Shadowing Practice: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Chapter 2 Audiobook - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Chapter 2.

We were brought up together.

There was not quite a year difference in our ages.

I need not say that we were strangers to any species of disunion or dispute.

Harmony was the soul of our companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsisted in our characters drew us nearer together.

Elizabeth was of a calmer and more concentrated disposition, but, with all my ardor, I was capable of a more intense application,

and was more deeply smitten with the thirst of knowledge.

She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets and in the majestic wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home,

the sublime shapes of the mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of the winter,

and the life and turbulence of our alpine summers.

She found ample scope for admiration and delight.

While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things,

I delighted in investigating their causes.

The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.

Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature,

gladness akin to rapture as they were unfolded to me are among the earliest sensations I can remember.

On the birth of a second son, my junior by seven years,

my parents gave up entirely their wandering life and fixed themselves in their native country.

We possessed a house in Geneva and a champagne on Berrive, the eastern shore of the lake,

at the distance of rather more than a league from the city.

We resided principally in the latter, and the lives of my parents were passed in considerable seclusion.

It was my temper to avoid a crowd and to attach myself fervently to a few.

I was indifferent, therefore, to my school fellows in general, but I united myself in the bonds of the closest friendship to one among them.

Henry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva.

He was a boy of singular talent and fancy.

He loved enterprise, hardship, and even danger for its own sake he was deeply read in books of chivalry

and romance he composed heroic songs and began to write many a tale of enchantment

and nightly adventure he tried to make us act plays

and to enter into masquerades in

which the characters were drawn from the heroes of roncesvalles of the round table of king arthur

and the chivalrous train who shed their blood to redeem the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.

No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself.

My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence.

We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to the caprice,

but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed.

When I mingled with other families, I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my love was,

and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.

My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement, but by some law in my temperature,

they were turned, not towards childish pursuits, but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately discriminately.

I confess

that neither the structure of languages nor the code of governments nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me.

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn, and whether it was the outward substance of things

or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical,

or, in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

Meanwhile, Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with the moral relations of things.

The busy stage of life, the virtues of heroes, and the actions of men were his theme,

and his hope and his dream was to become one among those whose names are recorded in story,

as the gallant and adventurous benefactors of our species.

The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine dedicated lamp in our peaceful home.

Her sympathy was ours.

Her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes were never there to bless and animate us.

Were ever there to bless and animate us.

She was the living spirit of love to soften and attract.

I might have become sullen in my study, rough through the ardor of my nature,

but that she was there to subdue me to a semblance of her own gentleness

and Clerval could aught ill entrench on the noble spirit of Clerval yet he might not have been

so perfectly humane so thoughtful in his generosity so full of kindness

and tenderness amidst his passion for adventurous exploit had she not

unfolded to him the real loveliness of beneficence had she not unfolded to him the real loveliness of his beneficence

and made the doing good the end and aim of his soaring ambition.

I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood,

before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon itself.

Besides, in drawing the picture of my early days, I also record those events which led,

by insensible steps to my after tale of misery for

when I would account to myself for the birth of

that passion which afterwards ruled my destiny I find it arise like a mountain river from ignoble

and almost forgotten sources but swelling as it proceeded it became the torrent

which in its course had swept away all my hopes and joys.

Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate.

I desire, therefore, in this narration to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science.

When I was 13 years of age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Tonin.

The inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn.

In this house, I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa.

I opened it with apathy.

The theory which he attempts to demonstrate, and the wonderful facts which he relates, soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father.

My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, Ah, Cornelius Agrippa, my dear

Victor, do not waste your time upon this.

It is sad truth.

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded,

and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than the ancient,

because the powers of the latter were chimerical

while those of the former were real

and practical under such circumstances i should certainly have thrown agrippa aside

and have contented my imagination warmed as it was by returning with greater ardor to my former studies

it is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse

that led to my ruin

but the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me

that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.

When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole works of this author,

and the afterwords of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus.

I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight.

They appeared to me treasures known to few beside myself.

I've described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.

In spite of the intense labor and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied.

Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed

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that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth,

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those of his successors in which each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared, even to my boy's apprehensions,

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as Tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

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The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him, and was acquainted with their practical uses the most learned philosopher knew little more

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he had partially unveiled the face of nature

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but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery he might dissect

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anatomize and give names but not to speak of a final cause causes in their secondary

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and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him i had gazed upon the fortifications

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and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature and rashly and ignorantly I had repined.

