Shadowing Practice: Chapter One: The Night Before Halloween - Learn English Speaking with Video
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329 sentences
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1
Shh.
2
It's starting.
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There are kids in this world who are different.
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Special.
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I think it's a hoverboard.
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They look like us and they act like us.
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But they are not us.
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You're Mother Nature.
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Who wants a selfie with the Grim Reaper?
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There's a girl flying in the water.
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Find her treasure.
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She belongs to the world of death.
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It's a broken locket.
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Exactly like mine.
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Mom, run!
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GCM shows.
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Mawr is an hour.
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Imagination amplified.
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It was the night before Halloween when all through the haunted house, creatures were stirring, especially a zombie mouse.
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More blood, Mina?
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Always, Lucy.
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Not bad.
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an excellent 2008 vintage yes a good year
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you were right adding maple syrup to the fruit punch
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i mean to the blood definitely makes
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it thicker pairs nicely with the chocolate peanut butter spiders too
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this might be our best graveyard picnic yet loose my favorite free halloween tradition of ours
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and tomorrow we get to show everyone our most gruesome costumes yet undead Bridezilla
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and zombie cheerleader did it just get a lot colder and foggier
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hello girls oh grandpa it's you hello dr. Van Helsing did you just get the hearse wash I did
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Lucy thank you for noticing I was being sarcastic
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it's covered in mud no tracks
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that's what I get for taking the scenic route how was the graveyard picnic great grandpa
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but we need to get home to finish our costumes
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that was the whole point of the sleepover hop in i'll
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have you home in a chicken ow why do you have wooden steaks back here oh
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you know for the for the garden and now tell me about these terrifying costumes
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grandpa what is it mina were you girls alone in the graveyard
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i mean it's 9 36 pm who else would be here.
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Other than the dead.
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Good one, Mina.
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Right.
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Right, of course.
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Are you gonna drive, Dr. Van Elsie?
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Yes, yes.
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Off we go.
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Into the, into the fog.
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And once I get you home, it's lights out.
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Still a school night.
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I'm way too jazzed to go to bed.
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Our picnic was 90 % sugar.
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Yeah, there's no chance I'm gonna fall asleep tonight.
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Huh?
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Why is the window open?
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Luce, did you open this?
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Lucy?
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Oh no, she's gone!
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Pick up, pick up!
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Dang it, she left her phone!
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Reporter's recorder.
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Entry number 562.
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Mean as musings.
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It's 2 a .m and...
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Oh!
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That means it's Halloween!
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I'm on the hunt for my best friend Lucy West.
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Lucy?
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Lucy!
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So far, no trace of her.
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I tried to put myself in her shoes, but I don't think she's wearing any.
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Lucy?
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Lucy!
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Typically when she sleepwalks, she doesn't go very far.
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but I've already biked past school and Lucy's house.
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No luck.
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Lucy!
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I'm heading to the graveyard next so I can get a good view of the entire town.
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We'll report back.
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Reporter's Recorder, entry number 562, part 2.
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Mina's Musings.
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I made it back to the graveyard, but it's nearly impossible to see anything because a thick fog has taken over Whitby.
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I've never seen anything like it, but to be fair, I'm never usually awake at this hour.
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Back to the task at hand.
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Where is Lucy West?
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I'm standing on our favorite bench, trying to see if I can spot her.
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So far, I only see fog.
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And more fog.
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Lucy!
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She's on the beach!
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And before I sign off let the record reflect that I was correct.
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She is not wearing any shoes
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Lucy She's coming.
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Lucy!
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The Demeter.
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Time to wake up.
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She's coming. Where?
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What's going on?
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It's freezing, Luz.
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Here, take my jacket.
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Mina, why are we on the beach?
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It's so foggy.
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You were sleepwalking again.
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Ugh.
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My mom's not gonna be happy.
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She'll understand.
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It's the fourth time this month.
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How do I get all the way to the shore?
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Usually we find you in the kitchen or in the dog bed.
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It's getting worse.
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It'll be okay.
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How do you know?
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Did you sleepwalk like this too?
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You mean, after my parents died?
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Yeah.
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No, but that was mostly because I couldn't sleep at all.
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It doesn't get any easier, does it?
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Losing your dad is still fresh loose.
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It's not that it gets easier, but it changes.
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How?
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I mean, I lost my parents on Halloween.
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And at first, I thought that would ruin it.
