Shadowing Practice: Animal Farm – Chapter 1 Audiobook (George Orwell) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Chapter 1.
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Mr. Jones, of the manor farm, had locked the henhouses for the night.
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but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop hose.
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With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door,
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drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed.
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where Miss Jones was already snoring.
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As soon as the lights in the bedroom went out, there was a stirring and a fluttering all throughout the farm buildings.
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Word had gone round during the day that old Major, The prized middle white boar had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals.
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It had been agreed
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that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.
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Old Major, so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited, was Woldington Beauty.
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was so highly regarded on the farm
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that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
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At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Maidru was already ensconced on his bed of straw.
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under a lantern which hung from a beam.
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He was 12 years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic looking pig,
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with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut.
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Before long, daughter animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions.
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First came the three dogs.
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Bluebell, Jesse, and Pinscher.
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And then the pigs, who settle down in a straw immediately in front of the platform.
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The hens perched themselves on the window sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows laid down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.
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The two card horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together walking very slowly
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and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care, lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw.
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Clover was a stout, mutterly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her forefall.
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Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly 18 hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.
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A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of the first rate intelligence.
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but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.
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After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey.
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Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm and the worst tempered.
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He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark.
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For instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off.
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But he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
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Alone among the animals on the farm, he never laughed.
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If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at.
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Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer.
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The two of them usually spent their Sundays together in a small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
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The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings which had lost their mother filed into the barn.
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Cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trotted on.
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Clover made a sort of wall around them with a great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep.
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At the last moment, Molly, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones' tarp, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.
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She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plated with.
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Last of all came the cat, who looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover.
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There she purred contently, throughout major speech, without listening to a word of what he was saying.
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All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door.
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When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat. and began.
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You have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night.
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But I will come to the dream later.
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I have something else to say first.
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I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer.
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And before I die, I feel it is my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired.
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I've had a long life.
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I've had much time for thoughts as I lay alone in my stall.
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And I think I may say
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that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living.
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It is about this that I wish to speak to you.
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Now comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?
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Let us face it.
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Our lives are miserable.
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laborious.
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In short, We are born.
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We are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength.
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And the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end, You're slaughtered with hideous cruelty.
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No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old.
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No animal in England is free.
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"'The life of an animal?' It's misery. and slavery.
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That is the plain truth.
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But is it simply part of the order of nature?
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Is it because this land of ours is so poor
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that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?
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Thank you.
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No, comrades.
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A thousand times no. The soil of England is fertile.
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Its climate is good.
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It is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals that now inhabit it.
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This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep.
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An optim living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining.
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Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?
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because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings.
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There, comrades.
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is the answer to all of our problems.
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It is summed up.
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in a single word.
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Man.
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Man is the only real enemy we have.
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Remove man from the scene.
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and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.
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Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.
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He does not give milk.
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He does not lay eggs.
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He is too weak to pull the plow.
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He cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits.
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Yet he is lord of all the animals.
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He sets them to work.
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He gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.
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Our labor tells the soil.
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Our dung fertilizes it.
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And yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin.
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"You cows," Tracey before me, "how many thousands gallons of milk have you given during this last year?"
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What happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves?
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Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies.
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And you, hens!
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How many eggs have you laid in the last year?
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And how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens.
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The rest have all gone to market, to bring in money for Jones and his men.
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And you, Clover.
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Where are those four foals you bore, who should have been supports and pleasure of your old age?
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Each was sold a year old.
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You will never see one of them again.
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In return for your four confinements and all your labor in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations in a stall?
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And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span.
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For myself, I do not grumble.
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for I am one of the lucky ones.
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I'm 12 years old and I've had over 400 children.
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Such is the natural life of a pig.
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But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end.
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You young porkers who are sitting in front of me.
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Every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year.
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It's not horror.
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We all must come.
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Chaos.
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"Pigs, hens, sheep, everyone." Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate.
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You, Boxer.
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The very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will send you to the knacker.
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who'll cut your throats and boil you down for the foxhounds.
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That's for the dogs.
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When he growled and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.
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Is it not clear then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?
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Only get rid of man.
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and the produce of our labor would be our own.
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Almost overnight, we could become rich and free.
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What then must we do?
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Why work night and day?
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Body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race.
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This is my message to you, comrades.
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Rebellion.
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I do not know when the rebellion will come.
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It might be in a week.
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We're in 100 years. But I know.
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As surely as I see the straw beneath my feet, that sooner... or later.
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Justice will be done.
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"Fix your eyes on that, comrades." throughout the short remainder of your lives.
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And above all, Pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
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And remember, comrades, Your resolution must never falter.
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No argument must lead you astray.
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Never listen when they tell you that man and animals have a common interest.
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The prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others.
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It is all lies.
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Man serves the interests of no creature except himself.
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And among us animals, let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in a struggle.
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All men.
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our enemies.
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All animals. or comrades.
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At this moment, there was a tremendous uproar.
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While Major was speaking, four large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their hindquarters, listening to him.
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The dogs had suddenly caught sight of them, and it was only by a swift dash for their holes that the rats saved their lives.
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Major raised his trotter for silence.
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Comrades.
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He said, Here is a point that must be settled.
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The wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits, Are you our friends?
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or our enemies.
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Let us put it to the vote.
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I propose this question to the meeting.
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R. Rats.
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Comrades.
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The vote was taken at once and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that the rats were comrades.
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There were only four dissenters: the three dogs and the cats.
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who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.
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Major continued.
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I have little more to say.
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I merely repeat...
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Remember always your duty of venemnity towards man and all his ways.
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Whatever goes upon two legs.
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is an enemy.
