Shadowing Practice: Five things you need to know for the 2026 midterms | America, Actually - Learn English Speaking with Video
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We've already done a lot of reporting this year.
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We went to a data center in New Jersey.
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We talked to redistricting volunteers in Virginia.
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I argued with the 24-year-old about whether Trump was still cool or not.
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And we went to his UFC event in Washington, D.C.
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But with the midterms right around the corner, I wanted to focus this week on a more simple question.
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What matters most to voters when it comes to November?
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So this week, we're going to do something a little different and answer your audience questions.
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And y'all had a lot.
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Who are the real swing voters?
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How data centers will be affecting the election.
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Where AIPAC is having the most influence.
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Whether mail and voting is really being suppressed.
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I love these questions because your lines of inquiry match up perfectly with the reporting we've done over the past year.
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So this week, we're going to answer some of your concerns and pull out the trends that we have seen
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throughout our time on the road.
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Five things you need to know about this year's midterm elections.
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The stakes, the candidates, the issues, we're cutting through all the noise.
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It's a midterm study, guys.
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Let's dig in.
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Okay, so here's five things you need to know about the upcoming midterm elections.
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The first is that both parties have changed significantly since 2024.
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On the Republican side, the most important thing to know is that Donald Trump is deeply and increasingly unpopular.
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The numbers are quite staggering.
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The latest NBC News survey shows Donald Trump at his lowest approval rating ever.
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And importantly, that number is driven by a change among Trump's own base.
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41% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump's job performance.
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That's down 11 percentage points from the spring.
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and 62% of self-identified MAGA Republicans support the president.
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That's down from 71% in the spring.
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Even Trump's own allies are admitting the president may be in some trouble when it comes to the midterms.
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Here's a clip from my interview with CJ Pearson, the MAGA influencer and mega Trump fan who we talked to a few weeks ago.
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We have to reorient the conversation that we're having as a party around these domestic issues.
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Or if not, we will lose disastrously in November.
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But the question is, why is Donald Trump so unpopular?
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And the answer starts with the economy.
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People simply feel like Donald Trump hasn't followed through on his core campaign promise, lowering costs.
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And while that started with tariffs, it's only gotten worse when we think about rising gas prices or the ongoing war with Iran.
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We've heard about this a lot all over our travels.
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like when we were out in Pennsylvania.
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I voted for him with his promises to American people.
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And I think he's let us down.
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The controlling of the prices has skyrocketed.
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We also heard this when we talked to people at Trump's UFC event in Washington, D.C.
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Middle class, I want things that affect my life.
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I want to see change in my regular day-to-day.
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It's like, and I don't see that.
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But the economy isn't the only reason that Trump is increasingly unpopular in his second term.
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I think the Epstein files also has a lot to do with it.
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You know, Trump got in a lot of trouble for not releasing the Epstein files in a timely and transparent fashion.
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And we still hear about it on the campaign trail, particularly from some Republicans.
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And I think this issue had a big effect on people's perception of him.
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He was no longer the rich guy fighting against the elite insiders.
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He was a member of the Insider Club, and people have perceived that.
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After, you know, the Epstein files and everything should have just like ramped up with how he's been acting.
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I feel like it was a lot more, you know, chill before that.
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But while Trump remains unpopular, that doesn't mean that he's powerless.
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Because he's won big in Republican primaries this year.
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And that is driving the loyalty between him and the Republicans in Congress.
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Trump took out his political enemies like Republican Thomas Massey or Texas Senator John Cornyn.
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And while Trump's approval rating has diminished, he still remains in complete control of Republicans in Congress who have refused to break from him.
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The reason why is because the most loyal primary voters are still mega Trump fans.
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On the Democratic side, it's been an all out civil war as the party tries to recover from the embarrassment of the 2024 presidential election.
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Now, most of these fights have pit the progressive left wing against the moderate establishment wing.
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But I think it's a mistake to reduce it just to ideology.
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Democrats are rethinking who they are and who they fight for.
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And it's a conversation that is starting now, but won't conclude until the 2028 presidential primary.
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Here's how Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed described the stakes to me in a recent interview.
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For a long time, the Democratic Party has rested on its laurels that we're not them.
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We don't win because he's so bad.
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We win because he's so bad and we're so good.
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El-Sayed is a strong supporter of Medicare for All and abolishing ICE, two of the signature policies of the progressive left.
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But what's the signature policy of the moderate establishment wing?