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But in some ways, Halloween is even more special now.
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Remembering and celebrating them on a holiday that we loved as a family.
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One that honors and respects death.
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Mina, it's hard.
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But I try to remember that they're never really gone.
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Mina, do you hear those whispers?
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I think they're coming from the ocean.
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I'm trying to be sincere here.
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We always carried them with us.
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Mina, it's getting louder.
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Look out!
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Ah!
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Tell me that's not an old -timey ship that almost ran us over
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It's not an old -timey ship that almost ran us over Actually, it is And it's definitely haunted
136
GZM Shows presents Mina and Lucy's Guide to Slaying Dracula Based,
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loosely, on the classic novel by Bram Stoker.
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Chapter One The Night Before Halloween The...
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Demeter?
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Do you think anyone is on board the ship?
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Uh, that's not a ship, Mina.
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That's a shipwreck.
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We need to check it out.
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I just woke up on the beach, Mina.
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I'm not trying to get on a haunted ship.
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You love haunted stuff.
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And you're always telling me gnarly injury stories.
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I also love REM sleep.
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You'll sleep when you're dead.
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Hey, there's a ladder next to the plank.
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Help me reach it.
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You're taller.
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Fine.
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One, two, three.
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Got it.
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I made it.
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Here, I'll drop the ladder down for you.
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No thanks.
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I'm good.
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What happened to your sense of adventure, Luz?
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It's back at your house.
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Warm in bed.
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Waiting for me to return.
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Oh, come on!
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Nina, when are you going to give this up?
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How's never a clock?
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You owe me.
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Here, grab my hand.
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Wow, it's like a pirate ship.
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Where are the pirates?
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No captain.
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No crew?
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Where did it come from?
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Reporter's recorder.
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Entry number 562, part 3.
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Mina's Musings.
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Hey, Luce, do you have your night photography camera?
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Gee, didn't think to bring it with me while I was sleepwalking.
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Okay, okay.
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Lucy and I just witnessed a ghostly shipwreck of epic proportions on the Whitby shoreline.
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It's no Titanic, but still pretty big.
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We're walking along the ship's top deck to check for survivors.
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But there isn't a soul in sight.
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Hey, maybe these stairs lead below deck.
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I guarantee there's some creepiness down there.
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That's the spirit
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Reporters update the stairs led us to the hull of the ship which is hardly intact and is also boring and empty.
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Let's go What happened?
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I tripped over a.. a velvet bag?
190
Huh.
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That's a full -blown satchel right there.
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Where is that growl coming from?
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Um, maybe from the beast with the red glowing eyes?
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It's.. a giant wolf.
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Mina, look out!
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Go, go, go.
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Whoa.
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Are you okay?
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That wolf tried to take off your hand.
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I'm fine.
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I think I just wanted this satchel.
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Go!
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Shut the door!
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Let's get out of here!
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Go!
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Hurry, come on!
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We gotta go!
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Let's go!
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Go!
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Go!
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Go!
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Go!
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Go!
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Go!
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I think it's gone.
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Gone where?
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I don't know.
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But I don't hear...
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What's in my hair?
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What is that?
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It's a bat.
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A bat came through the porthole.
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Get it out!
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Get it out!
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Don't panic.
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There's a bat in my hair.
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I think I'm allowed to panic a little.
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Get it out!
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Okay, okay, it's out.
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Let's get out of here.
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Okay, come on, come on.
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Off the boat, let's go, come on.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Lucy.
234
Good morning.
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Your zombie costumes turned out wonderfully.
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Nice work.
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We aren't wearing our costumes yet, Mr. Harker.
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Oh.
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Jonathan, time for school.
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Your perfectly normally dressed friends are here.
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Thanks, Dad.
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Bye, Dad.
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Okay.
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What's up with you two?
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You look paler than usual.
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I, for one, think we look excellent, considering we dodged two wild animals last night on an ancient haunted ship.
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Okay.
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One, ghosts aren't real.
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And two, a ship hasn't docked in Whitby in decades.
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It's too rocky and dangerous.
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I wouldn't say it docked.
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More like a violent crashing on the beach.
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Sure, and you met
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Jack Sparrow and Captain Hook on board.
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They were just dying to visit Whitby, weren't they?
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I wish I'd gotten some pictures, because he's not going to believe it until he sees it.
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So let's show him.
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No way!
