跟读练习: Why Do We Actually Need Sleep?? - 通过视频学习英语口语

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Sleeping.

正在睡觉。

Every day you go to your bed, lie down and do nothing.

你每天都上床躺着，什么也不做。

For like eight hours.

大概有八个小时了。

This is stupid.

The time you spend doing literally nothing could be spent on so many other things.

Like eating, drinking, exercise, getting a job, spending time remembering that time you accidentally called your teacher mum.

But instead you're doing this.

Why?

Why haven't we figured out a way to not need to do this?

What does sleep even do?

And why do you feel sleepy?

What is sleepy?

Two things.

First is the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is just your body clock.

It relies on light to get an idea of what time it is.

When it's day, it's chillin'.

But when it becomes night though, your retinas in your eyes see this

and then send messages to your body clock and it goes.. bed and then allows the release of melatonin,

which pretty much tells the brain it's nighttime.

And second is adenosine.

The heck is that?

Well all of your cells use this thing called ATP as energy, but as your body uses it, adenosine accumulates.

This accumulation increases sleep pressure, which makes you more tired.

So you finally climb into your bed and then you just lie there?

Don't worry, even

Even though you might feel like you're just lying there like a useless blob,

your part of the brain called the hypothalamus is getting ready to send

you into your dreamy state where you ride unicorns and eat fluffy clouds.

During the day, your brain is constantly sending messages using all these different chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters,

but it's being extra sure to use these special neurotransmitters to stay awake.

But as your sleepiness builds,

it gets to a point where it lets this thing out of the cage the ventrolateral preoptic area inside the hypothalamus,

or VELPO for short.

What this does is blocks all the systems in the brain

that are making sure that it's using these neurotransmitters to stay awake, and thus gets you to fall asleep.

So now you're sleeping like a baby.

But again, why have we even evolved to need this absolute waste of time?

We'll get to that.

But first, what's happening while you're asleep?

It's called the sleep cycle, which you've probably heard of before.

And there's four parts to it.

First is stage one.

This is when you're barely asleep.

Your awareness goes down and muscle activity relaxes.

This is also the stage where this happens.

That was what the pros call a hypnic jerk.

So why does your own body give you a jump scare?

Well, researchers think that it could be your brain reacting to a sudden relaxation in the muscles and because it's stupid,

it interprets that as we're falling and jolts your muscles to double check.

But they aren't actually certain, so it could be something else.

Anyway, next is stage two, which is a light sleep.

This is where your heart rate slows, your body temperature decreases, and muscles relax even more.

But two other really interesting things happen here.

Sleep spindles, which are short bursts of brain activity, and K -complexes, which are big distinctive brainwaves.

Why?

Well, they seem to both have roles in protecting sleep and memory processing, but again, meh.

Then you get to stage three, deep sleep.

This is where activity is at its lowest, and your body takes advantage of that, increasing growth hormone secretion, tissue repair,

immune function support, and metabolic regulation.

It also takes that opportunity to use the glymphatic systems, which is a nerdy way of saying a waste clearing system for the brain as well.

And this is the stage where you're the most dead to the world.

You're just there, in your bed, catching your Z's, sleeping like a baby.

BOOM!

REM sleep.

All of a sudden your heart rate starts going up and down, brain activity jumps, and irregular breathing increases as well.

REM, or rapid eye movement, is where the most vivid of your dreams happen.

And yes, it's called rapid eye movement because your eyes are literally darting around while you sleep.

But, if you're having a dream that you're running away from the scariest thing you can imagine,

a job application, why don't you move in real life?

It's called REM -a -tonia.

Pretty much, your brainstem literally stops messages going from your brain to your skeletal muscles, while other messages for vital muscles such as your heart,

lungs and yes your eyes are allowed through.

But on the odd occasion it goes over time and is still stopping you from moving even when you wake up.

That's what causes sleep paralysis.

The thing where you're awake but you can't move.

And yes, because of this mix -up, dreamlike processes can still intrude your awakeness.

Hence why you sometimes can start hallucinating really scary things.

Like that job application.

Then you finish the cycle.

So, you do it again.

This whole cycle takes roughly 90 minutes.

But that can vary depending on the person.

And they're not even lengths either.

Usually, earlier in the night you actually get more deep sleep, whereas later in the night you get more REM sleep.

But then you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, why?

Think about it though, every night you're putting yourself in a state where you are extremely vulnerable to enemies, you can't eat, you can't drink,

you can't care for your children, you can't look for a girlfriend, you can't even fill out that job application.

And yet evolution has gone to extreme lengths in order to preserve this strange routine.

