Shadowing Practice: FCE1 TEST2 PART4 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Now turn to part four.

You'll hear a girl called Trisha Simpkins talking at a public

meeting about a plan to create a nature reserve in the centre of a large city.

For questions 24 to 30, choose the best answer A, B or C.

You now have one minute in which to look at part four.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for coming to this public meeting

which has been called to discuss the idea of creating a nature reserve in the city, that is, an area where wildlife is protected.

And to begin with, local teenager, Trisha Simkins, is going to tell us some of the background to the idea.

Trisha.

Yes, hello.

I'd like to start by saying that, like many city teenagers, I don't have much contact with the countryside.

I live off a busy, polluted shopping street, full of people and cars in the middle of a crowded city, and I'd never given any thought to wildlife.

Even though every house down my street has got a bit of a garden, and we have trees along the road and a piece of waste ground at one end, it seemed nothing out of the ordinary,

and I took it all for granted.

My attitude started to change

when we had to do a survey of the wildlife in the city as part of a school project.

We chose ten families from the street and we asked them just to write down all the animals,

birds, insects and so on that they could remember seeing in their garden

or down the street during the last couple of years.

All sorts of surprising things soon started coming out of that survey, like that we have 20 different sorts of butterfly,

50 different types of birds and all sorts of animals, even some quite large ones like foxes and deer.

At first we wondered what it meant, like was it a world record or something?

We'd no way of knowing.

So what we did, we got in touch with a nature reserve out in the country

and asked them what you could see there.

And that's when we realised that we've as much, if not more, wildlife than they do.

and that's what really got us interested in the idea of a nature reserve here

because what worries us now is

that we may be losing our local wildlife one specially worrying

thing has been all the cutting down of trees in the

streets we've got really big old trees here in this part of the city

and of course if one gets damaged in a storm

or gets a disease it has to be removed

but this year alone over 100 of these trees have been chopped down

Now the reason given for this is that the trees have really extensive root systems, which makes it difficult for people laying gas pipes, electricity cables and things.

But we think these problems are not as serious as they are made out to be, and there's no need for all this destruction.

What's more, although the local council has agreed to plant new trees in place of the old ones, what they're planting are these little ornamental trees that look nice,

but the birds and animals just don't use them in the same way

and they're not even saving money because more suitable trees cost just the same.

Another example of what can happen is the wasteland at the end of our street.

It belongs to the city council and as children we all used to play there

and we thought it was really great because it was

so covered in bushes and wildflowers that you could get lost if you went off the little muddy tracks.

Then a few years ago, no doubt thinking they were doing the right thing, the council decided to tidy it up.

And now it's just an area of grass where people go to exercise their dogs.

There are a few little trees, but basically there's not a lot there anymore.

So, what I'd like to propose this afternoon is that we use this space to create a nature reserve.

We think it should be allowed to go back to its natural condition, thus providing a refuge for the local wildlife which may be suffering from the loss of trees in the area.

This would, of course, also be a leisure amenity for people who want to get away from the stresses of city living, which is hardly something we would want to deny them.

So, I would like you...

Now you'll hear part four again.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for coming to this public meeting

which has been called to discuss the idea of creating a nature reserve in the city.

That is, an area where wildlife is protected.

And to begin with, local teenager, Tricia Simpkins, is going to tell us some of the background to the idea.

Tricia.

Yes, hello.

I'd like to start by saying that, like many city teenagers, I don't have much contact with the countryside.

I live off a busy, polluted shopping street, full of people and cars in the middle of a crowded city, and I'd never given any thought to wildlife.

Even though every house down my street has got a bit of a garden, and we have trees along the road and a piece of waste ground at one end,

it seemed nothing out of the ordinary and I took it all for granted.

My attitude started to change

when we had to do a survey of the wildlife in the city as part of a school project.

We chose ten families from the street and we asked them just to write down all the animals, birds, insects and so on that they could remember seeing in their garden

or down the street during the last couple of years.

All sorts of surprising things soon started coming out of that survey, like that we have 20 different sorts of butterfly,

50 different types of birds, and all sorts of animals, even some quite large ones like foxes and deer.

At first we wondered what it meant, like was it a world record or something?

We'd no way of knowing.

So what we did, we got in touch with a nature reserve out in the country

and asked them what you could see there.

And that's when we realised that we've as much, if not more, wildlife than they do.

And that's what really got us interested in the idea of a nature reserve here.

Because what worries us now is that we may be losing our local wildlife.

One specially worrying thing has been all the cutting down of trees in the streets.

We've got really big old trees here in this part of the city, and of course if one gets damaged in a storm or gets a disease, it has to be removed.

But this year alone, over 100 of these trees have been chopped down.

Now the reason given for this is that the trees have really extensive root systems, which makes it difficult for people laying gas pipes, electricity cables and things.

But we think these problems are not as serious as they are made out to be

and there's no need for all this destruction.

What's more, although the local council has agreed to plant new trees in place of the old ones, what they're planting are these little ornamental trees that look nice

but the birds and animals just don't use them in the same way

and they're not even saving money because more suitable trees cost just the same.

Another example of what can happen is the wasteland at the end of our street.

It belongs to the city council and as children we all used to play there

and we thought it was really great because it was

so covered in bushes and wildflowers that you could get lost if you went off the little muddy tracks.

Then a few years ago, no doubt thinking they were doing the right thing, the council decided to tidy it up.

And now it's just an area of grass where people go to exercise their dogs.

There are a few little trees, but basically there's not a lot there anymore.

So, what I'd like to propose this afternoon is that we use this space to create a nature reserve.

We think it should be allowed to go back to its natural condition, thus providing a refuge for the local wildlife which may be suffering from the loss of trees in the area.

This would of course also be a leisure amenity for people

who want to get away from the stresses of city living which is hardly something we would want to deny them.

So I would like you...

There'll now be a pause of five minutes for you to copy your answers onto the separate answer sheet.

100

Be sure to follow the numbering of all the questions.

101

I'll remind you when there is one minute left so that you're sure to finish in time.

102

That's the end of the test.

103

Please stop now.

104

Your supervisor will now collect all the question papers and answer sheets.

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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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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