Shadowing Practice: English in a Minute: Pull the Plug - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Welcome to English in a Minute.
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A plug provides electricity.
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So what happens when you pull the plug?
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My first annual pickleball celebration party was way over budget.
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Well, Dan, maybe you don't need a 10-piece jazz band.
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And the snake handler alone costs $1,000.
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I love snakes.
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Maybe I just pull the plug on this whole thing.
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Dan, you just need to pull the plug on the $500 chocolate fountain?
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Dan.
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Pulling the plug just means to put an end to a plan or activity.
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If I were Dan, I'd pull the plug on the snake handler, not the chocolate fountain.
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And that's English in a Minute.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “English in a Minute: Pull the Plug”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: plug, Dan, pull, snake. This video has 13 sentences and 106 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:53. The speaker talks at a steady 120 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 2 of its 13 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 |
|---|---|---|
| plug noun | /plʌɡ/ | A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one. |
| snake noun | /sneɪk/ | Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues. |
| fountain noun | /ˈfaʊn.tɪn/ | A natural source of water; a spring. |
| handler noun | /ˈhænd.lə/ | One who handles something (especially manually) or someone. |
| electricity noun | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/ | Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now… |
| jazz noun | /d͡ʒæz/ | A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time… |
| celebration noun | /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal performance of a solemn rite, such as Christian sacrament. |
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| pickleball noun | A racquet sport resembling tennis, played with solid paddles and a perforated ball, which combines elements of badminton, table tennis and wiffleball. | |
| chocolate noun | /ˈtʃɔk.(ə.)lɪt/ | A food made from ground roasted cocoa beans. |
| pull verb | /pʊl/ | To apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force. |
| welcome | /ˈwɛl.kəm/ | Greeting given upon someone's arrival. |
| annual adjective | /ˈæn.ju.əl/ | Happening once every year. |
| activity noun | /ækˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/ | The state or quality of being active; activeness. |
| budget noun | /ˈbʌd͡ʒ.ɪt/ | The amount of money or resources earmarked for a particular institution, activity or timeframe. |
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 I were Dan, I'd pull |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | need to pull |
Pronunciation to watch
- Long words — get the stress right: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, activity /ækˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/
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 plug, snake, fountain.
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.