跟读练习: When Did Ancient Humans Start Drinking Alcohol? - 通过视频学习英语口语
正在创建课程...
1
Right now, you're probably drunk or about to get drunk, and the last time you had a drink, beer, wine, whatever, you probably just drank it and forgot about it.
2
But what you did is one of the oldest things a human being can do.
3
It's older than writing, older than farming.
4
It actually predates humans' beings entirely.
5
Because our relationship with alcohol doesn't start a few thousand years ago with the invention of wine or the first brewery.
6
It starts about 10 million years ago, on a forest floor in Africa, with a small primate picking up a piece of fruit that had been sitting on the ground for too long.
7
In 2014, a biologist at UC Berkeley named Robert Dudley published a book called The Drunken Monkey.
8
His argument was simple.
9
When fruit falls from a tree and sits on the ground, the natural sugars inside it start breaking down.
10
Yeast gets in.
11
Fermentation begins.
12
And the fruit starts producing small amounts of ethanol.
13
And when primates ate that fruit, the ethanol inside it made them feel a little drunk.
14
They had no idea why, but it felt good, so they kept coming back for more.
15
Over millions of years, our ancestors didn't just tolerate alcohol, they evolved to look for it.
16
So by the time ancient humans actually showed up, the taste for it was already built in.
17
It was there long before anyone figured out how to make it on purpose.
18
The question is, when did they figure that out?
19
In 2018, archaeologists were excavating a cave near Haifa, Israel.
20
The cave is called Rakafet, and it was used by a group called the Natufians about 13 ,000 years ago.
21
Inside, they found stone mortars carved directly into the bedrock.
22
When they analyzed the residue left in those mortars, they found traces of wheat and barley that had been soaked, germinated, and left to ferment.
23
That's beer, brewed in a cave 13 ,000 years ago.
24
Now, here's what makes that finding so important.
25
The Natufians were not farmers.
26
They hadn't invented agriculture yet.
27
But they were still collecting wild grain by hand and hunting animals for meat.
28
They didn't grow the barley, they found it.
29
But somehow, making beer was important enough that they figured that out first.
30
Think about that.
31
Because up until this discovery, the story goes like this.
32
Humans settled down, started farming, built villages, and then eventually discovered fermentation and started making drinks.
33
Alcohol came after civilization, but Roccafet Cave says the opposite.
34
These people were brewing while they were still nomadic, and they aren't the only ones.
35
About a thousand years later, someone in southeastern Turkey built something enormous.
36
At a site called Göbekli Tepe, massive stone pillars, some weighing over ten tons, were arranged in careful circles and carved with images of animals.
37
The whole structure was deliberate and complex, and it was built before farming, before pottery, before anyone in the region had a permanent home.
38
These were still hunter -gatherers. For years, archaeologists couldn't explain why nomadic people would organize the labor needed to move 10 -ton stones up a hill
39
and carve them with precision.
40
What would motivate that?
41
Then they found large stone vats at the site.
42
When they tested the insides, they found chemical traces of fermented grain.
43
People were brewing at Gobekli Tepe.
44
Not small amounts, enough for large gatherings.
45
The current theory is that this site wasn't a home.
46
It was a gathering place for ritual and feasting.
47
People traveled from across the region, came together, and drank.
48
And this raises a question that's been debated for decades.
49
Why did humans start farming?
50
An archaeobotanist named Patrick McGovern, the leading expert on ancient alcohol in the world, has spent decades arguing that humans didn't start farming to make bread.
51
They started farming to make beer.
52
And, I couldn't agree more.
53
He says that bread requires grinding, kneading, and baking.
54
It's a complex process.
55
Beer is simpler.
56
You soak grain in water, leave it alone, and fermentation happens by itself.
57
And the desire to drink would have been a stronger motivator than the desire to eat grain in a slightly different form.
58
If he's right, then alcohol isn't something that showed up after humans settled down.
59
It might be the reason they settled down in the first place.
60
By 7000 BCE, the evidence gets more precise.
61
In a Neolithic village called Jiahu in central China, archaeologists found pottery jars containing residue from a fermented drink made of rice, honey, grapes, and hawthorn berries.
62
Chemical analysis confirmed the ingredients and the fermentation process.
63
This is the oldest confirmed recipe for alcohol anywhere in the world.
64
And it wasn't crude, it was a blend—multiple ingredients, carefully chosen and combined.
65
Whoever made this knew exactly what they were doing.
66
From there, it only grew.
67
By the time ancient Egypt came around, beer wasn't something people made for fun.
68
It was woven into everything.
69
Workers who built the pyramids were paid, in beer, about four to five liters a day.
70
That was their actual salary.
71
Not coins, not grain, but beer.
72
And it made sense, because the water from the Nile was often contaminated and unsafe to drink straight.
73
But beer, because of the brewing process, was cleaner.
74
So it kept people alive in a way water couldn't.
75
Honestly, if you were working in the desert heat
76
and someone gave you a choice between a bag of coins or five liters of cold beer, what are you picking?
77
Ahem.
78
Yeah.
79
Same.
80
And on top of that, the brewing process added calories and nutrients.
81
For a laborer dragging limestone blocks in the desert heat, those extra calories mattered.
82
Beer wasn't just a drink.
83
It was lunch.
84
And then there was the religious side.
85
The Egyptians believed beer was created by Osiris and given to humans as a gift.
86
It showed up in temple offerings, burial rituals, and medical prescriptions.
87
Doctors would mix herbs into beer and prescribe it for everything from stomach problems to infections.
