跟读练习: How This Pen Changed The World - 通过视频学习英语口语
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This is the Bic Crystal, possibly the most successful product ever made.
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No matter where you are in the world, you'll find this pen in homes, offices, schools, and pretty much everywhere else.
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This iconic design has reached every corner of the earth, and at some point in your life, you've almost certainly used this pen.
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Since its release in 1950, more than 100 billion of these pens have been sold worldwide, blowing the next best-selling products out of the water.
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Amazingly, the design has remained basically unchanged for over 70 years.
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And it still continues to dominate the world, with 14 million being sold every day.
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The impact this pen had on the world was monumental.
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Pen prices dropped and literacy rates shot up.
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But what made this pen so successful?
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We modeled every last detail to show you the incredible story behind this pen
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and how its clever use of physics made it the most perfect design.
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But to really understand how revolutionary this pen was, we need to go back in time.
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In the past, pens were expensive and difficult to use.
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Traditional quills were messy and had to be constantly dipped in ink.
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Because of this, writing was seen as more of an art form, limited to those who could use a pen.
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Then the fountain pen was invented, which had a metallic nib and could store the ink inside the pen's reservoir.
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Although this was an improvement, the nib was scratchy and couldn't control the flow of ink.
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On top of this, they were still super expensive, costing around $150 in today's money.
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At the time, only around 20% of the world could read and write, and this wasn't making it any easier.
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But at the end of the 19th century, a breakthrough was made.
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American inventor John Loud came up with a mechanism
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that fed the ink onto the page using a small ball instead of a thin nib.
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This would in theory spread the ink more evenly and stop it from blotching.
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He had just invented the ballpoint pen.
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While this design worked well on tougher surfaces, it was too rough on paper, and so his pen never sold.
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Decades went by, and many new designs were made, but none of them could master the ballpoint pen.
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If the ball was too tight in its socket, the ink would clog up and it wouldn't reach the paper.
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If it was too loose, the ink would leak out and smear all over the page.
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Getting this right was extremely difficult, since the tiny ball was difficult to make with any kind of accuracy.
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Then came Laszlo Biro, a man with a name you might recognize.
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He realized that the solution was in the ink.
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Most pens at the time used thin, water-based ink, which was leaky, slow-drying, and would seep through the fibers of the paper.
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It also relied on gravity to feed the ink into the ball, which, depending on the angle of the pen, gave really poor results.
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He started experimenting with oil-based inks, which were thicker, dried almost instantly, and sat on top of the paper instead of seeping through.
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This turned out to be a stroke of genius, and it unlocked a unique physical effect that caused the ink to be mysteriously pulled onto the ball,
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without gravity or any external forces.
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This is called capillary action, and it's what allows water to climb tree roots and nutrients to flow around our body.
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We can see this effect in action by placing a thin tube into some water and watching it climb.
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But what's happening here?
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The attraction between the liquid and the walls of the tube is stronger than the attraction that binds the liquid particles together.
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And so the particles at the top get pulled up by the side of the tube, until the weight of the water eventually cancels out the force.
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In Biro's pen, this effect was happening upside down.
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The ink was being pulled through the ultra-thin walls of the tip and onto the ball, ensuring that it was constantly covered in ink.
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Biro quickly patented his design and sent it over to the patent office using AnyDesk.
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Just kidding, AnyDesk weren't around then.
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But they are around now.
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Anydesk, today's sponsor, is a remote access service that allows you to control your device from anywhere in the world.
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All of the animations in this video were made on a MacBook but rendered on a PC.
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With Anydesk, I can send the Blender files to my PC and hit Render no matter where I am in the world.
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Anydesk is also an easy way to send
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and receive files directly from other computers without needing to upload them to the cloud.
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Even with poor internet, AnyDesk is lightning fast.
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It has its own special codec
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that transfers the video of your computer at an extremely low bitrate without a noticeable drop in quality.
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AnyDesk works on all platforms and best of all, it's free to use for personal use and they also have tailor-made plans for businesses.
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To get AnyDesk for free and support the channel, visit AnyDesk.com slash Primal Space.
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In order to master the ballpoint pen, Byro came up with a new design that would pull the ink onto the ball without gravity or moving parts,
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producing a consistent and smooth line on the page.
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Byro mastered his design and his pen became a hit in South America.
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But there was still one huge problem.
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The cheapest pen he offered cost an incredible $190 in today's money.
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And so although the design was great, he never achieved mass market success.
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At this point, literacy rates had only hit around 33%, and pens remained a luxury item.
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But just a few years later, French manufacturer Marcel Biche discovered Bayreau's pen and saw a huge opportunity.
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He bought the patents for $2 million and began designing a new
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and improved version that could be mass produced for a much cheaper price.
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With the help of state-of-the-art Swiss watchmaking machines, he developed a method for mass producing tiny stainless steel balls to within a fraction of a millimeter.
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Instead of using metal for the rest of the pen, he bought machines that could mold plastic, something that had only been around for a few years at this point.
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This was the end result.
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Although it may just look like a pen, it's hard to overstate just how perfect this design turned out to be.
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There were no moving parts, springs, or complex materials, yet every element had multiple purposes.
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Let's take a closer look.
