Shadowing Practice: 🥘Eating & drinking🍹Advanced English Speaking exam practice & speaking exam questions Level 4/5,B2/C1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Elephant English Podcast.
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Today we're going to be talking about eating and drinking.
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I'm going to be asking myself some questions
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and then I'm going to be answering these questions like you would in a speaking exam.
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So, the first question is which type of food from your country is most popular abroad?
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I would say that fish Fish and chips and English breakfasts are the most popular type of food abroad.
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But, in reality, English people don't really have English breakfast every day.
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It's more like something that you would have at the weekend
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if you wake up a bit later and you would have it about 11 o'clock.
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You wouldn't have it before going to work at 7 o'clock in the morning every day.
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It is true that people do have fish and chips in England when they go to the seaside.
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It isn't really something that they would have every day when they come back from work.
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It's quite similar to the English breakfast.
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It's not something that you would have every day, but on a special occasion you might do.
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Question number two is, do you prefer your own country's food or other kind of food?
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I think that I prefer other kinds of food because it's true that gastronomy isn't England's strongest point.
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I think that there are some nice foods in England like pies.
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But if we compare it to some pasta dishes or like pizzas or some types of Asian food,
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then I would say that I prefer other types of food.
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I think the best food that there is in England, if we compare it to other countries, are maybe the cakes and biscuits.
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I think they're quite special.
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And when I'm away, I always fancy a biscuit or a cake that you can find in England.
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But I never really fancy British food when I'm abroad.
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question number three is
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if you could open your own foreign restaurant in your city what would it be like i would say
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that i would make a nice italian restaurant because i love pizza
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and pasta dishes and all types of italian food really
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and i was thinking the other day that
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if you wanted to go somewhere nice
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or take someone out to dinner then there aren't really a of fine dining restaurants
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or you know restaurants that are just a bit nice.
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I think in my city there's quite a lot of takeaway restaurants because that's what people normally do.
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They don't really go out to eat only
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if it's for I don't know maybe a wedding but they wouldn't really go out to eat every Friday, for example, like they do in other countries.
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So I think it would be nice to make a restaurant
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that has nice food and that is just nice to be in because I think a lot of the restaurants around here,
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the decoration and just everything is a bit basic. So, question number 4.
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When you've lived abroad, what is the food that you miss the most from home?
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Like I said before, I think that the foods that I miss the most are cakes.
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So, in England there's a lot of different types of cakes and biscuits that you can't really find in other countries.
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So, when I'm abroad I always fancy something sweet sweet.
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I don't really miss fish and chips or English breakfast because it's not really something that is special.
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So I would say that I miss biscuits like custard creams
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or bourbon creams which are just normal biscuits that you can't buy anywhere else.
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Question number 5.
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What special foods do you eat on holidays?
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So at Christmas, on New Year's Day etc. I would say
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that the most typical food that I eat on holidays are roast dinners.
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Roast dinners are the main type of dinners
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that you would eat in England and
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if you went out on a Sunday for example you would go
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and have a carvery
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which is basically like a type of roast dinner roast dinner is normally like some sausages some meat
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and then you would have vegetables like broccoli peas carrots
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and the main part of it is normally potatoes so boiled potatoes
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or roast potatoes and then you add a special sauce on the top which is called gravy.
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Question number six.
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Are there any foods that you wouldn't eat as a child that you eat now?
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There are quite a lot of foods that I wouldn't eat as a child but I do eat now, especially vegetables.
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I think it's because when people cooked vegetables, the vegetables didn't have any special sauce or anything like that
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but now that I'm older I like to make vegetable dishes
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and I follow recipes and I think you add a lot more spices a lot more sauces
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and it's a lot nicer at the moment I would eat any vegetable question number seven do you cook
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if so what food do you cook the most often Yes, I love cooking and I cook every day.
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So the food that I cook the most is probably rice or pasta dishes with vegetables.
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That's the typical food that I prepare every day to have when I come back from work.
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At the weekends I sometimes make a curry dish, a
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or something a bit more special but
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because I don't have a lot of time during the week I normally make something that is quite quick.
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Question number 8.
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Which do you think is the best way to learn how to cook?
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To be honest I have learnt how to cook through YouTube videos and I think it's quite a good way.
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Especially if you haven't got a lot of motivation at the start.
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I think it's harder nowadays for some people to take a recipe book and know what they're doing.
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In YouTube videos you can see what the other people are doing.
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You can see how small they cut the vegetables for example.
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And I think it's a lot easier.
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So I would say the best way to learn how to cook is watching videos
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and then when you know how to cook you can follow recipe books.
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Question number nine.
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Do you ever skip breakfast?
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If so how often and why?
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Well I do even though it isn't very good I do skip breakfast sometimes
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if I'm not feeling too good in the morning or
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if I'm just late for work
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but I always do take something to have later on in the day
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so maybe at 10 o'clock or 9 o'clock when I have a break I will have a bit of a snack.
