Shadowing Practice: We Built a Wildlife Corridor Through a City - Learn English Speaking with Video

Kies een oefenmodus

Elke modus opent een volledig scherm oefenruimte.

152 zinnen

Als zinnen te kort of te lang zijn, klik op Bewerken om ze aan te passen.

What if there was a way to transform your city from this to this, replacing concrete with flowers and drains with rain gardens?

What if we can make our towns resilient against floods, heatwaves and droughts, whilst boosting biodiversity and mental health?

Right now, all around the world, people are finding incredible ways to bring nature back into our cities.

And we're here in Bristol to do exactly that.

We're literally kind of surfing on a wetland right now, and I never thought I would say that sentence.

Pockets of lush green wetlands have been popping up all over the city.

Now there's a plan to create a green corridor along the river's embankment.

And we're going to help make this dream a reality.

Together with our friend

Sam Bentley, we'll explore just how easily we can upgrade our cities

and what that means for the future of urban environments all over the world.

In this video, we're going to be checking out loads of genius innovations

that are bringing nature back to the city piece by piece.

We're Planet Wild.

Welcome to Mission 43.

More than half of the global population live in cities, and many of these places have one thing in common.

They were built on water.

Basically, where you see a city, there used to be a swamp or a wetland.

Then we built huge drainage networks to remove the water and paved over the land so we could live there, sometimes even burying entire rivers underground,

like the Bievre in Paris, the Fleet in London, or the Frome here in Bristol.

And predictably, removing all this water has led to some massive problems.

Flash flooding.

Flash flooding in parts of London.

Urban heat island effect.

Dangerous conditions to be outdoors.

Turns out, wetlands aren't just incredibly important for wildlife, but they also keep temperature and water levels stable.

You know, the kind of thing we humans really need to survive.

And this is why all over the world, people are bringing wetlands back into our cities.

When you start to install wetlands across the city, whether that's a small rain garden,

a drain pipe wetland, right the way to a lake in your local park,

it's really sort of magical and everyone in the city benefits from wetlands.

This is Julia from WWT, the wetland charity.

They're kicking off a huge effort to turn Bristol into the UK's first wetland city.

By replacing old drainage systems with lush rain gardens, installing micro wetlands in backyards and anchoring huge wetlands on the river,

they're creating little pockets of biodiversity everywhere.

In fact, over the next few years, there'll be 200 new projects here in Bristol to bring nature back.

Just imagine the impact that this would have it would completely transform public space across the city, creating habitat, absorbing floodwaters, filtering toxic runoff,

and cooling the city down.

And the transformation has already begun.

WWT and their partners are creating a wildlife corridor through the city center.

And this is the next piece of the puzzle.

We are currently building and planting a futuristic structure called a floating wetland.

We've got one platform which is 100 square meters

and another smaller 16 square meter platform specifically designed with these miniature staircases to save baby seagulls

that are getting stuck in a corner of the harbor.

But we are not doing this alone.

Hey Cam.

Alright Sam.

How's it going?

This is Sam Bentley, founder and host of one of our favorite YouTube channels.

If you've never heard of him, he reports good news stories from around the world and is also making a video about the transformation of Bristol.

So we asked him if he could help us with our new floating wetlands.

This is that and then this becomes there and… Huh?

Okay, okay.

This is how it works.

Step one is putting all the pieces together and locking them in place.

It's a completely modular structure that can be built to any size, and every element is recycled, recyclable or biodegradable.

The frame and floats are old drinking water pipes that are wrapped in coconut husk.

And instead of soil or mud that would just drift away, we're using buoyant clay pellets as the plant bed.

Step two is planting it with more than 20 species of native wetland plants.

What have you got?

Ah, nice.

Glorious.

So above water, we have this layered planting system that creates snow wastes for pollinators and a safe haven for nesting birds.

But the real magic happens underneath.

As these plants grow, their roots go super deep into the water, creating a refuge for marine life, cleaning the water, taking all those pollutants out,

and also regulating water temperature too.

There's potential to install up to 5 ,000 square metres of these floating wetlands here in Bristol,

transforming the concrete embankment into a thriving nature corridor.

