跟读练习: The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained - 通过视频学习英语口语

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One day the last star will die and the universe will turn dark forever.

It will probably be a red dwarf, a tiny kind of star that's also one of our best bets to find alien life

and might be the last home of humanity before the universe becomes uninhabitable.

So what do we know about them and why are they our last hope?

At least 70% of stars in the universe are red dwarfs.

They are the tiniest stars out there, with only about 7-50% of the mass of our Sun.

Not that much bigger than our planet Jupiter, which is still huge though.

They are also very dim.

It's impossible to see them with the naked eye.

You've never seen one in the night sky.

Even with all our technology, we can only clearly observe red dwarfs in our neighborhood.

Approximately 20 of the 30 stars close to Earth are red dwarfs.

Like all stars, red dwarfs fuse hydrogen into helium.

But while more massive stars accumulate all the fuse helium in their cores, red dwarfs stay convective, meaning that the helium and hydrogen constantly mix.

So they use up their fuel incredibly slowly before they're extinguished.

Red dwarfs burn so slowly that their average lifespan is between 1 and 10 trillion years.

By comparison, the Sun will survive for another 5 billion years.

Because the universe is only 13.75 billion years old, not a single red dwarf has reached later development stages.

Every single one of the trillions that exist is still a baby.

Speaking of babies, the smallest star in the entire universe is also a red dwarf, because small red dwarfs are right on the verge of being a star at all,

just a tiny bit less hydrogen, and they are mere brown dwarfs, failed stars that cannot sustain a fusion reaction for long.

So what about aliens, or a new home for humanity?

Since our sun will die one day, we'll eventually need to look for a new home.

And where there are habitable planets, there might also be aliens.

The Kepler Space Observatory found

that at least half of all red dwarfs host rock planets between half and four times the mass of our Earth.

Many of them are in the habitable zone, the area around a star where water can be liquid.

But since red dwarfs burn at relatively cold temperatures, a planet would need to be really close to be hospitable, probably as close as Mercury to our Sun, or even closer.

Which brings with it all kinds of problems.

For example, a planet this close to a star would probably be tidally locked, meaning the same side would always face it.

This side would be incredibly hot, while the shadow side would be frozen, which makes it hard for life to develop.

Although a planet with a big enough ocean might be able to distribute the star's energy and create some kind of stability.

All the gravitational forces of the red dwarf could squeeze the planet

and heat it up so much that it might lose all its water over time.

These planets could end up like Venus, a hot, burning hell.

Another problem is that many red dwarfs vary in their energy output.

They can be covered in star spots that can dim their emitted light by up to 40% for months, which would cause oceans on planets to freeze over.

At other times they can emit powerful solar flares, sudden outbursts of energy incredibly powerful.

These red dwarfs can double their brightness in minutes, which could strip away sizeable portions of a planet's atmosphere and burn it, rendering it sterile.

On the other hand, their extremely long lifespan is a big plus.

A red dwarf with just moderate levels of activity could be an amazing place for a planet that hosts life.

Life on Earth has existed for about 4 billion years, and we have about a billion years left before the Sun becomes so hot that complex life on Earth will become impossible.

We will either die out or leave Earth and look for a new home.

We could build a civilization for potentially trillions of years around a red dwarf with the right conditions.

About 5% of the red dwarfs in the Milky Way may host habitable, roughly Earth-sized planets.

That would be more than 4 billion in total.

But life may not even need a planet like Earth.

Candidates for life around a red dwarf may be the moons of gas giants or so called super earths, really massive rocky planets.

All in all there are an estimated 60 billion potentially habitable planets around red dwarfs and that's in the Milky Way alone.

So red dwarfs might become really important for our survival in the future.

But everything has to die at some point, even red dwarfs.

When in trillions of years the life of the last red dwarf in the universe is about to end, it will not be a very spectacular event.

As its hydrogen runs out it shrinks, becoming a blue dwarf burning out completely.

After its fuel is spent, it's transformed into a white dwarf, an object about as small as Earth,

packed very densely and made of degenerate gases, mostly of helium-4 nuclei.

no more source of energy, it will cool extremely slowly over trillions of years until it becomes its final form, a cold, black dwarf.

White and black dwarfs are so fascinating that they deserve their own video.

Anyway, it's going to be a long time before the last stars in the universe vanish.

It's kind of uplifting to know that if humanity succeeds in venturing into space, we have plenty of time before the universe turns out the lights.

Our videos are made thanks to your support on Patreon.com.

If you want to help us make more of them, we really appreciate your support.

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本课的词汇与口语要点

这节 C1 级别的口语课以视频“The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained”为素材。视频中反复出现的词有：dwarf, planet, star, Earth, universe。这段视频共有 61 个句子、976 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 5:45。说话人语速自然，每分钟约 170 个词，接近日常对话。 82% 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

视频中最难的 15 个单词，附发音和释义：

单词	发音	释义
helium 名词	/ˈhiː.li.əm/	氦, 氜
hydrogen 名词	/ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/	氫 /氢
emit 动词	/iˈmɪt/	排放, 散發 /散发
lifespan 名词	/ˈlaɪf.spæn/	壽命 /寿命
fuse 名词	/fjuːz/	導火線 /导火线, 導火索 /导火索
accumulate 动词	/əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/	積累 /积累
degenerate 形容词	/dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/	惡化 /恶化, 墮落 /堕落
extinguish 动词	/ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/	熄滅 /熄灭, 撲滅 /扑灭
fascinate 动词	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	誘惑 /诱惑, 迷住
hospitable 形容词	/hɑsˈpɪtəbl̩/	好客
sterile 形容词	/ˈstɛɹəl/	不孕的, 貧瘠的 /贫瘠的
vanish 动词	/ˈvænɪʃ/	消失
brightness 名词	/ˈbɹaɪtnəs/	明亮
nucleus 名词	/ˈnuː.kli.əs/	核心, 核
verge 名词	/vɜːd͡ʒ/	權杖 /权杖

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	释义
end up 动词	到达
turn out 动词	原來 /原来

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	would be frozen · can be covered · is spent
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	You've never seen · has reached · has existed
定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物	Jupiter, which is · frozen, which makes

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 3 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 they're, we'll, you've。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“sh” 和 “zh” 音: extinguish /ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, fusion /ˈfjuː.ʒən/
长单词——注意重音位置: habitable /ˈhæbɪtəbəl/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, degenerate /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, uninhabitable /ˌʌnɪnˈhæbɪtəbəl/

中文母语者容易读错的音：

/v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: convective /kənˈvɛk.tɪv/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, verge /vɜːd͡ʒ/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: emit /iˈmɪt/, fuse /fjuːz/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, convective /kənˈvɛk.tɪv/, degenerate /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, sterile /ˈstɛɹəl/

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 helium, hydrogen, emit 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: The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained - 通过视频学习英语口语

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