Shadowing Practice: $1 vs $100,000 Egg! I Hatched The Craziest Pets! - Learn English Speaking with Video

$1.

$20.

$70.

$10,000.

$100,000.

The eggs keep getting bigger, the animals keep getting weirder, but we're going to hatch it.

Or at least, we're going to try.

I started with the cheapest egg I could find.

Quail eggs.

$1.20 for the whole pack at the supermarket.

I brought them home, set them on the lab bench, and opened the pack.

And I remember thinking, this is either going to be the easiest thing I've ever done, or I'm going to feel very stupid very soon.

Into the incubator, 37.5 degrees, which apparently is the exact temperature a quail egg needs to not die.

I turn them by hand three times a day, every day, for 14 days.

Which sounds relaxing, it is not relaxing.

Day 14, nothing.

Day 15, nothing.

Day 16, I started googling whether I'd done something wrong.

And then, day 17, there it is!

Within about 20 minutes, three of them were already out and moving around like they'd been doing it their whole lives.

Which technically they had by the way.

17 days old and already running.

No one taught them that, they just knew.

They can't regulate their own body temperature yet, so the first thing I built was a heat lamp enclosure.

Got them in, put the food dish down, and before my hand was even out, one of them was already eating.

Then suddenly, all of them gathered around the food.

I counted before I left for the night.

One, two, three, four, four.

One was missing, so I started looking.

Checked the enclosure, checked the corners, nothing.

Then I heard it, chirping, coming from across the room.

I followed it all the way to the feed bag I'd left on the floor.

The bag was moving, and guess what?

I found that small criminal hiding inside.

No fear, no confusion, just free food.

After that, things moved fast.

By day four, feathers started replacing the fluff.

By day eight, they needed more space.

By day 12, they were sprinting around the enclosure like tiny dinosaurs.

And by day 17, they barely looked like the same animals that had hatched from those eggs.

Once they were fully grown, it was time to move them outside.

Quail spend most of their lives hiding in tall grass, and within seconds, they were gone.

I tried catching one, missed.

So I tried again and missed again.

So I switched to the one thing stronger than survival instincts, free food.

Since I successfully hatched this egg, it was time I moved on to a bigger challenge.

Buying quail eggs took one trip to the grocery store.

Buying an ostrich egg was a completely different story.

A few minutes of searching turned into a deep dive through some very strange corners of the internet.

Finally, I found what I was looking for.

One click, $49.99, and a surprisingly large shipping fee later, and the order was placed.

A few days later, a box marked Fragile showed up at my door, and inside was my next challenge.

$49.

Shipped.

I just bought the largest egg of any living bird on the planet.

15 centimeters long, 13 wide.

The shell alone is so thick, it can support the weight of a full-grown adult standing on it.

I put it next to the quail egg just to see.

The quail egg looked like a marble.

1.4 kilograms.

Into the incubator at 36.4 degrees.

Turned 3 to 5 times a day.

42 to 46 days.

For context, a chicken egg takes 21 days.

A quail egg takes 17.

This one takes 46.

That is a long time to babysit an egg.

Every single day, turning it by hand, checking the temperature, writing it down, and nothing.

Just a giant egg sitting completely still.

Day 40, the last day on the chart.

I circled it, and I stood there looking at it thinking, either something happens today, or I've been turning a $49 rock for six weeks.

Nothing, no movement, no sound, just the shell.

And then, right at the top, a crack.

Tiny.

One crack.

I watched it for three hours.

The shell on an ostrich egg is two millimeters thick.

The chicken has to break through that with nothing but its beak and whatever energy it has left.

You can't help.

If you help too early, the chick dies.

It still needs the exertion to absorb the remaining yolk sac and build up its muscles.

Another crack, then the egg starts moving.

And then, finally, a beak.

Eventually, the whole section gives way, And there it is.

Exhausted, soaking wet, eyes barely open.

Looks nothing like an ostrich yet.

Heat lamp on, into the brooder, and within an hour it was trying to walk.

I say trying, its legs are about four times longer than the rest of its body.

Every few steps it just goes down, gets up, goes down again.

I put the food dish in front of it, and it missed it twice.

Third peck, got it.

Didn't stop after that.

It grew fast.

Faster than I was ready for.

One foot per month.

Within weeks it was hitting the walls, knocking everything over.

Its head clearing the Bruder rim, just standing still.

We moved outside.

