外刊讲解版@Mat20231128注：本文档主要是为同学理解和学习Mat老师的外刊提供参考，建议同学先听课程音频，有需要时再对照文本。另外，
外教讲解偏口语化，在听课及对照文本时，不必在语法上过分细究。Hello, listeners. Welcome once agai
n. This is me, Mat Clark. And today we''re talking about secrets.
Now, the article tells us that not telling others about good news
, not telling people your good secrets can make you feel more ene
rgetic and in control. It gives you a good feeling. But keeping b
ad secrets to yourself, this can make you feel worse. This can ma
ke you feel nervous or anxious. We''ll talk more about the article
later.First, let''s jump straight into a story about secrets. Jam
ie was just like any other boy, except he had a secret. His secre
t was an unusual aunt. His aunt Alice was a witch. How did Jamie
know this? Well, he saw his Aunt Alice in the forest wearing a wi
tch''s hat, witch''s clothes and doing typical witch things, just l
ike a witch straight out of a storybook."Aunt Alice, are you real
ly a witch?" Jamie asked, the next time he went to her house for
tea."Yes, Jamie, I''m a witch, but you must keep it a secret. If y
ou tell anyone or even think about telling anyone, you''ll start f
orgetting everything. I''ve used a special spell, witch''s magic —
a witch''s curse. And this secret, if you tell anyone, your memori
es, all your knowledge, and eventually even your tongue will disa
ppear," She warned him in quite a serious voice.Jamie agreed to k
eep her secret. "How exciting! I have a witch for an aunt!" Jamie
wanted to tell his friends, but he remembered his aunt''s warning
. "If you tell anyone, your memories, all your knowledge, and eve
ntually, even your tongue will disappear."The next time Jamie vis
ited his aunt, he had an idea. "Aunt Alice, if I keep your secret
, will you teach me magic? Then, I''ll never have a reason to tell
anyone about our magical secret," he suggested. Aunt Alice thoug
ht for a moment and then agreed. Aunt Alice did need someone to h
elp her with all her witch business, and it seemed like a good id
ea. If Jamie learned magic with her, then he would probably keep
the secret.So Jamie spent all his school holidays with her, readi
ng the "Witch''s Guide to Magic." He learned about potions, spells
and the importance of secrets. He loved to read all the differen
t spells in the book. But one day, there was one spell that caugh
t his eye: "Safely tell a secret," it was called. It was a way to
share a secret without any other magic, without any other witch''
s curse having any effects.Jamie thought about it: "If I learn th
is magic, then I can tell my aunt''s secret and nothing will happe
n." So he practiced the spell over and over again in his head, an
d once he''d learnt it and he was sure he could use it effectively
, he decided to tell his best friend the big secret. Now he remem
bered his aunt''s warning — "If you tell anyone this secret, your
memories, all your knowledge and eventually even your tongue will
disappear." But he was confident. He whispered the magic words a
nd then shared the secret with his friend. He waited. His memorie
s felt okay. He still had lots of knowledge. And then he checked,
"my tongue is okay." He felt relieved and proud of his magical s
kills.But, secrets can soon become rumors and then news, and then
common knowledge that everyone knows. And soon enough, the whole
town found out about Aunt Alice being a witch. Now, it was quite
a traditional town, and people didn''t understand. They were scar
ed of witches. Everyone in the town got together and demanded tha
t Aunt Alice leave immediately. So she packed her bags, all her b
ooks, all her witchy things and magic things, and she left.Jamie
was heartbroken. Without Aunt Alice, he couldn''t learn any more m
agic. He had no magic books, no spells, and he missed his favorit
e aunt terribly. In his school days, and he was bored every day.
