跟读练习: Why California's musical road sounds terrible - 通过视频学习英语口语

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If you drive down a certain stretch of highway in the California desert, you will hear music.

如果你驾车行驶在加州沙漠中的某一段高速公路上，就会听到音乐。

It's supposed to sound a little bit like this.

But instead, it sounds like this.

That was the musical road of Lancaster, California, and as you may have heard, it's a little bit out of tune.

A lot of money was spent on that road.

It was a publicity stunt for a car company who wanted to show off how clever they are.

And doing the calculations for something like that isn't really difficult.

A musical note is a vibration in the air at a particular frequency, and those vibrations can be made by a violin string or synthesized by a computer,

or, in this case, made by vehicle tyres hitting grooves in the road.

The closer the grooves are, the faster the vibrations, and the higher the note.

So take the speed limit, divide by the frequency of the note you want, and that's how often there should be a groove in the road.

And if people travel at the wrong speed, well, it shouldn't really matter.

It'll just be like slowing down or speeding up any other bit of music.

It'll be in the wrong key, but it'll still sound right to most people's ears.

It won't sound like that mess.

So, what went wrong?

At this point, I'm indebted to David Simmons Duffin, an assistant professor of physics at Caltech, whose interests include quantum field theories and playing Baroque violin,

because he was, as far as I can tell, the very first person to figure out what went wrong.

And the problem was probably the English language.

Whoever did the calculations said that the grooves should be so far apart, let's say four inches for the first note, and they meant that there should be a groove every four inches.

But whoever gave the instructions to the work crew said that the grooves should be four inches apart,

and that was interpreted as four inches between the end of one groove and the start of the next one.

itself.

But your ears definitely do include it.

The highest note on that section of the William Tell Overture should be one octave higher than the lowest.

That means the frequency should be doubled and the grooves should be half the distance apart.

And they are if you don't include the width of the groove itself.

That error means that every note is distorted not by a fraction of its value, like if you're travelling at the wrong speed, but by a constant amount, by the width of the grooves.

The higher the note, the greater the effect of that distortion.

And the result is the mess that you are about to hear for a second time.

And the really strange part?

This is the second musical road built in Lancaster, California.

The first one, built by the car company, was too close to residents who complained about the constant noise, and probably this note here.

So the city paved over it and rebuilt it to the exact same wrong blueprints.

That's a take.

That is a take right there.

And in order to celebrate that take, I'm going to put my foot down.

This is an SUV.

It doesn't do that.

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FOR YOU

本课的词汇与口语要点

这节 B2 级别的口语课以视频“Why California's musical road sounds terrible”为素材。视频中反复出现的词有：groove, note, road, inches, sound。这段视频共有 39 个句子、550 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 3:28。说话人语速自然，每分钟约 159 个词，接近日常对话。 83% 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
vibration 名词	/vaɪˈbɹeɪʃən/	振動 /振动, 振盪 /振荡
violin 名词	/ˌvaɪ.əˈlɪn/	小提琴, 梵啞鈴 /梵哑铃
calculation 名词	/ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/	計算 /计算
width 名词	/ˈwɪtθ/	寬度 /宽度
blueprint 名词	/ˈbluːˌpɹɪnt/	藍圖 /蓝图
distort 动词	/dɪsˈtɔːt/	歪曲
octave 名词	/ˈɑktɪv/	八度
synthesize 动词	/ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/	結合 /结合, 合成
tyre 名词	/taɪə(ɹ)/	輪胎 /轮胎, 車胎 /车胎
distortion 名词	/dɪsˈtɔːʃən/	扭曲
stunt 名词	/stʌnt/	特技, 危险举动
rebuild 动词	/ɹiːˈbɪld/	重建, 再建
fraction 名词	/ˈfɹæk.ʃən/	部分
publicity 名词	/pʌbˈlɪsɪti/	宣傳 /宣传
quantum 名词	/ˈkwɑntəm/	量

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	发音	释义
figure out 动词		弄清楚
show off 动词		炫耀, 賣弄 /卖弄
slow down 动词		減速 /减速, 放慢
speed up 动词	/spiːdˈʌp/	加速, 加快

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 11 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 it'll, I'm, doesn't。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“th” 音: width /ˈwɪtθ/, synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: vibration /vaɪˈbɹeɪʃən/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, distortion /dɪsˈtɔːʃən/, fraction /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/

中文母语者容易读错的音：

/v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: groove /ɡɹuv/, vibration /vaɪˈbɹeɪʃən/, violin /ˌvaɪ.əˈlɪn/, octave /ˈɑktɪv/, divide /dɪˈvaɪd/
词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: groove /ɡɹuv/, width /ˈwɪtθ/, blueprint /ˈbluːˌpɹɪnt/, distort /dɪsˈtɔːt/, indebted /ɪnˈdɛtɪd/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: blueprint /ˈbluːˌpɹɪnt/, rebuild /ɹiːˈbɪld/

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 vibration, violin, calculation 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: Why California's musical road sounds terrible - 通过视频学习英语口语

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