leonardoenglish 单词

19: British Food Part 4 - The (Earl of) Sandwich

meant
predate
sliced
fiddly
leftover
immediate
estimated
industry
billion
shelves
combination
ingredients
soggy
disgusting
obviously
tasty
Europe
stuffy
archaic
afresh
aristocratic
notable
peruse
leisure
sauce
pun
weird
reputation
cuisines
rewilding
pitch

21: Conspiracy Theories

[00:02:05] Before we go into some of the weirdest ones out there, let’s just define exactly what they are, why people believe them, and why they can be so seductive.
[00:02:31] You probably know about the existence of conspiracy theories such as that the moon landing was faked, that JFK was assassinated by the CIA, or that 9/11 was an inside job.
[00:02:58] 29% of Americans, apparently, according to a recent survey, believe that there is a deep state working against President Trump.
[00:05:46] And while conspiracy theories used to be pretty niche and would exist in forums and chat rooms deep in the recesses of the internet, for a series of reasons they are now much more mainstream.
[00:06:17] Others attribute this to a lack of trust in government and the authorities.
[00:06:23] As people trust these kinds of institutions less and less, the more seductive it becomes to believe that there is some kind of great conspiracy that the government is engaged in against us, against normal people.
[00:06:40] While others blame politicians for fanning the flames.
[00:06:45] When the President of the USA is a serial conspiracy theorist, this legitimates a lot of beliefs which would previously not have been given the light of day.
[00:06:58] And while some conspiracy theories used to be sort of laughable, the past few years have shown just how dangerous some of them can be.
[00:07:42] The restaurant owners, the owners of the pizza restaurant, were harassed by hundreds of people, and a 28 year old man turned up at the restaurant to ‘self-investigate’ with an assault rifle and he fired three shots.
[00:07:59] The conspiracy theory has been completely debunked, proved to be completely false, and luckily nobody died, but evidently it was pretty close.
[00:08:12] So these kinds of conspiracy theories can be really dangerous, and obviously I wouldn’t like to even give any airtime to any semi mainstream conspiracy theory.
[00:08:25] So today we are going to talk about three of the wackiest, weirdest conspiracy theories out there.
[00:08:34] All of these aren’t a joke, there are people who really genuinely believe them.
[00:08:40] So without further ado, our first one, our first conspiracy theory is that dinosaurs built the pyramids.
[00:08:50] Yes. Dinosaurs, the species that most people acknowledge to have been made extinct about 65 million years ago.
[00:08:59] They are believed by some to have been tamed, domesticated by the ancient Egyptians and to have built the pyramids.
[00:09:11] The reason for this is supposedly that some texts were found that show images of dinosaur-type creatures building the pyramids, but the evidence seems to be pretty tenuous.
[00:09:41] Secondly, and this is one that I quite like, there is a conspiracy theory that Disney made the film Frozen in order to distract attention from the other conspiracy theory that Walt Disney, the creator of Disney, was cryogenically frozen.
[00:10:33] So some people believe that the reason the entire Frozen franchise was created, and that it was called Frozen, was to fill up the search results with references to the actual film and not the conspiracy theory.
[00:11:29] If you aren’t familiar with Stonehenge, it’s the prehistoric monument in the English countryside with huge stones piled up on each other. It’s estimated that it was constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC and archeologists have no hard evidence actually for how these huge stones were lifted up on top of each other.
[00:12:35] We could of course go on all day with weird conspiracy theories, and if you Google conspiracy theories, it really is a internet rabbit warren, you could just go on and on all day, but I think this is quite enough for today’s podcast.
[00:12:53] I will leave that up to you if you want to continue the hunt for conspiracy theories, but as I’ve warned you, it is a slippery slope. So we will leave it there for today.

conspiracy [名] 阴谋;
weirdest [形] 怪异的; “weird” 的最高级;
seductive [形] 诱人的; 有魅力的;
existence [名] 存在; 生存;
fake [名] 赝品; 假货; 冒充者; [动] 伪造; 假装; 冒充; [形] 假的; 冒充的; 伪造的;
assassinate [动] 暗杀; 行刺;
an inside job 内部工作; 内部人员所为;
deep state 深层国家/政府
narrative [名] 叙述; 叙事; [形] 叙述性的;
niche [名] 合适的位置; 称心的职务; 商机; 生态位;
forums [名] 论坛; 讨论会;
recesses [名] 隐蔽处; 橱柜; [动] 休会; 把…放进橱柜;
attribute [动] 由…引起; 把…归因于; 认为是…创作的; [名] 属性; 品质; 特征; 定语;
engage [动] 参与; 从事; 吸引; 雇佣; 与…建立密切关系;
fanning the flames 煽风点火;
legitimate [形] 合法化的; 合理的; 法律认可的; [动] 使合法; 认为正当;
given the light of day 得到阳光的照耀
laughable [形] 可笑的; 逗人笑的;
child sex ring 儿童色情团伙
far right organizations 极右组织
harass [动] 骚扰; 烦扰; 屡次侵扰;
harassed [形] 疲倦的; 厌烦的; [动] 骚扰; 屡次侵扰; “harass” 的过去式和过去分词;
assault [名] 攻击; 侵袭; 侵犯他人身体(罪); [动] 袭击; 突袭;
rifle [名] 步枪; 来福枪; [动] 快速搜寻;
debunk [动] 揭穿真相; 暴露;
evidently [副] 显然地;
airtime [名] 播放时间; 通话时间;
wacky [形] 古怪的; 反常的; 滑稽可笑的; 疯疯癫癫的;
genuinely [副] 由衷地; 真诚地; 真正地;
ado [名] 无谓的忙乱; 小题大做; 麻烦;
pyramids [名] 金字塔; 棱锥体;
extinct [形] 灭绝的; 熄灭的; 绝种的;
tame [形] 驯化的; 温顺的; 枯燥无味的; [动] 驯养; 制服; 控制;
tamed [动] 驯服; 使驯服; “tame” 的过去式和过去分词;
domesticate [动] 驯养; 使爱家; 适应家庭生活;
domesticated [形] 喜欢家庭生活的; 被驯养了的; [动] 驯养; 使爱家; 适应家庭生活;
ancient [形] 古代的; 古老的; [名] 古人;
Egyptian [名] 埃及人; 埃及语; [形] 埃及的; 埃及人的;
supposedly [副] 据说; 据推测;
tenuous [形] 脆弱的; 稀薄的; 空洞的;
cryogenically [副] 低温地;
franchise [名] 特许经营权; 获特许经营权的商店; [动] 授予…特许经销权;
Stonehenge [名] 巨石阵;
prehistoric [形] 史前的; 陈旧的;
pile [名] 桩; 堆; 摞; [动] 堆放; 叠放;
archeology [名] 考古学;
warren [名] 兔子窝; 狭窄拥挤的街区;
slippery [形] 滑的; 狡猾的;
slope [名] 斜坡; 坡度; [动] 倾斜; 有坡度;

