Shadowing Practice: Cambridge 16 Test 2 Section 2 Listening - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

66 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Part 2.
2
You will hear a head teacher talking to parents of pupils about changes at the school.
3
First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.
4
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.
5
Good morning and thank you for coming here today.
6
I'd like to bring you up to date with changes in the school that will affect your children.
7
As you know, the school buildings date from various times, some from the 1970s, some from the last five years,
8
and of course Dartfield House is over a century old.
9
It was commissioned by a businessman, Neville Richards, and intended as his family home, but he died before it was completed.
10
His heir chose to sell it to the local council, who turned it into offices.
11
A later plan to convert it into a tourist information centre didn't come about through lack of money,
12
and instead it formed the nucleus of this school when it opened 40 years ago.
13
The school has grown as the local population has increased, and I can now give you some news about the lower school site,
14
which is separated from the main site by a road.
15
Planning permission has been granted for development of both sites.
16
The lower school will move to new buildings that will be constructed on the main site.
17
Developers will construct houses on the existing lower school site.
18
Work on the new school buildings should start within the next few months.
19
A more imminent change concerns the catering facilities and the canteen.
20
The canteen is always very busy throughout the lunch period.
21
In fact, it's often full to capacity because a lot of our pupils like the food that's on offer there.
22
But there's only one serving point, so most pupils have to wait a considerable time to be served.
23
This is obviously unsatisfactory as they may have hardly finished their lunch before afternoon lessons start.
24
So, we've had a new food hall built, and this will come into use next week.
25
It'll have several serving areas, and I'll give you more details about those in a minute,
26
but one thing we ask you to do to help in
27
the smooth running of the food hall is to discuss with your children each morning
28
which type of food they want to eat that day.
29
So they can go straight to the relevant serving point.
30
There won't be any junk food.
31
Everything on offer will be healthy,
32
and there's no change to the current system of paying for lunches by topping up your child's electronic payment card online.
33
You may be wondering what will happen to the old canteen.
34
We'll still have tables and chairs in there, and pupils can eat food from the food hall or lunch they've brought from home.
35
Eventually, we may use part of the canteen for storage, but first, we'll see how many pupils go in there at lunchtime.
36
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.
37
Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.
38
OK, back to the serving points in the food hall, which will all have side dishes, desserts and drinks on sale,
39
as well as main courses.
40
One serving point we call World Adventures.
41
This will serve a different country's cuisine each day, maybe Chinese one day and Lebanese the next.
42
The menus will be planned for a week at a time, so pupils will know what's going to be available the whole of that week.
43
Street life is also international, with food from three particular cultures.
44
We'll ask pupils to make suggestions, so perhaps sometimes there'll be food from Thailand,
45
Ethiopia and Mexico, and then one of them will be replaced by Jamaican food for a week or two.
46
The Speedy Italian serving point will cater particularly for the many pupils who don't eat meat or fish.
47
They can be sure that all the food served there is suitable for them.
48
There'll be plenty of variety, so they shouldn't get bored with the food.
49
OK, that's all on the new food hall.
50
Now after -school lessons.
51
These are very popular with pupils, particularly swimming.
52
In fact, there's a waiting list for lessons.
53
Cycling is another favourite, and I'm delighted
54
that dozens of pupils make use of the chance to learn to ride in off -road conditions.
55
It means that more and more cycle to and from school every day.
56
As you know, we have a well -equipped performance centre and we're going to start drama classes in there too.
57
Pupils will be able to join in just for fun or work up to taking part in a play.
58
We hope to put on at least one a year.
59
We already teach a number of pupils to use the sound and lighting systems in the centre,
60
and a former pupil has given a magnificent grand piano to the school,
61
so a few pupils will be able to learn at the school instead of going to the local college,
62
as many of them do at the moment.
63
That is the end of part two.
64
You now have half a minute to check your answers to part two.
65
Thank you.
66
Thank you.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Scan QR
Scan QR
Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

Same Channel

Cambridge 16 Test 4 Section 3 ListeningC1
6

Cambridge 16 Test 4 Section 3 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 17 Test 2 Section 3 ListeningB2
1

Cambridge 17 Test 2 Section 3 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 10 Test 4 Section 4 ListeningC1
2

Cambridge 10 Test 4 Section 4 Listening

Daily ConversationUniversity Students
Cambridge 15 Test 1 Section 4 ListeningB2
2

Cambridge 15 Test 1 Section 4 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 18 Test 4 Section 2 ListeningB2
3

Cambridge 18 Test 4 Section 2 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 10 Test 3 Section 2 ListeningB2
1

Cambridge 10 Test 3 Section 2 Listening

Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Cambridge 10 Test 2 Section 1 ListeningB1
5

Cambridge 10 Test 2 Section 1 Listening

Cambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
Cambridge 13 Test 4 Section 1 ListeningB1
12

Cambridge 13 Test 4 Section 1 Listening

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
Cambridge 14 Test 2 Section 1 ListeningB1
4

Cambridge 14 Test 2 Section 1 Listening

TOEFL PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 16 Test 4 Section 2 ListeningB2
2

Cambridge 16 Test 4 Section 2 Listening

Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Cambridge 15 Test 3 Section 4 ListeningC1
5