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The pen had a hexagonal barrel, like a pencil, which stopped it from rolling off tables and made it easier to grip.
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It was made from polystyrene, which was strong, cheap, and transparent, allowing the ink level to be seen at all times.
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There was a tiny hole on the barrel, which allowed air to enter and replace ink as it left the pen.
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The ink inside the cartridge was a special recipe that maximized the capillary effect while still producing a good quality line.
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The ink flowed into the tip of the pen which contained the stainless steel ball.
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The ball was machined so accurately and could move just enough to spin and deposit ink onto the page.
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When the pen wasn't being used the ball would create a seal, stopping ink from leaking out of the bottom.
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If the pen was turned upside down the Capillary action
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and the surface tension of the ink would stop it from falling out the back of the pen.
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The lid, which also doubled as a clip, was made from polypropylene, which absorbed impacts and stopped the pen from cracking.
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The pen was so perfectly simple and solved every problem that plagued previous pens.
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Most of all, it was cheap, hitting the market in 1950 at just $2 dollars.
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It was an instant success, selling around 10,000 units daily in France during its first year.
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Marcel realized how English-speaking countries were pronouncing his name, so he dropped the H, and the BIC name was born.
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Marcel understood the importance of economies of scale, and he quickly expanded to other continents, setting up factories all over the world.
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By 1953, he was already selling 40 million pens per year, and the Bic Crystal took over the world.
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Now anyone in the world who wanted to write or draw could do so, and it was easy.
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The world had secretly been begging for this product, and it came at the perfect time.
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Over the next 50 years, 100 billion of these pens were sold, and literacy rates went from 35 to almost 90%.
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It's almost impossible to imagine life without this pen,
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and the fact that its design has remained almost exactly the same since day one shows just how perfect it was.
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And now for the Primal Space giveaway.
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The winner of the previous giveaway is Adrian.
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Congrats!
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In the next video, we'll be giving away this Primal Space designed space shuttle print, available in our store.
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All you need to do is sign up at the link below, like the video, and leave a comment saying what you think of this pen's design.
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Thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.
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本课的词汇与口语要点
这节 B2 级别的口语课以视频“How This Pen Changed The World”为素材。 视频中反复出现的词有：pen, ink, design, ball, Anydesk。 这段视频共有 99 个句子、1556 个单词可供跟读。 讲话部分时长为 9:08。 说话人语速自然，每分钟约 170 个词，接近日常对话。 只有 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| capillary 名词 | /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/ | 毛細管 /毛细管, 微血管 |
| literacy 名词 | /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/ | 認字 /认字, 識字 /识字 |
| patent 名词 | /ˈpeɪtənt/ | 專利 /专利 |
| seep 动词 | /siːp/ | 渗出 |
| invent 动词 | /ɪnˈvɛnt/ | 發明 /发明 |
| particle 名词 | /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/ | 粒子 |
| leak 名词 | /liːk/ | 漏洞 |
| attraction 名词 | /əˈtɹækʃn̩/ | 吸引力 |
| barrel 名词 | /ˈbæɹəl/ | 桶 |
| bitrate 名词 | /ˈbɪtˌɹeɪt/ | 位元率 |
| hexagonal 形容词 | /hɛkˈsæɡ.ə.nəl/ | 六方 |
| millimetre 名词 | 毫米, 公釐 /公厘 | |
| overstate 动词 | /ˌoʊ.vɚˈsteɪt/ | 誇張 /夸张, 誇大 /夸大 |
| polypropylene 名词 | 聚丙烯 | |
| polystyrene 名词 | /pɒliˈstaɪriːn/ | 聚苯乙烯 |
视频中出现的短语动词
| 单词 | 释义 |
|---|---|
| come up with 动词 | 想出, 提出 |
| fall out 动词 | 掉出來 /掉出来 |
| shoot up 动词 | 飆升 /飙升 |
| take over 动词 | 接管, 接手 |
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 | have been sold · being sold · was seen |
| 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 reached · have been sold · has remained |
| 定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物 | those who could · ink, which was · inks, which were |
需要注意的发音
说话人用了 9 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 wasn't, couldn't, I'll。请按听到的简短形式来说。
- “sh” 和 “zh” 音: attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/, shuttle /ˈʃʌtəl/, fraction /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/, revolutionary /ˌɹɛvəˈluʃənɛɹi/, animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- 长单词——注意重音位置: capillary /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/, literacy /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/, hexagonal /hɛkˈsæɡ.ə.nəl/, monumental /ˌmɑnjəˈmɛntəl/, polystyrene /pɒliˈstaɪriːn/
中文母语者容易读错的音：
- /v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: invent /ɪnˈvɛnt/, overstate /ˌoʊ.vɚˈsteɪt/, inventor /ɪnˈvɛntɚ/, evenly /ˈiːvənli/, reservoir /ˈɹɛz.ə(ɹ).vwɑɹ/
- 词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: patent /ˈpeɪtənt/, seep /siːp/, invent /ɪnˈvɛnt/, upside /ˈʌpˌsaɪd/, leak /liːk/
- /r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: capillary /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/, literacy /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/, particle /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/, barrel /ˈbæɹəl/, polystyrene /pɒliˈstaɪriːn/
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 capillary, literacy, patent 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。