跟读练习: The Best Journaling Habits for Your Brain, Backed by Neuroscience - 通过视频学习英语口语
选择练习模式
每种模式都会打开全屏练习室。
122 句
如果句子过短或过长,请点击 Edit 进行调整。
1
If you pick up a pen and spend about 10 minutes writing about what's stressing you out,
2
this simple act can change how your brain handles stress.
3
And we have brain scans that can prove it.
4
The thing is that after 40 years of research, scientists still don't fully know why something so simple works so well.
5
People who journal visit the doctor less, and even students who journal get better grades, and in interesting places too,
6
like faster healing, better sleep, and even stronger immune responses.
7
And again, this is people with no changes in diet or exercise, the only difference is what they wrote down.
8
So how can writing with just a pen and paper make such a difference?
9
Here's what this video is about.
10
Why journaling works, the four ways that writing affects your brain and the science behind each one.
11
We'll look at real studies with really interesting findings and some common myths.
12
By the end, you'll have a page you can fill out tonight and know exactly why it works.
13
Let's start with the simplest thing, words.
14
Researchers at UCLA ran a study in 2007.
15
They showed people photographs of angry and frightened faces while they scanned their brains.
16
So one group just looked at the faces, the other group had to pick a word for the emotion that they saw,
17
things like angry or afraid.
18
That was the entire task.
19
But amazingly, they found that just picking a word calmed the amygdala, the threat detection system of the brain, and at the same time,
20
it increased activity in an area behind your forehead called the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which helps you control your reactions.
21
Researchers call this affect labeling.
22
Simply put, you feel something, you name it, and the feeling loses its grip.
23
Which is interesting because we tend to assume that naming a hard feeling or thinking about it might make it louder,
24
but actually putting it into words turns the volume down.
25
And we've known this before we had brain scans.
26
It's just a philosophy of looking inward, reflecting, and identifying how you feel.
27
So that's the first mechanism at play, naming, because journaling is essentially affect labeling stretched out across a page.
28
But the second mechanism behind journaling explains a problem we all face.
29
Now here's the thing, your brain doesn't like leaving things unfinished.
30
You might keep thinking of a text you didn't answer, a bill that you forgot to pay, or maybe something you wish you'd said last week.
31
Things like this stay in the background, repeating in your mind, and taking up attention.
32
And there's a study on this from 2011 with a quite fitting title,
33
Consider it Done, where researchers gave people a list of unfinished tasks, and those tasks started to distract them,
34
even affecting their performance on unrelated reading tests.
35
Then the researchers asked them to write down a plan, when, where, and how they would do each task.
36
And the mental noise stopped.
37
Just writing the plan made people feel as if the job was already finished.
38
Again, you're not solving the problem.
39
You're just moving it out of your mind so you don't have to keep thinking about it.
40
Psychologists call this cognitive offloading, anemic space for you to think.
41
But there's one important detail.
42
Making a vague plan doesn't help.
43
The effect only worked when people truly intended to follow through
44
and they tracked with whether they actually did the task later on.
45
So your brain knows the difference between a real plan and a fake one.
46
And this little trick pays off.
47
One of my favorite examples comes from a sleep lab at Baylor.
48
They split people into two groups.
49
One group spent five minutes before bed writing tomorrow's to -do list, while the other group only wrote down what they already did
50
that day the to -do list group fell asleep faster
51
and the longer and more detailed their lists the quicker they actually fell asleep.
52
Now the next mechanism behind journaling is a little bit different because it changes the way you write about yourself.
53
Remember when LeBron James went on TV to announce he was leaving Cleveland
54
and he kept saying he wanted to do what was best for LeBron James?
55
You can view it as arrogance, but I think he stumbled onto a technique our brain loves.
56
That is, addressing yourself by your name and not I.
57
Ethan Cross, a psychologist at Michigan, tested this across seven experiments.
58
In one experiment, people had to give a speech with almost no time to prepare, which was intended to stimulate high stress.
59
The ones that coached themselves by name walked in calmer and performed better, and also spent less time beating themselves up afterward,
60
and the brain responds fast.
61
In a 2017 study, as soon as people switched to using their own name, the brain stress signal dropped within the first second.
62
So just by seeing ourselves or addressing ourselves from a more distant perspective, we get a larger buffer room.
63
And there's an old truth here.
64
We're amazing at solving other people's problems, but often we're stuck with our own.
65
If a friend calls you about relationship problems, you can see the answer right away.
66
But when it's your own problem, you often can't see where you're stuck.
67
Psychologists call this Solomon's Paradox, named after the wise king who offered legendary wisdom even as his own house fell apart.
68
Now, bring it home to journaling.
69
In one study, people wrote about their day in the third person, by name, every day for a month.
70
Not, I felt or I did this, but he walked in and felt.
71
And by the end, they reasoned more wisely about hard situations than a group that was writing in the first person.
72
And this is great because it addresses a common concern about journaling, that is that writing about your feelings can turn into rumination,
73
where you keep replaying everything that's going wrong.
74
But scientists have found the difference.
75
Asking why do I feel this way from inside keeps the feeling stuck.
76
But asking from outside of yourself actually leads to insight.
77
We don't remember our lives as a list of facts.
78
We remember them as stories.
79
And the story you tell yourself matters way more than you might think.
80
Dan McAdams, a psychologist at Northwestern, has spent his career on this.
81
And his research shows that when people tell their story as something good turning into bad, bad, they tend to do worse.
82
People who tell it the other way, as bad turning to good, or as failure that taught them something,
83
or a low point that led somewhere else, they tend to be happier and healthier.
84
Now, it's a correlation and it's partly shaped by your culture and upbringing, but the pattern is there and it's enough to take seriously.
85
So in journaling, how we write about what happens to us is equally important.
