跟讀練習: Why you want everything and do nothing - 通過影片學習英語口語

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104 句

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I want to do everything, so I do nothing.

It's a simple line that describes a feeling almost every single one of us has been through.

Desire, not the lack of it, but the crushing weight of too much.

When we were kids, the number one question that we were asked was, What do you want to be when you grow up?

I remember when I was younger, I wasn't sure how to answer this question.

On one hand, I wanted to be an astronaut, go to the moon.

Some days I wanted to be a detective, some days a writer, maybe an engineer or a movie director.

Now as I'm sitting here writing this, I've just graduated university and I'm faced with a similar question.

What is my purpose in life?

And if you're anything like me, you fear answering this, because choosing one path means letting every other version of your life die.

So maybe that's why so many of us struggle with purpose.

We think it's something that finds us, but that's a lie. And to understand why,

we must first go back to a fig tree in a

1963 novel by one of the most famous writers of all time.

Sylvia Plath.

And of course, I'm talking about her novel

The Bell Jar.

It's about a young college student named Esther Greenwood who wins a guest editor position at a magazine in New York City.

The novel partly mirrors Sylvia's own life, acting as sort of an autobiography.

There's a specific part in the book that perfectly represents what so many of us are feeling today.

In the book, the protagonist is sitting at a fig tree, starving.

Each fig on the tree represents a different life she could live.

One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another a brilliant professor,

or maybe the editor.

But she never chooses, so instead she watches as all of them begin to rot and fall.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree,

starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.

We live in a time where possibilities are endless, in a world that tells us we can be anything.

Don't ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something.

That you should strive to be as ambitious as possible.

Cause I want to be great.

But what people don't talk about is how that same ambition often paralyzes you.

For me, I'm at a strange point in my life where I'm still trying to figure things out.

I've been told I should be looking for a stable job, maybe focus on my career.

But on the other hand, I've always wanted to work for myself.

I love making these videos, so maybe I should go all in on that.

But still, I'd love to travel the world, maybe move to a different city, and start fresh.

There are endless possibilities constantly on my mind, and I don't know what to choose.

And there's actually a psychological explanation for this psychologist

Barry Schwartz found that more options don't produce more freedom, they produce more anxiety.

Because every path you don't take registers in the brain as a loss, not a trade -off.

So the more figs you can see, the more you feel like you're already losing.

So how do you actually make that choice when choosing feels like losing everything.

But before you can choose a fig, you must understand exactly what the fig tree is actually about.

Because most people read this story and assume it's just about indecision.

But the fig tree is about grief.

Mourning the lives that we'll never get to live.

And that feeling never goes away.

That's the scary part.

We think that once we choose one fig, the others begin to fall, but they'll always be there.

You'll always think about them, about the different lives you could have lived, and you'll live with that grief forever.

But not choosing at all.

That's a cost worse than grief.

Because what happened to Esther wasn't that she made the wrong choice.

She lost all the figs because she made no choice at all.

Choosing nothing It's still a choice, and it's the only one that guarantees every other fig rots.

And these figs have an expiration date.

So does the window of time where certain versions of your life are still possible.

So every time you scroll, every time you delay, every time you overthink, the figs begin to shrivel.

In an attempt to balance all your options, you'll lose all of them.

The only way through is to choose.

And sometimes that can feel like the hardest decision you'll ever make.

One of the hardest lessons to swallow is this.

You can't be everything.

But that doesn't mean you won't be as fulfilled, or that your life will be less rich.

So stop worrying about picking the right fig, because there isn't one.

There's just the one you pick, and the one you stick with.

You can build meaning into whatever life you choose.

You aren't going to make perfect choices,

but you can be present in the life you did choose. And that's what matters.

Unlike it may seem, picking one fig doesn't mean the others rot.

Sometimes they find you again.

Choosing one path doesn't automatically cut you off from the others.

The only thing that does is if you don't choose at all.

Doctors can become writers.

A traveler can start a family.

A painter can become a scientist.

Lives are rarely as sealed off as the tree makes it seem, but that's only possible if you make the first step.

