跟读练习: Why Do We Call It AM and PM? The Surprisingly Ancient Reason [ID0801] - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
C1
If you've spent your entire life checking the time,
105 句
如果句子过短或过长，请点击 Edit 进行调整。
1
If you've spent your entire life checking the time,
2
setting alarms, or arranging schedules,
3
then you've probably come across something so normal that you never even questioned it.
4
The labels AM and PM.
5
They're printed on clocks, digital displays,
6
airline tickets, calendars, and phones.
7
So familiar that we rarely stop to think about what they actually mean.
8
But behind these two simple abbreviations lies a long history of astronomy,
9
ancient civilizations, Roman influence,
10
and the way humans have always tried to bring order to something as wild and unstoppable as time itself.
11
Today, we're diving deep into why we call the first half of the day AM,
12
the second half PM, and why the world still uses this system,
13
even when there's an alternative 24-hour clock available.
14
Let's explore right here on History of Simple Things.
15
To understand AM and PM,
16
you need to go all the way back to the civilizations that lived and died under the movement of the sun.
17
For thousands of years, humans used sunlight as their primary reference for time,
18
when the sun rose, when it was at its highest point,
19
and when it set.
20
The midpoint of the day,
21
when the sun is directly overhead,
22
was incredibly important for navigation,
23
rituals, farming, and even survival.
24
Ancient Egyptians used sundials thousands of years ago,
25
dividing daylight into 12 hours based purely on the movement of shadows.
26
But it wasn't until the ancient Romans
27
that the idea of naming the periods before and after the sun's highest point became more formal and linguistic.
28
They used Latin not just for religion or literature, but for daily life.
29
So naturally, timekeeping terminology evolved in Latin as well.
30
This brings us to the actual words.
31
AM stands for ante meridiem,
32
which literally means before midday or before the meridian,
33
with meridium referring to the sun's position at its apex.
34
Meanwhile, PM stands for post-meridium, meaning after midday.
35
The concept is simple.
36
The 12-hour cycle resets every time the sun reaches that midpoint.
37
From midnight until just before noon,
38
everything is considered ante meridium,
39
leading up to the sun's highest point.
40
And from noon until just before the next midnight, everything is post meridium.
41
What's interesting is
42
that these terms refer specifically to the sun's position relative to an imaginary line in the sky called the meridian,
43
essentially a vertical arc running from the north pole to the south pole across your location.
44
At solar noon, the sun crosses this meridian,
45
marking that exact midpoint of the day.
46
So a.m and p.m are literally describing the sun's cosmic travel schedule.
47
Now here's something that confuses almost everyone at some point.
48
Why is 12 p.m actually noon and 12 a.m actually midnight?
49
Shouldn't noon be neither before nor after midday?
50
You're right.
51
By strict definition, noon is neither a.m nor p.m.
52
Same with midnight.
53
But because the timekeeping system needed labels for schedules,
54
clocks, and communication, we applied the terms anyway.
55
Historically, there were attempts to fix this.
56
Some clocks used the word noon and midnight instead of a.m p.m.
57
Some old railways labeled midnight as zero o'clock and noon as 12m.
58
But eventually, by widespread convention,
59
not by logic, 12 p.m became noon simply
60
because it's easier to treat the numbers increasing after 12 o'clock as entering the post-midday cycle.
61
Midnight got stuck with 12 a.m because it begins the before-midday hours.
62
It's not mathematically elegant, but it's how the world standardized it.
63
As you might expect, the 12-hour AM-PM format isn't universal.
64
A large portion of the world uses the 24-hour clock,
65
also known as military time.
66
In that format, the day runs from 0 o'clock to 23.59 without resetting halfway way.
67
Midnight is zero o'clock.
68
Noon is 12 o'clock.
69
And instead of saying 8 PM,
70
you simply say 20 o'clock.
71
It's logical.
72
It reduces confusion.
73
And it's used heavily in Europe,
74
Asia, science, aviation, and medicine.
75
So why does the United States,
76
Canada, the Philippines, and several other countries still popularly use AM and PM?
77
A lot of it comes down to cultural habit,
78
historical practice, and the fact that analog clocks,
79
which dominated for centuries, were designed around 12-hour cycles.
80
The 12-hour format is also easy to read quickly and matches ancient human rhythms tied to daylight and night cycles.
81
Even though digital systems allow for 24-hour displays,
82
many cultures simply felt no need to change.
83
However, the Latin term stuck because English,
84
unlike some other languages, borrowed heavily from Latin in its early scientific,
85
religious, and academic development.
86
Timekeeping was something the Church and astronomers dealt with extensively,
87
and both depended on Latin terms.
88
So by the time English clocks and schedules became standardized,
89
AM and PM were already the accepted scholarly way of referring to the two halves of the day.
90
And because English-speaking nations spread their influence globally through trade,
91
colonization, and technology, the system went with them.
92
The result is that even in countries that now use the 24-hour clock,
93
you can still find AM and PM in old documents,
94
historic buildings, and traditional literature.
95
In the big picture, AM and PM aren't just labels on your alarm clock.
96
They're snapshots of history, history,
97
echoes of ancient astronomers, Roman scholars,
98
sundial makers, church timekeepers, and early scientists who shaped how the modern world understands time.
99
The next time you set an early morning alarm or schedule a late-night meeting,
100
remember, you're using a system older than most languages,
101
older than modern nations, and older than the technology that now depends on it.
102
And that system continues to work centuries later because of two simple Latin phrases,
103
ante meridium and post meridium.
104
If you enjoyed this video,
105
please check out our other bingeable channels.
下载应用
AI 为你说出的每个句子打分
TRENDING
热门
情境與背景
在我們的日常生活中，時間的概念無處不在，無論是設定鬧鐘，還是安排日程，時間的標示幾乎成為了我們生活的一部分。在這段視頻中，我們探索了AM和PM的由來，以及它們如何根植於古代文明和天文學的歷史中。AM代表“中午之前”，而PM則是“中午之後”。這些簡單的縮寫不僅僅是時間的標示，它們還反映了人類在時間的無情流逝中尋求秩序的努力。
日常交流的五大短語
- 中午之前 (ante meridiem) - 此短語用來表示從午夜到中午的時間。
- 中午之後 (post meridiem) - 用來表示從中午到下一個午夜的時間。
- 太陽的最高點 - 這是指中午時刻，太陽直射的位置，對於古代人類的導航和生活至關重要。
- 時間的參考標準 - 光線和影子的運動是人類早期計時的一個重要依據。
- 假想的子午線 - 這是一條從北極到南極的垂直弧線，標誌著太陽穿越的時間。
逐步跟讀指南
想要在英語口語表達上進一步提升，不妨從這段視頻中選擇一部分進行跟讀練習。這裡有一些具體的步驟供您參考：
- 聆聽與理解 - 首先，仔細聆聽整段視頻，注意AM和PM的使用方式以及它們的歷史背景。
- 逐句跟讀 - 使用“英语影子跟读”技術，模仿主播的發音和語調，逐句重複所聽到的內容。
- 慢速模仿 - 初次練習時可以將視頻播放速度降低，這樣能幫助您更好地把握每個單詞的發音。
- 按住關鍵詞 - 在跟讀過程中，特別注意“中午之前”和“中午之後”等關鍵詞，確保掌握它們的準確發音。
- 反覆練習 - 定期回到這段視頻進行跟讀，使您在“影子語言”（shadow speak）上更有信心，並掌握這些有趣的短語。
透過這種“影子演講”（shadow speech）技巧，您將能夠在日常交流中更流利地使用英語，並理解AM和PM背後的文化意義。要成功提升口語能力，多加練習，加油！
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。