And when I say extreme, I mean extreme.

Think about dolphins for instance.

They need air to survive, but if they slept they would drown.

So they evolved to not need sleep right?

Nope.

They evolved so that to sleep they shut down half of their brain

and let that side sleep and just use the awake side and then just swap it over.

And not just dolphins, but many birds also do this too.

So why hasn't evolution just gotten rid of it altogether?

Why is it so persistent on keeping sleeping?

Well, we do know the important stuff that sleep does do.

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First, the brain needs maintenance, and it can't do it as effectively while it's awake.

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It's like trying to do maintenance in a warehouse.

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It's much easier to do it while it's empty rather than when it's full of customers.

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Second, the brain also needs to manage and sort what it learnt that day.

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Organise memories, new skills and get rid of old ones.

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Again, it seems that it can't do it as effectively while it's awake.

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And third is body repair.

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Yet again, it does it better when it's asleep.

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But I still have a problem with that.

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Why do we need to actually be asleep?

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As in unconscious?

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We could have just evolved to be able to repair, sort and maintain ourselves while awake.

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And yet evolution has been determined to keep it,

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and has clearly decided that it's worth the risk of not being conscious for 8 hours every day, than not to sleep at all.

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And that's the real mystery of sleep that no one has been able to really answer.

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Why do we really need sleep?

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And if you want to get a good night's sleep,

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a little birdie told me that hitting the subscribe button and show it two cold sides to your pillow for a week.

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本课的词汇与口语要点

这节口语课以视频“Why Do We Actually Need Sleep??”为素材。视频中反复出现的词有：sleep, brain, awake, muscle, asleep。这段视频共有 118 个句子、1262 个单词可供跟读。讲话部分时长为 7:47。说话人语速自然，每分钟约 162 个词，接近日常对话。 84% 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。全部 118 个句子中有 19 个是问句，适合练习疑问语调和简短回答。

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
awake 动词	/əˈweɪk/	醒, 醒來 /醒来
muscle 名词	/ˈmʌs.əl/	肌肉, 筋肉
asleep 形容词	/əˈsliːp/	睡著的, 睡着的
evolution 名词	/ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/	演變 /演变, 變遷 /变迁
repair 动词	/ˈɹiːpɛɚ/	修理
sudden 形容词	/ˈsʌd.ən/	突然, 急劇 /急剧
rapid 形容词	/ˈɹæp.ɪd/	快, 迅速
scary 形容词	/ˈskɛə.ɹi/	恐怖
relax 动词	/ɹɪˈlæks/	鬆開 /松开, 放鬆 /放松
sleepy 形容词	/ˈsliːpi/	昏昏欲睡, 睏 /困
dolphin 名词	/ˈdɑlf.ɪn/	海豚, 海豬 /海猪
cloud 名词	/ˈklaʊ̯d/	йүн, 雲 /云
mystery 名词	/ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/	謎 /谜, 謎團 /谜团
awareness 名词	/əˈwɛɹ.nəs/	意識 /意识, 覺悟 /觉悟
skill 名词	/skɪl/	技巧, 技能

视频中出现的短语动词

单词	发音	释义
figure out 动词		弄清楚
fill out 动词	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	填, 填寫 /填写
go down 动词		下降, 下去
go up 动词		上昇 /上升, 上去
lie down 动词		偃, 躺下
wake up 动词	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	醒, 醒來 /醒来

值得反复跟读的句子

视频中简短而完整的句子，可以直接用在日常对话里：

But first, what's happening while you're asleep?
This is when you're barely asleep.
The thing where you're awake but you can't move.
Why do we need to actually be asleep?
Why do we really need sleep?

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
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	haven't we figured · have we even evolved · you've probably heard
定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物	nucleus, which is · pressure, which makes · two, which is
被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的	could be spent · are allowed

需要注意的发音

说话人用了 28 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 you're, can't, don't。请按听到的简短形式来说。

“th” 音: breathe /bɹiːð/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
“sh” 和 “zh” 音: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, tissue /ˈtɪʃ.(j)u/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
长单词——注意重音位置: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, irregular /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/

中文母语者容易读错的音：

/v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, vital /ˈvaɪtəl/, vary /ˈvɛəɹi/, vulnerable /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/
词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: awake /əˈweɪk/, asleep /əˈsliːp/, evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, clock /klɑk/, rapid /ˈɹæp.ɪd/
/r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: relax /ɹɪˈlæks/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, roughly /ˈɹʌf.li/, rely /ɹɪˈlaɪ/, vulnerable /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/

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 awake, muscle, asleep 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 Do We Actually Need Sleep?? - 通过视频学习英语口语

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