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That question's harder to answer.
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Because most moderates would rather talk about stopping Trump or what they don't like about the left,
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it's been a struggle to get them to talk about their own vision.
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Here's a clip from my interview with Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
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This country is teetering on the brink.
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And those of us who know this history, and those of us who know this system, and those of us who have the energy to fight it,
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they better stay in this fight.
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My second big takeaway is about the United States' relationship with Israel.
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This has become a huge issue for voters, and we see it playing out all across the country.
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You know, it may have started in the Biden administration, but the issue has certainly become more visceral,
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particularly since the United States ignited a war with Iran at the urging of the Israeli government.
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Public opinion has soured drastically on Israel, and you can already see it affecting the midterms.
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Just recently, Vice President J.D.
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Banz faced significant criticism from Republicans for his refusal to disavow Tucker Carlson,
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the podcaster and former TV host who's become a vocal critic of the Israeli government and the Trump administration.
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Tucker is a friend of mine.
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Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things.
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And I'm not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with him.
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On the Democratic side, the Israel question may be best epitomized by the fight over Hassan Piker,
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the leftist Twitch streamer who has begun campaigning with progressive candidates all across the country.
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In our interview, Piker was clear.
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He wants to change the Democratic Party, make it more vocally anti-war, more vocally anti-Israel.
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He said there's no way the Democratic nominee in the next presidential primary can be pro-Israel.
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Any kind of like sympathetic approach to Israel in 2028 will be electoral poison.
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You won't be able to make it out of the Democratic primary.
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So it's not even a concern for me at all.
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Progressive congressional candidates like Daria Liza Avila Chevalier, who defeated a Democratic incumbent in New York City, have also made a similar case.
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She articulated what amounts to a left-wing argument for America First, saying people want their tax dollars invested in communities at home,
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not fighting foreign wars.
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We are constantly being told that there are not enough resources for us while watching a livestream genocide being committed.
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Our budgets are moral documents.
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But the rise of the anti-Israel left has not come without controversy.
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Third way, the centrist Democratic think tank in Washington has led a campaign to get Democrats to marginalize people like Piker, citing past controversial statements.
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Cohen, the group's president, compared Piker to people like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens.
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And according to him, Democrats are embracing an extremist.
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Democrats are going to beat MAGA and expand the map in the House, the Senate, and the White House.
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The only way to do that is to offer an alternative to the extremism of Trumpism, not to mirror it.
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You guys also called in with a bunch of questions about Israel and AIPAC.
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Here are a few.
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Noah calling in from Brooklyn.
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And I'm curious about the upcoming election cycle, where AIPAC is having the most influence, what's happening to all of that money that's pouring in to different races,
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are the candidates winning?
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Hello, this is Devin from Salt Lake City, Utah.
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I believe this is probably just as impactful as the Citizens United decision.
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Thank you.
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There's no doubt that corporate dollars and particularly money from AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby was a big issue, particularly in Democratic primaries this year.
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But when it comes to the general election, both parties will be flushed in corporate dollars.
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And the question of finances may matter a little bit less in a race that has national attention.
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That being said, there are a few races to watch when it comes to the Israel question specifically.
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I'd point you to candidates like Angie Nixon in Florida, who has risen in that race partially
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because of her willingness to call out what she said was a Democratic Party too beholden to the pro-Israel lobby.
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I'd also point you to a couple progressive candidates running in important House districts, like William Lawrence in Michigan or Manny Routnal in Colorado.
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These are people who have embraced the kind of America first messaging model by candidates like Daria Liza Avila Chevalier.
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But can it work in a district that's more purple
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and more central to the question of Democrats controlling the House in the next few years?
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In these races, we'll get a sense about whether the anti-Israel message works in more battleground districts
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or is this something that has more resonance in liberal, deep blue areas?
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The third thing that sticks out to me is that everything is about affordability now.
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The word has become ubiquitous in political world ever since New
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York City Mayor Zohar Mamdani made it his signature campaign issue in 2025.
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These days, it's in everybody's campaign ads.
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Earlier this year, I talked to Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Kazar about the affordability agenda that his caucus laid out.
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And more importantly, I talked to him about what that word actually means.
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Here's what he said.
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He said, your rent is going up.
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Let's blame it on some Venezuelan immigrants.
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But it was not Wokeness that raised your rent.
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It was a Wall Street hedge fund.
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The fourth takeaway, and a big one from our year of reporting, is all about AI.
