Shadowing Practice: First reactions | Francis Halzen, Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 | telephone interview - Learn English Speaking with Video
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86 sentences
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Hello.
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Oh, hello.
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Am I speaking with Francis Halsan?
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Speaking.
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Hello, my name is Adam Smith.
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You are lucky you're talking to me because I only answered because, you know, I thought it was a call from Sweden,
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but I'm glad to talk to you.
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I'm very glad to talk to you.
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Thank you very much indeed.
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And lucky me that you recognize the Swedish prefix.
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Thank you.
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May I just start by asking, how did the news actually reach you?
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How did you learn that you'd been awarded the Nobel Prize?
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You know, I am travelling.
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I travelled between, I was at a science festival in Bergamo over the weekend.
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I was sitting in my hotel room writing a proposal.
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As I joked in one of the meetings, I hope it helps to get it funded.
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Let's hope so, because finding time to finish it is going to be hard, I'm afraid, yes.
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Yes, I'm afraid so too.
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You know, just like Ice Cube, I have talented collaborators, so they always help me survive.
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I'll come through this one as well.
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I mean, if we think of Ice Cube and its extraordinary beauty
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and size there in the translucent ice under the South Pole, you and your collaborators must be very proud
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well yeah and in fact my uh main reaction to this project over time was not proud
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but was surprised you know i gave a talk very early
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on the in the project at a conference in venice where I said, this is a detector, Deo Volante, which means God willing.
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And I listed all the hurdles we had to overcome.
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And among these hurdles, you know, we overcame them all, evidently.
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That's why I'm here.
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But was the fact that we didn't really know what the optics of the ice was, which is crucial because it's a particle detector that detects light.
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And so we made this incredible discovery that blue light that we detect can travel for hundreds of meters through this ice.
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And that was totally unexpected as well.
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So beyond all the other risks of whether hot water drilling would work and whether we could beat the backgrounds,
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this was what really made the project possible and that was pure luck.
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After the fact that it's totally normal,
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this is ancient snow that fell on Antarctica 50 ,000 years ago and it's ultra -pure and that's why it's so transparent.
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But we really didn't have the guarantee of that.
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But I suppose fortune favours the bold and in your case everything fell into place.
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As I said, at every step, my reaction was surprise rather than pride.
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And now this ushers in this dawn of a new era of neutrino astronomy.
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I know that it's early days, but what do these neutrinos allow us to see?
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Well, the first source we really identified by ourselves was an active galaxy
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and the data of that active galaxy tell us
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that the neutrinos are produced very close to the black hole at the center of that galaxy.
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And it's an active galaxy, so it has a supermassive black hole
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and the core of the galaxy is surrounded by plasma which produces the target to produce these neutrinos.
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This is obviously a place from which light doesn't escape.
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It can, with great difficulty, maybe be studied with radio telescopes. But
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so our first detection of a source is already an example
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of looking into the very close regions of the black hole where presumably only neutrinos escape.
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That's extraordinary.
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This is just one example of the concept for which we all thought that the neutrino astronomy was promising.
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As someone mentioned in the press conference,
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it's actually, in retrospect, the most amazing thing is that we got funded for this project.
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The National Science Foundation should take great credit for this.
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And also the environment that you were able to work in, Wisconsin, which has obviously been very supportive for you.
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Yes, incredibly.
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In two ways.
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Wisconsin has always been a place that has tolerated unconventional physics and unconventional ideas.
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We got instant support at the very early stages of the project.
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Where, as I said, this project, everybody thought, is a cute idea that won't work.
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We got the support from the chancellor of the administration, and we were not just lucky.
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In a sense that the University of Wisconsin had a decision to create a laboratory
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that could actually build equipment of the type required and the size and the sophistication required for this project.
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It's called the Physical Sciences Laboratory.
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It's kind of a non -profit, high -tech lab.
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And the very talented technicians, engineers that were available to us there played a major role.
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And that's where, you know,
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for instance, the hot water drilling equipment that was so critical for achieving the deployment of these sensors.
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That's where it was designed and built.
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And so most universities over the years had gotten rid of these labs,
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but Wisconsin was one of the few places which maintained this capability, and that's what made IceCube possible there.
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I just wanted to finish by just reflecting on this extraordinary thing
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that this new era will allow you to use neutrinos to look to the very edges of the universe
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and to the very beginnings of time.
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I mean, there is so much to be discovered, isn't there?
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That's right.
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And so someone asked me what will be this, what will the neutrino astronomer be like 50 years from now?
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There's no way to answer that question.
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I wouldn't like to answer that question for, if you ask me, one year from now.
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you know we have been consistently making new discoveries over the 15 years
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that we have been taking data that's my my real wish
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that this may continue
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and it will young people around the world will be saying this is the field for me then i hope
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so it's been a joy speaking to you thank you very
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much indeed thank you very much thank you bye bye now
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 86 sentences and 1014 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:43. The speaker talks at a steady 131 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| galaxy noun | /ˈɡæl.ək.si/ | Any of the collections of many millions or billions of stars, galactic dust, black holes, etc. existing as independent and coherent systems, of which there are… |
| extraordinary adjective | /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ | Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual. |
| discovery noun | /dɪˈskʌv.ɹi/ | Something discovered. |
| laboratory noun | /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/ | A room, building or institution equipped for scientific research, experimentation or analysis. |
| talented adjective | /ˈtæləntɪd/ | Endowed with one or more talents. |
| overcome verb | /ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/ | To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of. |
| drill noun | /dɹɪl/ | A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece. |
| detect verb | /dɪˈtɛkt/ | To discover or find by careful search, examination, or probing. |
| detector noun | /dɪˈtɛktə(ɹ)/ | A device capable of registering a specific substance or physical phenomenon, and that optionally sounds an alarm or triggers a warning. |
| astronomy noun | /əˈstɹɑ.nə.mi/ | The study of the physical universe beyond the Earth's atmosphere, including the process of mapping locations and properties of the matter and radiation in the… |
| proposal noun | /pɹəˈpoʊzəl/ | A scheme or design. |
| guarantee noun | /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/ | Anything that assures a certain outcome. |
| lab noun | /læːb/ | A Labrador retriever. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
| physics noun | /ˈfɪz.ɪks/ | The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. |
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 | been awarded · are produced · is surrounded |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has always been · have been · it's been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Volante, which means · was, which is · Wisconsin, which has |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, detection /dɪˈtɛk.ʃən/, technician /tɛkˈnɪʃən/, usher /ˈʌʃəɹ/, sophistication /səˌfɪs.tɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, laboratory /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/, astronomy /əˈstɹɑ.nə.mi/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/
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 galaxy, extraordinary, discovery.
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.