Shadowing Practice: 12 Things That Could Destroy Earth - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Time and again, Earth has faced scenarios pushing us to the brink of our existence.

Whether it's a giant asteroid that's slammed into us,

or an invisible virus creating a worldwide pandemic, danger is ever -present.

But despite these interferences, humanity has always figured out how to claw our way back.

But for how long?

Will one of these 12 scenarios end life on our blue marble forever?

And how likely are they to happen?

12. World War III breaks out.

Bombs, shelters, rations.

The last time we had a world war was in 1939.

Are we on the brink of another one?

With global tensions rising and battles erupting all around the world, the possibility of a world war becomes greater and greater every year.

Regardless of how things escalate, this war would be unlike anything else we've experienced.

Advanced military technologies, the fight for natural resources and nukes would all be possibilities.

The battlegrounds could be the United States, Russia, or potentially Taiwan.

So if World War III were to happen, how would you survive?

If you're not up for an armed resistance, you'd better get out of the big cities, which are often targets.

Head for rural areas, make a survival kit, and just maybe start thinking now about a move to a safe haven,

very far north or very far south.

Will it be Greenland, New Zealand, or Antarctica?

Of course, all this is assuming a world war with conventional weapons, but what if there's something much worse?

But before we get to that, let me show you something that the What If team has been using these days,

something we're super excited to tell you about.

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One of my favorite features of Opera is the tab islands.

You know, sometimes I'm researching multiple stories at once, and before you know it, I've got dozens, hundreds of tabs open.

But with tab islands, I can easily group the tabs to stay organized.

It's also got a built -in AI chatbot called ARIA.

With just a few clicks, you can highlight any text online, and ARIA will give you more information on the subject.

I use it all the time when I'm trying to get through more complex science articles.

Plus, there's a built -in VPN, ad blocker, and messenger tab.

And it's even got this feature called Lucid Mode that automatically sharpens blurry videos.

Say goodbye to 480p.

If you want to browse the internet like it's 2024, well, check out the link in the description to download Opera.

It's totally free, and it's the best way to explore the internet.

11. An all -out nuclear apocalypse.

A regional nuclear war would kill millions, but it wouldn't end the world.

Pull a couple of heavy hitters into the ring, like the US and Russia, and all bets are off.

A 300 kiloton bomb explosion will vaporize anything, people included.

But this is just a start.

If multiple nukes went off, every explosion would create a giant fireball as hot as the Sun's core.

You think that's bad?

It gets worse.

The dense black carbon smoke would spread across the Northern Hemisphere, freezing the Earth and causing a nuclear winter for up to 10 years.

99 % of the population of the US, Europe, Russia and China could starve to death.

Assuming you survive the blast, seek shelter immediately.

For the week or two after, you'll want to hunker down indoors to avoid radioactive fallout.

Hiding inside the thickest concrete or underground might protect you from the radiation, but how would you escape the harsh nuclear winter?

New Zealand, anyone?

If human beings don't end up killing each other on Earth, well, there could be another thing that does.

Yeah, I'm talking about aliens, and not because they want to enslave us, like we see in the movies.

What if it's because they're hungry for that one thing that even we can't get enough of?

Before I tell you what that is, do aliens even exist?

Well, the Drake Equation estimates

that there's a 53 to 99 percent a 0 .6 % chance that we're the only intelligent life in the Milky Way.

So if aliens are out there, how would they even get to Earth?

Maybe they'd use a futuristic spacecraft, or travel via wormhole.

And maybe they'd pop by because they're hungry. For energy.

A Type II alien civilization could potentially have a Dyson Sphere, a ball that orbits their planet,

harvesting solar energy, and looking for new sources.

Like our Sun?

Yikes.

And if our Sun goes, you can say goodbye to virtually all life on Earth, humans would freeze to death, our crops would cease to exist,

and our once -blue marble would become a barren wasteland.

OK, maybe a little unrealistic let's move on to something a little more likely.

A truly massive 96 km wide asteroid would finish us all off.

Shrink it down to 12 km wide, and it might leave a few of us standing.

It would still be horrific.

The site of the impact would get very, very hot.

tsunamis would rise from the oceans, billions of us would die.

The impact would spawn an enormous dust plume engulfing the globe.

It would block out the Sun, and a deep freeze would set in for thousands, even millions of years.

Now, chances are small, but if it happens, what should you do?

Well, scientists tell us an underground bunker would be the best option.

