So in the oasis of intelligentsia that is TED, I stand here before this evening as an expert in dragging heavy stuff around cold places. I've been leading polar expeditions for most of my adult life, and last month, my teammate Tarka L'Herpiniere and I finished the most ambitious expedition I've ever attempted. In fact, it feels like I've been transported straight here from four months in the middle of nowhere, mostly grunting and swearing, straight to theTED stage. So you can imagine that's a transition that hasn't been entirely seamless. One of the interesting side effects seems to be that my short-term memory isis entirely shot. So I've had to write some notes to avoid too much grunting and swearing in the next 17 minutes. This is the first talk I've given about this expedition, and while we weren't sequencing

genomesor building space telescopes, this is a story about giving everything we had to achieve something that hadn't been done before. So I hope in that you might find some food for thought.

这段话如果作为阅读材料一点也不难，除了intelligentsia 和grunting这种单词。不过就整体意思而言，也能理解个八九不离十。如果作为听力，我相信也不是太难。毕竟作为一个演讲，重读、停顿、抑扬顿挫等等，都可以帮助我们更好地理解演讲者要表达的意思。但如果我们仅仅停留在这个层面，那么听力的瓶颈永远无法超越。

在理解整体意思的基础上，能抓住每个单词，甚至在正常语速下，连读吞掉的那些现象如果能抓住，那么，就不会隔着一层窗户纸了。

在这段话中，before you的“you”瞬间读过。

adult life中的“adult”中的“t”省去。

entirely shot中的“shot”容易和“short”混淆。

weweren't容易理解为we went

hope in由于连读容易理解为“hoping”

这些细节就是在听力中，需要注意的。其实也正是这些是需要我们在口语中注意的，因为在母语人士正常讲话的情况下，这些都是正常现象，而作为英语学习者，这些看似简单的表达和发音现象是区别是否说英语地不地道的关键点。