86
A team of researchers reviewed the writing of 177 people from earlier studies.
87
The people who go healthier weren't the ones to express the most emotion, but those whose words changed over time.
88
What's interesting is they started using more words like realize, understand, because, and reason.
89
They stopped describing what happened to them and began making sense of it.
90
Worth noting, the clearest gains showed up in physical health more than mood.
91
And those because words also appear when people write in the third person, so it all connects.
92
So that's four mechanisms, naming, offloading, distancing, and story.
93
And you can do all of them before bed with just five minutes.
94
Here's one template you can follow tonight.
95
First of all, write a few lines on what happened today.
96
and write it like a scene, not a summary.
97
You don't have to write your entire day, just focus on one event.
98
Number two, write one feeling and your best guess at why it's there.
99
Three, just five things to handle tomorrow, specific enough that you can actually picture.
100
And the final thing to write is one thing that you're grateful for, just one small thing that went right.
101
Naming will cover the feeling, offloading covers tomorrow's to -do list, and the scene and the reasons are where distance and story can come in.
102
You don't need anything else, just a pen and paper or a computer if you want.
103
And one last thing, because it's one of my favorites, the most influential journal in history was never meant to be read.
104
Marcus Aurelius wrote his journal during wars and plagues, leaving private notes to himself.
105
about how to stay steady and act more righteously.
106
He never titled it or planned to publish it.
107
But now centuries later, we call it meditations.
108
And people to this day still read it to feel less alone.
109
He was doing exactly what we've been talking about, using a page to think more clearly and steady himself.
110
And for me personally, I've kept a journal for years.
111
And the science is only one part of the reason.
112
The rest is that I love that I can open it up and revisit a version of myself I might have forgotten.
113
The highs and the lows kept somewhere outside of my memory here.
114
For me, that alone is reason enough to do it.
115
You don't have to journal every single day or do it perfectly.
116
Most of the benefit comes from showing up and when you can simply pay attention, naming what you notice and stepping back to reflect.
117
So tonight, just give it 5 -10 minutes.
118
Your brain and body might not thank you right away, but months from now, your future self almost certainly will.
119
Also, let me know if you want more videos like this one about the benefits of journaling, writing, and how to do it.
120
There's so much research and I'm happy to cover it if you want.
121
And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next videos.
122
Thank you.
同频道
FOR YOU
推荐视频
本课的词汇与口语要点
这节口语课以视频“The Best Journaling Habits for Your Brain, Backed by Neuroscience”为素材。 视频中反复出现的词有:brain, write, writing, journaling, word。 这段视频共有 122 个句子、1668 个单词可供跟读。 讲话部分时长为 11:29。 说话人语速平稳,每分钟约 145 个词,很适合跟读。 86% 的单词属于英语最常用的 3,000 词,其余的词建议在练习前先学一下。
视频中的重点词汇
视频中 15 个值得学习的单词,附发音和释义:
| 单词 | 发音 | 释义 |
|---|---|---|
| researcher 名词 | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | 研究員 /研究员, 研究者 |
| mechanism 名词 | /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/ | 機械 /机械, 機構 /机构 |
| psychologist 名词 | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | 心理學家 /心理学家 |
| label 名词 | /ˈleɪ.bəl/ | 標籤 /标签, 簽條 /签条 |
| solve 动词 | /sɒlv/ | 解決 /解决 |
| reflect 动词 | /ɹɪˈflɛkt/ | 反映, 反射 |
| experiment 名词 | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | 實驗 /实验 |
| asleep 形容词 | /əˈsliːp/ | 睡著的, 睡着的 |
| steady 形容词 | /ˈstɪdi/ | 穩定 /稳定 |
| scientist 名词 | /ˈsaɪəntəst/ | 科學家 /科学家 |
| emotion 名词 | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | 感情, 情感 |
| intend 动词 | /ɪnˈtɛnd/ | 打算, 想要 |
| trick 名词 | /ˈtɹɪk/ | 詭計 /诡计, 騙術 /骗术 |
| technique 名词 | /tɛkˈniːk/ | 技術 /技术, 技巧 |
| mood 名词 | /muːd/ | 心情, 情緒 /情绪 |
视频中出现的短语动词
| 单词 | 发音 | 释义 |
|---|---|---|
| write down 动词 | 寫下來 /写下来, 寫下 /写下 | |
| fill out 动词 | /fɪl ˈaʊt/ | 填, 填寫 /填写 |
| pick up 动词 | 拾取, 撿 /捡 | |
| show up 动词 | 露面 |
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 |
|---|---|
| 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 | we've known · have found · has spent |
| 定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物 | People who journal · prepare, which was · People who tell |
| 被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么,而不是谁做的 | was intended · was never meant |
需要注意的发音
说话人用了 25 次缩略和弱读形式,例如 don't, you're, doesn't。请按听到的简短形式来说。
- “sh” 和 “zh” 音: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, unfinished /ʌnˈfɪnɪʃt/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/
- 长单词——注意重音位置: mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/
中文母语者容易读错的音:
- /v/ — 不要读成 /w/,上齿轻触下唇: solve /sɒlv/, cognitive /ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/, vague /veɪɡ/, revisit /ɹiːˈvɪzɪt/
- 词尾辅音 — 要读清楚,后面不要加元音: psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, distress /dɪˈstɹɛs/, solve /sɒlv/, reflect /ɹɪˈflɛkt/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/
- /r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: reflect /ɹɪˈflɛkt/, grateful /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/, partly /ˈpɑɹtli/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, correlation /ˌkɔɹ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/
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。
- 用正常速度逐句跟读,每句重复到你的节奏与说话人一致为止。
- 录下自己的声音并与原声对比,特别注意 researcher, mechanism, psychologist 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。














