跟读练习: What I Learned on Monkey Island - 通过视频学习英语口语

Monkey Island is, perhaps unsurprisingly, home to thousands of monkeys.

And when a major hurricane blew directly across the island, the researchers who study those monkeys thought that they were going to return to a scene of mass tragedy.

But only two monkeys died during the storm. It wasn’t until long after the skies cleared that the bodies started piling up.

Hi I’m David, and this is MinuteEarth.

Long ago, I used to study those monkeys, but I hadn’t been back to Monkey Island since Hurricane Maria tore through there in 2017.

So a few months ago, when Kate and I were invited to Puerto Rico for a conference, we took a side trip over to the island. The place looked completely different.

Most of the man-made structures were in ruins.

This exposed hilltop used to be completely covered with forest. Even the isthmus that used to connect the big isle and the small isle was completely washed away.

And despite all of this, somehow, only two monkeys died. But then, in the years following the hurricane, fifty more monkeys died than usual.

Stressed-out monkeys with weakened immune systems succumbed to diseases.

Traumatized females gave birth to babies who died soon after they were born.

And with over half the trees on the island gone, monkeys were suddenly way more exposed, leading to more heat-related illnesses and deaths.

The monkeys weren't the only primates affected by Hurricane Maria; the hurricane also pummeled mainland Puerto Rico and the humans that live there.

About 100 people are estimated to have died as a direct result of the storm.

But, as with the monkeys, lots of deaths happened later on, too.

The electrical grid got overwhelmed and hospitals lost power, causing people to die from infections.

Roads were blocked or destroyed, so others couldn’t even get to hospitals in the first place, causing them to die from things like emphysema and pneumonia.

And insulin shipments couldn’t get through, causing people to die of diabetes.

Researchers think about three thousand more people died as a result of these longer-term, indirect impacts of the storm; that's 30 times more people than died during the storm itself.

That ratio – which we can call the "aftermath number", is remarkably similar to the one for Monkey Island, which was 25.

All hurricanes have these kinds of lingering deaths – sometimes lots of them; for example, the average hurricane that makes landfall in the US has an aftermath number of more than 200.

And other disasters have aftermath deaths too.

Major floods lead to heart attacks in overworked farmers, who have to replant their soggy fields.

Earthquakes often lead to disease outbreaks by breaking sewage pipes and creating unsanitary conditions.

Scientists are still trying to figure out what it is about a particular disaster that determines its aftermath number.

Disasters like earthquakes tend to have lower aftermath numbers for the same total of deaths because more of the deaths happen during the disaster.

But the fact that aftermath deaths exist at all –and that some disasters have so many of them– means we probably need to pay just as much attention –or even more– to the lingering effects of a disaster as to the disaster itself.

And when you hear that a hurricane in the US killed, say, 5 people, you should multiply that number in your head by around 200 to understand the true death count of the hurricane.

And that brings me back to the monkeys of Monkey Island.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the monkeys started grooming one another more often than they used to – like, way more often.

For monkeys, grooming is a way of building social ties and making friends, and the researchers think that, collectively, the monkeys were grooming more as a way of lowering their stress levels – and, inadvertently, their aftermath number.

And even today, these monkeys still groom each other more than they used to.

That's the kind of aftermath we should all be aiming for.

Monkeys live in all sorts of cool places, and I’ve gotten to go all over the world studying them. Of course, that also means I’ve spent a ton of time in airports using public wifi.

Which is why I’m psyched this video was sponsored by SurfShark, my goto VPN whenever I’m travelling.

SurfShark encrypts my online data whenever I’m on a sketchy connection; even if someone is monkeying around on the connection, the only thing they’ll see is gibberish code.

Plus, the VPN lets me pretend to be anywhere in the world, which means I can access my favorite content no matter where I am.

Right now, you can secure your privacy for an extra four months by going to surfshark.com/minuteearth or use the code MINUTEEARTH.

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That’s surfshark.com/MinuteEarth. Thanks!

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本课的词汇与口语要点

这段视频共有 40 个句子、805 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 3:56。说话人语速较快，每分钟约 205 个词，会出现较多连读和弱读。只有 77% 的单词属于英语最常用的 3,000 词，词汇难度较高。

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
monkey 名词	/ˈmʌŋki/	猴子, 猴兒 /猴儿
hurricane 名词	/ˈhʌɹɪkeɪn/	颶風 /飓风
aftermath 名词	/ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/	後果 /后果, 結果 /结果
disaster 名词	/dɪˈzɑːs.təː/	災難 /灾难, 災害 /灾害
researcher 名词	/ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/	研究員 /研究员, 研究者
earthquake 名词	/ˈɝθkweɪk/	地震, 地動 /地动
expose 动词	/ɪkˈspoʊz/	揭露, 暴露
aisle 名词	/aɪ̯l/	走道, 過道 /过道
wash 动词	/wɑʃ/	洗, 洗滌 /洗涤
guarantee 名词	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	保證 /保证
illness 名词	/ˈɪl.nəs/	疾病, 病症
connect 动词	/kəˈnɛkt/	連接 /连接
ratio 名词	/ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/	比, 比例
privacy 名词	/ˈpɹaɪ.və.si/	隱私 /隐私
tear 动词	/tɛɹ/	撕, 撕破

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	发音	释义
figure out 动词		弄清楚
get through 动词	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	度過 /度过

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
“used to” used to + 动词 — 过去的习惯或状态，现在已不再如此	used to study · used to be
被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的	were invited · were born · are estimated
定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物	Island, which was · world, which means

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 12 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 I'm, couldn't, I've。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“th” 音: aftermath /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/, earthquake /ˈɝθkweɪk/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: wash /wɑʃ/, ratio /ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/, infection /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/, shipment /ˈʃɪpmənt/, gibberish /ˈd͡ʒɪ.bə.ɹɪʃ/
长单词——注意重音位置: electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, remarkably /ɹɪˈmɑɹkəbli/, emphysema /ˌɛmfɪˈsimə/

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 monkey, hurricane, aftermath 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。

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视频中的语法

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