シャドーイング練習: 688 - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

レッスンを作成中...
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It's time to improve your English listening and speaking skills with another true and frankly crazy story.
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A story so unusual that many people think it cannot possibly be real.
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Imagine this, a government sends soldiers into battle.
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The soldiers carry machine guns and expect an easy victory.
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But they are not fighting another army.
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They are fighting thousands of large birds.
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This is the incredible true story of the Great Emu War.
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It was 1932 and Australia was facing difficult times.
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Like many countries around the world, Australia was suffering from the Great Depression.
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Money was scarce, jobs were hard to find and many families struggled to earn enough to survive.
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In Western Australia, many farmers were trying to build a new life.
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Some of them had fought in the First World War and had received farmland from the government after returning home.
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They hoped that farming would provide a stable future for their families.
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But life on the land was much harder than they had expected.
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The weather was often difficult.
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Prices for crops were low and making a profit was never easy.
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Then, as if those problems were not enough, another challenge arrived.
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Every year after the breeding season,
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thousands of emus migrated across Western Australia in search of food and water.
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An emu is the second largest bird in the world after the ostrich.
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Although it cannot fly, it is a powerful animal with long legs
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that allow it to run at speeds of almost 50 kilometers per hour.
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That year, around 20,000 emus entered the farming regions.
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The birds spread across the fields, eating wheat and damaging crops that farmers had spent months growing.
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As they moved through the countryside,
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they also broke fences, making it easy for rabbits and other animals to enter the farms and cause even more damage.
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For the farmers it was becoming a disaster.
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Many believed they might lose an entire season's work.
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They asked the Australian government for help, hoping that something could be done before it was too late.
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The government decided to send soldiers.
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It seemed like a simple solution.
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If trained soldiers had machine guns, surely they could deal with a group of birds.
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A small military team led by Major Meredith arrived with two Lewis machine guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
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At first, everyone expected the operation to be over within a few days.
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Instead, things quickly became much more difficult.
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When the soldiers found a large group of emus, they carefully moved into position.
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They waited for the birds to come closer before opening fire.
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But as soon as the shooting began, the emus reacted immediately.
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Instead of staying together, they scattered in every direction.
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Within seconds, one large group had become dozens of small groups running across the countryside.
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The soldiers found it almost impossible to hit enough birds before they disappeared.
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A few days later, they tried a different strategy.
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This time they attached one of the machine guns to a truck.
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The plan was to chase the emus across the fields while firing at them.
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On paper it sounded like a clever idea.
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In reality it was a complete failure.
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The ground was rough and uneven.
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The truck bounced constantly as it drove over rocks and holes,
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making it almost impossible for the gunner to aim accurately.
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Meanwhile, the emus ran surprisingly fast.
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They changed direction without warning,
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disappeared behind bushes, and often escaped before the soldiers could get close enough.
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The soldiers were becoming frustrated.
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The emus seemed to know exactly how to avoid them.
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Some newspapers even joked that the birds had their own military commanders who organized their escape.
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Of course, that was only a joke, but people across Australia began laughing at the strange operation.
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The soldiers continued their mission for several weeks.
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They fired thousands of bullets and managed to kill some emus, but nowhere near enough to stop the damage.
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For every group they chased away, another group appeared somewhere else.
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The birds simply kept coming coming.
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Eventually the government decided that the operation had become too expensive and was not producing the results everyone had hoped for.
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The soldiers were ordered to leave.
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Although some emus had been killed, thousands remained on the farms.
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The farmers still faced the same problem they had before.
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Over the following years different solutions were introduced.
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Stronger fences were built to protect farmland and farmers were encouraged to control the emu population themselves through reward programs.
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These methods proved to be much more effective than sending soldiers into the countryside.
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Today, the Great Emu War has become one of the most famous stories in Australian history.
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It is often described as the war that Australia lost against birds.
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Of course, it was never officially a war.
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It was a military operation designed to protect farmland from wild animals.
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But the nickname has survived for almost a hundred years because it perfectly captures how unusual the whole event was.
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Although the soldiers had modern weapons and military training, they underestimated their enemy.
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The Imios were fast, unpredictable and perfectly adapted to the Australian landscape.
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That is why this strange story continues to entertain people around the world nearly a century later.
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Now you can test yourself with a quick quiz.
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Don't forget to answer the questions out loud and press pause if you need more time.
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Ready?
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Why were the farmers asking for help?
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And the answer is because thousands of emus were eating their crops and damaging their fences.
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Why did the government send soldiers?
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The government believed the soldiers could quickly solve the problem with guns.
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Why didn't the soldiers succeed?
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And the answer is the emus ran very fast, scattered into small groups and escaped across the countryside.
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Why did the truck plan fail?
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The uneven ground made it difficult to drive and almost impossible to aim a machine gun.
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How was the problem managed later?
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And the answer is better fences and reward programs for farmers.
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I love this story because it reminds us that nature is often much more unpredictable than we expect.
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What do you think?
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If you had been in charge, part of the Australian government, how would you have solved the problem?
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Let me know below in the comments.
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Also please don't forget to like, subscribe and hype to support my work.
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It really helps.
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If you are ready for another true story to improve your English then click here.
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I'll see you in the next video.
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Take care.
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このレッスンの語彙とスピーキングのポイント