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But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more.

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I took their word for all they averred, and I became their disciple.

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It may appear strange that such should arise in the 18th century, but while I followed the routine of education in the schools of Geneva,

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I was, to a great degree, self -taught with regard to my favorite studies.

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My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness added to a student's thirst for knowledge.

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Under the guidance of my new preceptors,

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I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life,

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but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention.

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Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery

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if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death.

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Nor were these my only visions.

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The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favorite authors, the fulfillment of which I most eagerly sought,

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and if my incantations were always unsuccessful I attributed the failure rather to my own inexperience

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and mistake than to a want of skill or fidelity in my instructors

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and thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems mingling like an unadept a thousand contradictory theories

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and floundering desperately in a very slew of multifarious knowledge guided by an ardent imagination

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and childish reasoning till an accident again changed the current of my ideas

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when I was 15 years old we had retired to our house near

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Belle Rive when we witnessed a most violent

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and terrible thunderstorm it advanced from behind the mountains of Jura

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and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens i remained

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while the storm lasted watching its progress with curiosity

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and delight as i stood at the door on a sudden

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i beheld a stream of fire issue from an old

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and beautiful oak which stood about 20 yards from our house

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and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared and nothing remained but a blasted stump.

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When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner.

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It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood.

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I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

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Before this, I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity.

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On this occasion, a man of great research and natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe,

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he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism,

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which was at once new and astonishing to me.

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All that he said threw greatly into the shade of Cornelius Agrippa,

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Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination, but by some vitality the overthrow of these men

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disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies it seemed to me as

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if nothing would or could ever be known all that had

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so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable by one of those caprices of the mind

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which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth

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i at once gave up my former occupations set down natural history

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and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation

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and entertain the greatest disdain for a would -be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge.

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In this mood of mind I betook myself to mathematics

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and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations and so worthy of my consideration.

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thus strangely are our souls constructed

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and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity

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or ruin when i look back it seems to me as

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if this almost miraculous change of inclination

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and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of

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my life the last effort made by the spirit of preservation to avert the storm

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that was even then hanging in the stars and ready to envelope me.

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Her victory was announced by an unusual tranquility and gladness of soul,

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which followed the relinquishing of my ancient and laterally tormenting studies.

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It was thus that I was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution, happiness with their disregard.

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It was a strong effort of the spirit of good, but it was ineffectual.

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Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.

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End of chapter two.

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Click below to continue on to chapter three.

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This has been a TLC recording.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Chapter 2 Audiobook”. This video has 169 sentences and 2277 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:19. The speaker talks at a steady 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 74% 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
possess verb	/pəˈzɛs/	To have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.
delight noun	/dəˈlaɪt/	Joy; pleasure.
violent adjective	/ˈvaɪ.ə.lənt/	Involving extreme force or motion.
imagination noun	/ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/	The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images.
occupy verb	/ˈɑkjəpaɪ/	To fill.
behold verb	/bɪˈhəʊld/	To look at or see (someone or something), especially appreciatively; to descry, to look upon.
practical adjective	/ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/	Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis.
discovery noun	/dɪˈskʌv.ɹi/	Something discovered.
deeply adverb	/ˈdi(ː)pli/	To a deep extent or degree; very greatly.
passion noun	/ˈpæʃən/	A true desire sustained or prolonged.
electricity noun	/ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/	Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now…
intense adjective	/ɪnˈtɛns/	Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering.
ruin noun	/ˈɹuː.ɪn/	The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.
tale noun	/ˈteɪl/	A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
beside	/bɪˈsaɪd/	Next to; at the side of.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
give up verb	To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
bring up verb	To mention.
look back verb	To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight).
pick up verb	To lift; to grasp and raise.
set down verb	To write.
sweep away verb	To remove something by, or as if by, sweeping.

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	were brought · were unfolded · were passed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has regulated · have contented · I've described

Pronunciation to watch

The “th” sounds: thirst /θɝst/, thin /ˈθɪn/, worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, thunder /ˈθʌndɚ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, childish /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪʃ/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, shock /ʃɔk/
Long words — get the stress right: imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/

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 possess, delight, violent.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Chapter 2 Audiobook - Learn English Speaking with Video

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