Shadowing Practice: Building a Marsbase is a Horrible Idea: Let’s do it! - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
82 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
From hostile deserts to lonely islands and the highest mountains, wherever there is space to expand into, humans do so.
2
So, it's hardly surprising that we're already making preparations to set foot on Mars
3
and to create the first permanent colony outside of Earth, maybe even terraform another planet and turn it into a second blue home. But wait!
4
Before we can get to the nice future stuff, we first have to complete the second phase of colonization,
5
outpost to prepare the ground for a larger human presence.
6
But doing so will be gruesome.
7
Even for an expansionist species like us, Mars is extreme.
8
At first glance, Mars seems familiar.
9
Polar ice caps, large valleys, liquid water under its surface, and a day barely longer than Earth's.
10
The ideal place for us to go.
11
Unfortunately, Mars is actually a cold, radioactive desert where the ground is poisonous and breathing is impossible.
12
Mars is awful.
13
You almost certainly don't want to go there.
14
The pioneers doing the hard work on Mars will have an intensely stressful life filled with incredibly challenging problems never encountered before.
15
But there are plenty of people willing to do that work, and we have the technology to enable them to do it.
16
For this video, we will assume there have been prior missions to Mars to scout out a good place for an outpost,
17
store resources and equipment, and that there's already a moon base that serves as a hub for Mars missions.
18
outpost is the fact that Mars is very energy poor.
19
Because of its distance from the Sun, solar power is only 40 % as effective as on Earth.
20
But even this weakened sunlight is often obscured for days by enormous dust storms.
21
Solar power alone will probably not be enough.
22
Alternatives such as wind power and geothermal energy are also unfeasible as there is hardly technology might be the only option.
23
Since Mars doesn't have easily accessible radioactive elements, the nuclear fuel needs to come from Earth along with the reactor.
24
If we do set it up, it could power our small outpost for the first few years.
25
Unfortunately, all that energy won't be very useful if we can't breathe.
26
Mars's atmosphere is only 1 % as dense as Earth's and mostly made up of nitrogen and oxygen,
27
which comes with more problems.
28
Corners and flat walls are weak points, so the habitats will have rounded and smooth shapes to handle the stress of great pressure differences between the interior and exterior.
29
The airlocks need to be very airtight and work perfectly every time.
30
Without an extensive magnetosphere or a dense atmosphere, half of all radiation coming from space reaches the ground.
31
A person on the surface would be subjected to 50 times the radiation that they would be on Earth.
32
Three years on the surface of Mars exceeds the radiation dose limits imposed on NASA astronauts for their entire career.
33
This increases cancer risks significantly.
34
To prevent that, we could shield our habitats with a thick layer of frozen CO2
35
that can be harvested directly from the atmosphere.
36
Covering the dry ice with a meter of dirt would further increase the level of protection.
37
Sadly, this means almost no windows.
38
From the inside, most living spaces will be windowless tunnels.
39
From the outside, they'll look like burial mounds.
40
just enough to be survivable for long periods of time.
41
It won't, however, protect anyone who ventures outside.
42
So remote -controlled robots will be used for routine work on the surface, while our crew stays inside.
43
Staying inside is a good idea for another reason: Mars Dust.
44
It's much finer than dust on Earth, so it could find its way into the gears or electronics of our machines.
45
Because it's also very dry, it's electrostatically charged, sticking to everything,
46
It would be impossible to avoid carrying lots of Mars dust into our habitat and into the lungs of our crew.
47
To make this even worse, Mars' soil is filled with very toxic perchlorate salts.
48
Constant exposure could be deadly.
49
This problem can still be overcome though.
50
Space suits, for example, could be made in a way that they never truly enter the base, but stay attached to the outside of the habitats.
51
Okay, great.
52
them from cancer, we just need to feed them.
53
Water is easy to come by if a settlement is positioned near the Martian poles with their thick layers of ice.
54
Growing food is a different kind of challenge though.
55
Mars' soils are alkaline and lack the vital nitrogen compounds that plants need to grow.
56
Before we can grow anything, we will have to decontaminate the soil, which is difficult and expensive.
57
Then the soil can be fertilized using recycled All of this will take a lot of time and is very energy intensive.
58
So we might use aquaponics to raise fish and plants together, making the astronauts' diets more varied and tasty at the same time.
59
This will be an important psychological boost for our overworked crew.
60
All of these things don't solve one fundamental problem though.
61
Mars has only 38 % of Earth's surface gravity, which could cause muscle wasting,
62
bone loss, While this might be solved in the future by setting up rotating living spaces,
63
for now our crew has to live with low gravity and exercise a lot to slow the degradation down.
64
The crews will probably have to rotate every few years, after being stuck indoors in tight spaces without windows,
65
with the same people, performing the same routines day in day out, with little contact from the outside world and a lot to worry about.
66
undergo intense psychological screening to make sure they are mentally resilient enough to handle this lifestyle for several years.
67
Establishing the first real infrastructure on Mars will be extremely taxing work
68
that only a group of very determined and competent people can do.