So the Planet Wild community is completely funding the construction and installation of these two modules,

as well as even more platforms in the future to make this dream a reality.

You know, with Planet Wild, we do projects all over the world, bringing nature back in different remote, far -flung places.

But it's just amazing to see that it can come back in the middle of our cities.

So in addition to the floating wetlands,

we're also helping WWT to develop a miniature wetland in a box that can be attached to any ordinary drain pipe.

To show you how it works, we're gonna take a break from the harbor and visit a small garden nearby to build a prototype.

We should probably get on with it though.

Yeah.

So this is a very ordinary drain pipe coming from the roof and so when it rains,

the water goes from the gutter all the way down here straight into the drain.

But we are gonna catch this water and use it to create a wetland in a box.

Well, it's actually two boxes.

The top box acts as a pond where aquatic plants can thrive as it fills up with rainwater.

This eventually overflows into the bottom box, a miniature bog that insects and amphibians can call home.

So to make it yourself, you just need to follow these steps.

First thing we need to do is make a hole in the bottom.

This hole should be covered with a filter.

And we use this permeable plant pot.

Then add a layer of gravel, a fabric membrane, and a layer of soil.

The membrane is there to stop the soil running down the drain.

Step 2.

Drill a hole into the side of the top box, allowing the water to flow into the bottom box.

Step 3.

Take a deep breath and cut the drain pipe so

that the entire structure will be in the perfect position to catch the water.

Step 4.

Fill everything with native wetland plants and add a wall of loose bricks.

100

And that's it, we're done.

101

And within hours you'll start to get insects like dragonflies and damselflies coming back here.

102

Spiders can make their homes in here, frogs and newts can come and live in here.

103

And it's just incredible the amount of biodiversity that can come back just with this.

104

The UK actually has 4 ,000 square kilometers of garden space just like this.

105

And now we can actually start to use some of that and give it back to nature.

106

We have to interrupt this

107

Planet Wild video to bring you some breaking good news from cities around the world.

108

First up, we're heading to Seoul, South Korea.

109

For decades the Jongjuchon stream was completely buried underneath a massive elevated highway.

110

But in the early 2000s, the city actually tore that highway down and restored the natural river.

111

Since then, biodiversity has exploded by over 600 % and the corridor is now home to hundreds of species of fish, birds and insects.

112

Now we're heading over to the Netherlands where one company has found a way to turn lifeless concrete buildings into green space.

113

Respire uses a moisture retaining concrete layer to grow moss directly onto walls.

114

Within 12 weeks it forms a green surface that survives on rainwater alone, filtering air pollution while naturally cooling the building.

115

Next up we're looking to China where they're creating huge sponge cities.

116

Instead of using great infrastructure like concrete pipes to drain stormwater,

117

they're building sprawling urban wetland parks and permeable pavements that naturally soak up extreme floods like a giant sponge.

118

But the ultimate nature city has to be Singapore.

119

By making greenery a core part of their urban design, they've turned a dense metropolis into a city in nature

120

and their waterways are now so healthy

121

that families of wild otters are happily swimming right through the middle of the central business district.

122

You can see from these projects there's not just one solution.

123

In a city you have to find little pockets

124

and corners to bring nature back around human infrastructure and that's exactly what we're doing in Bristol.

125

We're literally kind of surfing on a wetland right now and I never thought I would say that sentence.

126

This will be the permanent home of our new wetland.

127

For centuries it's been a grey wall but thanks to the Planet Wild community it will soon look like this.

128

This piece was installed just two years ago and you can see the difference it's just like full of life.

129

There's families of birds in there, it's full of insects, I've seen loads of fish swimming underneath.

130

Just incredible what can happen in such a short space of time.

131

And of course this is just the beginning.

132

These plants will start to establish, they'll start to grow and it really will start attracting nature in.

133

We haven't even finished installing the wetland yet and there's this family of swans rocking up and checking it out.

134

It can potentially be their new home, like that is just so perfect, so beautiful.

135

Finally we installed the second platform and again the effect was instant.

136

So we literally just installed the floating wetland

137

and we've seen a baby seagull who is stuck in the water use the ramp

138

and climb up onto the platform and that's just saved its life it's just unbelievable to witness.

