跟读练习: How The CIA Hacked Russia - 通过视频学习英语口语

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October 1971.

An American spy submarine has just crossed into Soviet waters, an area completely off-limits to outsiders.

Most people on board the submarine have no idea why they're here.

But some do.

They're searching for an underwater telephone cable that connects a brand new Soviet nuclear base to its headquarters over 1,000 miles away.

Attached to the submarine is a custom-made device, designed to wrap around the cable and record every bit of information that passes through it.

For 10 years, this device secretly fed Americans with a gold mine of information, until one day it vanished.

By 1970, the US and the Soviet Union were deep into the Cold War, and the constant threat of nuclear attacks meant

that both sides were desperate for any bit of information they could get their hands on.

The US learned that a brand new nuclear submarine base had just been built in Petroplavsk, in the far east of Russia.

It seemed strategically positioned for an attack on the US, and so Americans made it their goal to start spying on the base.

But instead of sending in real spies or relying on satellite imagery, they wanted something more substantial.

Captain James Bradley, director of Undersea Warfare, was studying a map of the region when it suddenly hit him.

Since the base was in such a remote location, the Soviets needed to have some way of communicating with the headquarters back in Vladivostok.

Radio would have been too easy to hack, and so he came to the conclusion that they must have run an underwater telephone cable through the sea of Okhotsk.

If such a cable did exist, Intercepting it could give the Americans all they needed to know about the Soviets' nuclear capabilities.

It was an idea too good to turn down, and so, with the help of the CIA and the Navy, Operation Ivy Bells was officially underway.

But finding a cable hundreds of feet below a massive expanse of sea seemed like an impossible task.

Luckily, Captain Bradley once again had a plan.

He remembered back to his childhood along the Mississippi River, where signs would warn fishing boats whenever there was an underwater cable.

If the Soviet cable did exist, he was sure that there would be similar signs along the Russian coast.

After a month-long journey, the USS Halibut finally entered the Sea of Okhotsk.

The crew began slowly creeping up the coast, inspecting the shoreline through a periscope.

It took over a week of constant searching, but amazingly, they finally came across exactly what Captain Bradley had imagined.

The submarine anchored itself in place and a team of divers made the dangerous 400 feet descent to start installing the wiretap.

The device worked by induction and so when a conversation was sent through the cable,

the electric pulses would be picked up and recorded onto a tape recorder inside the device.

If the Soviets ever tried to raise the cable for maintenance, the device was designed to detach and sink to the bottom of the ocean.

After a month of recording, the submarine returned to the device, and the tapes were sent back to the US to be decoded and translated by Ronald Pelton,

an NSA analyst who was fluent in Russian.

When the team received the first transcripts, they were amazed.

The device had picked up thousands of conversations between high-ranking Soviets, openly talking about what kind of nuclear weapons they had,

their range limitations, and how ready they were to be put into use.

Thanks to the wiretap, the Americans also knew exactly when and where Soviet submarines were heading out to sea,

allowing them to quietly follow them at close range.

Every month, the USS Halibut would return to the cable to retrieve the tapes and replace the battery.

Several years went by, and the device just kept feeding the US with crucial information.

But it was all about to come to a mysterious end.

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After an entire decade of secretly spying on the Soviets, the US wiretap at the bottom of the ocean was about to go silent.

In 1981, an American surveillance satellite showed a group of Soviet ships hovering around the exact spot where the device was located.

The The US immediately sent a submarine out to try and recover the device, but it was too late.

The device was gone.

Only a handful of intelligence officers even knew the wiretap existed.

So how, after 10 years, did the Soviets suddenly pinpoint its exact location?

As it turned out, the Americans had a spy in their midst.

It all started a year earlier, when a strange phone call was made to the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

The caller claimed to have crucial information for the Soviets and wanted to arrange a meeting and exchange for cash.

At the embassy, the man met with KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko and started telling him all about Operation Ivy Bells, where the wiretap was located,

how it worked, and what the Americans had learned through the cable.

As it turned out, the mysterious man was none other than Ronald Pelton, the American analyst who translated the wiretap's messages.

His life had fallen apart.

He no longer had his job at the NSA.

His wife had left him, and he was now bankrupt with over $60,000 of debt.

And so, in a desperate attempt to make money, he decided to sell his secrets.

Pelton had just given away one of America's most top secret missions.

And it was essentially all for nothing, since the Soviets only paid him $35,000.

He was still massively in debt, and it was only a matter of time before he got caught.

Ironically, the FBI had already wiretapped the Soviet Embassy's phone lines and became instantly suspicious when they heard the call.

But Pelton never gave away his name, and so they had no idea it was him.