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People are concerned about affordability and the economy, But that concern is explicitly tied to mass anxiety about the future of work,
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especially in the age of artificial intelligence.
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AI has changed everything and the voters know it.
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And they're upset with the political system that has not proactively protected them against the changing society.
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Listen to what we heard at a town hall in New Jersey when it comes to data centers.
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I did so much else.
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I told you.
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People come in.
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I have a woman who came back twice, had cash, and realized it was near the data center.
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Her children said, Mom, she says, I just can't do this.
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And this fear is especially true among the youngest voters.
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When we dug into all things Gen Z with researcher Rachel Jamfaza,
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she said that concerns about affordability and jobs cannot be separated from concerns about AI.
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It's all connected.
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When you're talking about the biggest issues and what's affecting young people's lives, AI is at the center of that.
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And a lot of you had questions about AI, data centers, and its potential impact in the midterms.
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Here are a few.
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I'm calling because you asked about what we're most interested in for the November election.
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And something I'm particularly interested in is how data centers will be affecting the election.
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I'm Kim from Chicago.
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I'm 35.
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And my biggest questions about the economy going to midterms are AI and jobs.
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When it comes to AI and data centers, there are so many races to watch.
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This may be the most talked about issue of this midterm elections.
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But I think there's a couple races that are worth calling out specifically.
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First, of course, the Senate race in Michigan.
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Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has stopped short of calling for a moratorium on data centers throughout the year.
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But just in the last week, he's just changed his tone.
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He said that this is a break glass moment for AI development
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and that development needs to be paused right now to get a sense of its potential impact.
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That also comes as his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has himself called for a one year moratorium on data centers.
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Both candidates are really fighting to show themselves as the AI regulator in that race, which I think speaks to the public opinion shift on the issue.
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The second race worth watching is down in Texas.
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Texas originally welcomed AI and data centers, but Governor Greg Abbott has since made a little bit of a U-turn.
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In the last couple weeks, he says that data centers dug their own grave with the public, which again signals how sentiment has shifted on this issue,
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not just among Democrats, but among Republicans and with independents.
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But the fifth thing you need to know this midterms is all about election security.
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And I got to say, this was the topic that we got more questions about than any other.
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People are clearly concerned about the validity of our democratic system, the role of the Supreme Court, and concerned about things like mail-in ballots.
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So we're going to answer all your questions coming up next.
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far the number one question that we got from y'all was all about election integrity.
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People are clearly concerned about the rules of our democratic process, the redistricting wars, the role the Supreme Court might play in this election,
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and of course, Donald Trump's threats to declare a national emergency ahead of November.
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So to help me out, I called up Vox political editor Benji Sarland.
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Benji has been helping us shape our political coverage throughout the year, and he's been tracking these issues very closely.
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Thanks, Benji, for joining us.
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Thanks so much, Estad.
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Okay, so I want to get to our audience questions, and we're going to start with the state of play when it comes to redistricting.
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Now, earlier this summer, we heard how the GOP was basically trying to hijack the
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political process to exert pressure on state lawmakers to draw more safe conservative districts to give them an advantage in the midterms.
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And then the Democrats responded with their own redistricting moves in places like California, and they tried to do so in Virginia.
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Here's some of what we heard from Cook Political Report's Amy Walter over the summer.
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The primary process has become as corrupted as it was back then.
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Most people who get elected to Congress are going to be elected in seats that are pretty safely red or safely blue.
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The primaries matter more than anything.
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You can create all the reforms you want, but if people feel like the system is broken, they're not going to participate.
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And we heard even more about this issue
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when we traveled to Virginia's first congressional district the maps are a problem
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and they're always going to be a problem
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when you know just there's going to be backroom deals making maps
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that strategically disadvantage one party over the other people start to
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feel like what does it matter like i i tried
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and we're doing all these things and we even voted
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and we we said you know used our voice
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and it still didn't work confirms that kind of negative feeling people already have
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that lack of agency benji where did this all land do republicans actually have a structural advantage
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when it comes to redistricting as we get to November?
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So this is a very confusing process.
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It's different from state to state.
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The court is involved.
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And in fact, they're still involved right up to this week.
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Missouri has been trying to eliminate a Democratic seat.
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It got stopped by a Supreme Court decision, then possibly approved by a different court decision just minutes later.
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But the Virginia redistricting move that would have favored Democrats was tossed out for procedural reasons.
