Shadowing Practice: Academy Stars 3 Reading Time 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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50 sentences
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Track 1 .12 Reading Time 1
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Activity 1 The Swiss Family Robinson This is a story about the Swiss Family Robinson.
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Mum, Dad and the three brothers,
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Fritz, Ernest and Jack, are crossing the sea in a boat.
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Their boat is old and small, but they like it.
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One day there's a big storm.
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It's very windy and the family is very scared.
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Suddenly, their boat hits some rocks.
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Oh no, says Dad.
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Our boat is broken.
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The next morning it isn't windy.
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It's very sunny and the family walks to the beach.
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What a beautiful beach, says Mum.
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We're on an island and there are no people, says Dad.
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What can we do?
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asks Mum.
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Let's make a tree house, says Dad.
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Let's work together.
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They all help.
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Dad and Fritz make some beds.
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there is no school
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so mum is the teacher every day they have science maths social studies
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and English lessons in the afternoons they do homework dad
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and Fritz look for food they find coconuts bananas and fish to eat.
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Jack and Ernest find a baby elephant and a baby monkey on the island.
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They like playing together.
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One day, Ernest and Jack are playing on the beach.
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They see a pirate ship coming to the island.
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They run to the treehouse.
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Dad, pirates are coming!
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Oh no, says Dad.
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Mum, Dad and Fritz make a big hole in the sand.
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Ernest and Jack look for coconuts and sticks.
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The pirates jump off the ship and run up the beach.
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The family is scared.
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Some pirates fall into the big hole.
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Mum and Dad wave the sticks, and the children throw the coconuts.
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Suddenly, Mum says, Look!
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There's a big ship!
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The pirates look at the big ship.
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Now they are scared.
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They run to their ship.
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The Swiss family Robinson laugh and jump up and down.
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The big ship comes to the beach.
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Hurrah!
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Now we can go home.
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But the family is sad too.
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Goodbye, little elephant.
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Goodbye, little monkey.
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Goodbye, island.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Academy Stars 3 Reading Time 1”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: dad, mum, ship, pirate, beach. This video has 50 sentences and 335 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:27. The speaker talks slowly, about 75 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 81% 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:

WordPronunciationMeaning
pirate noun/ˈpaɪɹət/A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
goodbye/ɡʊdˈbaɪ/Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.
scare verb/skɛɚ/To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
coconut noun/ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed.
elephant noun/ˈɛlɪfənt/A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia.
monkey noun/ˈmʌŋki/A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails…
windy adjective/ˈwɪn.di/Accompanied by wind.
lesson noun/ˈlɛs.ən/A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
sand noun/sænd/Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in…
mathematics noun/mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/An abstract representational system studying numbers, shapes, structures, quantitative change and relationships between them.
homework noun/ˈhoʊmˌwɝk/Exercises assigned by a teacher to a student which review concepts studied in class.
sunny adjective/ˈsʌni/Featuring a lot of sunshine.
banana noun/bəˈnænə/An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
hurrah/həˈɹɑː/Expressing approval, appreciation, or happiness.
treehouse noun/ˈtɹiːˌhaʊs/A house, or similar structure within a tree, or several trees, built with light materials.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordMeaning
jump off verbTo move from an elevated place by one jump.
jump up verbTo move from one position to a higher position by one jump.
work together verbTo be coworkers with someone; to share a workspace with someone.

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pirate, goodbye, scare.

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 →