Shadowing Practice: F&F 2-UNIT 9 LESSON 5+6 - Learn English Speaking with Video

This video has 41 sentences and 196 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:08. The speaker talks slowly, about 92 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

12 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

• elephant /ˈɛlɪfənt/ (noun) — A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia.
• tiger /ˈtaɪɡə/ (noun) — Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
• lion /ˈlaɪən/ (noun) — A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe.
• monkey /ˈmʌŋki/ (noun) — A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails…
• vegetable /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ (noun) — 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…
• parrot /ˈpæɹət/ (noun) — A kind of bird, many species of which are colorful and able to mimic human speech, of the order Psittaciformes or (narrowly) of the family Psittacidae.
• giraffe /d͡ʒəˈɹæf/ (noun) — A ruminant in the genus Giraffa of the African savannah with long legs, a highly elongated neck, yellow fur patterned with dark spots typically in the form of…
• favourite /ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/ (adjective) — Most-liked. (In other words, [person]'s favorite [noun] = the [noun] that [person] likes the most.)
• feed /fiːd/ (verb) — To give (someone or something) food to eat.
• cute /kjuːt/ (adjective) — Possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits or other properties that are mainly attributed to infants and small or cuddly animals; e.g. fair…
• meat /mit/ (noun) — The flesh (muscle tissue) of a killed animal used as food.
• circle /ˈsɜɹkəl/ (noun) — A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from a given point (center).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

• work at (verb) — To make a physical or mental effort to progress some specified task; to endeavor or struggle on an issue or project.
• look after (verb) — To follow with the eyes; to look in the direction of (someone or something departing).
• get up (verb) — To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we've, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

How to practise with this video

1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like elephant, tiger, lion.