Cambridge 15 Test 3 Section 4 Listening

IELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 12 Test 2 Section 4 ListeningC1
11

Cambridge 12 Test 2 Section 4 Listening

IELTS PrepBusiness EnglishUniversity Students
Cambridge 13 Test 1 Section 3 ListeningC1

Cambridge 13 Test 1 Section 3 Listening

Daily ConversationUniversity Students
Cambridge 13 Test 1 Section 4 ListeningC1

Cambridge 13 Test 1 Section 4 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 11 Test 2 Section 2 ListeningB2

Cambridge 11 Test 2 Section 2 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 12 Test 1 Section 4 ListeningC1

Cambridge 12 Test 1 Section 4 Listening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 16 Test 1 Section 3 LIsteningB2

Cambridge 16 Test 1 Section 3 LIstening

Cambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
Cambridge 16 Test 1 Section 2 LIsteningB2

Cambridge 16 Test 1 Section 2 LIstening

TOEIC PrepCambridge Exam PrepBusiness English
FOR YOU

Recommend Video

Listening part two (Dartfield House school and changes) @ieltslisteningpro.24B2
1
60 sentences

Listening part two (Dartfield House school and changes) @ieltslisteningpro.24

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
cambridge 9 test 2B2
2
244 sentences

cambridge 9 test 2

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge IELTS 11 | Listening Test 4 Section 2 | Audio, Questions, Answer Key and TranscriptB2
1
45 sentences

Cambridge IELTS 11 | Listening Test 4 Section 2 | Audio, Questions, Answer Key and Transcript

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge IELTS 11 | Listening Test 3 Section 2 | Audio, Questions, Answer Key and TranscriptB2
1
63 sentences

Cambridge IELTS 11 | Listening Test 3 Section 2 | Audio, Questions, Answer Key and Transcript

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cam 19 Listening Test 1 Part 1 Hinnchingbrooke CountryB2
1
64 sentences

Cam 19 Listening Test 1 Part 1 Hinnchingbrooke Country

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 16 Listening Test 1 with Answer | #english #ieltslisteningB2
1
307 sentences

Cambridge 16 Listening Test 1 with Answer | #english #ieltslistening

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
IELTS Listening Practice Test 2026 with Answers 27.03.2026 - Test #274B2
2
17 sentences

IELTS Listening Practice Test 2026 with Answers 27.03.2026 - Test #274

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge 15 listening (Test-2) (Part-3)B2
3
94 sentences

Cambridge 15 listening (Test-2) (Part-3)

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge IELTS 14 Test 4- LISTENING TEST WITH ANSWERS -Tự học IELTSB2
1
302 sentences

Cambridge IELTS 14 Test 4- LISTENING TEST WITH ANSWERS -Tự học IELTS

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Kate And Luki Conversation IELTS Cambridge LISTENING Practice test 2021 ( Exam Lvl )B2
288 sentences

Kate And Luki Conversation IELTS Cambridge LISTENING Practice test 2021 ( Exam Lvl )

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cookery classes ielts listening | HD Audio | 720pB2
1
284 sentences

Cookery classes ielts listening | HD Audio | 720p

IELTS PrepUniversity Students
Cambridge IELTS 16 Listening Test 4 with answer | #ieltslisteningB2
2
262 sentences

Cambridge IELTS 16 Listening Test 4 with answer | #ieltslistening

IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Cambridge 16 Test 2 Section 2 Listening”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pupil, serving, hall, site, canteen. This video has 66 sentences and 865 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:44. The speaker talks at a steady 112 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
pupil noun/ˈpjuːpəl/A learner at a school under the supervision of a teacher.
lesson noun/ˈlɛs.ən/A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
construct verb/ˈkɑn.stɹʌkt/To build or form (something) by assembling parts.
carefully adverb/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/With care; attentively, circumspectly.
smooth adjective/smuːð/Having a texture that lacks friction. Not rough.
suitable adjective[ˈsjuː.tə.bɫ̩]Having sufficient or the required properties for a certain purpose or task; appropriate to a certain occasion.
piano noun/piˈænɪː/A percussive keyboard musical instrument, usually ranging over seven octaves, with white and black colored keys, played by pressing these keys, causing hammers…
menu noun/ˈmɛn.juː/The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare.
considerable adjective/kənˈsɪdəɹəbl̩/Significant; worth considering.
suggestion noun/səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/Something suggested (with subsequent adposition being for)
dish noun/dɪʃ/A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
swim verb/swɪm/To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
developer noun/dɪˈvɛləpɚ/A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products.
convert verb/kənˈvɝt/To transform or change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product.
intend verb/ɪnˈtɛnd/To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordMeaning
work up to verbTo reach by gradual effort or developments.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itwas commissioned · is separated · has been granted
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhas grown · has been granted · we've had

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 16 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, there'll, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/, dish /dɪʃ/
  • Long words — get the stress right: considerable /kənˈsɪdəɹəbl̩/, developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, magnificent /mæɡˈnɪfəsənt/, unsatisfactory /ˌʌnsætɪsˈfækt(ə)ɹi/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pupil, lesson, construct.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →