Shadowing Practice: FAR FROM SHORE MyView Literacy Fifth Grade Unit 2 Week 1 Read Aloud - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Far From Home, Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage, by Sophie Webb My name is Sophie.
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I work as a field biologist and naturalist specializing in birds.
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Tomorrow I am going on a four -month journey to the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, ETP, to study seabirds and marine mammals.
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I work for the Southwest Fisheries Science Center,
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a research laboratory run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, in California.
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The cruise's main goal is to discover what has happened to dolphins' populations that have been affected by the tuna -persane fishery.
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However, we will also observe and count all other marine mammals that we encounter, count the seabirds, my main job,
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make oceanographic measurements, and study flying fish and squid.
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As scientists, we want to understand the ecosystem as a whole, not only one part.
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The ETP, where we will work, is a huge portion of the Pacific, the world's largest ocean.
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It extends south from California to Peru and west to Hawaii and on an area of 7 .7 million square miles,
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larger than the continent of Africa.
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The open ocean, far from land, can seem lonely and empty, yet there are areas in the ETP that are full of amazing wildlife.
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Because it is so difficult to study these deep -sea animals far from shore, little is known about their natural history and ecology.
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My shipmates and I are about to embark on an incredible opportunity to explore this complex and exciting ecosystem.
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July, San Diego, California.
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I drive south from my home in Central California to San Diego.
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There I spend several days helping load scientific equipment aboard the NOAA ship MacArthur II and setting up our work areas.
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Over the flying bridge, the highest deck on the ship, the ship's crew has strung a canvas canopy to provide shade.
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We will be grateful for the shade as we head south into the sunny tropics.
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We've installed four sets of big eyes, which will be key to our observations.
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We use these enormous mounted binoculars with a 25 power magnification to scan to the horizon for marine animals
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or count distant bird flocks.
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Three computer stations with chairs are also set up.
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Two stations, one per side, are where we birders sit to collect our bird data.
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The third one, in the middle, is where the marine mammal data recorder sits.
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A bird's eye view of the flying bridge shows the location of our stations in the big eyes.
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There are 37 people on the ship.
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15 are scientists, one chief scientist, six marine mammal observers, two birders, one of them is me,
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two oceanographers, and four visiting scientists.
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The remaining 22 aboard include the captain, cooks, engineers, a variety of NOAA officers who navigate and drive the ship,
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and the deck department folks who clean and paint the ship
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and help us collect our data by driving the small boats
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and running the cranes and winches for casting nets and other equipment.
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I have worked with many of the scientists before and know most of the ship's crew well.
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I've spent almost two of the past four years living and working on the MacArthur II, so the first few days are always fun,
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catching up with others and learning what they have been doing over the months since the last trip.
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Although over the next months we will collect data on many aspects of the marine ecosystems,
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the primary focus of the trip is to find out what is happening to the population of spotted and spinner dolphins.
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The dry lab where the computers are located
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There is a wet lab as well, with two large sinks
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One with fresh water, the other with salt water
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Where the samples from net toes and other scientific activities are processed
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Why do we want to know about spotted and spinner dolphin numbers?
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There are several threats to these animals
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The primary one used to be the yellowfin tuna fishery
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In the ETP, tuna and dolphins are often found in large schools together.
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Tuna frequently are caught by a method called purse scening.
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A net is dragged to surround a tuna school, then drawn closed.
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If there are dolphins with the tuna, they are caught as well.
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In the past, tens of thousands of dolphins drowned each year in purse scenes.
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This needless loss of life caused a great outcry by the general public and scientists in the 1970s.
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Thank you.
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The result was the formation of the United States Marine Mammals Protection Act, which protects dolphins and other marine mammals in U .S waters.
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Now most marine mammals are also protected by international law.
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A graph showing how the numbers of dolphins killed in the yellowfin tuna purse scene fishery has declined.
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Currently, scientists closely monitor the tuna fishery.
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Now most tuna fishermen allow the dolphins to escape before they drown, sometimes with a swimmer in the net to help the dolphins escape.
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But dolphin populations are not recovering as quickly as predicted, and scientists don't know why.
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Does capture cause stress that lowers their survival?
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Or perhaps overfishing and pollution combined with shifts in climate may be affecting the balance of the ecosystem?
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With long -term monitoring combined with ecosystem studies, we hope to understand why these populations aren't recovering at a faster rate.