Now, if you can't swing that, well, at least stay away from the impact zone and clear of coastal areas with tsunamis.

But sooner or later, you're going to freeze to death.

Or things could get really, really hot.

Just like a super -large asteroid could take us out, so could a supervolcano.

200 million years ago, Earth was hit by a supervolcano, which wiped out 75 % of the species on Earth.

It was so strong it ripped apart

North America from Africa and plonked the Atlantic Ocean bang in the middle.

And did it stop with just one massive eruption?

Yeah, sorry, that's a no. For 600 ,000 years, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province,

or camp, erupted again and again.

Lava covered everything.

Volcanic ash rained down.

But you won't believe the thing that got us.

It was pollution.

CO2 and carbon levels skyrocketed, causing sweeping environmental destruction.

So is there a massive eruption waiting to happen today?

Well, below the surface of Yellowstone Park sits a giant caldera.

We don't think it'll erupt anytime soon, but in the distant future, it might.

If it does erupt, well, expect a repeat of what happened 200 million years ago.

Luckily, geologists are monitoring

Earth for seismic activity.

But can anyone save us from a zombie apocalypse?

The Cordyceps fungus creates zombified ants, growing around their brains and taking over their nervous system.

100

Could this jump over to humans and create a bona fide human zombie?

101

Well, scientists suggest that our body temperature is simply too high for the fungus to survive.

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But what if this fungus somehow did take over our systems?

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Big cities like

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New York, London and Hong Kong would be the first major targets of an event like this.

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And due to the cordyceps spreading via spores, it would be incredibly difficult to avoid getting infected.

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The zombies would slowly take over major metropolitan areas.

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If you live in more rural areas of the world, you'd likely be safe. For now.

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Yeah, that's right, another pandemic.

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If you're watching this, you were lucky enough to survive the COVID -19 pandemic.

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But will you survive the next one?

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Our world is changing, and for the worse.

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In the next few decades, the probability of a novel disease outbreak will grow three times due to population growth,

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changes in our food systems, and closer contact between humans and animals.

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Scientists predict another pandemic will hit us within the next 59 years.

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And a new virus could be a more dangerous killer.

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It might mutate faster, or we might not make a vaccine for it as quickly as we did with COVID.

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Instead of 7 million people who died from the virus, it could be tens of millions.

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During the COVID pandemic, a bit of bioengineering went a long way in creating mRNA vaccines that saved our lives.

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But can the same synthetic biology that saved our lives kill us off too?

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In a secret lab somewhere, could someone create a virus or superbacteria that will wipe out the human race?

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Imagine a super virus that spreads silently.

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It leaves its victims asymptomatic for weeks, only to turn deadly after that prolonged gestation.

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Due to how much the world travels and how much smaller everything has become, the virus can spread more quickly and reach more people.

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Now that is something that could wipe out humanity.

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Unless you're just someone who never sees people, then maybe you'll be safe.

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But if the virus doesn't get you, I bet the next apocalyptic scenario will.

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Well, it doesn't sound like a huge deal,

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but a 4 degrees Celsius rise in temperature would destroy life on Earth as we know it.

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Sea levels would rise by a half meter to a full meter, and maybe even more by the year 2100.

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Cities like New York, London, and Venice would see extreme flooding.

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Food production would go haywire.

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We'd see heat waves in the tropics and frequent high -intensity tropical cyclones.

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Our coral reefs would be destroyed.

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And that's not the end.

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The water would keep rising in the coming centuries.

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In a world like this, humanity might not go extinct, but Earth would only be able to support just one billion people.

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Let's hope you're one of the lucky few.

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OK, that sounds bad, but what happens if it suddenly gets harder to breathe?

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3. Oceanic anoxia Ocean oxygen concentrations are declining today.

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Are we in danger of an oceanic anoxia event?

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After all, it did happen 450 million years ago.

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A drop in oxygen levels persisted for 3 million years, and 85 % of marine species vanished.

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Now, if phytoplankton were part of the vanishing marine species, the ocean's ability to remove carbon dioxide would be compromised,

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driving our climate crisis into overdrive.

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Plus, atmospheric oxygen would go down.

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Thankfully, a full -scale oceanic anoxic event would take thousands of years to develop.

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So for the moment, take a deep breath while you can.

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2. Ecological Collapse Okay, so maybe we'll still have oxygen to breathe,

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but are we on the brink of a major ecosystem collapse?

