跟读练习: The science behind the myth: Homer's "Odyssey" - Matt Kaplan - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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Homer's "Odyssey", one of the oldest works of Western literature, recounts the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus during his ten-year journey home from the Trojan War.
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Homer's "Odyssey", one of the oldest works of Western literature, recounts the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus during his ten-year journey home from the Trojan War.
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Though some parts may be based on real events, the encounters with strange monsters, terrifying giants and powerful magicians are considered to be complete fiction.
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But might there be more to these myths than meets the eye?
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Let's look at one famous episode from the poem.
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In the midst of their long voyage, Odysseus and his crew find themselves on the mysterious island of Aeaea.
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Starving and exhausted, some of the men stumble upon a palatial home where a stunning woman welcomes them inside for a sumptuous feast.
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Of course, this all turns out to be too good to be true.
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The woman, in fact, is the nefarious sorceress Circe, and as soon as the soldiers have eaten their fill at her table, she turns them all into animals with a wave of her wand.
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Fortunately, one of the men escapes, finds Odysseus and tells him of the crew's plight.
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But as Odysseus rushes to save his men, he meets the messenger god, Hermes, who advises him to first consume a magical herb.
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Odysseus follows this advice, and when he finally encounters Circe, her spells have no effect on him, allowing him to defeat her and rescue his crew.
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Naturally, this story of witchcraft and animal transformations was dismissed as nothing more than imagination for centuries.
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But in recent years, the many mentions of herbs and drugs throughout the passage have piqued the interest of scientists, leading some to suggest the myths might have been fictional expressions of real experiences.
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The earliest versions of Homer's text say that Circe mixed baneful drugs into the food such that the crew might utterly forget their native land.
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As it happens, one of the plants growing in the Mediterranean region is an innocent sounding herb known as Jimson weed, whose effects include pronounced amnesia.
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The plant is also loaded with compounds that disrupt the vital neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
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Such disruption can cause vivid hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, and general difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality, just the sorts of things which might make people believe they've been turned into animals, which also suggests that Circe was no sorceress, but in fact a chemist who knew how to use local plants to great effect.
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But Jimson weed is only half the story.
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Unlike a lot of material in the Odyssey, the text about the herb that Hermes gives to Odysseus is unusually specific.
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Called moly by the gods, it's described as being found in a forest glen, black at the root and with a flower as white as milk.
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Like the rest of the Circe episode, moly was dismissed as fictional invention for centuries.
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But in 1951, Russian pharmacologist Mikhail Mashkovsky discovered that villagers in the Ural Mountains used a plant with a milk-white flower and a black root to stave off paralysis in children suffering from polio.
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The plant, called snowdrop, turned out to contain a compound called galantamine that prevented the disruption of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, making it effective in treating not only polio but other disease, such as Alzheimer's.
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At the 12th World Congress of Neurology, Doctors Andreas Plaitakis and Roger Duvoisin first proposed that snowdrop was, in fact, the plant Hermes gave to Odysseus.
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Although there is not much direct evidence that people in Homer's day would have known about its anti-hallucinatory effects, we do have a passage from 4th century Greek writer Theophrastus stating that moly is used as an antidote against poisons.
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So, does this all mean that Odysseus, Circe, and other characters in the Odyssey were real?
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Not necessarily.
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But it does suggest that ancient stories may have more elements of truth to them than we previously thought.
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And as we learn more about the world around us, we may uncover some of the same knowledge hidden within the myths and legends of ages passed.
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背景与背景
马特·卡普兰在他的演讲中探讨了荷马的《奥德赛》。这部文学经典不仅讲述了希腊英雄奥德修斯在特洛伊战争后历经十年的回家之旅，更展示了其间的奇幻冒险。这些故事中的元素，虽然常被视为虚构，但却可能反映了古代对世界的认知与自然现象的理解。例如，故事中的女巫基尔克可能不仅是魔法师，她运用植物的知识，利用药物的力量影响周围的人。通过这样的故事，我们可以更深入地了解古代文化以及其可能的科学基础。
日常交流的五个常用短语
- “我需要帮助。” ("I need help.") - 表达需要帮助的直接方式。
- “我感到困惑。” ("I am confused.") - 表达不明白的状态。
- “能否再说一遍？” ("Could you say that again?") - 请求重复信息的礼貌表达。
- “这听起来很有趣。” ("That sounds interesting.") - 表达对话题的兴趣。
- “我想知道更多。” ("I want to know more.") - 暗示希望深入了解对方所说的内容。
逐步跟读指南
要提高英语发音及口语能力，你可以使用 shadowspeak 技术进行跟读。以下是一些步骤，帮助你更好地掌握《奥德赛》中涉及的对话：
- 选择视频片段：从马特的演讲中选择一小段，确保其不超过2分钟，便于反复练习。
- 听取原声：多次聆听该段对话，注意语音、重音和语调。
- 逐句跟读：放慢播放速度，逐句模拟发音，同时注意语气变化。
- 重复练习：多次练习，逐步提高速度，直到你能流利地跟上原声。
- 录音自检：录下自己的发音，然后与原音对比，找出需要改进的地方。
将以上步骤与 提高英语发音 的理想相结合，可以有效推升你的口语能力。同时，借助语境学习有助于你在 雅思口语练习 中表现得更自然。有效的 shadowing site 可以为你提供良好的学习资源，帮助你在语言学习的旅程中不断前进。
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。