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A tuna purse senor hauls in its net.
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The yellow skiffs round up the tuna and dolphins into the net.
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As the net is drawn closed, the tuna dive down and the dolphins swim out.
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A helicopter and a manned crow's nest, a lookout platform at the top of a tall mast, are used to spot distant tuna schools.
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Bird flocks are often a clue that the fishermen look for.
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Finally, we are ready to leave San Diego.
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Before each long journey, there is always a sense of anticipation.
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What will we see this time?
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There is, however, a downside to every long trip.
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I know I will miss my home, family, and friends.
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Heading south Over the next days, we move offshore and head south to warm tropical water.
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Our route takes us south of the Hawaiian Islands.
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In a few weeks, after a month at sea, we will turn and head north to Hawaii to resupply and fuel the ship.
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The ocean color has changed since we left San Diego.
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It is a beautiful clear blue.
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I look down through the water and it seems as though I can see for miles.
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Here the water can be much more than a mile deep.
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It looks nothing like the ocean near shore off California,
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which has a murky green or brownish cast to it caused by lots of plankton and algae.
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The tropical ocean is clear because it has much less of these.
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This net, called a bongo because it looks like the drum, is used for catching small fish and plankton.
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Some creatures frequently caught in a bongo tow are pictured here, clockwise.
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A spotted larvae squid, a semi -clear larval octopus, and a krill.
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Krill are small relatives of shrimp and are an important food for whales and birds.
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Where there is food, there are animals.
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In the tropical ocean, animals tend to be found in patches where there is more plankton and algae.
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Small fish and krill eat the plankton and algae.
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Larger fish and squid eat them, and so on up the food chain to tuna and dolphins.
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One of the things we want to understand is what causes this patchiness.
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We combine our marine mammal and seabird observations with measurements of water, plankton, and algae.
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Every morning an hour before sunrise and every evening an hour after sunset,
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we collect water samples from the surface down to 1 ,000 meters to look at the water's nutrients and chlorophyll.
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These nutrients are the building blocks of the ocean food chain.
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In the evening, we also deploy nets to determine the amount and types of plankton at different depths.
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We use dip nets to catch flying fish and squid.
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All this information helps us have a more complete picture of the ecosystem of the tropical ocean.
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A graph of water sampling shows measurements of oxygen,
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temperature, and salinity, salt, in the water from the surface to 1 ,000 meters, 3 ,000 feet.
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As one follows the graph from 1 ,000 meters to the surface, note the drastic changes of depth of about 100 meters.
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Oxygen and temperature increases sharply as the salinity decreases.
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This is where two different water masses meet and is called the thermocline.
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A thermocline that is strong and close to the surface, 50 to 100 meters,
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can indicate a highly productive area where we might find not only a large amount of algae and plankton,
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but also animals much higher in the food chain, such as tuna and dolphin.
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A Day Offshore The day dawns clear and calm, absolutely beautiful.
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The seas are glassy, Beaufort O, a nautical scale that assigns numbers based on wind speed and waves.
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Observations start just after dawn, when there is enough light to see out to the horizon.
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Everyone is ready on the flying bridge.
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Cornelia, a German marine mammal biologist, and Ernesto, a Mexican marine mammal biologist,
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stand on each side of the flying bridge to scan with the big eyes for marine mammals.
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Jim, an American marine mammal biologist, sits in the middle at data computer.
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I sit with handheld binoculars on either the port left or the starboard right side,
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depending on where I can avoid the sun's glare to scan for birds.
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At Beaufort Zero, the ocean is glassy calm.
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One can see for miles.
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The pink and violet sunrise reflects on the still water.
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It's time to start looking for critters.
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It is ten minutes past sunrise, and the light is good.
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We start to travel along a set course, what scientists call a transect.
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Soon after we start, Cornelia yells, DOLPHINS!
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Ball scanning stops and everyone focuses on Cornelia's sighting.
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Cornelia scans out to the horizon, looking through the big eyes.
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What Cornelia sees through the big eyes.
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She swings the big eyes in the direction of the dolphins.
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Using her handheld radio, Cornelia calls the captain on the bridge deck below us, where the ship's steering controls are located.
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Bridge!
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Flying bridge!
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We have dolphins, she says.
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Please turn 20 degrees to the left.
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Over.
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The ship turns.
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At first, all we see are several dorsal fins around the log.
