跟读练习: The real reason dodo birds went extinct - Leon Claessens - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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Dodos are commonly considered brainless, blundering birds that were poorly adapted and doomed to die off, making their human-mediated extinction effortless and inevitable.
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Dodos are commonly considered brainless, blundering birds that were poorly adapted and doomed to die off, making their human-mediated extinction effortless and inevitable.
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But that's not the case.
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So, what were dodos actually like? And what really caused their downfall?
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Let's start at their origin.
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Okay, rewinding more than 20 million years, some tropical pigeons from Southeast Asia voyaged across the Indian Ocean, perhaps by gradually journeying from island to island.
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Eventually, their descendants came to a remote archipelago east of Madagascar.
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Those that settled likely diversified over time.
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Then, about 8 million years ago, an underwater volcano formed another island on the chain, which would come to be known as Mauritius.
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Some of the birds populated this new island, too, and down the line, dodos emerged as a distinct species.
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They shared Mauritius with bats, lizards, giant tortoises, and other birds.
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The closest large predators were held back by about 800 kilometers of ocean, so getting murdered was basically a non-issue.
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Without the need for defensive adaptations, like flight, expending energy on them would have been wasteful.
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So, as with the kākāpōs of New Zealand and the cormorants of the Galápagos, their flight muscles shrank.
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Dodos probably nested on the island's forest floor, feasting on fruits and seeds.
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Reaching just under a meter tall, they were among the island's largest animals.
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And they were well-adapted to their environment, which could fluctuate between extreme dry and wet conditions.
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They also survived some major disruptions.
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Around 4,300 years ago, a megadrought caused waves of mass mortality events on Mauritius.
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Fresh water grew scarce and lakes likely grew saltier and became treacherous traps.
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This lasted for around 150 years.
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However, dodos prevailed... until a few millennia later, when everything changed— quickly.
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In 1598, Dutch sailors came ashore on Mauritius, and the island soon became a welcome stopover for their trade ships.
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The sailors described natural wonders, including large numbers of birds twice as big as swans and tortoises with shells huge enough to fit 10 men.
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Mauritian animals hadn't evolved to fear being hunted by humans, so they were an easy catch.
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Sailors ate some dodos, but this alone didn't cause their doom.
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The Dutch sailors came with company.
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They brought macaques that were probably pets.
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They released goats and pigs on the island to establish food sources.
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And at some point, sailors also inadvertently introduced rats.
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It's thought that goats and pigs grazed and rooted through the forest understory, which dodos lived in; pigs, macaques, and rats preyed on dodo eggs and chicks; and all of them competed with dodos for resources.
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Dodos were last seen less than a century after Dutch arrival.
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At the time, people didn't recognize that species could disappear.
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It wasn't until a century later, in the 1790s, that a scientist conclusively demonstrated the concept of extinction.
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By then, many thought dodos were fake.
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But discoveries from digs and sparse remains helped confirm their existence.
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Nevertheless, representations of dodos were misleading.
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One popular natural history text of the late 1700s characterized them as stupid, voracious, and grotesque.
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Once Lewis Carroll included a dodo in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865, the birds quickly amassed popularity.
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But dodos continued being framed as inept, clumsy, lazy, and unfit for survival in scholarly works, satirical magazines, and children's poems alike.
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And yet, there's no evidence that dodos were less intelligent than their relatives.
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The dodo's brain size relative to its body was similar to that of other pigeons.
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And especially rotund dodo depictions are misleading.
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They may have been inspired by what dodos looked like during mating displays or in captivity— or they were just poor artistic renderings.
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Scientists think dodos were fairly muscular birds.
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All in all, the dodo was, in fact, a survivor that withstood major natural disasters and thrived on its island home.
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It simply wasn't prepared for a sudden onslaught of invasive species.
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And neither were other endemic Mauritian animals, including raven parrots, fruit bats, and giant tortoises.
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In the aftermath, perhaps it was easier to declare the dodo's extinction the result of its personal failing than to admit it was a human one.
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背景与上下文
在视频中，生物学家Leon Claessens深入探讨了渡渡鸟的灭绝原因，揭示了人们对这些鸟类的误解。传统上，渡渡鸟被视为无脑且适应不良的生物，导致它们的灭绝几乎是不可避免的。然而，Claessens通过详细的研究和分析，指出渡渡鸟在其栖息地内的生存能力，并强调了外部因素，尤其是人类活动，对其灭绝的关键影响。这段对话不仅向我们介绍了渡渡鸟的历史背景，还引导我们反思人类与自然之间的复杂关系。
日常交流的五个关键短语
- 在马达加斯加的遥远群岛：此短语帮助我们理解地理背景，开阔交流的话题。
- 它们没有进化出恐惧（人类）：用此短语表达与自然生物的互动，适用于讨论生物适应性。
- 渡渡鸟的生存能力：探讨适应能力及生物多样性，启发关于生存和灭绝的思考。
- 人类活动的影响：能够帮助在交流中引入环境保护的话题，引发深入讨论。
- 它们并不笨：可以用来打破对某些生物种类的偏见，适合在辩论中使用。
逐步跟读指南
想要通过这段视频有效提高英语发音和口语能力？以下是一些具体的步骤：
- 观赏视频：首先完整观看视频，了解内容的大意及背景。
- 分段重听：将视频分成若干段落，反复听每一个短句，确保自己能听懂每个细节。
- 模仿发音：采用shadowspeak方法，选择与视频中说话者语调、语速相同的段落进行跟读，模仿其发音和语调。
- 录音对比：将自己的发音录下来，与原视频中的发音进行对比，找出差距，进行改正。
- 反复练习：多次重复上面的步骤，每次集中提高某一个短语的发音，逐渐提升整体口语能力。
通过看YouTube学英语，结合上述的方法，将有助于你在学习中更好地掌握发音技巧，最终实现提高英语发音的目标。
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。