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And Republicans are probably going to have an advantage in, let's say, 10 to 12 additional seats by some estimates.
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Now, what does that mean?
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It means there are fewer competitive seats overall.
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And Democrats, depending on your estimate, may need to win the national popular vote by three, four, five points to win a House majority.
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But Democrats are still favored by many election forecasters to win the House.
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So why is that?
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One, Democrats are leading by quite a bit in national polls.
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It's about six and a half points, according to Nate Silver's latest polling average.
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Second, Republicans have a very narrow majority.
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So Democrats don't actually need to net a ton of new seats to win a majority.
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Third, if Democrats really start hitting the higher end of that polling,
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even some gerrymandered seats might fall because the way gerrymanders work is that they spread their vote margins across more seats, which makes them easier to win,
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but also raises the chance of an upset in some of them.
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So in Texas in particular, there are some Republican concerns that they might not be able to hold on to every seat they plan to gain.
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Now, this shouldn't make you any less upset about it.
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It's politicians choosing their own voters now after every election instead
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of just 10 years to try to pull up the ladder behind them.
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It goes against the spirit of our democratic system and accountability and representation.
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But if you're worried the election is canceled, that is not the case.
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This is a highly competitive race.
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Your vote does matter.
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You mentioned the Supreme Court in that answer, and that really leads us to a couple audience questions we got on that front.
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You know, it seems as if the fear
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that the Supreme Court could have a big impact on election security is really visceral for some of our audience.
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Take a listen to a couple of these questions.
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I want to learn more about whether mail and voting is really being suppressed.
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I have read about an executive order that outlines all these changes that states are unable to comply to, but yet it's law, but maybe it's going to get blocked.
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I really have an existential fear that in the end, the Supreme Court might rule that it's okay to suppress vote by mail and the U.S.
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Postal Service will just not deliver our ballot.
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And it just feels like this very scary possibility.
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So how valid do you think the concern is that the Supreme Court might hand Republicans further advantage?
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So let's start with the basics here.
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Nobody can just presume any decision is guaranteed by the Supreme Court.
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It's a very conservative one.
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They zig sometimes when people thought they were going to zag.
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However, what Trump is trying to do is still seen as
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at least a relative long shot in the courts for a few reasons.
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So Trump has tried this executive order, among other attempts to influence elections, and the Supreme Court is ultimately expected to weigh in.
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Now, one, we have separation of powers.
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Generally, federal government, especially the executive branch, is not supposed to be changing election law by executive order.
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The courts have not looked favorably on prior attempts to mess with elections.
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A fundamentally state and local driven apparatus is our elections.
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Yes.
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And bear in mind, Trump, when he was president, tried to do everything possible to overturn the 2020 election in multiple states.
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Those went nowhere in federal courts.
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Those went nowhere in the Supreme Court.
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So it is worth, you know, they have been willing to buck him in the past on this based on what is pretty well-established precedent.
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There is also a Supreme Court theory that this particular conservative Supreme Court has cultivated and advanced called the Major Questions Doctrine,
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which was used most famously to overturn some democratic priorities, like canceling student loans en masse.
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But it basically says if there is a major change to policy, it should be Congress that is specifically weighing in on it
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and not some kind of loophole through existing law that the White House uses to try to force it through.
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So in this case, Congress has not passed some giant mail-in ballot reform bill.
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In fact, there have been lots of bills discussed that have not been passed related to elections in the last few years.
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So there's a decent chance even the conservatives might look at this and say, look, if Congress wants to change this, that's their business.
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But we have a precedent that we have established and safeguarded that this law should, you know, clearly what Trump is trying to do should clearly not pass muster on.
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But I think people's concern is just the intimidation factor.
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Also, it feels as if sometimes this administration looks to succeed in policy, but they also just look to push a narrative out there.
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And we do see Trump using these executive orders to do what he's done consistently, which is just cast doubt on the integrity of the system.
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Exactly.
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And the good news is that while that propaganda can be very dangerous in its own right, and it was a massive factor in,
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you know, most especially the January 6th riot at the Capitol, that is to some degree separate from this legal question of will your votes actually be counted?
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Will you be able to get in your ballot on time?
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So it is important to at least separate things.
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I mean, one way people interpret this sometimes is Trump is pre-spinning a loss.
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You know, he actually talks often about how presidents usually, you know, their party usually does poorly in the midterms.
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And I have no doubt if it does go poorly the day after the midterms will say, ah, you know, the Supreme Court and Congress should have gone along with all my election rules.
