今天的高级听力 来自BBC全球新闻20240505

词典及语言学习交流
1

听写工具：电脑端，Potplayer, （个人）自定义快捷键。F1 定义A点，F2定义B点，F3，取消AB，F4一键退5秒，F5播放/暂停；注意设置的时候一定要勾选“全局”，不然不能在文本编辑器中编辑。

part 1

North Korea is fiercely opposed to Western popular culture, even invoking the death penalty to try to stamp out foreign influence. But now a North Korean propaganda song praising the nation’s leader Kim Jong-Un has gone viral on TikTok. Users around the world have been sharing, commenting on, and even remixing the tune, as Will Leonardo reports.

ABBA-coded, that’s how TikTok fans have been describing the synthy/electro-sounding latest release from Pyong Yang’s Propaganda Ministry. It’s replete with video of the North Korean leader greeting well-wishers, soldiers dancing on top of tanks, school children clapping their hands and doctors giving a thumbs-up in the operating theatre. Lyrics include “let’s brag about Kim Jong-Un, our friendly father”. Now of course this is a man who’s promised to annihilate the country where many TikTok viewers will be watching this video, the United States. But that hasn’t stopped it from gaining a massive following. User comments include “this slaps”, and its so-called “success” has even been compared to Taylor Swift’s new release.

part 2

Experts (God alone knows what he’s saying here but it sounds like “at searching North Korean”) music say that the tune is a classic of the genre: simple lyrics and melodies pitched at vocal ranges most people are able to reach. It’s also, researchers say, emblematic of the complete control the communist authorities have over artistic output in North Korea, where creative freedom is more or less non-existent, and citizens wake up every day to the sound of propaganda music being blasted over loudspeakers. But it’s a different story abroad where no-one, not even the great leader of North Korea, is safe from an army of social media users who’ve perfected the art of trivialising political grandstanding. TikTokers have been remixing the song by overlaying AI vocals, including with those from an internet sensation, the Chinese model, JiaFei.

part 3
挑战一下自己？

Pan.

1 Like
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如果论坛不允许或者不欢迎发听力交流的帖子，请告知一下。谢谢。

:joy:

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Part 1 里的 ABBA-coded 是我朋友Jim（英国）校正的。我是死活不知道这里居然指的是这个老乐队的名字，因为我以前都管它分开读成 A,B，B，A 这样，没想到BBC人是读成 Aber 的。

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不是唸成「阿爸」嗎？:joy:
ABBA

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谢谢楼主这个（来自BBC的）高级听力！
抽时间听了一下这一段（无电脑，只能用手机，采用“经典”操作，挺麻烦），确实是“Experts at searching North Korean music say that…”从expert的搭配也确认其正确！

另外，part 3本人也抛砖引玉，贴出第一句英文，请感兴趣的论坛友友“接龙”，最后请楼主CORRECT！想必论坛里大家都忙，感兴趣的就抽时间挑战一下！重在参与、学习！

Indeed, Kim Jong-Un’s image is never far from an internet meme.

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Hi Brightd,

I am glad you like it. Part 3 of this clip is actually the easiest. At least much more so than part 1 and 2. Here’s my transcript of part 3, proofread by my friend Jim:

Indeed, King Jong-Un’s image is never far from an Internet meme. His idiosyncratic fashion choices have been pored over, spawning articles about his sandals; and social media posts joking that he would love the Swedish designer Koss, known for his flowy over-sized clothing. This episode is also a sign of how TikTok is able to launch an obscure piece of audio and video to prominence overnight. The world wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at another North Korea propaganda video if it were for the app’s users. But whether Pyong Yang’s propagandists will see this as getting their intended message seems doubtful.

part 3

By the way, on Android phones I use 经典复读机 as well. It’s by far one of the best. But on Windows I recommend Potplayer. You should give it a shot.

Pan.

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Should be “obscure pieces of…”?

Should be “if it weren’t for…”, coz “if it were not for…” is a set phrase in the subjunctive mood. And the BBC announcer pronounces “if it weren’t for…”.

Much obliged!
I really do love BBC ENGLISH!
As for “经典复读机”, would you please post a link to this app right here? (I was at a complete loss what to do because there are many such apps on Baidu.)

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Hi, Brightd,

I tried again, and yes, you are right on both counts. It is INDEED “…obscure piceces of” and “if it weren’t for”; the latter being a typical typo. I am glad you spotted them.

As to the app, I wrote something about it. Here’s a couple of reviews from me (in Chinese): Sina Visitor System
Sina Visitor System
Sina Visitor System

The app is widely available on most Chinese-made Android phone app markets. :slight_smile: I hope you’ll find it useful.

It just came back to me, 复读宝在线复读机 Rabc v8.2 this is an online repeater player that can come in handy, and it can do the work off-line, too. It may take some learning how to use, though.

Pan.

1 Like
10

听写工具：电脑端，Potplayer, （个人）自定义快捷键。F1 定义A点，F2定义B点，F3，取消AB，F4一键退5秒，F5播放/暂停；注意设置的时候一定要勾选“全局”，不然不能在文本编辑器中编辑。

My transcript:

Now, are you one of those who’ve managed to avoid the dreaded Middle Aged Spread? If so, well done, but you may want to listen closely to the following story. Italian scientists say millions of middle-aged adults who believe they’re a healthy weight may in fact be obese. The scientists reached this conclusion after they looked at people’s Body Fat Percentage instead of calculating their Body Mass Index, or BMI, a measure that’s commonly used to determine if people are over-weight. Phillip Rocksby is our health reporter and told us more about the study.

BMI, Body Mass Index, is the standard we have of measuring how healthy people are, whether they’re healthy weight, over-weight or obese, but it’s quite, it’s quite a broad-brush thing, and it doesn’t pick up, doesn’t pick up, doesn’t know the difference between fat, and muscle and bones. So if you’re a very muscley person like a bodybuilder, you seem to be a bit obese when acutally you might be quite fit. So this time researchers scanned thousands of people instead, looking at how much body fat was in somebody’s body, a percentage. And they found that, they actually found a lot more people were obese than the standard method of finding out, and so they’re warning that BMI on its own isn’t really a great method. And we know that because previously studies have also said it’s it’s quite broad-brush; it doesn’t really work very well. So they’re saying, you know, always think of other things you can do to find out if people are obese.

And they’re saying that potentially there could be millions of people who think that they’re not obese who actually are. And why is it important to find out if you’re obese?

Well, obesity is a chronic disease…

part 2

… and it leads to all sorts of other health issues like conditions like Type II diabetes, and it ups your risk of heart disease, and stroke, cardiovascular disease. So it’s a major major health issue. And we know that right around the world globally, there’s a huge increase in the number of people who are obese, particularly in western countries, in places like the USA it’s well over a third of people are obese. So there’re huge health issues connected with it, so the closer we are to knowing exactly how many people really are obese then the better it is for us to try and help them.

So people listening to this, if they’re worried, what can they do?

Well, I think, SHE CHUCKLES, it, this is acknowledging that as we eat, and this is really about middled aged people onwards, our bodies do change. And actually we do tend to get a pile lot of body fat around the middle, and our muscle mass declines as well. And so our bodies are changing and we have to maybe think about that ___ (be old?) as we age, and maintain exercise, think about our diet a bit more closely, and be aware that our bodies are changing.

Good advice. That was Phillipa Rocksby.

**

Pan.