Pratica di Shadowing: Cat In The Box - How To Play - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Scegli una modalità di pratica

Ogni modalità apre una sala di pratica a schermo intero.

258 frasi

Se le frasi sono troppo corte o troppo lunghe, clicca su Edit per modificarle.

Hi and welcome to Watch It Played.

My name is Rodney Smith and in this video we're going to learn the two to five player

Cat in the Box designed by Munayuki Yokoyoshi and published by Bezier Games who helped sponsor this video.

So is this a card game or is it a cat game or is it a game all about avoiding paradoxes?

Yes, the answer is yes to all of that.

So join me at the table and let's learn how to play.

To set up, place this research board in the center of the play area

and collect the double -sided research cards which show purple on one side and white on the other.

Then refer to this table from the rule book and examine the row for your number of players.

In this video, we'll assume we have three players.

It tells us that we can use either the white

or purple sides of the research cards but recommends white for our first game.

You then order the cards from left to right so that the numbers go from the lowest values to the highest,

ensuring that the card full of cats is on the far right.

Then, one by one, slide each card into the slots found at the top of the research board

so that it looks like this when you're done.

At some player counts it tells you to use what are known as these observed tokens.

For example, with four players you're told to fill in every space showing a 9.

However, in a 3 -player game, you just don't use these at all and they can be left in the box.

Now find the cat cards with this back, which have numbers on their faces going from 1 to 9,

and refer to this table in the rulebook.

On the row for our number of players, it says we only use the cat's number from 1 to 6,

so we can return all of them that are numbered from 7 to 9 back to the box.

The rest will shuffle into a face -down deck that you placed beside the board.

Now, the numbers on the board relate to the cards found in the deck, and because the 7, 8s,

and 9s have been removed from the game, and these cat symbols are never used,

it means we only need to use these spaces so we can just fold the board in half like this.

Each player now takes one of these boards, flip to the side, showing your number of players here in the bottom corner.

Everyone also takes a set of 12 tokens in a chosen color,

putting one token onto each of the four X spaces of their personal board.

The player who most recently encountered a cat is now given this start player card, or you can just pick someone randomly.

And that's the setup.

Now there are some changes in a two -player game, but we'll discuss those briefly at the end of this video.

Cat in the Box is a style of card game known as trick -taking, which, like a lot of games,

you win by scoring the most points.

But if you've never played a trick -taking game before, don't worry, you'll learn everything you need to know right in this video.

If you have played a trick -taking game before, well, I think this one is quite unique, so expect a few surprises.

The game is played over a series of rounds equal to the number of players.

So in this three -player game, we'll play three rounds, and each round is broken into three phases, starting with the preparation phase.

Here, you shuffle together all of the cat cards, and then deal them around and around the table until the deck is gone.

And with the magic of editing, let's make that happen.

There.

The cards have all been dealt, and in a three -player game like we have here,

it means each player will end up with a total of ten cards in their hand.

And you can always examine your own cards, but you must keep them a secret from the other players.

Each person now picks a single card in their hand to put face down beside the research board,

and no one should see what the other players discarded.

Those chosen cards will not be used during this round, so you'll want to pick a card to get rid of that suits your strategy.

Now at this point, you don't know enough of the rules to know why you'd pick one card over another,

but this will make more sense as the video goes on.

Before we continue though, there's an important concept that would be helpful to understand.

As I mentioned earlier, Cat in the Box is a style of game known as trick -taking.

In games like this, players will usually take turns playing a single card from their hand onto the table.

This is known as playing a trick.

These cards make up the trick.

Why is it called the trick?

I don't know.

It just is.

One of the cards in the trick will beat out all of the others,

and the person who played that card is said to have won the trick.

They will usually collect all of those played cards and set them in a single pile in front of themselves.

Then a new trick is played where everyone adds a new card to the center, and again, one of the players will win that trick.

As you earn multiple tricks, you'll usually stack them in such a way

that it makes it easy to see exactly how many tricks you've earned so far.

