Shadowing Practice: “3 Meals a Day is Marketing” - Dr David Sinclair - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Lifestyle stuff.
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Last time that we were talking, it was all about calorie restriction and primarily fasting as a route toward calorie restriction.
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How should people eat if they want to live as long as possible now with your 2026 data?
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Well, actually, what I've been saying, actually, on my podcast for now, what, four years, it hasn't changed.
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And my book, Lifespan, which came out, we were talking about when we first met in 2019, nothing in that book I've had to revise.
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It's all consistent.
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So there's no retractions from the book in 2019?
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No. No. And my lab's never retracted anything, and at this point, never been proven wrong, which is a blessing, and I knock on touch on wood.
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but that's good news which means that the things
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that i've said before people can go back and learn still um
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if this is the first time you're seeing me uh you know let's let's start
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so the the main things about fasting are we know from animals um
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and some human data but mostly from animals that
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if you restrict how often you eat um and to some extent how much you eat you get longevity benefits
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and we can talk about protein ratio to carbs to fats.
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That's also a whole big debate, as you know.
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But generally, I like to eat one meal a day, maybe two if I'm being social, but not three.
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I think three meals a day plus snacks is marketing.
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Breakfast being the most important meal of the day was General Mills, I believe.
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One of those companies, Kellogg's perhaps.
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But this is, you know, it's all marketing.
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Humans are not built to eat that consistently.
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I don't think cavemen were sitting around eating their big breakfast saying, what are we going to eat for lunch?
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I think, you know, maybe if they just killed a mammoth, but generally they were pretty hungry a lot of the time.
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And our bodies have adapted to that.
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We're not meant to always be satisfied.
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And so I try to be hungry.
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And if I gain a little bit of weight, sometimes I travel and I eat well.
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And Serena and I, we do sometimes love to eat.
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I'll come home from travel and just, I won't eat for three days sometimes two weeks i can
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go without food it's not a big deal two weeks without food yeah okay
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i might munch on a on a piece of celery or something
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but that's not really nutrition i will drink a lot i'll
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drink a lot of low calorie zero calorie drinks a lot of tea
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that kind of stuff
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but i can go without food for two weeks it feels
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great after the first three days i'm over the hunger feeling um i can see on my monitor
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which i've got one on here cgm the cgm yep i
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can see the great impact it's had having on my body
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i can monitor it on my rings i do blood tests
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which is important you don't want to just guess what's working what isn't
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but yeah i know two weeks sounds like a lot
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but it is a lot it doesn't sound like a lot it is a lot it is a lot
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and i'm a regular guy i i i'm not like some people
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that spend millions of dollars on their body and
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and measure everything i'm kind of lazy i i don't like
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being hungry i like food i like to snack i like to stay up late.
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I'm a typical hedonist if you let me go.
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And actually up until a year ago, I actually hadn't fasted more than 24 hours.
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I just couldn't do it.
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It's like, this is painful and I'm stressed.
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So if I'm stressed, I'm going to eat.
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But what I've learned over this past year is I can go beyond 24 hours.
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And once I'm over three days, something kicks in.
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Actually, we know molecularly there's something called chaperone mediated autophagy or CMA, which is the deep cleanse of these misfolded and modified proteins
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that you want to get rid of for aging or slowing aging.
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And, uh, after those three days, you know, I start to feel amazing.
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My mind clears.
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Um, I don't feel bloated at all.
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Um, I don't even have to go to the toilet that often except for all the tea, but you know what I mean?
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And, uh, yeah, I feel energized and I I'm measuring myself.
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So I'm making sure I'm not overdoing it.
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This is not for everybody.
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If you're skinny and you've got barely any fat
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or you're elderly it's not for you but for me i gain weight
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and muscle pretty easily i can fluctuate and
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so i watch my weight come down i've got a scale
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that measures my weight um it's i don't know
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if i can measure say the name or if it's forbidden
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but um i do like the withings scale
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because it smart scale links to the phone yeah it would get your composition as well
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if you hold the handle yeah and i've had one since 2013
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so i've got all this data on my body weight and composition, which is awesome.
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And I'm trying to maintain that at the optimal level over these last 13 years.
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This two weeks thing is blowing my mind.
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What are you running on after 10 days?
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Why is malnutrition?
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Are you supplementing with vitamins and stuff so that you don't get scurvy?
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Like, why are you not dropping dead?
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I am.
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I'm glad you said that, Chris, because it's important to say I'm a scientist about this.
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I'm not just willy -nilly giving up everything.
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So you're celery and green tea, surviving for two weeks, just bro -sciencing it.
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Well, no, I'm not doing that.
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The reason I'm using my hands is I travel and at home I have a little carry pack with vitamins,
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supplements, and medicines that I've been using and know very well what I need.
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Every morning it's a symphony of supplements and medicines, actually.
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I know what my body needs.
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I know what works.
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So I do that.
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So not anybody can do that.
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So it's really important if you do fast for long periods, make sure enough hydration, very important.
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We know that.
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But also I'm making sure that I'm not deficient in any minerals or vitamins.
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And so I'm taking in things like vitamin B, vitamin C as well, and some nutrients that I know I can become deficient in.
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What do you think is happening inside of your body from day four until day 14?
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What's going on?
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Well, we know actually, not from measuring me, but we know from many years of study what happens to the human body.
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the first 24 hours you're going to use up a lot of the sugar and then the glycogen in your liver.
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What I like to think is my liver knows how to steady my glucose
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and give me the right amount of glucose far more than my mouth does.
