Shadowing Practice: Four Places We Might Find Aliens - Learn English Speaking with Video
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48 sentences
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We don't actually know if aliens exist, but if they do, their cells probably have a special type of membrane.
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And that knowledge alone tells us where we can look for them, and maybe even what they'll be like.
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Hi, I'm David, and this is MinuteEarth.
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There are lots of different ways scientists can search for life on other planets.
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They can listen for radio signals from alien civilizations.
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They can scan distant atmospheres for the chemical fingerprints life leaves behind.
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And they can send spacecraft to sample places in our own solar system where life might be hiding.
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Or they can search for places that have the right conditions for a particular type of membrane to form.
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This last one is actually a pretty powerful tool for zeroing in on possible extraterrestrial life,
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because virtually every cell on Earth is wrapped in a membrane that keeps its contents inside,
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builds up a gradient by piling charged particles on one side, and then captures energy as those particles flow back through to the other.
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These membranes, we can call them electrochemical membranes, are so fundamental to life that many experts think that extraterrestrial life will likely have them too.
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On Earth, electrochemical membranes are formed from a specific set of elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, which can form molecules that,
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in the presence of liquid water, assemble into, well, membranes.
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And those membranes in turn form the foundation of life on Earth.
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So one way to find extraterrestrial life is to look for other worlds
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that have those same elements and the liquid water
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that would allow them to self -assemble and some sort of energy to power the life forms.
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And there are two of those worlds relatively nearby.
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Saturn's moon Enceladus has all of those elements and liquid water, though the ocean is buried under a thick shell of ice.
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So the membranes crucial to life could potentially form on Enceladus.
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But without direct sunlight, there's not much energy available.
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Any life
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that formed there would likely have to rely on the trickle of energy coming from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.
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So I imagine that any life there would be small and live right next to those vents.
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Jupiter's moon Europa also has all five of those membrane -building elements and a liquid ocean under an icy shell.
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But unlike energy -poor Enceladus, Europa is constantly being bombarded by radiation from Jupiter,
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and experiences much more tidal heating as it gets pushed and pulled by the massive planet.
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So if there is life on Europa, perhaps it's faster moving because it has more access to that energy.
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And then there's K2 -18b, a planet about 120 light -years away from us.
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From spectroscopy, we're pretty sure that it has at least three of the required elements to build
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Earth -like electrochemical membranes, and it may even have liquid water.
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But it's also surrounded by a thick layer of hydrogen gas, which for complicated chemistry reasons,
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some scientists speculate would lead not to the development of lots of individual membranes, but instead one big one.
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So that makes me envision alien life on K2 -18b that's not multiple organisms, but instead a single giant film that covers the entire world.
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And life may not actually be limited to worlds with exact
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Earth -like chemistry, because scientists think that in some cases, electrochemical membranes might be able to form from slightly different ingredients.
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The clouds surrounding
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Venus, for example, have no liquid water.
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So Earth -like membranes couldn't form there.
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And even if they did, the clouds are made of concentrated sulfuric acid, which would destroy those membranes on contact.
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What scientists have discovered, though, is that electrochemical membranes built with sulfur can actually self -assemble and survive in strong acid.
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So any life on Venus would probably have to form inside droplets of sulfuric acid.
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And because those droplets would have access to plenty of energy from sunlight as they floated up and down in the clouds,
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I picture excited aliens bopping around in their little acid bubbles.
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Again, we still don't know whether aliens exist.
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But focusing on the likelihood that they'll have electrochemical membranes doesn't just tell us where to look.
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It also hints that whatever we find could be deeply weird.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Four Places We Might Find Aliens”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: membrane, energy, electrochemical, liquid, Earth. This video has 48 sentences and 718 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:25. The speaker talks fast, about 210 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| liquid noun | /ˈlɪk.wɪd/ | A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those… |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| acid noun | /ˈæsɪd/ | A sour substance. |
| scientist noun | /ˈsaɪəntəst/ | One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research… |
| membrane noun | /ˈmɛm.bɹeɪn/ | A mechanical, thin, flat flexible part that can deform or vibrate when excited by an external force. |
| cloud noun | /ˈklaʊ̯d/ | A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. |
| assemble verb | /əˈsɛm.bəl/ | To put together. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| shell noun | /ʃɛl/ | The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. |
| chemistry noun | /ˈkɛm.ɪ.stɹi/ | The branch of natural science that deals with the composition and constitution of substances and the changes that they undergo as a consequence of alterations… |
| hydrogen noun | /ˈhaɪdɹəd͡ʒ(ə)n/ | The lightest chemical element (symbol H), with an atomic number of 1 and atomic weight of 1.008. |
| particle noun | /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/ | A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. |
| sunlight noun | /ˈsʌnˌlaɪt/ | All the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun; especially, that in the visible spectrum and that bathes the Earth. |
| vent noun | /vɛnt/ | An opening through which gases, especially air, can pass. |
| surround verb | /səˈɹaʊnd/ | To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| leave behind verb | To abandon. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, they'll, couldn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shell /ʃɛl/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, radiation /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, radiation /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/, virtually /ˈvɚ.t͡ʃə.wə.li/
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 liquid, element, acid.
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.