For example, if this player wanted another trick, they might offset them like this.

So it's clear this represents two tricks.

Okay, with that general understanding of trick -taking established, at this point in the preparation phase,

after everyone has discarded one card from their hand and set it face down beside the research board,

the first player will now examine the rest of their cards

and try to predict how many tricks they think they'll win during this round.

You're holding nine cards, and a round lasts once everyone has one card remaining in their hand, so that means at most,

eight tricks will be played.

So, at most, if you want all of them, you'd win eight tricks.

Now, that said, you can only predict a number of tricks to win from the options showing here on the center of your board,

either one, three, or four.

If you have a different player count, the values shown on the other side are different.

Maybe in this case, though, I look at my hand and I think I can win four tricks.

To show this, I then add one of my markers to this four space.

Now going clockwise around the table, each other player also makes their own prediction,

which can be the same or different from what other players have chosen.

And with the prediction complete, we now move on to the trick phase of the game.

Here, the start player picks any one card from their hand

and plays it face up on the table to start the first trick.

Every card in the deck has a value, and there are five copies of each value in the deck.

But not only that, each card has a color, and I'm not talking about the black and white you think you're seeing.

Each of these cats is either red, blue, yellow, or green.

What, you can't see the color?

Well, that's because in this game, you decide what color a cat is as you play it.

If I want to say this three card is blue, then as I play the card I just say that it is.

I would announce I'm playing a blue three.

To make it clear to all the other players that this is blue,

I set the card by the side of my player board that has this blue highlight.

If I wanted to make this green, I'd set it here instead.

Now after playing a card and declaring its color, you add one of your tokens to this board in the matching colored space with that value.

This is really important because although I said there were five copies of every number in the deck, 5 1s, 5 2s, 5 3s,

and so on, there can be only one copy of each number in each color that's actually played.

In other words, there can only be one blue 3 played during the round, and since I said this is a blue 3,

no one else can play a 3 and say it's also blue

because it would be impossible for another blue 3 to exist.

100

Every token on this board reminds us of what cards have already been played this round, and it means those cards cannot be played again.

101

If somebody else had a three, they'd have to play it as another color.

102

Another important concept to understand is

103

that the color first played to a trick is known as the lead color or lead color.

104

As the first player, I played a blue three, so blue is the lead color for this trick.

105

Now the next player in clockwise order must play a card from their hand, and normally players have to match the lead color.

106

Maybe they play a one and declare it as blue by putting it here.

107

Now because a blue one has been played no more blue ones can exist

108

so no one else can play a one

109

and say it's blue now our third player here goes

110

and they play a blue five adding their card here

111

and marking that space of the board once everyone has played a single card the trick is over

112

and we see who won it now as we'll learn later

113

there are situations where other players can play a card into a trick that doesn't match the lead color.

114

But when everyone does play the lead color, you check to see who played the highest value, and that person wins the trick.

115

Here, this player had the highest value in the suit lead, so they win the trick and collect the cards played,

116

putting them in a face -down pile in front of themselves so everyone can see they won one trick.

117

The player who won the trick now starts the next one by playing a card from their hand

118

and declaring its color

119

but keep in mind they cannot declare a card that's already been marked with a token on the research board.

120

And with that understood, there are a few other rules we need to be aware of.

121

I had said earlier that after a card has been played, everyone must play a card that matches the lead color.

122

For example, let's say that this player starts by playing a green 4.

123

And going around the table, it's now my turn and I have to play a green card as well.

124

But what if I don't have a green card?

125

Now I can imagine what some of you might be thinking.

126

How can a player not have one?

127

Can't they say that any card they're holding is green?

128

If I'm holding this one, couldn't it be a green and in that case I'd have a green card to play?

129

Well yes, but the important thing to understand is

130

that a card in my hand doesn't become a particular color until I decide it's that color.

131

This isn't a green one, this is just a one, for now.

132

I might look at my entire hand and decide, nope, none of these are green.