And if you're struggling with that, choose what feels most alive to you right now.

And understand, it won't be perfect, but it will work out.

I often hear a lot of you asking me, how do I find purpose?

And honestly, I never really knew what the answer to that was.

But I eventually realized it was because that question was flawed in the first place.

Purpose isn't something you find.

It's something you live.

When I was in university, I thought about purpose a lot.

What type of impact do I want to have on this world.

I never knew.

And then I went on an exchange semester in France and my perspective genuinely changed.

I stopped obsessing over purpose and just started actively living my life presently.

And that's what led me to these videos, to this brand, to everything that's to come.

My life was never bound to a single fig.

There are infinite figs growing, waiting, but you have to make the first step.

You have to grab the first one before it becomes too late.

I think about Plath often.

If I could tell her one thing as she was sitting there under that fig tree, it would be this.

The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life.

They become bitter or envious because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities the worst type of life is the unlived one.

So if you've been waiting for a sign, this is it.

100

Don't choose the perfect fig.

101

Choose one.

102

Embrace it.

103

And let it open you up to an infinite amount of possibilities.

104

To a life truly lived.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這節口語課以影片“Why you want everything and do nothing”為素材。影片中反覆出現的詞有：fig, choose, tree, purpose, choosing。這段影片共有 104 個句子、1247 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 8:08。說話人語速自然，每分鐘約 153 個詞，接近日常對話。 84% 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
fig 名詞	/fɪɡ/	無花果 /無花果
grief 名詞	/ɡɹiːf/	悲苦, 感傷 /感傷
endless 形容詞	/ˈɛndlɪs/	無窮 /無窮, 不盡 /不盡
infinite 形容詞	/ˈɪnfɪnɪt/	無窮 /無窮, 無限 /無限
starve 動詞	/stɑɹv/	餓死 /餓死
stable 名詞	/ˈsteɪ.bəl/	馬廄, 馬棚 /馬棚
lesson 名詞	/ˈlɛs.ən/	課業 /課業, -課 /-課
mirror 名詞	/ˈmiɹɚ/	җинзы, 鏡 /鏡
anxiety 名詞	/æŋˈzaɪ.əti/	焦慮 /焦慮, 擔心
suffer 動詞	/ˈsʌfɚ/	受苦, 遭受
explanation 名詞	/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/	解釋 /解釋, 說明 /說明
guarantee 名詞	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	保證 /保證
rarely 副詞	/ˈɹɛəɹli/	很少, 罕有地
delay 名詞	/dɪˈleɪ̯/	遲延 /遲延, 延遲 /延遲
scary 形容詞	/ˈskɛə.ɹi/	恐怖

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	發音	釋義
go away 動詞		離開 /離開, 走
grow up 動詞		長大 /長大
make up 動詞	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	組成 /組成
work out 動詞	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	計算 /計算, 算出

值得反覆跟讀的句子

影片中簡短而完整的句子，可以直接用在日常對話裡：

What is my purpose in life?
Mourning the lives that we'll never get to live.
Purpose isn't something you find.

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	has been · I've just graduated · I've been told
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	were asked · I've been told · was flawed

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 39 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, I'm, you'll。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

“sh” 和 “zh” 音: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, expiration /ˌɛk.spɚˈeɪ̯.ʃən/
長單詞——注意重音位置: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/

中文母語者容易讀錯的音：

/v/ — 不要讀成 /w/，上齒輕觸下唇: starve /stɑɹv/, actively /ˈæktɪvli/, detective /dɪˈtɛktɪv/, strive /ˈstɹaɪv/, envious /ˈɛnviːəs/
詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: fig /fɪɡ/, grief /ɡɹiːf/, endless /ˈɛndlɪs/, infinite /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/, starve /stɑɹv/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的區別: rarely /ˈɹɛəɹli/, partly /ˈpɑɹtli/, scroll /skɹoʊl/, presently /ˈpɹɛzəntli/, paralyze /ˈpæɹəˌlaɪz/

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 fig, grief, endless 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: Why you want everything and do nothing - 通過影片學習英語口語

選擇練習模式

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