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But if I hear you correctly, you're saying the Donald Trump intimidation factor is in one hand,
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but you think the actual legal question is maybe less certain
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to fall in his favor as his intimidation kind of bully pulpit methods.
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Yes.
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And you should absolutely take the legal side seriously.
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We're taking it very seriously here.
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Our reporters are tracking it closely.
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As I said, nothing's guaranteed, but it is still a very difficult path that so far he has had zero success in.
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Okay.
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Let's get to the kind of last point that gave folks real concern.
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And we've really referenced it already.
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The president has made constant threats to declare a national emergency ahead of the election or have military of some form, even ICE at the polling locations.
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And of course there is the ever present fear He'll run 2020 playbook again and seek to invalidate said results.
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Just listen to some of the concerns that we heard from our listeners.
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Every day I see something online where the headline is,
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how is Trump or how is the Republican party going to invalidate the result?
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I wonder if there is actual real fear,
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a real possibility that election results could be challenged and tested and what that would really mean for all of us.
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This is my kind of overwhelming, all-consuming worry.
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I think it's well-founded, but I hope that it's not.
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Okay, so how real do we think people should take the threat of Trump declaring a national emergency ahead of the midterm election?
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So some of this gets into some of the issues we discussed, which is overturning results, seizing ballots, things like that, very difficult.
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Now, it should be noted because people are mentioning some specific Trumpy threats involving, say, a state of emergency or,
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you know, the kind of things we saw in Los Angeles or Minneapolis with ICE raids, where you just have lots of federal agents just all over the place
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or the National Guard in Washington, D.C and other places.
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Now, there are legal barriers to sending federal agents to polling sites, too.
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The law prohibits federal troops or armed agents at polling sites unless they're responding to some immediate national security threat.
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So far, there is no plan to deploy the National Guard or ICE at polling places.
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It's come up in the news.
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Trump officials and DHS have been asked about it.
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And once again, the courts would be the ultimate bulwark against.
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Now, does that mean you should take everyone's word here?
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No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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There's always the possibility.
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Important is that.
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There's always the possibility, especially in something time limited like an election, that Trump ignores the law.
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But it's not easy.
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And also remember, the backlash to such a move could also be greater than the intended effect.
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You know, a lot of Republicans to this day blame Trump's election denial
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after 2020 for costing them those two Georgia Senate seats
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that Democrats now hold in a runoff because it encouraged Black voters in particular, who are very used to threats of disenfranchisement, to turn out like crazy in the runoff.
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And it also potentially depressed Trump's own supporters because they decided that their votes didn't count.
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But I wanted to ask, like, we've started this by talking about Donald Trump's deep unpopularity, his increasing unpopularity even among his own base.
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So that kind of leads me to another question.
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I mean, Trump has contested every election loss he's been a part of, but he's not on the ballot this November.
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He's not on the ballot, theoretically, in 2028.
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So if he does what people are afraid of in terms of declaring a national emergency
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or trying to bring military personnel to polling places, what do we think the likelihood that the GOP follows him down that path?
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I mean, are we talking about a party that will follow his election denial to its logical end?
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So far, elections have been a red line where Republicans, for the most part, have not gone along with these kinds of things.
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Bear in mind also that if you do something illegal, you can be prosecuted.
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And in many cases, it's state law that applies, which Trump cannot pardon you for.
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I would also add that election deniers, like hardcore election deniers, people who really got involved in politics around Trump's election conspiracies,
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have not won a lot of elections.
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Yeah.
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Famously in 2022, even when Democrats were having a rough midterm cycle in many ways,
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those candidates cost them race after race in governor's races and secretary of state races and Senate races.
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Now, some of those folks are on the ballot this time.
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That could change potentially.
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You might have in future elections, folks who are more aggressively devoted to him.
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But for the most part, he has not been able to drag the party along on this.
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Okay.
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So if I can sum up what I feel like I heard from you, we are acknowledging that the concern or the fear
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that we're hearing from people around election integrity is certainly valid because of what Donald Trump has said, because of his own history of election denial,
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and because of the ongoing role the courts have in deciding things around this, like a mail-in ballots, executive order, or even some of these redistricting wars.
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However, there seems to be a little bit of a logistical problem with the question of like seizing ballots
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or interfering on election day, partially because of the state and federal separation of powers when it comes to election administration.
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Yeah.