133

Once you declare you can't follow the lead color because you don't have it,

134

you must remove the marker sitting on that color of your personal board.

135

The X that is exposed reminds you and everyone else that you don't have any of that color in your hand.

136

In other words, during later tricks, I can't suddenly discover, oh, well, what do you know, I do have another green card in my hand.

137

The exposed X in the green area of my board means I previously said I don't have any green.

138

So that means I don't.

139

And if I don't have the color that was lead, in that case, I am allowed to play a card of a different color.

140

I might play this one and say it's red by setting it here and marking the red one space with my token.

141

Then the next player would go, and they'd have to follow the lead green color, unless they decide they don't have any of it either.

142

But we'll say they declare this as a green five.

143

And with that, let's see who won the trick.

144

Based on what we saw before, you might think this green five has won.

145

After all, it followed the color that was lead, and it has the highest value.

146

But there's one exception to winning tricks based on value.

147

Notice the cat symbol here, beside the red row?

148

This tells us that the red color is Trump.

149

Trump is another special term found in trick -taking games.

150

It represents a type of card that is stronger than all other types.

151

In Cat in the Box, red is Trump, and always beats other colors that were played.

152

So even though this is a 5 in the color that was lead, I played a red, and red is stronger than any other color,

153

so it wins, and I would take the trick.

154

Now just to be clear, only red beats other colors.

155

Let's say I had instead played a yellow 6.

156

Even though this is the highest valued card that was played, it's not in the color that was lead,

157

and it's not trump, so it can't win.

158

I should also mention, if more than one trump card is played into a trick, then the highest valued trump wins.

159

Remember, when you win a trick, collect the cards that were played into a face down pile that you set in front of yourself.

160

But make sure that you keep each trick you have separate so everyone can see how many tricks you've won so far.

161

With that understood, we now know the main rules of playing tricks, but I need to make something else clear about the red trump cards.

162

When you're starting a new trick, you can't lead with a red card unless Trump has already been broken.

163

Breaking Trump is another common trick -taking term.

164

In the previous trick, remember how the player led with green, and then I said, I don't have any green,

165

and I played a one red instead?

166

When you can't follow the color that was led, you're allowed to play any color that you're allowed to, including red.

167

And the first time a red is played like this, it's called breaking Trump.

168

Once Trump has been broken, now any player can start a trick by playing red.

169

Again, normally you cannot start a trick with a red card, not until red, which is Trump, has been broken.

170

It's easy to see if Trump has been broken because there'll be at least one player token on the red row.

171

Now there is one exception that allows you to lead with red before

172

Trump's been broken.

173

You could decide the only color you have left in your hand is red.

174

Then you can lead with red, even if it hasn't been broken yet, because you're saying it's the only option you have.

175

If you do this though, you must remove the tokens from all the other colors on your personal board as a reminder

176

that you can no longer play those colors, since you declared you only have red.

177

And now with red broken, anyone else can lead with it.

178

So just to summarize, when starting a trick, you can play any color you want, except for red unless red has already been broken,

179

or you're declaring that red is the only color you have to play.

180

But no matter what color was lead, every other person must play a card in that same color, unless they're declaring they don't have that color,

181

in which case they remove the token from the matching color on their player board, and then they can play any other color,

182

including red, that isn't already showing an X on their board.

183

And those are all of the rules for playing a trick.

184

And after each trick, the person who won it starts the next one

185

and you'll keep going until each player has only one card left in their hand.

186

At that point, you don't play a final trick, the round just ends and you go to final scoring.

187

However, it is possible the round will end before that, if a paradox occurs.

188

If it's your turn to play a card into a trick, you may not have a valid card to play.

189

Let's say it was later in the game and this player started the trick with a blue 2.

190

Looking at my hand, I have a 3, but I can't play it because a blue 3 was played earlier in the round.

191

So I can't say I also have one.

192

That would be impossible.

193

The red 3 and yellow 3 were also already played.

194

But the green 3 space is open.

195

So could I say this is green and play it?