He had nowhere to go and nothing to do.As Jamie''s adventures with
magic ended, he realized that the best secrets are like hidden t
reasures. They are unspoken and not shared.(Now, just like usual,
this story has no title. If you''ve got a title, you can suggest
it in the comment section. )Now let''s look at some vocabulary fro
m today''s article.CovetWhen you covet something, it means you wan
t it; you really want it; you have a strong desire for this thing
.Many people covet fame and fortune, but it doesn''t always bring
happiness.We often use it as an adjective — coveted.This prize is
the most coveted literature award in the world. It''s the award t
hat everyone wants to win. InclinationAn inclination is a feeling
that makes you want to do something.My inclination is to look fo
r a new job immediately.We often use it with the adjective "natur
al" — "natural inclination" to mean your natural feeling, which i
s like an instinct, an instinctive feeling.If I''m lost, I can''t f
ind my way, my natural inclination is to go this way. (I think we
need to go over there. So that''s my natural feeling, my instinct
, my natural inclination.)To shout something from the rooftopsWe
use this expression to mean sharing some good information, some g
ood news in a very open and very public way, usually when it''s ve
ry good news or exciting information.When he found out he got the
job, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. (He wants to tell
everyone.)After his surprising exam results, he was so happy, he
wanted to shout it from the rooftops. (It means he wanted to shou
t the good news publicly in a very open way to tell everyone.)Ene
rgizedIf you feel energized, it means you''ve suddenly got a lot o
f energy, enthusiasm and positive feelings.After a good night''s s
leep, she woke up feeling energized and ready to start the day.Ex
ercise and a healthy diet can help you stay energized throughout
the whole day.NuanceNow, nuance as a verb is not very common (it''
s more common as a noun). But in today''s article, the word nuance
is used as a verb. (Actually, as a verb, it kind of means the sa
me thing. It means to give nuance to something.)As a noun, nuance
is like the slight differences, the very small details, that we
notice and then we can see that things are different.So the verb
to nuance something means to add or give small details, so then w
e can notice the differences between different things.She careful
ly nuanced her words to explain the difficult situation. (She use
d very detailed words.)This new information has nuanced our under
standing of the disease. (It has added many details to our existi
ng understanding.)Detrimental effectsDetrimental effects, meaning
harmful effects, negative effects or bad consequences of somethi
ng or the bad results of something.Processed food can have a detr
imental effect on your health.Lifting really heavy weights too of
ten in the gym can have detrimental effects on your body.We can u
se it in the singular detrimental effect, "to have a detrimental
effect on something;" or we can use it in the plural. It''s the sa
me meaning, "to have detrimental effects on something."DepleteWhe
n you deplete something, it means you use all of it or most of it
. You reduce it by a large amount because you''ve used a lot of it
.Cutting down too many trees can deplete our natural resources an
d harm the ecosystem.Our food supplies are being depleted faster
than we can replace them.EnlivenThe verb to enliven means to make
something more lively, to make something more energetic, to make
something more interesting.The music really enlivened the party
and then everyone started dancing.Adding colorful artwork to the
room enlivened the interior and made it much more inviting.Motiva
tions (plural noun)Most books tell us that motivation is an uncou
ntable noun. Just like many abstract things, they are uncountable
because we can''t see the thing. It''s not a physical object, so i
t''s difficult to count it. But in our article today, we see "moti
vations" — plural. Why? Let me give you an example.The company ha
s various motivations for the expansion plan. (Different sources
of motivation, many different ways of being motivated. Therefore
it''s plural and countable.)There are a number of different motiva
tions behind the development of the city center. (So again, a num
ber of different motivations. These are different sources of moti
vation.)Pressures (plural noun)Usually, pressure is uncountable,
but today in our article it''s countable and in the plural form. W
e can use the plural when we want to show that there are differen
t pressures coming from different sources: pressure from differen
t people, pressure from different places.Students often experienc
e both emotional and academic pressures when they begin universit
y.Various workplace pressures began to affect his performance.So
remember most English uncountable nouns will be countable in some
situations.Okay, let''s think about today''s article it''s quite si
mple. The information is quite easy to understand.The title:The Q
