Shadowing Practice: CET-6 Listening Lectures: The Decoy Effect and the Hawthorne Studies - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Recording One.
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Today I want to show you how a single useless option can change what you buy.
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Economists call it the decoy effect.
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The economist Dan Ariely once tested it with a magazine advertisement.
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Readers could buy the online edition for fifty-nine dollars,
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the print edition for a hundred and twenty-five,
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or print and online together — also for a hundred and twenty-five!
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Nobody chose print only. Why would they?
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But eighty-four percent of his students chose the combined offer!
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Then he removed the print-only option, which nobody wanted.
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Suddenly, most students chose the cheaper online edition instead!
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The useless option made the combined offer look like a bargain.
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So when a choice feels obvious, ask yourself who designed it.
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Questions sixteen to eighteen are based on the recording you have just heard.
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Question sixteen. What is the lecture mainly about?
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Question seventeen. What happened when the print-only option was removed?
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Question eighteen. What does the speaker advise listeners to do?
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Recording Two.
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In the 1920s, researchers visited a factory near Chicago called the Hawthorne Works.
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They wanted to know whether better lighting made workers more productive.
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When they made the lights brighter, output went up.
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But when they made the lights dimmer, output went up again!
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Even the group whose lighting never changed worked harder.
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One explanation is that the workers knew they were being studied.
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The attention itself, not the light, changed their behaviour.
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Today, many researchers think the effect was weaker than first reported.
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But it still reminds scientists to be careful when people know they're being watched.
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Questions nineteen to twenty-one are based on the recording you have just heard.
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Question nineteen. What did the researchers want to find out?
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Question twenty. What happened when the lights were made dimmer?
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Question twenty-one. What do many researchers think about the effect today?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “CET-6 Listening Lectures: The Decoy Effect and the Hawthorne Studies”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: print, twenty, researchers, recording, option. This video has 31 sentences and 313 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:09. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 7 of its 31 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| output noun | /ˈaʊtpʊt/ | Production; quantity produced, created, or completed. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| combine verb | /kəmˈbaɪn/ | To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite. |
| economist noun | /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/ | An expert in economics, especially one who studies economic data and extracts higher-level information or proposes theories. |
| dim adjective | /dɪm/ | Not bright or colorful. |
| explanation noun | /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/ | The act or process of explaining. |
| remind verb | /ɹəˈmaɪnd/ | To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person). |
| behaviour noun | British standard spelling of behavior. | |
| reader noun | /ˈɹi.dɚ/ | A person who reads. |
| fifty noun | /ˈfɪfti/ | A banknote or coin with a denomination of 50. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| scientist noun | /ˈsaɪəntəst/ | One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research… |
| lecture noun | /ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/ | A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group. |
| bargain noun | /ˈbɑːɹɡən/ | An agreement between parties concerning the sale of property; or a contract by which one party binds themself to transfer the right to some property for a… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
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 | are based · was removed · being studied |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have just heard |
Pronunciation to watch
- Long words — get the stress right: economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/
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 researcher, output, worker.
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.