跟读练习: Why Haven't We Domesticated Monkeys? - 通过视频学习英语口语
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This video is brought to you by FarmKind. More about them at the end of the video.
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About 70 years ago, a new fad caught on: pet monkeys.
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At one point, more than a million Americans had monkeys in their homes.
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But things didn’t go well.
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Hi, I’m David, and this is MinuteEarth.
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You can turn any wild animal into a pet; you just capture it and keep it.
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But while some wild animals are naturally good pets –because they are gentle and don’t get too bothered by humans– most are just too wild.
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But we humans have figured out a way to turn some of those wilder wild animals into good pets –and even human helpers– through the process of domestication.
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But not monkeys, because not all animals are equally domesticatable.
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Like, if you were to pick a good monkey to domesticate, you’d probably pick a capuchin like my friend Garfunkle here, who is just plain adorable –and smart and agile enough to maybe even help out.
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The first step toward domestication would be to capture a bunch of capuchins.
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Which would be hard enough, but you also have to keep them captured.
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And while some animals –like sheep and chickens– do just fine in confinement, capuchins are dextrous escape artists who are really hard to keep locked up in simple pens.
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You might end up with no monkeys at all.
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But say you could somehow make capuchin-proof pens, you’d then need to carefully breed the monkeys to select for the traits you want – and to get rid of the ones you don’t.
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And then you’d have to keep doing that over hundreds of generations.
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Animals like pigs can start giving birth when they're 6 months old, and can have 3 litters a year of 10 piglets each.
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So it’s a relatively quick process to select for the traits you want.
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But capuchins take four years to mature and only have one baby every two years or so.
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So it would take a really, really long time to breed capuchins with the traits we want.
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But even if you had that kind of time, there’s one additional problem: diseases.
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Since capuchins have immune systems that are really similar to our own, they can give us all sorts of diseases, and maybe even brew up new primate plagues.
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So a capuchin domestication project would likely be a giant mess.
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That said, we have managed to domesticate the horse, which shares 2 of the 3 of those domestication difficulties.
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But horses had traits that could revolutionize transportation and farming and warfare, literally shaping our modern world, so at least in that case it paid off to go through the trouble of domesticating them.
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But the endgame for capuchins, on the other hand, would simply be cute pets – or maybe a helping hand; domesticating them just wouldn’t be worth the trouble – if it would even be possible at all.
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So what did happen with all those undomesticated pet monkeys that Americans brought into their homes?
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Well, it was monkey mayhem; within just a few years, primate sanctuaries started popping up to house all the monkeys people could no longer handle.
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It turns out that when it comes to keeping animals, it’s mo’ monkey, mo’ problems.
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Of the animals we have been able to domesticate, some have become companions, some have become workers, and some have become, well, food.
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And while we here at MinuteEarth disagree about whether it’s ok to eat animals in general, we all agree that no animal deserves to be kept in cruel conditions like those on factory farms.
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That’s where FarmKind comes in: Based on thousands of hours of expert research, they recommend the best charities that are working to end factory farming, so you can trust any donation you make through them will make a real difference.
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Your donation goes straight to charities that are freeing millions of animals from cruelty like battery cages, painful procedures without anaesthetic and inhumane slaughter.
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We’ve donated to FarmKind, and if you feel able, we’d love for you to join us.
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The link is in the description: Use code minuteearth, and your donation will get a 50% boost.
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Plus, FarmKind doesn't take a cut of your donation: Their operating costs and this sponsorship are entirely grant-funded, so 100% of your donation can go directly to charity.
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So check them out and, together, let’s make the world just a little bit kinder.
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這個視頻適合誰？
無論你是準備雅思口語練習的學員，還是想通過影子跟讀（shadowspeak）提高英語發音的自學者，這段視頻都很合適。它的對話風格親切，話題有趣，句子長短適中，非常適合做影子跟讀練習（shadowing site 實戰素材）。內容圍繞「為何馴化猴子失敗」展開，既有科學知識，又有生活案例，能同時鍛煉聽力理解和口語表達。
值得學的詞彙和習語
- fad：一時的風潮。例如視頻中「a new fad caught on」指「一種新潮流興起」。
- dextrous：靈巧的。用來形容猴子「dextrous escape artists」，即「靈巧的逃脫大師」。
- monkey mayhem：猴子鬧劇。形象地表達飼養猴子帶來的混亂，類似「chaos」但更生動。
- mo’ monkey, mo’ problems：越多猴子，越多麻煩。模仿「more money, more problems」的結構，幽默易記。
如何練好發音？
這位講者的發音清晰，語速中等，適合練習連讀和重音。例如「turn any wild animal into a pet」中，「turn any」可連讀為/tɜːrnəni/；「select for the traits」裡「select for」的重音在「select」，突出選擇的動作。建議用影子跟讀法（shadow speak）反覆練習：播放一句，暫停後立刻跟讀，注意模仿語調的起伏（如講到「really long time」時的輕微降調）。針對雅思口語練習，可專注於「原因解釋」類表達，比如「because they are gentle and don’t get too bothered by humans」，學習如何用簡單句清晰闡述理由。
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 | have figured · have managed · have been |
| 被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的 | is brought · be kept |
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。