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My liver is smarter than my eyes and my mouth.
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And anyone that's fasted knows that your blood sugar, if you're eating like this and you go, oh, energy, oh, brain fog, energy, brain fog.
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Oh, I'm sleepy in the afternoon.
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That's our normal life.
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If you're fasting, your liver just puts out just the right amount of ketones for your brain, or you can drink some ketone drinks,
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or it's making glucose or both.
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Your brain loves ketones.
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And if you do it too long, you will start to lose muscle.
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So I'm working out more than I do normally to make sure I don't lose any weight.
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And so that scale will tell me if I'm losing lean mass, which I don't want to do, and I make sure that I don't lose it.
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is there not a concern to do with your gut is there not is
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that does there not need to be transit through the digestive tract i don't know what happens
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if nothing passes through your stomach for two weeks yeah well
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i can tell you your stool changes uh there's very i
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imagine it does it turns fucking invisible yeah right there's phantom
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poo as it's called a bunch of gas coming out um
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so yeah that's what i meant i'm not on the in
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the bathroom as often it's actually much more productive um unless
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you're productive i do find i do i do find that the biggest obstacle to my productivity is the bathroom.
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I've learned from over a thousand podcast episodes, the easier that you make your health routine, the more consistent you'll be.
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It's like golf, right?
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You want to keep it simple and not makes a bunch of pills.
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You want the eye of the tiger, not the DUI of the tiger.
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That's why I'm such a huge fan of AG1.
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One Scoop contains 75 vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and whole food sourced ingredients in a single daily drink.
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And that's why I've been taking it every single morning for nearly five years now.
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And they've taken it a step further with AG1 Next Gen backed by four clinical trials.
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And those trials that were shown to fill common nutrient gaps, improve key nutrient levels in just three months, and increase healthy gut bacteria by 10 times, even in people who already eat well.
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Plus, if you're still unsure, they've got a 90 -day money -back guarantee.
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So you can buy it and try it every single day for three months.
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And if you don't like it, they will give you all of your money back.
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Right now, you can get 20 % off a welcome kit
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and that 90 -day money -back guarantee by going to the link in the description below
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or heading to drinkag1 .com slash modernwisdom.
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That's drinkag1 .com slash modern wisdom.
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Thank you very much for tuning in.
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If you enjoyed that clip, you will love the full -length episode in all of its glory.
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Right here.
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Come on.
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Press it.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video ““3 Meals a Day is Marketing” - Dr David Sinclair”. This video has 141 sentences and 1687 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:25. The speaker talks fast, about 201 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| vitamin noun | /ˈvɪt.ə.mɪn/ | Any of a specific group of organic compounds essential in small quantities for healthy human growth, metabolism, development, and body function. They are found… |
| calorie noun | /ˈkæləɹi/ | A non-SI unit of energy, equivalent to 4.184 kilojoules, that can raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. This is the unit normally… |
| ketone noun | /ˈkitoʊn/ | A homologous series of organic molecules whose functional group is an oxygen atom joined to a carbon atom—by a double bond—in a carbon-hydrogen based molecule. |
| nutrient noun | /ˈnuː.tɹi.ənt/ | A source of nourishment, such as food, that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue. |
| glucose noun | /ˈɡluː.kəʊz/ | A simple monosaccharide (sugar) with a molecular formula of C₆H₁₂O₆; a principle source of energy for cellular metabolism. |
| supplement noun | /ˈsʌp.lɪ.mənt/ | Something added; especially, such an addition added to make up for a deficiency. |
| celery noun | /ˈsɛləɹi/ | A European herb (Apium graveolens) of the carrot family. |
| deficient adjective | /dɪˈfɪʃənt/ | Lacking something essential; often construed with in. |
| restriction noun | /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/ | The act of restricting, or the state of being restricted. |
| snack noun | /snæk/ | A light meal. |
| mineral noun | /ˈmɪn.ə.ɹəl/ | Any naturally occurring solid material that has a (more or less) definite chemical composition and characteristic physical properties; especially, an inorganic… |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| autophagy noun | /ɔˈtɑfəd͡ʒi/ | The process of self-digestion by a cell through the action of enzymes originating within the same cell, and often a defensive or self-preservation measure. |
| bacterium noun | /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/ | A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles. |
| chaperone noun | /ˈʃæ.pəˌɹoʊn/ | An older person who accompanies other younger people to ensure the propriety of their behaviour, often an older woman accompanying a young woman. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. | |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. | |
| put out verb | To blind (eyes). | |
| sit around verb | To spend time sitting idly, not doing anything important. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- That's also a whole big debate, as you know.
- We're not meant to always be satisfied.
- I'm a typical hedonist if you let me go.
- I just couldn't do it.
- It's like, this is painful and I'm stressed.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been saying · I've been using · I've been taking |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you don't like it, they will give · If you enjoyed that clip, you will love |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | hasn't changed · I've had · i've said |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | wrong, which is · news which means · CMA, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 72 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: deficient /dɪˈfɪʃənt/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/, chaperone /ˈʃæ.pəˌɹoʊn/, hydration /haɪˈdɹeɪʃən/, malnutrition /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: autophagy /ɔˈtɑfəd͡ʒi/, malnutrition /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, probiotic /ˌpɹoʊ.baɪˈɑ.tɪk/, longevity /lɒnˈd͡ʒɛv.ɪ.ti/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/
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 vitamin, calorie, ketone.
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.