uiet Thrill of Keeping a SecretThe feeling you get when you have
a secret, this kind of special feeling that you have, this quiet
thrill, the feeling inside when you have a secret.The article beg
ins:If your partner gets down on one knee to propose (asking you
to get married), or you get a call with the job offer you’ve been
coveting, your inclination might be to shout it from the rooftop
s. But new research suggests that keeping positive secrets to you
rself can have an “energizing” effect.So if something good happen
s to you, if somebody asks you to marry them or you get a special
job, the job you really wanted, you may want to tell everyone, y
ou might want to tell everyone the good news.But this research sa
ys that keeping these good secrets to yourself can have a good ef
fect on you. It can make you feel excited and full of energy.The
article continues:In one experiment, participants were randomly a
ssigned to reflect on an experience they had talked about with ot
hers or one they were currently keeping secret. Those who reflect
ed on secret good news reported they felt much more “energized” t
han those who reflected on good news they had already shared.So w
hat does it mean? So in this research, in this study, people were
asked to think about a time they shared a happy moment with othe
rs or they were asked to think about a happy moment that they did
n''t tell anyone else, a happy moment they kept to themselves, the
y kept a secret. Now the study showed that people who kept the ha
ppy secret to themselves felt better. They felt more energized co
mpared to those people who had shared the good news.The article c
ontinues:The research nuances our understanding of the science of
secrets (Is there really a science of secrets? I guess there is.
), which so far has focused on the detrimental effects. Negative
secrets tend to deplete us. Negative secrets have also been linke
d to anxiety and relationship problems.So the study adds more con
tent, more details, more small details, more nuance to what we al
ready know about secrets.Before we knew that keeping bad secrets
can make us feel kind of tired, worried and even cause trouble in
our relationships.Then the article tells us:Positive secrets, ho
wever, don’t seem to have this effect. Rather, people seem enlive
ned by them. One factor could be that people often have different
motivations for keeping good news to themselves. Those with posi
tive secrets were much more likely to report that they were keepi
ng quiet for internal reasons, not because they felt any outside
pressures.So good secrets don''t seem to have these bad effects. I
nstead, good secrets make people feel lively and energetic. This
might be because people keep good news to themselves for their ow
n reasons, not because they are behaving or reacting to some outs
ide pressure - pressure from others.Then in the final part of the
article:A man called Michael Slepian; he is the author of a book
and he''s the lead researcher on this study. He says: “You feel r
eally in control over positive secrets, and that may be part of w
hat makes them feel energizing,” (said Michael Slepian, the autho
r of “The Secret Life of Secrets” and a lead researcher on the st
udy).So he says that having a happy secret makes you feel in cont
rol and this gives you some powerful energy and makes you feel go
od.OK, now it''s listener-question-time. One question asked: What''
s the difference between probably and possibly? Or we can also as
k this question in a slightly different way. What''s the differenc
e between probable and possible? Because these are the same words
. probably, probable, possibly, possibleThe meaning is the same.
They''re just different types of word. So let''s start with probabl
e. If something is probable, then it is likely to happen. The pro
bability is high.Probably tells us that something is more likely
to happen than not to happen, if that makes sense. I''ll probably
meet you in town later. This kind of feels like 50-50 chance. It''
s quite likely, more than fifty, I think. Now, if something is po
ssible, then it can happen. Whether it will happen doesn''t matter
because possibly doesn''t tell us anything about "how likely".If we say that something is possible, you''re not really saying anything about the numbers, the chances or the probability. You''re just saying that it can happen, it is able to happen. If I say I''ll possibly meet you in town later. (It can happen, but it could be zero in 100 ''cuz it might not happen. It could be 1 in 100 chance or it could be 99 in 100 chance. It could be very likely because possibly just describes can. It doesn''t tell us anything about will or how likely.) So if you say possibly, then you''re saying something can happen. But if you say probably, you''re saying that not only is it possible, but the chances are higher that it will happen than it won''t.Okay, this brings me to the end of the episode. Thanks very much for listening. I''ll be back next week with more. Until then, goodbye. No, it''s okay. I haven''t told anyone. No, Aunt Alice, I promise. I haven''t told anyone. |
|
