跟读练习: The history of chocolate - Deanna Pucciarelli - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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The The The The If you can't imagine life without chocolate,
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The The The The If you can't imagine life without chocolate,
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you're lucky you weren't born before the 16th century.
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Until then, chocolate only existed in Mesoamerica,
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in a form quite different from what we know.
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As far back as 1900 BCE,
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the people of that region had learned to prepare the beans of the native cacao tree.
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The earliest records tell us the beans were ground and mixed with cornmeal and chili peppers to create a drink,
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not a relaxing cup of hot cocoa,
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but a bitter, invigorating concoction frothing with foam.
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And if you thought we make a big deal about chocolate today,
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the Mesoamericans had us beat.
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They believed that cacao was a heavenly food gifted to humans by a feathered serpent god,
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to the Maya as Cuculcan,
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and to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl.
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Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and drank chocolate at royal feasts,
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gave it to soldiers as a reward for success in battle,
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and used it in rituals.
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The first transatlantic chocolate encounter occurred in 1519,
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when Hernán Cortés visited the court of Montezuma at Tenochtitlan.
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As recorded by Cortés' lieutenant,
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the king had 50 jugs of the drink brought out and poured into golden cups.
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When the colonists returned with shipments of the strange new bean,
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missionaries' salacious accounts of native customs gave it a reputation as an aphrodisiac.
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At first, its bitter taste made it suitable as a medicine for ailments, like upset stomachs.
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But sweetening it with honey,
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sugar, or vanilla quickly made chocolate a popular delicacy in the Spanish court.
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And soon, no aristocratic home was complete without dedicated chocolateware.
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The fashionable drink was difficult and time-consuming to produce on a large scale.
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That involved using plantations and imported slave labor in the Caribbean and on islands off the coast of Africa.
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The world of chocolate would change forever in 1828 with the introduction of the cocoa press by Konrad van Houten of Amsterdam.
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Van Houten's invention could separate the cocoa's natural fat, or cocoa butter.
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This left a powder that could be mixed into a drinkable solution
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or recombined with the cocoa butter to create the solid chocolate we know today.
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Not long after, a Swiss chocolatier named Daniel Peter powdered milk to the mix,
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thus inventing milk chocolate.
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By the 20th century, chocolate was no longer an elite luxury,
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but had become a treat for the public.
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Meeting the massive demand required more cultivation of cocoa,
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which can only grow near the equator.
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Now, instead of African slaves being shipped to South American cocoa plantations,
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cocoa production itself would shift to West Africa,
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with Côte d'Ivoire providing two-fifths of the world's cocoa as of 2015.
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Yet, along with the growth of the industry,
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there have been horrific abuses of human rights.
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Many of the plantations throughout West Africa,
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which supply Western companies, use slave and child labor,
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with an estimation of more than two million children affected.
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This is a complex problem
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that persists despite efforts from major chocolate companies to partner with African nations to reduce child and indentured labor practices.
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Today, chocolate has established itself in the rituals of our modern culture.
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Due to its colonial association with native cultures,
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combined with the power of advertising,
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chocolate retains an aura of something sensual, decadent, and forbidden.
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Yet knowing more about its fascinating and often cruel history,
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as well as its production today,
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tells us where these associations originate and what they hide.
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So as you unwrap your next bar of chocolate,
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take a moment to consider that not everything about chocolate is sweet.
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关于本课
本课程围绕视频“巧克力的历史”展开，学习者将深入了解巧克力的起源和发展过程。课程将帮助学生掌握与“巧克力”相关的词汇主题，包括历史、文化和经济背景，同时重点练习过去时态语法的使用。借助口语场景，学习者可以有效提高其英语口语能力，特别是在雅思口语考试中更自然地表达对文化与历史话题的看法。
重要词汇和短语
- Cacao tree（可可树）：一种原产于中美洲和南美洲的树，其种子（可可豆）用于制作巧克力。
- Aphrodisiac（春药）：一种被认为能够激发性欲的食物或药物，巧克力曾被赋予这种特性。
- Cocoa press（可可压榨机）：一种可以将可可脂与可可粉分开的机械设备，改变了巧克力的生产方法。
- Plantation（种植园）：大面积的农场，尤其是用于大规模种植某种作物的地方，在巧克力生产中尤为重要。
- Child labor（童工）：未成年人被强迫工作，巧克力产业中面临的一个严重问题。
本视频练习技巧
在练习时，建议学习者采用适中的语速进行跟读，尤其是当涉及到历史背景的部分。注意掌握不同的口音，尤其是美国和英国英语之间的微妙差异，这将有助于提升你的发音和语调。同时，视频中的文化和社会问题内容较为复杂，建议在学习时可以多重复几遍，耐心消化每一个细节，以便在对话中自信地讨论相关话题。这些技巧将帮助你更流利地表达观点，提高英语流利度，并在雅思口语考试中表现得更加从容不迫。
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。