139

And that is the beauty of this project nature is just waiting beneath the concrete

140

and the asphalt once you give it a chance it's immediately making our cities more biodiverse safer

141

and simply nicer places to live.

142

And because it's such a simple solution, it can easily be copied around the world.

143

So our funding here is not only transforming Bristol, but it's also creating a blueprint for future wetland cities everywhere.

144

Thank you so much for making it all the way to the end of the video.

145

I hope you can tell that we put a lot of hard work into the missions and the mission videos,

146

but we really couldn't do any of it without our community.

147

Right now, we're more than 27 ,000 members.

148

We're actually growing really quickly which is so exciting.

149

Every single month we go on a mission to bring back endangered species, to clean up our oceans and to restore entire landscapes.

150

So if that sounds good to you, you can join

151

Planet Wild as a backer by following the QR code here or the link in the description.

152

Thanks so much for watching and catch you next time.

App downloaden

Alles wat je nodig hebt om vloeiend te spreken

AI UitspraakScoor elke zin

IPA OefeningBeheers elk geluid

WoordenschatBouw je woordenschat op

WoordenspelLeren terwijl je speelt

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Aanbevolen Video

70 zinnen

Cycle superhighways in the Capital Region of Denmark, to the everyday cycling champions

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

33 zinnen

Join Kai, protect the night sky. Light pollution is hurting cultural knowledge and biodiversity

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze spreekles is gebaseerd op de video “We Built a Wildlife Corridor Through a City”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: wetland, nature, cities, Bristol, drain. Deze video bevat 115 zinnen en 1927 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 11:27. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 168 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 80% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
drain zelfstandig naamwoord	/dɹiːn/	afvoer
concrete bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˌkɑnˈkɹit/	concreet
flood zelfstandig naamwoord	/flʌd/	overstroming, vloed
pipe zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpaɪp/	fluit
float werkwoord	/fləʊt/	drijven
layer zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈleɪ̯ɚ/	laag
corridor zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈkɒɹɪdɔː/	corridor, gang
insect zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈɪn.sɛkt/	insect, kerfdier
pocket zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpɑ.kɪt/	zak
soil zelfstandig naamwoord	/sɔɪl/	grond, aarde
filter zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfɪltɚ/	filter
metre zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈmiːtəɹ/	meter
naturally bijwoord	/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/	natuurlijk
infrastructure zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/	infrastructuur
ordinary bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/	gewoon, alledaags

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
come back werkwoord	terugkomen
check out werkwoord	onderzoeken
clean up werkwoord	schoonmaken
get on with werkwoord	aan de gang gaan met, doorgaan
pop up werkwoord	opduiken, te voorschijn komen
run down werkwoord	aanrijden
turn out werkwoord	uitvallen, resulteren

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	has led · has already begun · you've never heard
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	were built · can be built · are wrapped

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 36 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals we're, gonna, they're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, thrive /θɹajv/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, pollution /pəˈluʃən/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: miniature /ˈmɪn.(i)ə.tʃəɹ/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/

Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:

Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: flood /flʌd/, installed /ɪnˈstɔːld/, drainage /ˈdɹeɪnəd͡ʒ/, thrive /θɹajv/, sponge /spʌnd͡ʒ/
/æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: transform /tɹænsˈfɔɹm/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, charity /ˈtʃæɹɪti/
/g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: grey /ɡɹeɪ/, underground /ˌʌn.dəɹˈɡɹaʊnd/, upgrade /əpˈɡɹeɪd/, regulate /ˈɹɛɡ.jə.leɪt/, gravel /ˈɡɹævəl/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als drain, concrete, flood.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

Shadowing Practice: We Built a Wildlife Corridor Through a City - Learn English Speaking with Video

Kies een oefenmodus

App downloaden

How China is designing flood-resistant cities

City of Greater Dandenong | Community Care

ONE-MINUTE ENGLISH: the water

Regenerative Farm Combines Ducks and Blueberries | Parc Carreg Duck Eggs, Wales

Why are coral reefs so important?

210826 BBC Points West, Evening News

Heal Our Planet. Protect Our Future.

Can banning traffic really fix Oxford Street's problems?

I Turned a Table into a Living Forest

Why British cities make no sense