88
So one single drink was doing the job of a paycheck, a water filter, a meal, a medicine, and a prayer, all from the same cup.
89
So here's the full picture.
90
Ten million years ago, your ancestors were drawn to fermented fruit because it helped them find food.
91
13 ,000 years ago, they were deliberately brewing in caves before they knew how to farm.
92
12 ,000 years ago, they were possibly building the first monuments in human history just to have a place to drink together.
93
9 ,000 years ago, they had recipes.
94
5 ,000 years ago, entire civilizations were running on it.
95
Alcohol didn't come after we built the world we live in.
96
There's a real possibility that it's the reason we built it at all.
97
Every time you have a drink, you're continuing something that started before your species had a name for itself.
98
The process changed, the ingredients improved, the cups got fancier.
99
But the impulse is the same one
100
that made a small primate reach for a piece of overripe fruit on a forest floor 10 million years ago.
101
We just learned how to make it on purpose.
102
If you want to dig deeper into any of this, all the research is linked down in the description version.
📺 同频道
B23
Why Ancient Humans Were The Most TERRIFYING Animal Alive
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
How Did Ancient Humans Survive the Deadliest Predators on Earth?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B28
What Did Ancient Humans Actually Do All Day?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B214
How Did Ancient Humans Travel the World?
Travel EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
Why Are We the Only Human Species Left? What happened to others...
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
✨ 推荐视频
C11
222 句
How Fire Made Us Human
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1172
7 句
If you're gonna drink alcohol, this is the healthiest option
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
129 句
Why we can't stop eating unhealthy foods
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
239 句
Alcohol Sucks Continued | Girls Gone Bible
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
6 句
Why is Stephen Fry so passionate about the ancient Greeks?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
212 句
What Did Ancient Humans Do all Day Before Jobs Existed?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
281 句
I Tried Turning a Tree into Soda
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B27
22 句
What is Archaeology? (Explained in 2 Minutes)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
98 句
Why Young People Love Old Things
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
50 句
We Fell For The Oldest Lie On The Internet
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
165 句
How Gross Was the Past, Really?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
49 句
Discover the History of English
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
本课的词汇与口语要点
这节口语课以视频“When Did Ancient Humans Start Drinking Alcohol?”为素材。 视频中反复出现的词有：beer, drink, alcohol, built, farming。 这段视频共有 102 个句子、1202 个单词可供跟读。 讲话部分时长为 6:03。 说话人语速较快，每分钟约 199 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 |
|---|---|---|
| brew 动词 | /bɹuː/ | 沏, 泡 |
| cave 名词 | /keɪv/ | 洞穴, 洞 |
| grain 名词 | /ɡɹeɪn/ | 糧食 /粮食, 穀物 /谷物 |
| ingredient 名词 | /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/ | 成份, 材料 |
| confirm 动词 | /kənˈfɝm/ | 證實 /证实, 確認 /确认 |
| desert 名词 | /ˈdɛz.ɚt/ | гуәбый, гуәбыйтан |
| coin 名词 | /ˈkoɪ̯n/ | 硬幣 /硬币, 銅錢 /铜钱 |
| trace 名词 | /tɹeɪs/ | 痕跡 /痕迹 |
| ritual 名词 | /ˈɹɪt͡ʃ.u.əl/ | 儀式 /仪式, 典禮 /典礼 |
| civilization 名词 | /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ | 文明 |
| mortar 名词 | /ˈmɔːtə/ | 灰泥, 砂漿 /砂浆 |
| pottery 名词 | /ˈpɑtəɹi/ | 陶器, 瓦器 |
| soak 动词 | /soʊk/ | 濕透 /湿透 |
| calorie 名词 | /ˈkæləɹi/ | 卡路里, 卡 |
| residue 名词 | /ˈɹɛzɪduː/ | 殘餘 /残余 |
视频中出现的短语动词
| 单词 | 发音 | 释义 |
|---|---|---|
| settle down 动词 | 冷靜下來 /冷静下来 | |
| show up 动词 | 露面 | |
| break down 动词 | 壞了 /坏了, 出故障 | |
| come together 动词 | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | 集合, 联合 |
| figure out 动词 | 弄清楚 | |
| pick up 动词 | 拾取, 撿 /捡 |
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 | was already built · is called · had been soaked |
| 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 | that's been debated · has spent |
需要注意的发音
说话人用了 17 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 didn't, wasn't, couldn't。请按听到的简短形式来说。
- “th” 音: gathering /ˈɡæð.ɚ.ɪŋ/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, ethanol /ˈɛθ.ə.nɑl/, hawthorn /ˈhɔ.θɔɹn/
- “sh” 和 “zh” 音: civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, infection /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/, invention /ɪnˈvɛnʃən/, precision /pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/, prescription /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/
- 长单词——注意重音位置: ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, agriculture /ˈæɡ.ɹɪˌkʌl.t͡ʃɚ/, deliberately /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət.li/, deliberate /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət/
中文母语者容易读错的音：
- /v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: cave /keɪv/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, discovery /dɪˈskʌv.ɹi/, whoever /huˈɛvɚ/, invention /ɪnˈvɛnʃən/
- 词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: cave /keɪv/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, desert /ˈdɛz.ɚt/, trace /tɹeɪs/, soak /soʊk/
- /r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: ritual /ˈɹɪt͡ʃ.u.əl/, calorie /ˈkæləɹi/, carefully /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/, agriculture /ˈæɡ.ɹɪˌkʌl.t͡ʃɚ/, salary /ˈsæləɹi/
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 brew, cave, grain 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。