196

Well, no, because earlier I said I have no greens in my hand.

197

So I can't now say this is a green.

198

So I can't play this card.

199

I also can't play this 5 because every color in 5 has already been played.

200

So I'm holding cards, but I can't play any of them without them being cards

201

that technically I shouldn't be able to have.

202

These shouldn't even exist.

203

And that means I've created a paradox.

204

Just keep in mind, you can't create a paradox on purpose.

205

If I had a card I could play legally, then I must.

206

But if a paradox is created, you reveal your entire hand to show that you have no valid options, and the trick ends right there.

207

No one else goes, and everyone moves right to the scoring phase.

208

So again, tricks are played until everyone is holding only one card, or someone's created a paradox.

209

In either situation, you go straight to the scoring phase.

210

First, each player scores one point for every trick they won.

211

I won one, two, three tricks, so I'd score three points.

212

Now, if a player had caused a paradox, they instead lose one point for every trick they won.

213

This could cause them to have a negative score.

214

So if I had caused a paradox, I would now have minus three points.

215

And you score your tricks even if the number of tricks you earned didn't equal the amount you predicted you'd gain.

216

I thought I'd get four, but I only got three.

217

I still score my three points.

218

On the other hand, if, like the purple player here, you do earn as many tricks as you predicted,

219

in addition to the points for the tricks, you also receive a bonus.

220

Your bonus is equal to the largest number of your tokens that are adjacent to each other on the research board.

221

Pieces are only adjacent if they are up, down, left, or right of each other, not diagonally.

222

So these two pieces are adjacent, but these two are not.

223

Now in a case like this, the purple player's largest group of adjacent pieces are these here.

224

So since they match their prediction, they would also score 1, 2, 3, 4 bonus points.

225

To keep track of your scores, use the included score pad.

226

And after the scoring phase, it's time to prepare for the next round.

227

Here, each player collects back all of their tokens from the research board and their player board,

228

but then sets back one token on each of their X's.

229

You also collect all of the cat cards

230

and shuffle them into a single deck to be dealt out during the next round's preparation phase.

231

The person who started the round with the start player card then passes it to their left, so that player can begin the next round.

232

And you'll keep playing rounds until you've completed as many as the number of players, so three in this case.

233

You then total all of the scores from the rounds that were played, and the person with the highest score wins.

234

If there's a tie, the tied player with the highest score during the final round wins.

235

And if there was still a tie, the tied players would share the victory.

236

With that understood, let me quickly go over the rules changes for a two -player game.

237

First, you'll only use cat cards numbered from 1 to 5, so you'll block the value 6 spaces on the board with these tokens.

238

You'll then shuffle and deal 10 cards to each player, which will leave 5 left over that you'll keep face down.

239

You then reveal 3 of them and place an unused player token on the green row of each number revealed.

240

So here we'd add a marker to the green 2 space, to the green 4 space.

241

And if you happen to draw a duplicate number, you instead place a token on the matching yellow value.

242

If all three cards had happened to be matching, you'd put the tokens on the matching green, yellow, and blue values.

243

And that completes the setup for a two -player game.

244

In a two -player game, players do not make a prediction.

245

Instead, when the round is over, they score one point for each trick that they won,

246

and a player that wins four or fewer tricks also receives the bonus score for their largest group of adjacent pieces.

247

However, a player who causes a paradox is penalized just like in the 3 -5 player game.

248

Otherwise, the rest of the rules are played the same.

249

And that's everything you need to know to play

250

Cat in the Box.

251

If you have any questions about anything you saw here, feel free to put them in the comments below,

252

and I'll gladly answer them as soon as I get a chance.

253

You'll also find forums for discussion, pictures, other videos, and lots more over on the games page at BoardGameGeek,

254

and I'll put a link to that in the description below.

255

And if you found this video helpful, please consider giving it a like,

256

subscribing, and clicking that little bell icon so you get notification anytime we post a new video.

257

And if you'd like to support us directly, you can join our Patreon team, which I'll have linked below.

