Shadowing Practice: City Life - A2 English Listening Practice - Learn English Speaking with Video
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82 sentences
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1
I live in a big city.
2
I live in a small flat in the centre of the city.
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I love living here because everything is near my house.
4
There are so many restaurants,
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bars, supermarkets and grocery stores to eat at and to buy food from.
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I love trying different food, so this is great for me.
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Also, the transport is excellent in the city.
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We have buses, taxis, trains and underground trains.
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There are many bus stops, bus stations and train stations, so you don't have to walk a long way.
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The buses and trains aren't usually very busy,
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so they aren't noisy and it's quite relaxing to take them.
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I hate it when it is noisy on public transport because it makes it very stressful.
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I normally listen to music when I'm on the bus or train, or I read a book.
14
Because I live in the city centre, I don't have a car.
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I hate driving, so this is excellent for me.
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When I need to go somewhere far,
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like travelling to the airport or visiting my friends and family,
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my mum usually takes me.
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If not, I take a taxi.
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The problem is that taxis are very expensive, so I prefer to go with someone in their car.
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There are a lot of fun things to do when you live in a city, like going to the cinema,
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going shopping at shopping centres or walking around the market.
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I like to do these activities with my friends something bad about living in the city is that
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if you want to do a fun activity it is normally
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very expensive cities are usually a lot more expensive than towns
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or villages the rent that you pay to live in your house is expensive,
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the food is generally more expensive and you spend a lot more money
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because you can't go for a walk in the countryside and other free activities that you can do in a village.
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For example, a ticket to go to watch a film at the cinema costs £12.
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Some popcorn and a drink costs £6.
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And if you go to have dinner after the cinema, that normally costs around £15.
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So it's a lot of money.
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I only do fun activities like this at the weekend,
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not from Monday to Friday because if not I would spend around 20 or 30 pounds every time I go out.
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There are lots of flats or apartments in my area.
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There is also a police station, a fire station, a school, a hospital and a university.
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But my favourite places to go are the bookshop and the library.
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When I am at the library I can read books for two or three hours and it is free.
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If I like the book I can buy it at the bookshop.
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I often think that I want to move to the countryside, to have more parks, see the flowers and trees,
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and to be more relaxed.
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But I love living in the city.
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I don't want to live in a small village with one small shop and no shopping centres,
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bars or cinemas.
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I think that...
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It's boring if you are young and you want to try out new activities.
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One free activity that I like to do in my city is to visit museums.
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I love to visit history and animal museums.
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I think that they are very interesting.
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I love learning about insects and animals, and also about countries and their history.
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There are many museums in my city and they are normally free all over England.
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I know that in other countries you have to pay to get into a museum,
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but in England almost all of them are free if they are public.
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Museums normally have a cafe and it's nice to have a coffee
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and a piece of cake or a sandwich after spending a couple of hours at the museum.
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I often go and sit on a bench in a park to read.
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It's a relaxing activity and I love being outside.
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I normally do this when the weather is nice,
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the sky is blue and it isn't windy my flat doesn't have a garden
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so it's nice to be outside especially at the weekends
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when i have more time going to a flea market
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or a second hand market is another thing that i enjoy doing in my city.
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Flea markets are markets where people sell old things which we call antiques or second hand items like furniture,
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clothes, books or cds.
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It's fascinating to look at all the things that people are selling.
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Sometimes the items are a bit rubbish but other times there are great things for sale and they are always very cheap.
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In England there is a TV program about old objects,
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which are antiques, that people have found at flea markets or they have found at their parents' or grandparents' houses.
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They go on the TV program to sell the items.
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And sometimes they bought the object like a watch
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or a dish or a bracelet for one or two pounds and then they sold it for five hundred pounds.
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You obviously need to know what you are looking for, like what is expensive expensive,
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but some people find really expensive things at flea markets and sell them for a higher price.
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I don't do this
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but I like going for a walk with my friends around the flea market because it can be quite fun.
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I prefer to go to markets,
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not shops, because I don't like buying new items.
78
I live in a city and I like visiting shopping centres,
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but I usually go to a restaurant or to a cafe when I am there.
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I don't usually go shopping and buy a lot of clothes or things that I don't need.
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If you have enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.
82
Thank you very much and I'll see you in the next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “City Life - A2 English Listening Practice”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: expensive, normally, museum, flea, shopping. This video has 82 sentences and 1002 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:51. The speaker talks slowly, about 102 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cinema noun | /ˈsɪn.ə.mə/ | A movie theatre, a movie house. |
| pound noun | /ˈpaʊ̯nd/ | A unit of weight in various measurement systems. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| taxi noun | /ˈtæksi/ | A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare. |
| cloth noun | /klɒθ/ | A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes… |
| countryside noun | /ˈkʌn.tɹiˌsaɪd/ | An area located outside of towns and cities; an area that is not urban or suburban; a rural area. |
| antique adjective | /ˌanˈtiːk/ | Having existed in ancient times, descended from antiquity; used especially in reference to Greece and Rome. |
| noisy adjective | /ˈnɔɪzi/ | Making a noise, especially a loud unpleasant sound |
| flower noun | /ˈfloʊɚ/ | A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens… |
| bench noun | /ˈbɛnt͡ʃ/ | A long seat with or without a back, found for example in parks and schools. |
| underground adjective | /ˌʌn.dəɹˈɡɹaʊnd/ | Below the ground; below the surface of the Earth. |
| furniture noun | /ˈfɝ.nɪ.t͡ʃɚ/ | Large movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively. |
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| sandwich noun | /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/ | A dish or foodstuff where at least one piece, but typically two or more pieces, of bread serves as the wrapper or container of some other food. |
| grocery noun | /ˈɡɹəʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/ | Retail foodstuffs and other household supplies. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. |
| try out verb | To test (something) to see how it works or whether it is suitable. |
| walk around verb | To walk with no planned destination; to meander. |
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 | have found · have enjoyed |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | love living · love trying · hate driving |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | have to walk · need to go · have to pay |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | are selling · are looking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, aren't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: cloth /klɒθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/
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 cinema, pound, relax.
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.