Shadowing Practice: Did This Camera Survive the Static Fire? - Starbase Summary - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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It's time for another Starbase summary from Starbase Texas.
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Have to specify the Texas now, because of course we've got Starbase Louisiana on the horizon.
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Booster 21 headed out to the pad this week for that static fire test. Will this camera survive?
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I guess you'll have to wait till the end of the video to find out.
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SpaceX also moving some hydraulic RAM stand hardware, easy for me to say, from Massey's over to the production site.
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all of that and more is coming up
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but we're going to start at pad two with some booster
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quick disconnect sensor testing they have those little sensors in the top of the hoods
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and you can see a worker waving his hand about clearly testing
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if the sensor is working or not safely strapped in to
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that aerial work platform which is neatly positioned there you go testing the i guess testing
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if the sensors are sensing anything i mean what else would they be testing
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and then of course the scaffolding getting removed ahead of that static fire test which is coming up shortly the following day.
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Always a cool time lapse to see them take that scaffolding down.
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Looks a little neater than it was on pad one of course.
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And this is the start of the show.
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Booster 21 making its way out of Mega Bay 1.
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Just about fits through the door and out into the ring yard.
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maybe having a look at the top of the booster before moving the aerial work platform back down
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and then of course the booster rolling out of the production site taking the the long way around
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because they've helpfully built a gigabay in the path
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that the boosters used to take
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but there you go three fresh grid fins fingers crossed ready
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to deliver a booster to a precise on target splash down in the Gulf and there the quick disconnects,
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the dual quick disconnects on Block 3 Booster plugged up to make sure nothing that shouldn't be inside gets inside.
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That would be very bad of course.
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There you go, the fleet of police vehicles getting ready to escort the booster
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down Highway 4 past the Giga Bay where of course these boosters will one day be rolling out of, hopefully in the not too distant future.
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Got some wonderful SPMT noises as well.
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And there goes Booster 21.
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Rolling down Highway 4, past the production site, past our highway site.
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Zooming in through the transport stand, taking a look at the Raptors.
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Looks like a zero number there ending in 3-0, so I'm not sure if that's 1-3-0 or 2-3-0.
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Maybe a 1, because we've got a 1-8 in there as well.
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What's that, 1-8-2 maybe?
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Let us know what you think in the comments, which zero numbers did we spot?
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I suppose when it's lifted onto the launch map we'll get a bit of a better view.
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There you go, making its way down the highway, past the onlookers.
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Cybertrucks are waiting, or getting out of the way it looks like.
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Another view inside of the transport stand.
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A little too high to see the serial numbers this time, but there you go.
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more SPMT noises looking up at that black painted section and those beautiful chines
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wonderful tilt up the booster there
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Of course Block 3 Super Heavy with those two longer chines
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and the two shorter chines compared to the previous generation where they're all about the same length
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and similarly positioned around the booster.
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That is that new integrated hot staging ring
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which has worked a few times on the couple flights that we've seen of this booster generation so far.
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and there we go turning into the launch site now all the wheels on the spmt's doing their thing
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headed to pad two chopsticks ready and waiting to lift up
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that booster and the road reopens so uh everybody can uh drive on by to boca chica beach
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and there we go booster 21 entering the chopsticks now
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and here is the lift okay let's see what zero numbers we can spot I can see a 155 in there
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maybe it was just 80
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I didn't realise there'd be a double digit Raptor on this booster I assumed
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that they would have gone through all of those by now but I'm clearly incorrect got a 189 in there
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a 1.9 something as well maybe a 1.1 something booster 21 translating over on the chopsticks lining up that's what those
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sensors we were looking at for I think 200 is on the right side there
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Raptor 200 Raptor 3.200 I should specify 1.57 1.79 maybe next to Raptor 80.
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Looks like a 4.9 on the middle ring as well.
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And being lowered into the launch mount.
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Very slowly, very carefully.
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With as much precision as possible, of course.
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Slow and steady wins the race.
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Especially when you're lifting a 70m tall booster into its launch mount.
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Looks like one of the...
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Oh, all the doors are now opening on the bottom there.
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On the bottom of the shop, on the top of the launch mount.
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And the quick disconnect extending. And connection.
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Big yellow rod for some reason. Are you inspecting something?
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I'm not sure.
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Maybe just a last minute check around, make sure everything is going as planned.
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And there's the moon.
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I wonder if we'll have the lunar eclipse in this.
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Of course we did have the lunar eclipse.
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Stay tuned and find out.
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There is
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that hot staging ring I was just talking about a moment
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ago with its extra metal skin on top to protect against the plume of the six raptor engines on ship.
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Starbase always delivers the prettiest sunsets in the world.
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It's undeniably the greatest of all time at sunsets.
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And here we go, this is the pad now being cleared for booster testing on August 26th,
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and a transport stand and load spreader rolling down the road to block the road.
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The tank farm then spilled up and did tank farm things, but as you can see by that lower third, booster didn't do anything.
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There was no booster prop load whatsoever,
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and the transport stand made its way back to the launch pad freeing up highway 4. So let's try again.
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Pad was cleared a couple days later August 28th.
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Transport stand.
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We've got some great views inside the transport stand.
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You can see there the clamps that the booster is secured by inside of the transport mount.