258

But until next time, thanks for watching.

Scarica l'app

Tutto ciò che serve per parlare fluentemente

Pronuncia con IAVoto per ogni frase

Pratica IPAPadroneggia ogni suono

VocabolarioCostruisci il tuo lessico

Gioco di vocabolarioImpara giocando

Scansiona QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Video consigliato

99 frasi

Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione

Questa lezione di conversazione si basa sul video “Cat In The Box - How To Play”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: card, trick, player, color, played. Questo video contiene 258 frasi e 3810 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 19:06. Chi parla va veloce, circa 200 parole al minuto: aspettati suoni legati e ridotti. Il 87% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è facile da seguire.

Vocaboli chiave di questo video

15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:

Parola	Pronuncia	Significato
trick sostantivo	/ˈtɹɪk/	inbroglio
token sostantivo	/ˈtoʊkən/	simbolo, segno
declare verbo	/dɪˈklɛɚ/	dichiarare
paradox sostantivo	/ˈpæ.ɹəˌdɒks/	paradosso
deck sostantivo	/ˈdɛk/	pedana, pavimento
collect verbo	/ˈkɑlɪkt/	raccogliere, bottinare
adjacent aggettivo	/əˈd͡ʒeɪ.sənt/	adiacente
earn verbo	/ɝn/	guadagnare
bonus sostantivo	/ˈbəʊ.nəs/	bonus, extra
purple sostantivo	/ˈpɝ.pl̩/	viola
predict verbo	/pɹɪˈdɪkt/	profetizzare
prediction sostantivo	/pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/	predizione, previsione
reveal verbo	/ɹɪˈviːl/	rivelare, gettare la maschera
preparation sostantivo	/ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/	preparazione
examine verbo	/ɪɡˈzæmɪn/	esaminare

I phrasal verb che sentirai

Parola	Pronuncia	Significato
make up verbo	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	comporsi
set up verbo	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	preparare, installare

Frasi da ripetere

Frasi brevi e complete del video che puoi riutilizzare nella conversazione di tutti i giorni:

What, you can't see the color?
I would announce I'm playing a blue three.
But what if I don't have a green card?

La grammatica di questo video

Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:

Struttura	Nel video
Frasi condizionali if + frase, will/would + verbo — una condizione e il suo risultato	if you want all of them, you'd win
Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso	have been removed · you've never played · have played
Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa	are known · can be left · have been removed
Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa	back, which have · person who played · red, which is

Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione

Chi parla usa 90 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come can't, don't, you'll. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.

I suoni “sh” e “zh”: prediction /pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/
Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, diagonally /daɪˈæɡ.nə.li/

I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:

/h/ — va soffiata, non è muta: helpful /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/, highlight /ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/
Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: trick /ˈtɹɪk/, paradox /ˈpæ.ɹəˌdɒks/, deck /ˈdɛk/, collect /ˈkɑlɪkt/, adjacent /əˈd͡ʒeɪ.sənt/
/æ/ — più aperta della “e”: paradox /ˈpæ.ɹəˌdɒks/, examine /ɪɡˈzæmɪn/, valid /ˈvælɪd/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, stack /stæk/

Come esercitarsi con questo video

Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come trick, token, declare.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Tecnica dello shadowing: leggi la guida completa passo dopo passo →

Pratica di Shadowing: Cat In The Box - How To Play - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Scegli una modalità di pratica

Scarica l'app

How to Play Poker for Beginners | PokerStars Learn

The Monkey Business Illusion

What To Know BEFORE Getting Into PC Gaming! 😃

Capablanca's Brilliant Move Was A Blunder⁉️

My Favourite Games From GMTK Game Jam 2026

Building a REAL pawn that transforms into a queen (automatically)

Animal Sounds - Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

I Solved Every Board Game

Total War: Warhammer - Beginner's Guide 01: Rock Paper Scissors

People Order Coffee, I Serve Them Suffering - Espresso Tycoon

bobbyFischer shadowing vid1

The Robot Chess Player Scam