Open ground, space to move exactly where it belongs.

100

I brought the camera out to get some footage.

101

It saw the camera, walked straight toward it.

102

I thought that was fine, but...

103

Well, it was not fine at all.

104

The AC unit outside had been making a weird noise for three days.

105

I opened the cover panel and something moved, gone under the unit before I could see what it was.

106

I crouched down and reached into the gap and pulled out an egg?

107

Oblong, dirty, still warm from the motor heat.

108

I have no idea how long it had been there.

109

The alligator was gone, so I took the egg inside.

110

I looked it up.

111

65 to 70 days, 30 degrees, high humidity, do not rotate it.

112

Standard enough.

113

Then I scrolled a bit further and found that fertilized alligator eggs sell for $200 each.

114

I got mine for free.

115

Nice catch.

116

Days went past...

117

Nothing.

118

Day 60.

119

I candled it.

120

Held a light behind the shell in a dark room.

121

It passed straight through.

122

No shadow, no movement, no embryo.

123

Nothing in there.

124

I cracked it open just to be completely sure.

125

Empty.

126

Completely empty.

127

But I was determined.

128

If I was going to fail, I will fail at something bigger and more dangerous.

129

Quail, ostrich, each one bigger and more expensive than the last.

130

The next logical step was a reticulated python.

131

Longest snake in the world, 7 meters long.

132

And I could tell from the first YouTube result that whoever was handling one needed both arms and a prayer.

133

I went on Facebook Marketplace, found one egg listing, already sold for $5,000.

134

I started calling breeders.

135

Third call, and someone finally picked up and gave me an address, so I grabbed my keys without hesitation.

136

45 minutes, and I was at the address the breeder gave me.

137

Man, this dude had some of the most impressive snakes I've ever seen.

138

I tapped on one enclosure just to see.

139

I think I shouldn't have done that.

140

He came back from the back room with one egg.

141

White, slightly soft when you pressed it, fit in one hand.

142

I counted out the cash on his table.

143

$1,000.

144

He counted it again, and the deal was done.

145

I drove home very carefully, ready to begin my experiment.

146

31 degrees, humidity at 90%.

147

And one rule, do not rotate it.

148

The embryo attaches to one side within the first few hours.

149

You rotate it, it dies.

150

I taped a sign to the lid just so I wouldn't forget it to in the morning.

151

Then I left it completely alone for 70 days.

152

Day 70 the shell started sweating and dimpled.

153

A head came through with the tongue already going.

154

60 centimeters of fully patterned snake out in under a minute.

155

It looked directly at the camera.

156

I had the feeling it was deciding something.

157

Next morning its eyes had gone completely white.

158

Which looks alarming but apparently means it's about to shed its entire skin the first thing it does before eating, before anything else.

159

I watched the whole thing.

160

It took about 40 minutes and came off in one clean piece.

161

Underneath, the colors were completely different, like someone had turned up the contrast.

162

Then it flicked its tongue at me.

163

I felt assessed.

164

I put a small mirror in the enclosure.

165

Snakes have no capacity for self-recognition.

166

The mirror test, the ability to understand that a reflection is yourself, is something only a handful of species on Earth can pass.

167

Snakes are not one of them.

168

It grew fast.

169

The kind of fast that makes you question your decisions.

170

Reticulated pythons gain roughly half a meter every few months in their first two years,

171

which sounds manageable until you're loading an enclosure into a back seat with your shoulder against the door.

172

I drove it out to the habitat, heard something shift behind me around the 10 minute mark, told myself it was the road.

173

Arrived, opened the back door, enclosure empty.

174

Seat had a gap in it.

175

I looked back down the road, nothing.

176

I guess everything is fine.

177

Quail, ostrich, alligator, python.

178

Each one bigger, each one more expensive, each one considerably more difficult to explain to my neighbors.

179

But I kept thinking, if I'm doing this, why stop at animals that are still alive?

180

Researchers have successfully sequenced genetic material from fossilized bone.

181

Triceratops lived 68 million years ago.

182

Hmm...

183

The fossils exist.

184

The technology exists.

185

I can bring him back!

186

I started with what does exist.

187

A fossilized bone fragment.

188

Ground it down, ran it through a chemical extraction process, and ended up with a vial of ancient genetic material

189

that took 11 weeks and several conversations I'd rather not get into to produce.