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I mean, one way to think of it with a lot of these situations with Trump is
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that let's say you are in a house and there is a mass serial killer trying to get in through your window.
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And then he tries to use your doorknob and try to shake the doorknob.
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And then he tries to get in through the chimney.
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and the whole time you're saying, well, it's a good thing that I reinforce the windows and
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that the door is like reinforced steel and that I block the chimney
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and that I have a ring camera and that I know to let the police in.
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But you still would be pretty unnerved by this serial killer trying every which way to get into your house, right?
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I might move, you know?
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Yes.
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So I don't want to understate the threat.
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Obviously, if Trump could snap his fingers and overturn elections, he could.
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And we know this because he tried to do it explicitly many, many times
384
but it is not easy for him to do.
385
Thank you, Benji, for rounding out our study guide.
386
I think this is important because it really was the number one question people have for us beyond candidates, beyond issues.
387
It's really a concern about the system itself.
388
And so I feel like this type of check-in will go a long way.
389
We appreciate your time.
390
We'll see you soon.
391
See you soon, Asad.
392
America actually will be in your feeds every Saturday with an interesting interview in politics or culture.
393
And you can also listen to America actually wherever you get your podcasts or in the Today Explained feed.
394
The best way to support this show is by becoming a Vox member.
395
Members get a bonus segment on Patreon every week, and we are very grateful for their support.
396
Just go to Vox.com slash members to join.
397
See you all next week, and cue the music.
398
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Five things you need to know for the 2026 midterms”. This video has 398 sentences and 5311 words to shadow. The speech runs for 30:40. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| midterm adjective | /ˈmɪdˌtɚm/ | Halfway through a term, or roughly so. |
| ballot noun | /ˈbælət/ | A small ball placed in a container to cast a vote; now, by extension, a piece of paper or card used for this purpose, or some other means used to signify a… |
| voter noun | /ˈvoʊtɚ/ | Someone who votes or is entitled to vote. |
| redistrict verb | /ɹiːˈdɪstɹɪkt/ | To adjust the borders of districts of a state or other governmental or administrative entity. |
| affordability noun | The extent or degree to which something is affordable, as measured by its cost relative to the amount that the purchaser is able to pay. | |
| unpopular adjective | Lacking popularity. | |
| declare verb | /dɪˈklɛɚ/ | To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically. |
| intimidation noun | /ɪntɪmɪˈdeɪʃən/ | The act of making timid or fearful or of deterring by threats; the state of being intimidated. |
| overturn verb | /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈtɜː(ɹ)n/ | To turn over, capsize or upset. |
| denial noun | /dɪˈnaɪ.əl/ | An assertion of untruth. |
| congressional adjective | /kəŋˈɡɹɛ.ʃə.nəl/ | Of or relating to a congress. |
| wireless adjective | /ˈwaɪ(jə)ɹ.ləs/ | Not having any wires. |
| denier noun | /dɪˈnaɪə(ɹ)/ | One who denies or forbids something. |
| famously adverb | In a celebrated manner. | |
| invalidate verb | /ɪnˈvæl.əˌdeɪt/ | To make invalid (especially in to contract law) |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| call out verb | To specify, especially in detail. | |
| go along with verb | To acquiesce to or comply with a proposal, despite lacking a desire or value for it. | |
| call up verb | To retrieve from personal or computer memory. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| cut through verb | To take a shortcut through. | |
| do over verb | /ˈduˌoʊvɚ/ | To cover with; to smear or spread on to. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- We've already done a lot of reporting this year.
- It's like, and I don't see that.
- We don't win because he's so bad.
- Will you be able to get in your ballot on time?
- We're taking it very seriously here.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | he's been acting · has been helping · has been trying |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've already done · we've done · have seen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being suppressed · is driven · being told |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who have · woman who came · people who get |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 51 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intimidation /ɪntɪmɪˈdeɪʃən/, congressional /kəŋˈɡɹɛ.ʃə.nəl/, separation /ˌsɛp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, partially /ˈpɑɹʃəli/, structural /ˈstɹʌk(t͡)ʃəɹəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: intimidation /ɪntɪmɪˈdeɪʃən/, congressional /kəŋˈɡɹɛ.ʃə.nəl/, invalidate /ɪnˈvæl.əˌdeɪt/, moratorium /ˌmɔ.ɹəˈtɔ.ɹi.əm/, unpopularity /ˌʌnˌpɒpjʊˈlæɹɪti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like midterm, ballot, voter.
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.