23: Part 1: The Most Common Mistakes People Make When Learning English (and How to Avoid Them)

[00:00:35] So it’s a slight deviation from our usual topics of weird and wonderful things that happen in the world.
[00:01:16] We aren’t going to be talking about specific mistakes people make, but rather strategic mistakes in terms of the approach that you take when learning English.
[00:01:45] And if we talk about mistakes that you know that you don’t make, well, you can give yourself a little pat on the back.
[00:01:58] I’m certainly not, and don’t feel disheartened if you notice some of your own behaviour in some of the things that we’ll talk about today.
[00:02:26] As I was making my notes for this podcast, it became obvious that if I tried to squeeze everything into one podcast, well it would end up being quite long.
[00:04:10] Materials are often artificial, staged situations and they’re not really interesting at all.
[00:04:36] The result of this is that you can find yourself getting bored, you can’t motivate yourself and you can’t concentrate as well, and the study of language becomes a chore, something boring to do, not a pleasure.
[00:05:04] Just read or listen to content that hasn’t been dulled down specifically for language learners.
[00:05:12]Not just listening to staged conversations or boring small-talk where you aren’t actually learning anything over and above language.
[00:06:14] Everyone learns at a different pace using different techniques and different things work for different people.
[00:06:51] It’s completely natural to want to engage with other learners and understand how your progress compares to theirs.
[00:07:06] By all means, try out different tactics, but you will find out what works for you and you shouldn’t be comparing yourself constantly to the progress of others.
[00:08:27] This is something that actually pains me to see, and it’s something that I see all the time with language learners.
[00:08:35] In the era of people thinking that there must be a hack, a shortcut for everything, a quick solution that means that you don’t need to put in the hours, this is becoming increasingly prominent.
[00:09:33] Thinking about it like this is just framing it in completely the wrong way .
[00:09:38] Instead, you should embrace the actual language learning process.
[00:09:47] Or to feel more at ease in an English speaking country.
[00:10:08] Thinking of needing a hack makes language learning sound boring and tedious, but it should be the opposite.
[00:10:17] Relish it and suddenly looking for elusive hacks.
[00:10:32] Our next mistake, which is something that almost everyone suffers from to a certain degree, is the fear of making mistakes.
[00:10:42] Now I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, and being told, “don’t be afraid”, is about as useful as being hit in the face with a wet fish. So I will not patronise you by saying that.
[00:13:00] I’ve got a good story here, which I think will be interesting and relevant for a lot of you.

relevant [形] 相关的; 有意义的;
patronise [动] 惠顾; 资助; 屈尊俯就;
degree [名] 度; 程度; 学位;
elusive [形] 难以捉摸的; 不易被抓获 (察觉, 理解或记忆) 的;
Relish [动] 喜欢; 享受; 从…获得乐趣; [名] 享受; 乐趣; 调味品;
tedious [形] 冗(rong3)长的; 沉闷的;
at ease [短语] 安逸; 舒适; 自由自在;
embrace [动] 拥抱; 包围; 囊括; 接受; 信奉; [名] 拥抱;
framing [名] 框架; [动] 制定; 把…框起来; 陷害; “frame” 的现在分词;
fram [名] 框架; 结构; 骨架; 模式; [动] 制定; 框住; 陷害; 表达;
prominent [形] 突出的; 显著的; 杰出的;
pain [名] 痛苦; 苦恼;
constantly [副] 不断地; 时常地;
tactic [名] 战术; 策略;
By all means [短语] 尽一切办法; 务必; 一定;
engage [动] 参与; 从事; 吸引; 雇佣; 与…建立密切关系;
pace [名] 一步; 步伐; 步速; [动] 踱步; 调整步伐;
over and above [短语] 过于; 除…之外; 另外;
dull [形] 愚笨的; 枯燥的; 感觉迟钝的; 无趣的; 阴暗的;
chore [名] 家务活; 杂事; 令人讨厌的或繁重的工作;
motivate [动] 引起动机; 激发; 激励;
stage [名] 阶段; 时期; 舞台; [动] 举行; 上演;
artificial [形] 人造的; 人工的; 假的;
squeeze [动] 捏; 榨; 挤 (进); [名] 捏; 榨; 挤;
dishearten [动] 使沮丧气馁; 使灰心;
pat on the back [短语] 鼓励;
in terms of [短语] 就…而言; 在…方面; 根据;
strategic [形] 战略上的;
specific [形] 具体的; 明确的; 特定的; [名] 特效药;
deviation [名] 偏离; 出轨; 背弃;