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How often?
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I would say that it is maybe once a week
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and I don't think that I should do it
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because they do say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
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Question number 10.
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How often should a healthy person eat eat fast food?
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Well, I'm not an expert but I would say
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that it is alright to have fast food maybe once or twice a month,
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so maybe every two weeks or every month.
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I don't really have a lot of fast food
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when I'm at home but if I'm on holiday for example
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and I'm very hungry and I have to go and get something
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and the McDonald's is the closest restaurant then I would go and get that.
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Question number 11.
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What foods do you like eating least and why?
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I would say that the food that I like eating the least is fish
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because I have never liked it and I think it's just the look of it and also the smell of it.
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I have never liked it and I think I never will.
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Question number 12.
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Are there any foods that you try to avoid eating because they are unhealthy?
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So I would say that I avoid eating a lot of sugary foods like sweets or fizzy drinks because
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I think that it isn't good to have them every day.
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Obviously if you go out with friends and you order a drink, it's okay to order a coke or a fanta
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but i wouldn't have it at home every day
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so i think i do try to avoid eating
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and drinking these types of food but
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if it's like fast food you can have it once in a
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while question number 13 do you prefer cooking at home or eating out?
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Well, obviously I prefer eating out but if I eat out every day then it would be very very very expensive.
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So realistically I prefer cooking at home but if it were free I would eat out every single day.
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I normally cook at home and I would say that I eat out maybe twice a month or on special occasions.
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Question number 14.
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Do you consider yourself a fussy or a picky eater?
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Yes, I consider myself a fussy or picky eater and I realise
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that when I go to somebody else's house or go out to a restaurant when I don't like a lot of food,
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but at home I know what I like
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so I'm used to cooking the same type of foods and
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if I don't like that food I just avoid it
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but it is true that some people say that I am a picky eater.
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Question number 15.
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Do you enjoy trying unusual food or do you always eat the same food?
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I do like trying unusual food as long as it is something that I like.
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So for example, if I don't like fish, then I wouldn't try some unusual food that is fish.
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But if it's like a new sauce or a new type of dip, then I would try it.
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Question number 16.
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Would you have liked to become a chef?
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No, I wouldn't like to have become a chef
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because I have family members who are chefs and I think
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that the kitchens are very hot and it's very stressful
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when you have a lot of customers and you need to prepare like 40 meals in 30 minutes.
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I just think that it's a very stressful kind of job even though people might say well, being a high school teacher is a stressful job,
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but I think that some people prefer some things and others prefer others.
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So, today we have talked about eating and drinking at a B2 or C1 level.
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If you have enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and press the like button
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and also please subscribe to my channel because I'm going to be making a lot of videos like this.
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I have made some activities for you to practice the words
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that we have used in this video and you can find that along with the transcripts in the description box below.
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Thank you very much for listening and I'll see you in the next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
The speaker keeps coming back to these words: eat, type, cook, restaurant, eating. This video has 145 sentences and 1828 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:40. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| vegetable noun | /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ | A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice… |
| biscuit noun | /ˈbɪs.kɪt/ | A small, flat, baked good which is either hard and crisp or else soft but firm; a cookie. |
| roast verb | /ɹoʊst/ | To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance. |
| eater noun | /ˈiː.tɚ/ | A person or animal who eats. |
| picky adjective | /ˈpɪki/ | Fussy; particular; demanding to have things just right. |
| stressful adjective | /ˈstɹɛsfəl/ | Irritating; causing stress. |
| pasta noun | /ˈpɑ.stə/ | Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating. |
| fussy adjective | /ˈfʌ.si/ | Anxious or particular about petty details; hard to please. |
| carvery noun | A restaurant specializing in roast meat, particularly roast beef and Sunday roasts. | |
| custard noun | /ˈkʌs.təd/ | A type of sauce made from milk and eggs (and usually sugar, and sometimes vanilla or other flavourings) and thickened by heat, served hot poured over desserts… |
| gastronomy noun | /ɡæˈstɹɒnəmi/ | The art of preparing and eating good food. |
| realistically adverb | In a realistic manner. | |
| takeaway noun | /ˈteɪkəweɪ/ | A restaurant that sells food to be eaten elsewhere. |
| broccoli noun | /ˈbɹɑ.kə.li/ | A plant, Brassica oleracea var. italica, of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae; especially, the tree-shaped flower and stalk that are eaten as a vegetable. |
| pea noun | /piː/ | Any of certain plants of the family Fabaceae: Pisum sativum and others. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back from verb | To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I think they're quite special.
- What special foods do you eat on holidays?
- Do you ever skip breakfast?
- What foods do you like eating least and why?
- Would you have liked to become a chef?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if it were free I would eat |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've lived · have learnt · have never liked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | creams which are · top which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, wouldn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- Long words — get the stress right: gastronomy /ɡæˈstɹɒnəmi/, decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/
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 vegetable, biscuit, roast.
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.