190

Then I fed it into a DNA synthesizer, which is essentially a very expensive printer that builds biological sequences from scratch.

191

And I told it to print me a Triceratops egg.

192

Four days later, this.

193

Dark, veiny, roughly the size of a rugby ball.

194

No confirmed Triceratops egg has ever been found, so no one knows exactly what it looked like.

195

anyone has ever gotten.

196

I felt like I am doing everything right.

197

Eggshell printed, biological form injected, but then...

198

Then I hit the first problem.

199

I looked up the incubation temperature.

200

Nothing for Triceratops, obviously.

201

Found one paper on Ceratopsid species.

202

The estimated range was significantly higher than anything my incubator could physically reach.

203

So I had to get creative.

204

The next logical step was to set it on fire.

205

I put it in a metal container in the backyard, poured lighter fluid around the base, and lit it.

206

The egg sat in the flames for 20 minutes completely still.

207

Then a crack!

208

Something pushed through.

209

Snout first, then it looked at me with his not fully opened eye.

210

It was amazing!

211

Suddenly its head pops out.

212

Something I'd never seen before.

213

Onto concrete, shaking ash off its frill like it had just come in from the rain.

214

It tried to get up and keep balance, but its legs were too weak and it felt on the ground again.

215

No horns yet, just two small soft nubs pointing backward.

216

It looked at me.

217

68 million years, and now it's back.

218

I took it inside.

219

That was my first mistake.

220

Calm, curious, followed the camera everywhere.

221

Which sounds endearing, until you realize the Triceratops navigates the world by walking through things.

222

Not aggressively, it just didn't register that walls were supposed to stop it.

223

The enclosure panel came off on day four.

224

I nailed it back further out.

225

It walked into the new wall immediately.

226

The horns were coming in slowly.

227

Fossil evidence shows they curved backward at birth and only rotated forward as the animal matured.

228

By week three, the tips were angling forward.

229

I was going through ferns at a rate I won't specify.

230

The enclosure eventually took up most of the living room.

231

Suddenly the alarm went off.

232

I ran from my workshop, and when I've reached the living room, I've noticed the wall facing the street was gone.

233

Car-sized hole, straight through from the inside.

234

I climbed through and crossed the street.

235

Every tree in the park stripped bare.

236

Flower beds gone, bench on its side.

237

It was at the far end, working through the last tree.

238

It raised its head, looked at the camera, and turned back to the tree.

239

The park did not stand a chance.

240

I probably should have thought this through.

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108 sentences

Living with danger: Inside the homes of people who keep killers as pets | From the vault

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 233 sentences and 2090 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:52. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
enclosure noun	/ɛnˈkloʊʒəɹ/	Something that is enclosed, i.e. inserted into a letter or similar package.
egg noun	/ɛɡ/	An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell…
crack noun	/kɹæk/	A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
shell noun	/ʃɛl/	The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
snake noun	/sneɪk/	Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.
rotate verb	/ˈɹoʊ.teɪt/	To spin, turn, or revolve.
hatch verb	/hæt͡ʃ/	To emerge from an egg.
bone noun	/boʊn/	A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
mirror noun	/ˈmiɹɚ/	A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it.
thick adjective	/θɪk/	Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.
successfully adverb	/səkˈsɛs.fə.li/	In a successful manner; with success; without failing.
bench noun	/ˈbɛnt͡ʃ/	A long seat with or without a back, found for example in parks and schools.
roughly adverb	/ˈɹʌf.li/	In a rough manner; without kindness, softness, or gentleness.
sequence noun	/ˈsiː.kwəns/	A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series.
genetic adjective	/d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/	Relating to genetics or genes.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get up verb	To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
break through verb	To gain popularity.
build up verb	To erect; to construct.
come back from verb	To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc.
count out verb	To exclude; to dismiss from participation or eligibility.
go off verb	To explode.
go past verb	To elapse. (said of time)

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've ever done · has left · I've ever seen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was placed · was determined · was done

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 22 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, I'd, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, feather /ˈfɛðə/, synthesizer /ˈsɪn.θəˌsaɪ.zɚ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: enclosure /ɛnˈkloʊʒəɹ/, shell /ʃɛl/, dish /dɪʃ/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/
Long words — get the stress right: successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, biological /ˌbaɪ.əˈlɑ.d͡ʒɪ.kəl/, humidity /hjuːˈmɪd.ə.ti/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like enclosure, egg, crack.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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