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We approach the dolphins slowly.
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One brown booby and four Nazca boobies rest on a log surrounded by dolphins.
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Boobies are often seen far out at sea, resting on any available floating object, including ships and sea turtles.
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Finally, we see odd sloped foreheads and long beaks.
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They are rough -toothed dolphins.
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This species is found in many oceans.
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Although relatively common, little is known of their natural history due to their deep ocean habitat.
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All creatures that inhabit the deep oceans are difficult to study.
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What I imagine it looks like below the log, Frequently, rough -toothed dolphins investigate logs,
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feeding on the fish that hide in the seaweed growing on the log.
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Many different animals are attracted to the habitat the log creates.
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Rough -toothed dolphins specialize in eating large fish such as the mahi -mahi.
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The water is so clear, I see subtle markings on the dolphins as they swim by.
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All dolphins are odontocetes, toothed whales.
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Odontocetes also include porpoises, the little -known beaked whales, killer whales, and sperm whales.
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There is a great variation in size from the tiny harbor purpose
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that measures 1 .2 meters to the 18 .5 meter male sperm whale.
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We complete the rough -toothed dolphin count.
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There are 12 in the group and no calves, babies.
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Marine mammal biologists always note the presence or absence of calves
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and immature animals to gain clues about when and where the dolphins reproduce.
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We leave the dolphins by their log and continue on our course.
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The day becomes progressively warmer.
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The air is still.
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Everyone is sleepy.
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The ship drones on along the transit line.
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We see no more marine mammals now, but birds occasionally fly by, such as the Sparrow -sized Palapagos storm patrol.
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I record birds up to 300 meters, 630 feet, on one side of the ship.
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Even when there are few birds, I have to stay focused and alert.
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I don't want to miss any of them in my count.
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Galapagos storm patrols are found far out at sea feeding on small crustaceans, halibuts, the only marine insect,
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fish, and jellyfish at the ocean's surface.
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They breed on the remote and protected Galapagos Islands, which have few predators.
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Their populations at the moment appear to be stable.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “FAR FROM SHORE MyView Literacy Fifth Grade Unit 2 Week 1 Read Aloud”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: dolphin, marine, tuna, mammal, ocean. This video has 168 sentences and 2103 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:29. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 75% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dolphin noun | /ˈdɑlf.ɪn/ | A carnivorous cetacean, typically with a beak-like snout, famed for their intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans. |
| tuna noun | /ˈtjuː.nə/ | Any of several species of fish of the genus Thunnus in the family Scombridae. |
| meter noun | /ˈmitəɹ/ | A device that measures things. |
| whale noun | /ˈweɪl/ | Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises. |
| ecosystem noun | /ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/ | A system formed by an ecological community and its environment that functions as a unit. |
| tropical adjective | /ˈtɹɑ.pɪ.kəl/ | Of or pertaining to the tropics, the equatorial region between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south. |
| tooth noun | /tuθ/ | A hard, calcareous structure present in the mouth of many vertebrate animals, generally used for biting and chewing food. |
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| collect verb | /ˈkɑlɪkt/ | To gather together; amass. |
| purse noun | /pɚs/ | A small bag for carrying money. |
| deck noun | /ˈdɛk/ | Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop. |
| observation noun | /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/ | The act of observing, and the fact of being observed (see observance) |
| horizon noun | /həˈɹaɪ.zən/ | The visible horizontal line (in all directions) where the sky appears to meet the earth in the distance. |
| graph noun | /ɡɹæf/ | A data chart (graphical representation of data) intended to illustrate the relationship between a set (or sets) of numbers (quantities, measurements or… |
| measurement noun | /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/ | The act of measuring. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| do over verb | /ˈduˌoʊvɚ/ | To cover with; to smear or spread on to. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| look down verb | To lower one's eyes; to direct one's look downwards. | |
| look through verb | To take a view of the contents of; search in, either with the eyes or by hand. | |
| see through verb | To perceive visually through something transparent. |
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 | have been affected · is known · are also set |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has happened · We've installed · have worked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | eyes, which will · Islands, which have |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, aren't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/, shore /ʃɔɹ/, shade /ʃeɪd/, offshore /ɒfˈʃɔː(ɹ)/
- Long words — get the stress right: ecosystem /ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, laboratory /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/, helicopter /ˈheliːˌkɔptə(ɹ)/
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 dolphin, tuna, meter.
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.