Shadowing Practice: Are We Eating Better – C1 English Listening Test - Learn English Speaking with Video
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42 sentences
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1
On my way to the studio, I watched a 30-second video showing me how to make high-protein pancakes with cottage cheese.
2
By the time I arrived, I'd also been told which foods improve my gut health, which ingredients to avoid, and what a wellness influencer eats every day.
3
Our feeds have been flooded with recipes, healthy living advice, and trendy ingredients, and we've never had access to so much information about food.
4
But has any of it changed how we eat?
5
More importantly, are we eating any better?
6
Joining me is Ethan, an American food writer who has covered food trends for 15 years.
7
Ethan, how much have things changed?
8
Oh, completely.
9
When I started, trends moved much more slowly.
10
By the time a recipe made it into a major food magazine, it had usually been professionally tested, and readers had been turning to the same trusted sources for years.
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Now a trend can take off overnight.
12
Someone posts a video using an unfamiliar ingredient, and within days it may have reached millions.
13
That's been fantastic.
14
Social media has exposed us to dishes we might never have discovered otherwise.
15
But we've also been bombarded with conflicting advice.
16
By the time you've stocked your pantry with the latest superfood, the internet has moved on.
17
But has access to all this information improved the way we eat?
18
That's harder to say.
19
People have certainly become more aware of nutrition, but what we see online is highly curated.
20
Someone might post a beautifully arranged breakfast full of fresh fruit and seeds, but we have no idea what they eat for the rest of the week.
21
And while millions of us have been watching healthy recipe videos, plenty of people are still living on takeout or wolfing down lunch between meetings.
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So, um, I'd say social media has changed what we aspire to eat more than what we actually eat.
23
That's an interesting distinction.
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Knowing what a healthy diet looks like doesn't necessarily mean following one.
25
Priya, you're a dietitian here in the UK.
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Does that reflect what you've been seeing in your work?
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Absolutely.
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There has always been a gap between knowing what is good for us and being able to put that knowledge into practice.
29
People's choices are shaped by their income, working hours, culture, health and family responsibilities.
30
Some clients have told me they haven't had a square meal all week.
31
Not because they don't understand nutrition, but because they've been working shifts, looking after children or caring for relatives.
32
If someone has been skipping meals for months, telling them to prepare a complicated recipe with 12 ingredients isn't particularly helpful.
33
Social media can make healthy eating look like a full-time job.
34
In reality, the changes that work best are the ones that fit into people's lives.
35
So, if knowing more hasn't necessarily made us eat better, what do you think our diets will look like in another 10 or 15 years?
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By 2040, personalized advice will probably have become more common,
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while climate pressures will have pushed plant-based foods further into the mainstream and perhaps made insect-based products more widely accepted.
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But, um, the biggest change may be cultural.
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By then, with more people living alone and working irregular hours, eating alone and ordering in may have become even more normal.
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Shared meals, however, may have become more precious, something we make a deliberate effort to arrange rather than simply take for granted.
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That's a fascinating point.
42
After the break, we'll be looking at which current food trends could change our habits for good, and which ones will have disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Are We Eating Better – C1 English Listening Test”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: eat, ingredient, recipe, trend, healthy. This video has 42 sentences and 605 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:27. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ingredient noun | /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/ | One of the substances present in a mixture, especially food. |
| arrange verb | /əˈɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ | To set up; to organize; to put into an orderly sequence or arrangement. |
| aspire verb | /əˈspaɪɚ/ | To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something. |
| bombard verb | /ˌbɑmˈbɑɹd/ | To continuously attack something with bombs, artillery shells or other missiles or projectiles. |
| curate noun | /ˈkjʊɹɪt/ | An assistant rector or vicar. |
| dietitian noun | /daɪəˈtɪʃən/ | A person who studies or practices dietetics. |
| fascinate verb | /ˈfæsɪneɪt/ | To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone. |
| influencer noun | /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/ | A person who or a thing which influences. |
| pancake noun | /ˈpæn.keɪk/ | An thin batter cake similar to a crepe, typically unleavened. |
| pantry noun | /ˈpæntɹi/ | A small room, closet, or cabinet usually located in or near the kitchen, dedicated to shelf-stable food storage or storing kitchenware, like a larder, but… |
| personalize verb | /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/ | To adapt something to the needs or tastes of an individual. |
| superfood noun | /ˈsupɚfud/ | Any food purported to confer remarkable health benefits. |
| takeout noun | /ˈteɪkaʊt/ | Food purchased from a takeaway. |
| trendy adjective | /ˈtɹɛndi/ | Of, or in accordance with the latest trend, fashion or hype. |
| wellness noun | /ˈwɛl.nɪs/ | The quality or state of being in good health (sometimes emphasizing both health and safety); mental and physical soundness. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| take off verb | To remove. |
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 | have been watching · you've been seeing · they've been working |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been flooded · has covered · That's been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been told · have been flooded · been bombarded |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'd, we've, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, influencer /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/, unfamiliar /ˌʌnfəˈmɪli.ə(ɹ)/, irregular /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/
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 ingredient, arrange, aspire.
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.