed to climb on them because there's some legend and it's bad luck,

226

but of course foreigners show up and do stupid things,

227

and they couldn't resist, and here they are.

228

Anyway, this is Russia.

229

Okay, a couple more.

230

You have this Republic of Kalmykia.

231

You just need to look at this place and its people to know

232

that this feels very different than what you think of as Russia.

233

And yet, this is Russia.

234

Mother Russia has been sort of brutal to these people over the years,

235

trying to erase their culture.

236

But even still, they persist.

237

The last one I want to talk about is called Tuva.

238

It's down here.

239

Here's Putin visiting Tuva a while back.

240

This is another place where Russian ethnicity and language is a minority.

241

The people here are more related to the Mongols,

242

and they speak a Turkic language called Tuvan, which sounds like this.

243

So yeah, the upside here is that this is Russia,

244

but so is this, and this, and this, and this.

245

Russia got really big as they were searching for a border and for fur,

246

and they just kept expanding their empire,

247

enveloping all of the people and cultures that came with it.

248

Okay, let me just be clear about something.

249

Russia is giant.

250

This video is not 15 hours long,

251

and so I was able to give a very brief overview of the history.

252

The history is so much more mind-bendingly complicated.

253

It's like Game of Thrones on steroids.

254

Not to mention, today's Russia is also so much more diverse,

255

like a mosaic of cultures and languages,

256

that I was able to give a little overview for.

257

But I know that a lot of you watching are thinking,

258

why isn't he mentioning fill in the blank?

259

I want to hear from you.

260

What are the parts of Russia that you know about

261

that I didn't mention here that are the most interesting or the most surprising,

262

that are more different from the Russia that we sort of think of.

263

Let me know in the comments.

264

I got fascinated with Russia as we did the Navalny video a while back,

265

and I'm now becoming deeper and deeper into this place and where it came from and what it looks like today.

266

I've never visited and I want to,

267

so maybe I can't though because I did that Navalny video and they'll be angry at me if I go there.

268

Anyway, hadn't thought about that.

269

Okay, before you go, I want to tell you how you can sign up for Skillshare for free and start learning stuff.

270

Skillshare is this giant repository of tutorials,

271

video-based quality tutorials that can teach you anything from photography to business skills,

272

to cooking, to animation.

273

Like I've learned so many of my skills from watching web-based tutorials just like this,

274

including a lot of stuff on Skillshare.

275

They're really good practical courses,

276

and I'm a major believer in what they're doing.

277

I'm also a major believer that you can acquire so many skills on your own outside of a formal environment.

278

I was using Skillshare long before they came to sponsor a video on my channel because I believe in this.

279

So there's a link in my description,

280

and the first 1,000 of my subscribers to click

281

that link will get a free trial of this premium membership so that you can start learning something today.

282

It's a sweet deal, and you should totally go click the link and go take a course.

283

There's an awesome course on graphic design that teaches you the fundamentals of Illustrator,

284

which is a program we used a lot for this video.

285

A lot of people don't know that animation starts with good graphic design.

286

Learning Illustrator is a great first step in learning how to tell stories visually and to animate stuff.

287

This course is super well done and I definitely recommend it.

288

Go check out Skillshare.

289

Thank you all for being here and watching.

290

Thanks to my patrons for like being such great supporters and lots more videos to come soon.

291

So I'll see you all in the next one.

292

Bye-bye.

下載應用

流利口語所需的一切

AI 發音評分逐句打分

音標練習掌握每個音

詞彙學習建立你的詞庫

詞彙遊戲邊玩邊學

掃碼

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

同頻道

FOR YOU

為什麼通過這個影片練習說話？

通過觀看這段關於俄羅斯的影片，您可以在輕鬆的環境中練習英語口語。講者以生動的例子和豐富的細節來闡述俄羅斯的龐大，這為您提供了與實際會話相關的真實語境。通過模仿他們的表達方式和語調，您可以加深對英語句式的理解，提升自己的表達能力。此外，您將能夠練習流利講話，有助於提高您的整體語言能力和聽力理解。使用shadowing site，您可以在練習時獲得即時反饋，幫助您確認自己的發音是否正確。

語法和表達在語境中的運用

在這段影片中，講者使用了一些有趣的語法結構和表達方式，適合作為學習的重點：

比較級和最高階的使用：例如，“Russia is huge. It is more than double the size of the continental United States.” 這種比較語句幫助聽眾理解俄羅斯的大小。
時間狀語：講者提到“over 100 languages spread across 11 time zones”，這種結構有效地向聽眾傳達了俄羅斯的多樣性。
條件句的運用：句子“assuming you can swim”展示瞭如何使用條件句來限制事實，很好地豐富了語言內容。

利用這些句型進行shadow speech練習，您將能夠在真實對話中更加自信地表達自己。

常見的發音陷阱

在影片中，有一些單詞和短語可能會造成發音上的困難：

huge：這個詞發音時需要注意音調，很多學習者容易發成“huge”的長音，正確的發音應更輕快。
countries：包含多個母音的單詞可能會令發音者感到困惑，練習時可重複其發音學習。
extensive：此詞常被髮音不清，建議多聽並跟讀，確保音節的清晰。

通過在shadowspeaks中反覆練習這些發音，您能顯著提高英語發音。

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	was sponsored · was called · is divided
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	I've looked · has been · I've never visited
定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物	grasslands, which are · Moscow, which was

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 is Russia So DAMN BIG? - 通過影片學習英語口語

選擇練習模式

下載應用

同頻道

What I've been working on all year

The REAL reason China built so much

1955 vs 2025, who actually had it better?

At North Korea’s Border

What’s really happening in the ocean’s “dark zones”

The Internet Didn't Fail. It Was Taken.

Your Olive Oil is (probably) a Lie

Why This Country Was Erased From History

The Problem With Elon Musk

What’s ACTUALLY Happening in North Korea

How The US Stole The Panama Canal, Mapped

Why you’re so tired

推薦影片

Phát âm chuẩn - Anh ngữ đặc biệt: Countries Compete for Oil in the Arctic (VOA)

The Banach–Tarski Paradox

Language Review: Romanian

B2 English Listening Practice - U.S. Geography

Should America Leave NATO?

The Logistics of Living in Antarctica

Russians are terrified about their airports closing

Let's Make Earth Twice as Large!

Why The Entire Ocean Is Terrified of Sperm Whales

Why Do India And China Have So Many People?

How English Took Over the World | Otherwords

為什麼通過這個影片練習說話？

語法和表達在語境中的運用

常見的發音陷阱

影片中的語法

什麼是跟讀法？