科學人官網--訓練聽力及認識字彙的好所在

暨之前"A Free Way to Learn English: CNN Student News"發表之後

引起廣大迴響，最近又找到能夠訓練聽力又增強字彙的好網站: Scientific American Podcast

進到網站裡一共可發現四種不一樣的podcast分類

介紹如下:

前三種除了可以播放外，還有原文(transcript)可以參考。

第一種是60-second Science(六十秒科學)，以一分鐘左右的時間介紹一則科學相關新發現，每日更新，內容包羅萬象。

第二種是60-second Psych(六十秒心理學)，以一分鐘左右的時間介紹一則心理學相關新發現，每週更新，內容也是相當有趣。

例如最近一篇的報導就指出旅居國外的人比住在國內的人有創造力。

第三種是60-second Earth(六十秒地球)，以一分鐘左右的時間介紹一則環境科學相關新發現，每週更新，是關心環境議題的朋友不容錯過的。

第四種是Science Talk(科學訪談)，比起前三種短文式的，這是比較長的，且是談話性質的。因為沒有transcript，所以只能靠耳朵啦！

綜合以上，根據個人經驗，60-second Science速度最快，其他三種屬於正常速度。你自己可以比較看看！

介紹完畢，接下來談談我自己是怎麼使用以上podcast做聽力及字彙訓練的呢？

首先播放podcast，先聽過幾遍之後，抓到報導的主旨之後，才開始逐字逐字地把它打出來，遇到不清楚或太快的地方就反覆地播放，直到真的聽不出來為止。

大約經過了20分鐘，通篇都打完之後，接下來和原文核對，標出剛才遺漏的字詞。

最後再把podcast播放一遍，欣賞自己修改過後的作品。

為何要這樣做呢？

如果沒有這個步驟，假如邊聽邊看，其實自己並不知道聽到的哪一個字是盲點，經由這樣的反覆練習，除了能提昇辨別native speaker的字與字之間連音的能力外，還能夠猜出不熟悉的字彙的拼音。以下便是一個例子。

原文如下：

A team of archeologists working in Jordan has made a discovery that represents a new chapter in the story of our ancestors' move from foraging to farming. The researchers unearthed an ancient granary. The round, mud hut dates back more than 11,000 years. A raised floor was key for keeping grain dry and out of reach of hungry rats. But what makes the find so special is that the granary was built a thousand years before people ate domesticated crops. The report appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



The researchers found caches of wild barley and oats inside the structure. Such evidence of a dedicated food-storage edifice has never been recorded from the pre-pottery Neolithic age. The investigators say this selective cultivation and management of wild plants shows behaviors that led to agriculture. What’s more, the granaries were built in-between houses and buildings used for food processing, which led to the establishment of more permanent settlements. By stockpiling a food surplus, our predecessors produced a new societal structure and curbed their wandering ways. Which then led to today’s foraging for junk food in supermarket aisles.

把自己聽譯出來的段落和原文比較後用顏色標出不同點。

A team of archaeologists working in Jordan has made a discovery that represents a new chapter in the story of our ancestors’ move from forging to farming. The researchers unearthed an ancient granary. The round mud hut dates back to more than 11,000 years. A raised floor was key for keeping the grains ?? out of reach of hungry rats. But what makes the finding so special is that the granary was built 1000 years before people ate domesticated crops. The report appears in the ?? of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found caches of wild barley and oats inside the structure. Such evidence have dedicated to food stores and ?? have never been recorded from the prepottery kneel of gate The investigators say that the selected cultivation of management of wild plants shows the behaviors that led to agriculture. What’s more, the granaries were built between houses and buildings used for food processing which led to the establishment of a more permanent settlement. By stockpiling the food surplus, our predecessors produced a new societal structure and curve the wondering ways, which then led to today’s forging for junk food in supermarket aisles.

接著將錯誤的地方查字典加以釐清

forging --> foraging 這個字是我沒看過的，但聽起來很像。搜尋的意思，特指搜尋食物。eg. forage for food

date back to --> date back 往前數多少年不用 to

dry: 這麼簡單的字竟然聽不出來，唉唉...

finding --> find 也可以當名詞，隨機找到的有價值的東西。findings是指研究新發現，永遠都是複數。

......

一天一篇，這樣子下來，又累積了不少新字彙呢！

所謂讀書靠自己，主動出擊，更印象深刻！

你也來試試吧！