この動画には、シャドーイング用の文が97文、単語が1087語あります。 音声の長さは10:24です。 話す速さはゆっくりで、1分あたり約105語です。一つ一つの音をまねる余裕があります。 単語の87%は英語の頻出3,000語に含まれるため、語彙は分かりやすいです。

この動画の重要語彙

動画に出てくるやや難しい単語15語を、発音と意味つきで紹介します。

  • farmer /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ (名詞) — 農夫, 農家. A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm.
  • fence /fɛns/ (名詞) — 柵, 塀. A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
  • countryside /ˈkʌn.tɹiˌsaɪd/ (名詞) — 田舎. An area located outside of towns and cities; an area that is not urban or suburban; a rural area.
  • crop /kɹɑp/ (名詞) — 作物. A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
  • unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/ (形容詞) — 珍しい. Not usual, out of the ordinary.
  • chase /t͡ʃeɪs/ (動詞) — 追いかける, 追跡する. To follow at speed.
  • solve /sɒlv/ (動詞) — 解決する. To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
  • arrive /əˈɹaɪv/ (動詞) — 着く, 到着する. To reach; to get to a certain place.
  • reward /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ (名詞) — 見返り, 賞. Something of value given in return for an act.
  • disappear /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ (動詞) — 消える. To vanish.
  • unpredictable (形容詞) — 予測できない, 先が見えない. Unable to be predicted.
  • earn /ɝn/ (動詞) — 稼ぐ, 得る. To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
  • meanwhile /ˈmiːnwaɪl/ (副詞) — その間に. During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place.
  • stable /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ (名詞) — 馬小屋, 厩舎. A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
  • carefully /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ (副詞) — じっくり, 慎重に. With care; attentively, circumspectly.

注意したい発音

話し手はdon't, didn't, I'llなど、短縮形や弱形を4回使っています。聞こえたとおりの短い形で発音しましょう。

  • 「sh」と「zh」の音: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/
  • 長い単語（アクセントの位置に注意）: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/, accurately /ˈæk.jə.ɹɪt.li/, ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/, underestimate /ʌndɚˈɛs.tɪ.meɪt/

この動画での練習方法

  1. まず声を出さずに動画を最後まで聞き、知らない単語をメモします。
  2. 通常の速度で一文ずつシャドーイングし、話し手のリズムに合うまで繰り返します。
  3. 自分の声を録音して元の音声と比べます。farmer, fence, countrysideなどの単語に特に注意しましょう。

この動画の文法

話し手がよく使っている文型を、動画の実際の表現とともに紹介します。

文型動画での表現
受動態 be + 過去分詞 — 誰がするかより、何が起きるかに焦点を当てるcould be done · were ordered · had been killed
現在完了形 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去の出来事が今も関係しているhas become · has survived · have solved

シャドーイングとは？英語上達に効果的な理由

シャドーイング（Shadowing）は、もともとプロの通訳者養成プログラムで開発された言語学習法で、多言語習得者として知られるDr. Alexander Arguelles によって広く普及されました。方法はシンプルですが非常に効果的：ネイティブスピーカーの英語を聞きながら、1〜2秒の遅延で声に出してすぐに繰り返す——まるで「影（shadow）」のように話者を追いかけます。文法ドリルや受動的なリスニングと異なり、シャドーイングは脳と口の筋肉が同時にリアルタイムで英語を処理・再現することを強制します。研究により、発音精度、抑揚、リズム、連音、リスニング力、そして会話の流暢さが大幅に向上することが確認されています。IELTSスピーキング対策や自然な英語コミュニケーションを目指す方に特におすすめです。

シャドーイングのやり方: ステップ別の完全ガイドを読む →