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Really brilliant views from this camera.
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Positioned right at the exit of the flame trench.
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Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. But here we go.
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Tank farm spooling up again.
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Huge vents from the rejig tank farm.
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And propellant load begun.
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This is actually real time.
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No, I'm just kidding.
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This isn't real time.
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This is dive wraps.
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But it goes so quickly that it almost could be real time. On Super Heavy V3.
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Now, of course, the liquid oxygen tank on the bottom.
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Liquid methane tank, frost line, now starting to rise.
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You might think the methane tank is now just being filled up.
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But, of course, it has that massive transfer tube inside of Super Heavy.
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And here we go.
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Here is the static fire we've been all waiting for.
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All 15 seconds of it on pad 2.
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there's ignition and
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that is a beautiful
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test you can
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see the sound making visible ripples everybody very happy with
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that test and rightly so and of course we've got all the different angles looking on from the north,
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zoomed in on them out and you can see the flame being ejected out of that flame trench on both sides.
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The two-sided flame trench on pad two.
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Looking on from the south, almost dead on with the booster and it's really clear to see
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that flame trench at work with the two big plumes from left and right,
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creating a very large, two very large distinct clouds of steam and dust.
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And this is the camera everybody's been waiting for.
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Here comes the cloud and the massive stick that knocks over the camera.
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Here's the cloud, and there's the massive stick.
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This camera didn't see much afterwards, unfortunately.
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And here is detanking after a successful test for booster, less successful test for the camera.
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And here is the aftermath of these deployable cameras.
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This is Caesar out there.
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It's got a little bit mucky.
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A little bit of dust.
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A little bit of mud. But the camera survived.
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Thumbs up.
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Just needs a little bit of a clean.
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And there you go, there's the camera that was hit by a stick.
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Also survived.
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Just barely.
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over at the Massey's end of Starbase here we go we've
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got the ship thrust simulator stand making its way to the
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production site where it will be picking up the next ship along the production line
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there we go you can see it headed along highway 4
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back to the production site looking forward to some Ship 42 testing that mass sees hopefully sooner rather than later.
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It's been a little while since we had some ship cryo testing.
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Now of course Ship 41 was there the other day for its static fire but not for cryo testing.
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And this is the partial lunar eclipse that we saw the other day, visible from most of the world but best viewing conditions in the Americas,
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which is of course where Starbase Texas is.
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Looks about 50% obscured now.
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It wasn't a total lunar eclipse unfortunately.
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There was still a sliver of sunlight hitting the moon but it did get pretty pretty covered.
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This is the most obscuration I believe the word is until December 31st,
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2028 which will be the New Year's Eve lunar eclipse which I'm very looking forward to.
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So Mikey Cyananders. and
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that was another starbase summary thank you very much for tuning
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in of course my voice is not the voice of das das is busy this week
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but i hope you enjoyed my beautiful tones nonetheless thank you
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very much for watching do tune in for the next one and we'll see you then bye
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Did This Camera Survive the Static Fire? - Starbase Summary”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: booster, pad, testing, camera, stand. This video has 152 sentences and 1672 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:56. The speaker talks at a steady 129 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| booster noun | /ˈbustɚ/ | Something that boosts. |
| starbase noun | A base (for trading, military operations, etc.) located in space, among the stars. | |
| raptor noun | /ˈɹæptɚ/ | One of the dromaeosaurs, a family of carnivorous dinosaurs having tearing claws on the hind legs. |
| lunar adjective | /ˈlunɚ/ | Of, pertaining to, or resembling the Moon (that is, Luna, the Earth's moon). |
| eclipse noun | /ɪˈklɪps/ | An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter. |
| sensor noun | /ˈsɛn.sɚ/ | A device or organ that detects certain external stimuli and responds in a distinctive manner. |
| flame noun | /fleɪm/ | The visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat. |
| disconnect verb | /dɪskəˈnɛkt/ | To sever or interrupt a connection. |
| trench noun | /ˈtɹɛnt͡ʃ/ | A long, narrow ditch or hole in the ground; either manmade, or formed naturally through erosion or tectonic plate movement. |
| static adjective | /ˈstæt.ɪk/ | Unchanging; that cannot or does not change. |
| chine noun | /t͡ʃaɪn/ | The top of a ridge. |
| cryo noun | cryoprecipitate | |
| nudge verb | /nʌd͡ʒ/ | To push against gently, especially in order to gain attention or give a signal. |
| plume noun | /ˈplum/ | A token of honour or prowess; that on which one prides oneself; a prize or reward. |
| scaffold noun | /ˈskæf.əld/ | A structure made of scaffolding for workers to stand on while working on a building. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| roll down verb | Synonym of wind down. |
| back down verb | To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have. |
| fill up verb | To make (something) completely full. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
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 | being lowered · being cleared · was cleared |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has worked · we've been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | platform which is · test which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as we've, I'm, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: methane /ˈmiːθeɪn/, thrust /θɹʌst/, aftermath /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/, nonetheless /ˌnʌnðəˈlɛs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ignition /ɪɡˈnɪʃən/, splash /splæʃ/, precision /pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: simulator /ˈsɪmjəˌleɪtɚ/, whatsoever /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/
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 booster, starbase, raptor.
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.