Shadowing Practice: English in a Minute: Dropping Like Flies - Learn English Speaking with Video
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15 sentences
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1
Welcome to English in a Minute.
2
Flies can be a bother, but they die fairly easily.
3
Let's hear how the idiom dropping like flies is used.
4
The final round of the office spelling bee is tomorrow.
5
Can you help me practice?
6
Sure.
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I haven't been in a spelling bee since grade school.
8
Have the words been difficult?
9
Yes, in yesterday's round, people were dropping like flies.
10
Then let's practice.
11
Spell deoxyribonucleic acid.
12
D...
13
N...A?
14
To drop like flies means to collapse, die, or drop out in large numbers in a short period of time.
15
If you've ever seen a lot of dead flies on a porch or floor, you know where this idiom comes from.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “English in a Minute: Dropping Like Flies”. This video has 15 sentences and 116 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:53. The speaker talks at a steady 131 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 3 of its 15 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| spelling noun | /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/ | The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography. |
| acid noun | /ˈæsɪd/ | A sour substance. |
| bother verb | /ˈbɑðɚ/ | To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for. |
| spell noun | /spɛl/ | Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers. |
| collapse verb | /kəˈlæps/ | To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in. |
| porch noun | /pɔɹt͡ʃ/ | A covered entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a… |
| idiom noun | /ˈɪdiəm/ | A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people. |
| deoxyribonucleic adjective | /di.ɑk.siˌɹaɪ.boʊ.nuˈkleɪ.ɪk/ | Of or pertaining to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or its derivatives. |
| fairly adverb | /ˈfeɹ.li/ | In a fair manner; fair; not biased or skewed or favouring a certain party |
| fly noun | /ˈflaɪ̯/ | Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies. |
| drop noun | /dɹɑp/ | A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid. |
| welcome | /ˈwɛl.kəm/ | Greeting given upon someone's arrival. |
| floor noun | /flɔː/ | The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room. |
| easily adverb | /ˈi.zɪ.li/ | Comfortably, without discomfort or anxiety. |
| grade noun | /ɡɹeɪd/ | A rating. |
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 | haven't been · you've ever seen |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were dropping |
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 spelling, acid, bother.
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.