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It happened over 250 million years ago, during the Permian -Triassic period.

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Healthy ecosystems thrive on a set of balanced interactions between animals and plants, predators and prey.

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Every species has a critical role to play.

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If all the species playing a particular role within the ecosystem disappear, well, that means the first domino has fallen,

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and the collapse of our world is imminent.

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A startling loss of biodiversity, like we're witnessing today, is the beginning of the end.

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Just imagine if we lost all the bees, our best pollinators.

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We'd have to say goodbye to much of our fruit, and humans would be far less healthy.

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Yeah, robotic bees, anyone?

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Yeah, speaking of robots, well, here's the thing that's most likely to kill us all off.

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1. Killer Robots Even the deadliest effects of large -scale global warming are a few years away.

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But AI that can kill us?

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It's here.

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In a world where AI gets smarter than us, humans can be enslaved by the very intelligence we've created,

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or wiped out by one programmed to kill us.

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Yeah, we're speeding toward the dangerous point of singularity, where AI takes over human intelligence.

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Yeah, let's just hope our new robot overlords are willing to play nice.

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But if they're not, I have an idea.

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Yeah, what if, instead of humanity getting wiped out, we progressed into a hyper -advanced civilization?

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Well, that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “12 Things That Could Destroy Earth”. Este vídeo tiene 169 frases y 2005 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 15:54. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 126 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. Solo el 80 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente. 29 de sus 169 frases son preguntas, así que sirve para practicar la entonación de las preguntas y las respuestas cortas.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
virus sustantivo	/ˈvaɪ.ɹəs/	virus
wipe verbo	/waɪp/	enjugar, trapear
humanity sustantivo	/hjuˈmænɪti/	humanidad
oxygen sustantivo	/ˈɑksɪd͡ʒən/	oxígeno
freeze verbo	/ˈfɹiːz/	helarse, congelarse
goodbye	/ɡʊdˈbaɪ/	adiós, hasta luego
robot sustantivo	/ˈɹoʊ.bɑt/	robot
scenario sustantivo	/sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/	escenario, supuesto
collapse verbo	/kəˈlæps/	derrumbarse, desplomarse
zombie sustantivo	/ˈzɑmbi/	zombi, zombie
ecosystem sustantivo	/ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/	ecosistema
asteroid sustantivo	/ˈæst(ə)ɹɔɪd/	asteroide, planetoide
fungus sustantivo	/ˈfʌŋ.ɡəs/	hongo
brink sustantivo	/ˈbɹɪŋk/	borde, límite
killer sustantivo	/ˈkɪlɚ/	matador, matadora

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
take over verbo		apoderarse, enseñorearse
wipe out verbo		aniquilar, exterminar
break out verbo		escapar forzadamente, fugarse
check out verbo		investigar, chequear
end up verbo		terminar, ir a parar
figure out verbo		averiguar, captar
get out of verbo		salirse de, ponerse fuera de
get through verbo	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	aguantar, salir adelante

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

Are we on the brink of another one?
You think that's bad?
Before I tell you what that is, do aliens even exist?
Let's hope you're one of the lucky few.
Are we in danger of an oceanic anoxia event?

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado	if aliens are out there, how would they
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	has faced · has always figured · we've experienced
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	was hit · would be destroyed · would be compromised
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa	cities, which are · people who died · someone who never

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 36 contracciones y formas reducidas, como you're, we're, I'm. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “th”: breathe /bɹiːð/, synthetic /sɪnˈθɛtɪk/, thrive /θɹajv/
Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, shelter /ˈʃɛltə/, explosion /ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, eruption /ɪˈɹʌpʃən/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, ecosystem /ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, apocalypse /əˈpɑkəlɪps/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: swing /ˈswɪŋ/, slam /ˈslæm/, sweep /swiːp/, spacecraft /ˈspeɪsˌkɹæft/, starve /stɑɹv/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: virus /ˈvaɪ.ɹəs/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, vaccine /vækˈsin/, survival /sɚˈvaɪ.vəl/, virtually /ˈvɚ.t͡ʃə.wə.li/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: freeze /ˈfɹiːz/, zombie /ˈzɑmbi/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, browser /ˈbɹaʊ.zəɹ/, compromise /ˈkɑmpɹəˌmaɪz/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como virus, wipe, humanity.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: 12 Things That Could Destroy Earth - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Gramática en este vídeo

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?