Shadowing Practice: Bolivia's Death Road | Top Gear | BBC - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Hang on, before you go.
2
What?
3
I genuinely don't like heights.
4
It's my biggest failing, among many, I accept.
5
You know that you drive into the back of my car and it's a very funny joke?
6
You don't want it to happen to you.
7
You want me to drive into it?
8
No. I'll cut your head off.
9
You will need a beep there, BBC Two.
10
Yeah.
11
I can understand.
12
Seriously.
13
Let's see.
14
My car is perfect in every way, apart from it not starting.
15
So could you, if you wouldn't mind, push me a little bit?
16
So you want me to push your car with my car now on this road here?
17
Yes, there's no alternative.
18
OK, well, here I come.
19
Careful, careful, careful.
20
Oh, it wasn't as careful as it could have been.
21
Sorry.
22
Pretty soon, we saw why the road had earned its name.
23
God almighty, that is high.
24
That is a massive, massive drop.
25
The dust didn't help either.
26
This is insane.
27
Whoa.
28
Look at the grasses stick up, and you don't necessarily see what a long way down it is, and then you get one of those little gaps, and then you just see down, and it is a long way.
29
There's one there.
30
The dust didn't help either.
31
Oh, gee.
32
Mm, look at that.
33
That's narrowed.
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I just don't know what I'm doing.
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I don't understand the rules on this road.
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You seem to drive one minute on the left, one minute on the right.
37
Sometimes the lorries stop going the other way to let you go through.
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Sometimes they don't.
39
Some lorries pull over, others come barrelling up behind you doing three
40
and a half times the speed of sound and it's completely baffling.
41
Thank you.
42
Well, I'm coming up against the truck.
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I've got to go past him, and that means going on that side.
44
Looking straight ahead.
45
Breathe.
46
Please.
47
Moments later, James slowed down to let a mad local get past.
48
Does that mean there's one of those maniacal taxis right now?
49
And I didn't.
50
Oh, God.
51
Sorry, I was...
52
I was watching the taxi...
53
You're now going to get macheted to death.
54
I was watching the taxi.
55
I don't care.
56
I did warn you.
57
Did I or did I not warn you?
58
James is killing Jeremy.
59
Things are going well.
60
I was watching the taxi.
61
You weren't.
62
I was watching the taxi.
63
Did your co -presenter on your television programme just attack you with a machete?
64
Yes, you did.
65
He came to the window.
66
It was quite gross cos I ran into him.
67
That doesn't happen on, like, clothes programmes or gardening shows.
68
As we climbed higher, life in the already battered Toyota became truly terrifying.
69
That's my steering.
70
I'm inches from death.
71
There.
72
The steering wheel doesn't do anything.
73
My brakes stick on when I'm going uphill and cause the clutch to slip.
74
I can't breathe because the dust gets in.
75
Oh, God!
76
That's real fear now.
77
When I'm going downhill, the same brakes that stick on going uphill don't stop me.
78
The Suzuki II was showing the strain.
79
What is the matter?
80
It's got dirt in the fuel system from the river.
81
So it's broken?
82
It's not broken.
83
Occasionally, a bit of it goes through.
84
Your simple, cheap car is broken.
85
Sticking to the code of the Top Gear Brotherhood, I left James and Richard behind.
86
This goes to show they're badly made, these Japanese cars.
87
They're badly made.
88
James and I decided to stick together.
89
He's never going to go round us.
90
My God, he is.
91
That's insane.
92
Right.
93
I'm in a ditch.
94
Okay.
95
Yeah.
96
Didn't see this.
97
Whoa -ho!
98
What a thing to miss.
99
Right.
100
No biggie, though, because my colleague would winch me out in a jiffy.
101
Hold on.
102
What?
103
The winch isn't working.
104
I'm now all on my own on Death Road.
105
I have no idea where Ray Mears and Ted Nugent are.
106
They've just disappeared.
107
We have no phones, they're not on the radio.
108
Up there could be dead.
109
We would, in fact, be dead quite soon, judging by the mood of the angry stuck locals.
110
Good luck.
111
Thank you.
112
Handbrake off, et cetera.
113
Ditch is going to level out, so it'll be fine.
114
There you go.
115
What a nice man.
116
Soon, though, I wished I'd stayed in the ditch because the Toyota had developed yet another fault.
117
Something's broken on that back corner.
118
This is pretty close to undriveable now.
119
Right!
120
Meanwhile, very far ahead...
121
I'm now at 5 ,500 feet above sea level and still climbing.
122
Oh, God, crosses.
123
There's a lot of crosses there.
124
And then, underneath a waterfall, I learned why there were so many crosses up here.
125
Oh, my God.
126
No. Oh, my...
127
Stop there!
128
Let's go.
129
Let's go.
130
Let's go.
131
Let's go.
132
Let's go.
133
That is going.
134
That is going.
135
Bloody hell.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 135 sentences and 812 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:23. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- taxi /ˈtæksi/ (noun) — A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare.
- dust /dʌst/ (noun) — Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, fiber…
- ditch /dɪt͡ʃ/ (noun) — A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.
- badly /ˈbæd.li/ (adverb) — In a bad manner.
- insane /ɪnˈseɪn/ (adjective) — Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
- breathe /bɹiːð/ (verb) — To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.
- climb /ˈklaɪ̯m/ (verb) — To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
- warn /woɹn/ (verb) — To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.
- brake /bɹeɪk/ (noun) — A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or…
- whoa /woʊ/ — Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
- steer /stɪɹ/ (verb) — To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).
- earn /ɝn/ (verb) — To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- meanwhile /ˈmiːnwaɪl/ (adverb) — During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place.
- necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ (adverb) — Inevitably; of necessity.
- gap /ɡæp/ (noun) — An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- come up against (verb) — To face (someone, something) in a match, problem, competition or fight.
- cross up (verb) — To double-cross or betray (someone).
- get in (verb) — To get into or inside something, literally or figuratively.
- get past (verb) — To continue around a blockage; to get around (something); to surpass something that is in the way.
- go on /ˈɡoʊˌɒn/ (verb) — To continue in extent.
- go past (verb) — To elapse. (said of time)
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 36 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, cloth /klɒθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, machete /məˈʃɛ.ti/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like taxi, dust, ditch.
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.