Shadowing Practice: Cambridge 16 IELTS Reading Test 4 Passage 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Cambridge 16, IELTS Reading Test 4.
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Passage 1.
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Roman Tunnels.
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The Romans, who once controlled areas of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, adopted the construction techniques of other civilizations to build tunnels in their territories.
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The Persians, who lived in present-day Iran, were one of the first civilizations to build tunnels that provided a reliable supply of water to human settlements in dry areas.
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In the early 1st millennium BCE, they introduced the Canet method of tunnel construction, which consisted of placing posts over a hill in a straight line to ensure
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that the tunnel kept to its root and then digging vertical shafts down into the ground at regular intervals.
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Underground, workers removed the air from between the ends of the shafts, creating a tunnel.
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The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work.
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Once the tunnel was completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal, which supplied water for human use.
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Remarkably, some canets built by the persians 2 700 years ago
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are still in use today they later passed on their knowledge
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to the romans who also used the cannet method to construct
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water supply tunnels for agriculture roman cannet tunnels were constructed with vertical shafts dug at intervals of between 30
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and 60 meters the shafts were equipped with handholds
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and footholds to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone lid.
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To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod placed across the top of each shaft
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and made sure that the weight at the end of it hung in the center of the shaft.
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Plumb lines were also used to measure the depth of the shaft and to determine the slope of the tunnel.
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The 5.6 kilometer long Claudius tunnel, built in 41 CE to drain the Fusine Lake in central Italy,
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had shafts that were up to 122 meters deep, took 11 years to build and involved approximately 30,000 workers.
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By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called the counter-excavation method,
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in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends.
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It was used to cut through high mountains when the Kanat method was not a practical alternative.
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This method required greater planning and advanced knowledge of surveying, mathematics and geometry as both ends of a tunnel had to meet correctly at the center of the mountain.
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Adjustments to the direction of the tunnel also had to be made whenever builders encountered geological problems
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or when it deviated from its set path.
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They constantly checked the tunnel's advancing direction, for example, by looking back at the light that penetrated through the tunnel mouth, and make corrections whenever necessary.
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Large deviations could happen, and they could result in one end of the tunnel not being usable.
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An inscription written on the side of a 428-meter tunnel built
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by the Romans as part of the Salve aqueduct system in
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modern-day Algeria describes how the two teams of builders missed each other in the mountain
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and how the later construction of lateral link between both corridors corrected the initial error.
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The Romans dug tunnels for their roads using the counter-excavation method whenever they encountered obstacles such as hills
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or mountains that were too high for roads to pass over.
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An example is the 37-meter-long, 6-meter-high, Furlopass tunnel built in Italy in 69-79 CE.
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Remarkably, a modern road still uses this tunnel today.
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Tunnels were also built for mineral extraction.
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Miners would locate a mineral vein and then pursue it with shafts and tunnels underground.
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Traces of such tunnels used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolokoti mines in Wales.
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When the sole purpose of a tunnel was mineral extraction, construction required less planning, as the tunnel route was determined by the mineral vein.
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Roman tunnel projects were carefully planned and carried out.
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The length of time it took to construct a tunnel depended on the method being used
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and the type of rock being excavated.
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The Canet construction method was usually faster than the counter excavation method as it was more straightforward.
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This was because the mountain could be excavated not only from the tunnel mouths but also from shafts.
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The type of rock could also influence construction times.
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When the rock was hard,
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Cambridge 16 IELTS Reading Test 4 Passage 1”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: tunnel, shaft, method, roman, construction. This video has 48 sentences and 731 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:40. The speaker talks at a natural 157 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 75% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| shaft noun | /ˈʃɑːft/ | The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin. |
| construct verb | /ˈkɑn.stɹʌkt/ | To build or form (something) by assembling parts. |
| mineral noun | /ˈmɪn.ə.ɹəl/ | Any naturally occurring solid material that has a (more or less) definite chemical composition and characteristic physical properties; especially, an inorganic… |
| excavate verb | /ˈɛk.skə.veɪt/ | To make a hole in (something); to hollow. |
| excavation noun | /ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃn/ | The act of excavating, or of making hollow, by cutting, scooping, or digging out a part of a solid mass. |
| metre noun | /ˈmiːtəɹ/ | The basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International d'Unités), equal to the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in… |
| vertical adjective | /ˈvɝ.tɪ.kəl/ | Standing, pointing, or moving straight up or down; parallel to the local direction of gravity; along the direction of a plumb line; perpendicular to something… |
| plum noun | /plʌm/ | An edible, fleshy stone fruit of species Prunus domestica (European plum) and Prunus americana American plum, often of a dark red or purple colour. |
| vein noun | /veɪn/ | A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart. |
| remarkably adverb | /ɹɪˈmɑɹkəbli/ | In a remarkable manner. |
| interval noun | /ˈɪntɚvəl/ | A distance in space. |
| extraction noun | /ɪkˈstɹækʃən/ | The act of extracting or the condition of being extracted. |
| builder noun | /ˈbɪl.dəɹ/ | One who builds or constructs things. |
| civilization noun | /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ | An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical… |
| meter noun | /ˈmitəɹ/ | A device that measures things. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| cut through verb | To take a shortcut through. | |
| pass over verb | To bypass or disregard in favour of someone or something else. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to measure · used to mine |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was taken · was completed · were constructed |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shaft /ˈʃɑːft/, excavation /ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃn/, extraction /ɪkˈstɹækʃən/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, deviation /ˌdiː.viˈeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: remarkably /ɹɪˈmɑɹkəbli/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, deviation /ˌdiː.viˈeɪʃən/, kilometre /kɪˈlɑmɪtəɹ/, ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/
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 shaft, construct, mineral.
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.