Shadowing Practice: A Breath of Fresh Air - Learn English Speaking with Video
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27 sentences
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1
DeepEnglish.com Most of us take our breathing for granted, but we aren't all lucky enough to live in a place with clean air.
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In Beijing, pollution has gotten so bad that breathing the air has become dangerous.
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There are days when the smog is thick enough to block out the sun.
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On these days, schools close and construction stops.
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People walk around the city wearing masks to avoid breathing in the dangerous smog, which contains harmful particles from coal power plants.
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Some people in Beijing have started purchasing bottled air from Canada to avoid breathing their own dirty air.
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They pay about $28 for a single bottle of fresh mountain air.
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One bottle produces about 80 inhalations of air.
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Consumers say that the fresh bottled air helps them to stay alert and to do things like exercise, which is very difficult to do if you're breathing polluted air every day.
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A recent study of air quality in China showed that over 80% of Chinese people are exposed to unsafe air.
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In fact, air pollution is responsible for 4,000 deaths each day in China.
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According to researchers, breathing Beijing's air is like smoking a cigarette and a half per hour all day long.
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While it might seem odd to bottle air, it's not the first time this has been done.
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Inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, had an interest in the chemical makeup of a breath.
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When he was on his deathbed, several open test tubes were left nearby to collect the air of his final breaths.
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The bottles were later sealed by his son.
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One was given to Edison's pal and fellow inventor, Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company.
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Ford kept this bottle of Edison's dying breath as a memento of his old friend.
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For human beings, breathing is a symbol of life.
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When we witness something beautiful or awesome or are emotionally moved, we feel alive.
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We call these moments breathtaking.
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We often use phrases about breathing to help us describe how we're feeling about something.
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A breath of fresh air is a phrase used to describe things
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that feel new and appealing
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when we're feeling sad we sometimes say we're feeling deflated like we've let all of our air
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or life force leak out notice your own breath now is your breath fast
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or slow deep or shallow take a deep breath feels good doesn't it
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “A Breath of Fresh Air”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: breathing, breath, bottle, Ford, fresh. This video has 27 sentences and 398 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:23. The speaker talks at a natural 167 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| smog noun | /smɑɡ/ | A noxious mixture of particulates and gases that is the result of urban air pollution. |
| inventor noun | /ɪnˈvɛntɚ/ | One who invents, either as a hobby or as an occupation. |
| pollution noun | /pəˈluʃən/ | Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc. |
| deathbed noun | /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/ | The bed on which someone dies. |
| deflate verb | /diːˈfleɪt/ | To remove air or some other gas from within an elastic container, e.g. a balloon or tyre. |
| inhalation noun | /ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/ | The act of inhaling; inbreathing. |
| memento noun | /məˈmɛntoʊ/ | A keepsake; an object kept as a reminder of a place or event. |
| pollute verb | /pəˈluːt/ | To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product. |
| breathtaking adjective | /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ/ | stunningly beautiful; amazing |
| bulb noun | /ˈbʌlb/ | The bulb-shaped underground portion of a plant such as a tulip, consisting of a shortened stem and many fleshy scale leaves, from which the rest of the plant… |
| unsafe adjective | /ʌnˈseɪf/ | Not safe (various senses); dangerous. |
| particle noun | /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/ | A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. |
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| harmful adjective | /ˈhɑɹmfl̩/ | Causing or likely to cause harm or damage; injurious. |
| expose verb | /ɪkˈspoʊz/ | To reveal; to uncover; to make visible; to bring to light. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| walk around verb | To walk with no planned destination; to meander. |
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 | has gotten · have started · has been done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are exposed · has been done · were left |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | avoid breathing · started purchasing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, aren't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: deathbed /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/, breathtaking /ˈbɹɛθˌteɪ.kɪŋ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pollution /pəˈluʃən/, inhalation /ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/, shallow /ˈʃæloʊ/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
- Long words — get the stress right: inhalation /ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
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 smog, inventor, pollution.
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.