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We can't be late for school.
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It'll take two minutes.
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Prepare to be amazed and horrified.
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Uh, am I missing something?
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Mina, where'd the ship go?
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I, I don't know.
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It's not here.
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Do you think it got swept back out to sea?
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You saw it.
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It was way too wrecked for that.
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Okay, weird prank.
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Let's go.
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This is not a prank.
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We are way more skilled pranksters than this.
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So I guess this alleged ancient ship grew wings and flew off.
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Yes, that is my exact hypothesis, Jonathan.
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Lucy, how does a shipwreck just disappear?
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Jonathan, I know you make questionable fashion choices, but why is there a big ugly hat over there on your desk?
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There's a human boy under that hat.
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Who is it?
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I don't know, but he's in my seat.
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Uh, hey, I'm Jonathan.
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Uh, hello?
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Oh, I think he's asleep.
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I wish I was asleep.
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Is he even breathing?
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Loose, check his pulse.
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Why me?
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Your mom's a nurse.
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Yeah, my mom is.
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I'm not.
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Fine, I'll do it.
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Hello.
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Hello.
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Wow, his skin is freezing.
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Good morning, class.
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Why is it so dark in here?
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Time to let the light in.
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He's alive. And hissing.
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Hey, easy, dude.
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Oh, uh, sorry about that.
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Class, we have a new student with us today.
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New student?
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Please give a warm Whitby Middle School welcome to...
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Oh, didn't anyone tell you Halloween costumes aren't allowed until after school?
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What costume?
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Isn't that a farmer costume?
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The big straw hat?
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It needs to go, I'm afraid.
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School policy.
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You will let me wear my hat at all times and not give me any more grief about it.
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Uh, because I have a sensitivity to UV light.
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I will not give you any more grief about wearing your hat, even though it is against school policy.
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Great.
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Glad we straightened that out.
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Hi, everybody.
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My name is Vladimir.
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You can call me...
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Vlad.
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Vlad?
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Thank you.
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Hi, I'm Suri Marrero.
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And I'm Jenna Ducanet.
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And we play Mina and Lucy in Mina and Lucy's Guide to Slaying Dracula.
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For more great shows, visit gzmshows .com.
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That was a good one.
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Wow, that was a nice job.
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Shh.
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It's starting.
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GZM Shows.
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Imagination Amplified.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Chapter One: The Night Before Halloween”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Lucy, mina, ship, costume, halloween. This video has 329 sentences and 1821 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:16. The speaker talks at a steady 119 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 55 of its 329 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| costume noun | /ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/ | A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people. |
| graveyard noun | /ˈɡɹeɪvˌjɑɹd/ | A tract of land in which the dead are buried. |
| haunt verb | /hɔnt/ | To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts). |
| asleep adjective | /əˈsliːp/ | In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting. |
| zombie noun | /ˈzɑmbi/ | A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his or her own, typically being slow, obedient, and harmless… |
| grandpa noun | /ˈɡɹæm.pɑː/ | grandfather. |
| picnic noun | /ˈpɪknɪk/ | An informal social gathering, usually in a natural outdoor setting, to which the participants bring their own food and drink. |
| recorder noun | /ɹiˈkɔɹ.dəɹ/ | An apparatus for recording; a device which records. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| deck noun | /ˈdɛk/ | Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop. |
| wolf noun | /wʊlf/ | Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily. |
| panic noun | /ˈpænɪk/ | Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare. |
| shoe noun | /ˈʃu/ | A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of… |
| imagination noun | /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/ | The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images. |
| stairs noun | /ˈstɛɹz/ | A contiguous set of steps connecting two floors. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| look out verb | To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. |
| fly off verb | To flee rapidly; to run away. |
| sign off verb | To log off; to stop using a computer, radio, etc.; especially, to stop talking. |
| take off verb | To remove. |
| take over verb | To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Luce, did you open this?
- Mina, why are we on the beach?
- Did you sleepwalk like this too?
- Mina, do you hear those whispers?
- What's up with you two?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've already biked · has taken · I've never seen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be amazed · aren't allowed |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were stirring · was being · were sleepwalking |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | our best · our most gruesome · my best |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, breathe /bɹiːð/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, shore /ʃɔɹ/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, photography /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fi/, sensitivity /ˌsɛn.səˈtɪv.ə.ti/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
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 costume, graveyard, haunt.
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.