Day 65: A Too-Good-to-Be-True Headline
After a physics lesson at a school in Paderborn, Emilian (A), a pupil, shows his physics teacher, Mr Kowalski (B), a headline on his phone.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Herr Kowalski, haben Sie das gesehen? „Forscher sollen Supraleiter bei Raumtemperatur entwickelt haben.“
Mr Kowalski, have you seen this? "Researchers said to have developed room-temperature superconductor."
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B
Da steht „sollen“, und das aus gutem Grund. Hat ein anderes Labor das Experiment schon reproduziert?
It says "said to", and for good reason. Has any other lab reproduced the experiment yet?
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A
Die Meldung ist erst seit gestern online. Die Forscher müssen sich ihrer Sache aber sicher gewesen sein, sonst hätten sie das nicht veröffentlicht.
The story only went online yesterday. But the researchers must have been sure of their findings, or they wouldn't have published it.
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B
Das dachte man 2023 bei LK-99 auch. Nach ein paar Wochen stand fest: Das Ergebnis ließ sich nirgends bestätigen.
People thought the same about LK-99 in 2023. After a few weeks it was clear: the result couldn't be confirmed anywhere.
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A
Aber in dem Video damals hat das Material doch eindeutig geschwebt.
But in the video back then, the material was clearly floating.
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B
Nur halb, und am Ende ließ sich das ganz banal erklären. Voreilige Schlagzeilen sind eben schneller geschrieben als Messungen überprüft.
Only halfway, and in the end there was a perfectly mundane explanation. Hasty headlines are simply quicker to write than measurements are to check.
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A
Also ist die ganze Sensation Quatsch? Schade, ich wollte das morgen allen zeigen.
So the whole sensation is rubbish? Shame, I wanted to show everyone tomorrow.
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B
Das weiß ich auch noch nicht. Stell die Studie nächste Woche der Klasse vor, und wenn sie euren Fragen standhält, rufe ich in Stockholm an.
I don't know that yet myself. Present the study to the class next week, and if it stands up to your questions, I'll ring the Nobel committee in Stockholm.
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