每日口說挑戰為什麼寶寶有令人無法抗拒的吸引力 (Why Are Babies So Cute?)

Intro:
Hi, VoiceTubers. How’re things going? My name is Tera, your host of today’s pronunciation challenge, and today, we’ll be all talking about cuteness! Imagine that right now there’s an adorable puppy wagging its tiny little tail, looking at you with its lovely big eyes, and happily running at you. What do you feel? How about those kittens, chubby little animals sometimes with corky behaviors, or fetching human babies? Aww, heart-melted! Have you ever wondered why we will have this kind of uncontrollable feeling? Check out this video and learn more about what’s called the "baby schema". Okay, now let’s move on to our daily sentences.

Featured sentence: This, in turn, enhances offspring survival and perpetuates our species.

Tips:
enhance: two syllables with the stress on the latter one. Notice that the vowel of the second syllable is a /æ/ sound, so it should be pronounced as /hæns/. "en-hance".
perpetuates: four syllables with the stress on the second one. "tu" here is /tʃu/, whereas "ate" is /eɪt/, a long vowel. "per-pe-tu-ates".
species: two syllables with the stress on the first one. "p" will have a /b/ sound since it is preceded by a voiceless "s", and "cies" is /ʃiz/. "spe-cies".

[Ok, here are some vocabulary words from the sentence.]

Vocab:
enhance (v.) KK [ɪnˋhæns] IPA /ɪnˈhæns/
def: to improve the quality, amount, or strength of something
提高；增加；改善
One of the policies the new mayor made was to plant more trees to enhance the overall air quality in the city.
新市長的其一政見是種更多樹來改善城市的整體空氣品質。

offspring (n.) KK [ˋɔf͵sprɪŋ] IPA /ˈɑːf.sprɪŋ/
def: the young of an animal, or a person’s children
後代子孫
How many offspring does a dog usually have?
一隻狗通常可以生下多少後代？

perpetuate (v.) KK [pɚˋpɛtʃʊ͵et] IPA /pɚˈpetʃ.u.eɪt/
def: to cause something to continue
使永久存在
The theater in Apple Park was later named after Steve Jobs in order to perpetuate the memory of him.
蘋果園區內的廳後來被取名為史蒂夫賈伯斯廳以長憶他。

Outro:
So, what is a "baby schema"? According to the Austrian Ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, "baby schema" is a set of infantile physical features such as the large head, round face, and big eyes, which are perceived as cute and motivate care-taking behavior in other individuals, with the evolutionary function of enhancing offspring survival. A research in which researchers manipulated the baby schema content to produce infant faces with high, for example, round face and high forehead, and low, for example, narrow face and low forehead, were published in 2009. 122 Undergraduates as participants were then asked to rate these infants’ cuteness and their motivation to take care of them. The results showed that the baby schema response was a critical function of human social cognition that might be the basis of caregiving and have implications for the infant–caretaker interactions. Alright, so what always makes you feel like holding and squeezing? Tell me down below. This is Tera. Talk to you later!

Reference:
Glocker, M. L., Langleben, D. D., Ruparel, K., Loughead, J. W., Gur, R. C., & Sachser, N. (2009). Baby Schema in Infant Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults. Ethology : formerly Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie, 115(3), 257–263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01603.x

☺This, in turn, enhances offspring survival and perpetuates our species.
如此一來，也提高後代的存活率，讓我們的物種綿延不絕。
【心得】現在生育率越來越低了。
■enhance [ɪnˋhæns] (vt.)提高、增加；增進；提升；增強
■offspring [ˋɔf͵sprɪŋ] (n.C、單複數同形)子女；子孫；後代；(動物的)幼獸；(植物的)幼苗；結果；產物
■perpetuate [pɚˋpɛtʃʊ͵et] (vt.)使持續；使長存、使永恆、使永久存在

This, in turn, enhances offspring survival and perpetuates our species. But what exactly makes something seem cute? 如此一來，提高了後代存活率，也讓我們的物種生生不息。但到底是什麼讓人看起來很可愛？
◆ perpetuate [pɚˋpɛtʃʊ͵et] (vt.) 使持續,使長存,使永恆,使不朽
◆ in turn : 按順序,依次,輪到,逐個地;轉而,進而
◆ enhance [ɪnˋhæns] (vt.)提高,增加(價值,品質,吸引力等)
◆ offspring [ˋɔf͵sprɪŋ] (n.)子女,子孫,後代;(動物的)幼獸,(植物的)幼苗;結果,產物
◆ survival [sɚˋvaɪv!] (n.)存留,遺存;倖存,殘存;倖存者,殘存物

This, in turn, enhances offspring survival and perpetuates our species.

DAY 1243
This, in turn, enhances offspring survival and perpetuates our species.

Day1

Offspring : the young of an animal,or a person’s children

Perpetuate : to cause something to continue

1246