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Whatever goes upon four legs or as wings.
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is a friend.
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And remember, Also, that in fighting against man, we must not come to resemble him.
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Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices.
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No animal must ever live in a house.
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We're sleep in a bed.
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or wear clothes or drink alcohol.
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or smoke tobacco.
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or touch money, or engage in trade.
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All the habits of man are evil.
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And above all, No animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind.
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Weak.
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We're strong.
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Clever. or simple.
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We.. are all Brothers.
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No animal must ever kill any other animal.
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All animals are equal.
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And now comrades, I'll tell you about my dream of last night.
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I cannot describe that dream to you.
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was a dream of the earth as it will be when man has vanished.
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It reminded me of something that I had long forgotten.
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many years ago.
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When I was a little pig, My mother and the other sows used to sing an old song.
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of which they knew only the tune and the first three words.
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I'd known that soon in my infancy.
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but I've long since passed out of my mind.
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Last night, however, It came back to me in my dream.
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What is more, The words of the song also came back.
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Words!
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I'm certain.
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which were sung by the animals of long ago.
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and have been lost to memory for generations.
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I will sing you that song now, comrades.
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I'm old and my voice is hoarse.
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But when I have taught you the tune, You can sing it better for yourselves.
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It is called...
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Beasts. of England.
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Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing.
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As he had said, His voice was hoarse, but he sang well enough.
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And it was a stirring tune, somewhere between Clementine and La Cucaracha.
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The words ran: The beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, beasts of England,
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beasts of Ireland, beasts of every land and clime, hearken to my joyful tidings of the golden future time.
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Soon or late the day is coming, Tyrant man shall be overthrown.
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And the fruitful fields of England shall be trought by beasts alone.
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Rings shall vanish from our noses and the harnesses from our back.
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Bits and spur shall rust forever, Cruel whips no more shall crack.
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Riches more than mine can picture, Weed and barley, oats and hay.
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clover beans and mangrove worsels shall be ours upon that day Thank you.
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Bright will shine the fields of England.
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"Purer shall its waters be." Sweet yet shall blow its breezes On the day that sets us free.
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For that day, we all must labor.
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Though we die before it break, Cows and horses, geese and turkeys, All must toil for freedom's sake.
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Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, beasts of every land and clime, Hearken well and spread my tithing.
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Off the golden future tie.
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The scene of the song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.
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Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for themselves.
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Even the stupidest of them had already picked up the tune and a few of the words.
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And as for the clever ones, such as the pigs and dogs, they had the entire song by heart within a few minutes.
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And then, After a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into beasts of England in a tremendous unison.
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The cow's loaded.
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The dogs whined it.
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The sheep bleated it.
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The horses whinnied it.
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The ducks quacked to it.
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They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession.
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I might have continued singing it all night, but they had not been interrupted.
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Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed, making sure that there was a fox in the yard.
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He seized the gun which always stood in the corner of his bedroom
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and let fly a charge of number six shots into the darkness.
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The Pudds buried themselves in the wall of the barn, and the meeting broke up hurriedly.
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Everyone fled to his own sleeping place.
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The birds jumped onto the purchase.
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The animals settled down in the straw.
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the whole farm was asleep.
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in a moment.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Animal Farm – Chapter 1 Audiobook”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: animal, comrades, beast. This video has 249 sentences and 2673 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:18. The speaker talks at a natural 154 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| comrade noun | /ˈkɑmɹæd/ | A mate, companion, or associate. |
| clover noun | /ˈkloʊ.vɚ/ | A plant of the genus Trifolium with leaves usually divided into three (rarely four) leaflets and with white or red flowers. |
| straw noun | /stɹɔ/ | A dried stalk of a cereal plant. |
| rat noun | /ɹæt/ | Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than… |
| barn noun | [ˈbɑɹn] | A building, often found on a farm, used for storage or keeping animals such as cattle. |
| pig noun | /ˈpɪɡ/ | Any of several mammalian species of the family Suidae, having cloven hooves, bristles and a snout adapted for digging; especially the domesticated animal Sus… |
| cow noun | /kaʊ/ | An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved. |
| sheep noun | /ˈʃiːp/ | A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis. |
| hen noun | /hɛn/ | A female fish (especially a salmon or trout) or crustacean. |
| tremendous adjective | /tɹɪˈmɛndəs/ | Awe-inspiring; terrific. |
| miserable adjective | /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/ | In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor. |
| duckling noun | /ˈdʌklɪŋ/ | A young duck. |
| hearken verb | /ˈhɑɹkən/ | To hear (something) with attention; to have regard to (something). |
| stout adjective | /staʊt/ | Large; bulky. |
| uproar noun | /ˈʌpɹɔːɹ/ | Tumultuous, noisy excitement. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| break up verb | To break or separate into pieces. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. |
| go round verb | To physically swirl or rotate. |
| kick off verb | To make the first kick in a game or part of a game. |
| lay down verb | To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground. |
| lie down verb | To assume a horizontal position. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I've had a long life.
- Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?
- How many eggs have you laid in the last year?
- What then must we do?
- We're sleep in a bed.
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 | have had · have heard · have acquired |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | had been agreed · was always called · was already ensconced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who dwell · those who come |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, I'm, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sheep /ˈʃiːp/, abolish /əˈbɑl.ɪʃ/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, foolish /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/, leisure /ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/
- Long words — get the stress right: miserable /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/, prosperity /pɹɑˈspɛɹ.ɪ.ti/, rebellion /ɹɪˈbɛl.i.ən/, universally /ˌjunɪˈvɝsəli/, preliminary /pɹɪˈlɪmɪnɛɹi/
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 comrade, clover, straw.
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.