69
Luckily, we have enough of these on Earth.
70
And there you have it, a small Mars base that will survive for at least a few decades.
71
As from Earth.
72
Unfortunately, Mars and Earth are separated by millions of kilometers
73
and orbital periods that leave only a narrow travel window every two years.
74
If there's an emergency in the colony, Earth wouldn't be able to help until the next travel window opens.
75
Helpers may arrive on a planet filled with corpses.
76
Settling Mars will be the toughest challenge we have ever faced.
77
It will like extreme challenges.
78
If we push through phase two of colonization, anything is possible.
79
Cities illuminating the dark Martian night, a hub for travel between the planets, industries setting foot in orbit,
80
terraforming, a true multi -planetary future.
81
Going to Mars is hard but worth it, and if we're lucky, we might be around long enough to see it happening
82
and cheer on the people who take on these challenges for the benefit of us all.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C16
Queen Ant Clones Another Species
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B231
Your Skeleton Is Electric
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
How Caffeine Works
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B237
Your Brain Peaked at Birth
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
The Beginning of Everything -- The Big Bang
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C1118
Could Humans Evolve Flight?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C112
Would You Upload Your Mind?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Your Brain on Magic Mushrooms
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C136
Why Ebola Keeps Coming Back
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2560
What If You Never Slept?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C246
Nuclear Energy Explained: How does it work? 1/3
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B25
Let’s Steal a New Moon
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2759
How Stress Changes Your Brain
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
What Happens AFTER Nuclear War?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! 3/3
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B26
YOU Own the Moon. And Mars. And Venus.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
What Is Life? Is Death Real?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1149
How Antidepressants Work
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B26
Dozens of Nukes Are Missing. Why? HOW?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B265
What the Flu Does to Your Body
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C13
133 sentences
How to Terraform Mars - WITH LASERS
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
99 sentences
Unlimited Resources From Space – Asteroid Mining
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
185 sentences
Starship Testing Takes an Unexpected Turn | Starship Update
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
215 sentences
Joe & Matt Walsh Go Back and Forth on the Moon Landing Conspiracy
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
271 sentences
The Nearest Worlds to Earth Are Dead. Why Aren't We?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
13 sentences
36살의 일론 머스크, 미래를 내다본 남자
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
124 sentences
The Logistics of Living in Antarctica
American AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B26
75 sentences
What If We Built Vertical Farms?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B23
133 sentences
Artemis II Explained | 2026 Mission to the Moon
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
224 sentences
We're Not Ready for Biocomputing
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
9 sentences
Our Greatest Delusion
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
28 sentences
How to Blow Up the Earth - Nuclear Engineer Reacts to Zack D. Films
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
Context & Background
In this video, the discussion revolves around the challenges and considerations of establishing a human presence on Mars. The speaker provides insights into the harsh realities of the Martian environment, including its toxic soil, extreme radiation levels, and energy limitations. Throughout the transcript, it's clear that building a base on Mars poses significant risks, yet the speaker advocates for the pursuit of this ambitious goal. This balance between the allure of exploration and the daunting obstacles involved makes for a compelling narrative, perfect for learners focusing on complex vocabulary and expression related to scientific and exploratory themes.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "Mars is a cold, radioactive desert" - A vivid description illustrating Mars' inhospitable nature, great for discussing environments.
- "The first major challenge for our outpost" - Useful in problem-solving discussions, emphasizing obstacles that need addressing.
- "Creating a semi-permanent outpost" - This phrase is valuable for talking about temporary solutions or places.
- "Energy poor" - A concise way to describe efficiency issues, ideal for business and sustainability talks.
- "Radiation dose limits imposed on NASA astronauts" - A key term related to health and safety in extreme environments.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively enhance your speaking skills using the shadowing technique, particularly with this video, follow these steps:
- Set Up Your Shadowing App: First, choose a shadowing app that allows you to play back segments of the video easily. Make sure you can pause and rewind as needed.
- Listen Attentively: Watch the video a couple of times without attempting to repeat. Focus on the speaker’s tone, emphasis, and pace to understand their delivery.
- Segment the Transcript: Break down the transcript into manageable parts. Start with one or two sentences that include some of the top phrases listed above.
- Shadow Speech: Play the first segment and repeat immediately after the speaker, mimicking their pronunciation and intonation. This can be challenging but is crucial for improving your fluency.
- Record Yourself: Use the recording feature in your chosen app to compare your attempts to the original speech. Focus on areas where your phrasing or tone differs.
- Practice Regularly: Consistency is key. Engage in shadowing practice daily, focusing on different sections of the video each time to broaden your vocabulary and speaking skill.
- Engage in IELTS Speaking Practice: Use the phrases and vocabulary you've learned from the video to partake in mock speaking tests. This will help you contextualize your shadowing practice within real-life communication scenarios.
By systematically applying this shadowspeaks technique, you will not only improve your pronunciation but also gain confidence in discussing complex topics like space exploration in English.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is often obscured · would be subjected · can be harvested |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | anyone who ventures · soil, which is · people who take |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been · have ever faced |
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.