Over the next few years, Pelton continued to meet with KGB officers in Washington and Vienna,

supplying them with everything he knew about America's attempts to spy on the Soviets.

But it was all about to come to an end in one final twist.

KGB officer Yurchenko, who had taken Pelton's initial call, was on an assignment in Rome.

While touring around the Vatican, he mysteriously slipped away from his colleagues and headed straight for the U.S.

Embassy.

When he was there, he announced that he wanted to change sides and start working for the Americans.

was doing the exact same thing that Pelton did.

Almost immediately, he was flown to the States and put into a safe house in Virginia where the CIA began questioning him.

It wasn't clear exactly why Yurchenko had suddenly switched sides, but right away he started to give the Americans some interesting information.

Although he didn't have a name, he told them that the man who revealed the wiretapping secrets was an NSA analyst with red hair.

It wasn't much to go on, but the FBI compiled a list of red-haired analysts and listened back to the recordings of the phone call.

And, sure enough, it matched with Ronald Pelton's profile.

They tracked him down and arrested him, and almost immediately he admitted to spying for the Soviets.

Pelton was given three life sentences and ended up serving 30 years in prison until 2015,

the longest ever sentence served for espionage at the time.

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FOR YOU

本课的词汇与口语要点

这节 B2 级别的口语课以视频“How The CIA Hacked Russia”为素材。视频中反复出现的词有：Soviet, cable, device, submarine, Pelton。这段视频共有 89 个句子、1441 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 9:20。说话人语速自然，每分钟约 154 个词，接近日常对话。只有 81% 的单词属于英语最常用的 3,000 词，词汇难度较高。

视频中的重点词汇

视频中最难的 15 个单词，附发音和释义：

单词	发音	释义
submarine 名词	/sʌb.məˈɹiːn/	潛艇 /潜艇, 潛水艇 /潜水艇
wiretap 名词	/ˈwaɪɚtæp/	竊聽器 /窃听器
underwater 形容词	/ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/	水下
embassy 名词	/ˈɛmbəsi/	大使館 /大使馆
translate 动词	/tɹænzˈleɪt/	翻譯 /翻译, 譯 /译
secretly 副词	/ˈsiː.kɹɪt.li/	偷偷
mysterious 形容词	/mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/	神秘, 來源不明的 /来源不明的
compile 动词	/kəmˈpaɪl/	編撰, 彙編 /汇编
conglomerate 名词	/kənˈɡlɑ.mɚ.ət/	合併 /合并
decode 动词	/dɪˈkəʊd/	解碼 /解码
espionage 名词	/ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/	間諜活動 /间谍活动
periscope 名词	/ˈpɛɹɪskoʊp/	潛望鏡 /潜望镜
personalize 动词	/ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/	個性化 /个性化
shoreline 名词		海岸線 /海岸线, 岸線 /岸线
vanish 动词	/ˈvænɪʃ/	消失

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	释义
pick up 动词	拾取, 撿 /捡
turn out 动词	原來 /原来
check out 动词	退房
end up 动词	到达
take over 动词	接管, 接手
turn down 动词	拒絕 /拒绝, 回絕 /回绝

视频中的语法

说话人最常用的结构，并附上视频中的原话：

结构	视频中的用法
被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的	been built · was sent · would be picked
现在完成时 have/has + 过去分词 — 过去发生但与现在仍有关联的事	has just crossed · has even recognized

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 5 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 they're, wasn't, didn't。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“sh” 和 “zh” 音: espionage /ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, induction /ɪnˈdʌkʃən/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/
长单词——注意重音位置: underwater /ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/, conglomerate /kənˈɡlɑ.mɚ.ət/, espionage /ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/

中文母语者容易读错的音：

/v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, massively /ˈmæs.ɪv.li/, retrieve /ɹɪˈtɹiːv/, surveillance /sɚˈveɪ.ləns/
词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: wiretap /ˈwaɪɚtæp/, analyst /ˈænəlɪst/, translate /tɹænzˈleɪt/, locate /ˈloʊˌkeɪt/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: primal /ˈpɹaɪməl/, translate /tɹænzˈleɪt/, secretly /ˈsiː.kɹɪt.li/, ironically /aɪˈɹɑnɪkli/, credibility /kɹɛd.əˈbɪ.ɫɪ.ti/

如何用这段视频练习

先完整听一遍视频，不要开口，记下不认识的单词。
先用 0.75 倍速逐句跟读，熟练之后再回到正常速度。
录下自己的声音并与原声对比，特别注意 submarine, wiretap, underwater 这类单词。

什么是跟读法？

跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。

影子跟读法: 阅读完整分步指南 →

跟读练习: How The CIA Hacked Russia - 通过视频学习英语口语

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