跟读练习: Proof of evolution that you can find on your body - 通过视频学习英语口语

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Your body is a temple, but it's also a museum of natural history.

Look closely and you'll see parts that aren't there because you need them, but because your animal ancestors did.

No longer serving their previous function, but not costly enough to have disappeared,

these remnants of our deep history only make sense within the framework of evolution by natural selection selection.

With your arm on a flat surface, push your thumb against your pinky and tip your hand slightly up.

If you see a raised band in the middle of your wrist, you've got a vestigial muscle in your forearm.

That tendon you see connects to the palmaris longus, a muscle that around 10-15% of people are missing on one or both of their arms.

It doesn't make them any weaker though.

There's no difference in grip strength.

In fact, it's one of the first tendons that surgeons will take out

so that they can use it in reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries.

You can find the palmaris longus across mammal species, but it's most developed among those that use their forelimbs to move around.

In primates, that means the muscle is longer in lemurs and monkeys and shorter in chimps, gorillas, and other apes that don't do a lot of scrambling through trees.

It's not the only leftover muscle that we've got.

Look at the three that are attached to our outer ear.

We can't get much movement out of these muscles, especially compared to some of our mammal relatives who use them to locate the sources of sounds.

Presumably this would have been quite helpful for early nocturnal mammals.

In humans, you can still detect the remnants of this adaptation with electrodes.

In one study, researchers recorded a spike of activity in the ear muscle cells in response to a sudden sound.

Not enough to move the ear, but detectable.

And you can probably guess the location of the sound based on these results.

came from a speaker placed to the left of the study subjects.

So this is their left ear subconsciously trying and failing to pivot toward the sound.

You can see another futile effort by our vestigial body parts when you get goosebumps.

When we're cold, tiny muscles attached to our body hairs contract, pulling the hair upright which causes the surrounding skin to form a bump.

For our furry mammal relatives, the raised hair increases the amount of space for insulation, helping them stay warm.

Birds can do this too, you've probably seen a puffy pigeon on a cold day.

Adrenaline is one of the hormones involved in the body's response to cold temperatures, and it's also part of the fight-or-flight response.

So it helps some animals appear larger when they're threatened.

And it may be why surprising and emotional turns in music can give some people goosebumps.

And then there's our tail.

At the end of our spine are a set of fused vertebrae.

Some people have three, some people have five.

We call it the tailbone.

It now serves as an anchor for some pelvic muscles, but it's also what's left of our ancestors' tails.

Every one of us actually had a tail at one point, when the basic body plan is being laid out at around four weeks of gestation.

Human embryos closely resemble embryos of other vertebrates, and that includes a tail with 10 to 12 developing vertebrae.

In many other animals, it continues to develop into a proper tail, but in humans and other apes, the cells in the tail are programmed to die a few weeks after they appear.

Very rarely though, a mutation allows the ancestral blueprint to prevail, and a human baby will be born with a true vestigial tail.

The most adorable vestigial behavior is the palmar grasp reflex,

where infants up until they're about six months old have this incredible grasp on whatever you put in their hand.

There's a similar reflex for their feet.

I wanted to show you this great piece of footage from the 1930s where they demonstrated this behavior.

These babies are only one month old and you can see that their inner monkey can support their entire weight.

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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“Proof of evolution that you can find on your body”为素材。视频中反复出现的词有：muscle, tail, mammal, vestigial, ear。这段视频共有 44 个句子、699 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 3:50。说话人语速较快，每分钟约 182 个词，会出现较多连读和弱读。只有 78% 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
mammal 名词	/ˈmæməl/	哺乳類 /哺乳类, 哺乳動物 /哺乳动物
vestigial 形容词	/vɛˈstɪd͡ʒɪəl/	退化殘餘 /退化残余
ancestor 名词	/ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/	祖先
embryo 名词	/ˈɛmbɹi.oʊ/	胎, 胚胎
longus 名词	/ˈlɔŋ.ɡəs/	長肌 /长肌
reflex 名词	/ˈɹiːflɛks/	反射
tendon 名词	/ˈtɛn.dən/	肌腱, 腱
vertebra 名词	/ˈvɝ.təb.ɹə/	椎骨, 脊椎
attach 动词	/əˈtæt͡ʃ/	附上, 附
grasp 动词	/ɡɹæsp/	把握, 握
monkey 名词	/ˈmʌŋki/	猴子, 猴兒 /猴儿
ancestral 形容词	/ænˈsɛs.təɹ.əl/	祖先的, 祖傳的 /祖传的
blueprint 名词	/ˈbluːˌpɹɪnt/	藍圖 /蓝图
electrode 名词	/əˈlɛk.tɹəʊd/	電極 /电极
forearm 名词	/ˈfɔːˌɹɑːm/	前臂, 下臂

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	释义
take out 动词	取出

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 11 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 they're, you've, aren't。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“th” 音: threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: gestation /d͡ʒɛsˈteɪʃən/, mutation /mjuˈteɪʃən/, insulation /ˌɪnsəˈleɪʃən/, adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/
长单词——注意重音位置: ancestral /ænˈsɛs.təɹ.əl/, detectable /dɪˈtɛktəbəɫ/, adrenaline /əˈdɹɛnəlɪn/, insulation /ˌɪnsəˈleɪʃən/, adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/

中文母语者容易读错的音：

/v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: vestigial /vɛˈstɪd͡ʒɪəl/, vertebra /ˈvɝ.təb.ɹə/, pelvic /ˈpɛlvɪk/, vertebrate /ˈvɛɹ.tɪ.bɹeɪt/, prevail /pɹɪˈveɪl/
词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: longus /ˈlɔŋ.ɡəs/, reflex /ˈɹiːflɛks/, remnant /ˈɹɛmnənt/, attach /əˈtæt͡ʃ/, grasp /ɡɹæsp/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: reflex /ˈɹiːflɛks/, ancestral /ænˈsɛs.təɹ.əl/, blueprint /ˈbluːˌpɹɪnt/, electrode /əˈlɛk.tɹəʊd/, scramble /ˈskɹæmbl̩/

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 mammal, vestigial, ancestor 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: Proof of evolution that you can find on your body - 通过视频学习英语口语

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