Shadowing Practice: Gear Compared: USA vs IRAN Soldier - Learn English Speaking with Video
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109 sentences
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Two infantrymen.
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The same year, two very different armies.
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One carries the gear of the biggest military budget on earth.
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The other carries what a country under decades of sanctions has learned to build for itself.
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Item by item, this is what each of them takes into the field in 2026.
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The American kit grew out of 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Lighter armor, an optic on every rifle, night vision for every rifle.
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After 1979, Iran lost access to Western suppliers.
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It kept the factories it already had and learned to copy the rest.
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And it has two ground forces, the regular army, built largely on conscripts, and the Revolutionary Guard, smaller and better equipped.
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We will show both.
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The Rifle The American Rifleman most often still carries the M4A1, a short carbine in the light 5 .56 cartridge.
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It is easy to carry, easy to shoot, and a soldier can carry a lot of ammunition from it.
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For almost 30 years it has been the face of the American infantryman.
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Its replacement has already reached the first units, the M7,
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built around a new 6 .8mm round that hits far harder at long range and was designed to defeat modern body armor.
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It comes with a suppressor as standard.
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The price is weight.
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The magazine holds 20 rounds instead of 30, and a soldier carries about 70 fewer rounds for the same load.
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The Iranian army soldier carries the G3,
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a German battle rifle in full power 7 .62 NATO that Iran has built under license for half a century.
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It is long, heavy, and hits hard.
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A rifle from another era that still works.
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Its successor, the home -designed Masaf II, keeps the same cartridge in a lighter, modern body with rails for optics, and began reaching units around 2025.
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The Revolutionary Guard took a different path.
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Its standard rifle is the AK -133, a licensed version of the Russian AK -103 in 7 .62x39.
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It is shorter and lighter than the G3, and very reliable.
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So, both sides are moving toward a heavier bullet.
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The Americans to reach further, the Iranians because they never left it.
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The sight.
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On the American side, an optic is standard on every rifle, with an infrared laser for use under night vision.
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The newest M157 fire control goes much further.
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A variable scope with a laser rangefinder and a ballistic computer,
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so the soldier sees the corrected aiming point for the exact distance early testers called it heavy
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and complicated and the army is still refining it.
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On the Iranian side, most rifles still go out with iron sights.
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Optics exist, especially in the Revolutionary Guard and Special Units, but they are far less common.
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For an ordinary soldier, the difference shows most at long range and in poor light.
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The Squad Machine Gun For decades, the American squad was built around the M249,
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a light, belt -fed gun in 556 that one soldier can carry and fire on the move.
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The new M250 fires the same 6 .8 round as the M7.
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It hits much harder, yet it is lighter than the gun it replaces, and it also comes with a suppressor.
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The Iranian squad relies on the PKM, the Soviet general -purpose machine gun that Iran builds itself.
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It fires the full power 7 .62x54.
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It is simple and very durable, and it hits harder than the M249 ever did.
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Here, the Iranian soldier is not behind at all.
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The pistol.
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The American pistol is the M17, a version of the SIG P320, chosen in 2017 to replace the Beretta M9.
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It is modular.
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The same core part can be moved into a smaller or larger frame.
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Iran's army carries the PC -9 Zof, a domestic copy of the Sig P226, the older pistol from the same Swiss family.
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The Revolutionary Guard uses Glocks.
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For a sidearm, the gap is small.
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In both armies, the pistol is a last resort, carried mostly by officers, crews and special units.
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The Marksman Every American infantry squad can field a designated marksman with the M110A1,
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a compact semi -automatic rifle based on the H &K G28.
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It reaches well beyond the range of an ordinary rifleman, and with its suppressor it is hard to locate when it fires.
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The Iranian marksman carries the Nakhjir, a local copy of the Soviet Dragunov.
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It is older and less accurate, but light, rugged, and it fires the same cartridge as the PKM,
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so the squad needs only one kind of heavy ammunition.
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Against Armour The American soldier has the Javelin, a fire -and -forget missile.
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The gunner locks on, fires, and takes cover while the missile climbs and strikes a tank from above, where the armor is thinnest.
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And the Carl Gustaf, a reusable recoilless rifle that can fire a dozen kinds of rounds, from anti -tank to smoke and illumination.
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Iran builds its own RPGs, from the classic RPG -7 to the improved Sa 'reh.
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For longer range, it has the Toufan guided missiles, descended from the American tow that Iran bought before 1979, plus local copies of Russian designs.
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In anti -tank weapons, the gap is smaller than anywhere else.
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Iran has spent decades on exactly this.
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The Helmet The newest American helmet, the IHPS, is lighter than the one before it, protects better, and takes night vision,
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hearing protection, and lights as one system.
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An optional mandible guard can even protect the jaw.
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Iranian helmets are mostly local copies of American designs.
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The PASGT of the 1980s and the newer ACH pattern, with a copy of the high -cut fast helmet for special forces.
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Some Army conscripts still wear the old steel M1, a design from the Second World War.
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Body armor.
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The American modular scalable vest can be stripped down to a light plate carrier for a long march, or built up with neck,
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side, and groin protection when the threat is high.
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Front and back plates stop rifle bullets.
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The Revolutionary Guard wears the Ruin 3, a domestic vest that also takes hard rifle plates.
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Army professionals wear the lighter
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Ruin 1, which stops pistol bullets and fragments, but not rifle fire.
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Many conscripts have far less.
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The best Iranian gear is close to the American standard, but it does not reach everyone.
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Night Vision This is the widest gap of all.
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Every American rifleman in a combat unit can expect night vision.
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The newest, the ENVGB, combines two image tubes with a thermal image in one view
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and can show the soldier where his rifle is pointing without raising it to the eye.
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For Iran, there is little reliable public information.
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Night vision exists, especially in special units, but it is rare among ordinary infantry.
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For most Iranian soldiers, the night still belongs to whoever has the better devices.
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The uniform.
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The American soldier wears the operational camouflage pattern, the same pattern from the helmet cover to the boots, with flame -resistant fabric for crews and pilots.
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Iran's forces wear several digital patterns, different for the Army, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Special Units, much of it locally made.
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In the field, a mix of old and new patterns is common, especially among conscripts.
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Special Forces Both armies keep their best gear for their elite.
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Iran's 65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade carries M4 carbines and M249 machine guns, the same weapons as the Americans,
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while Revolutionary Guard special units use the Syed, a Chinese -made rifle on the M16 pattern with optics, lights, and copies of the fast helmet.
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At this level, the two soldiers look much more alike.
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Put it all together and the American rifleman carries more.
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More armor, more electronics, more batteries.
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A full fighting load can pass 30 kilograms and the army has spent years trying to bring it down.
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The Iranian conscript carries less and much of it is older.
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The Revolutionary Guard soldier sits somewhere in between.
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On paper, the two riflemen are closer than they look.
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Both carry a full power rifle or are moving to one, both have a belt -fed machine gun in the squad,
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and both have a way to stop a tank.
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The real difference is everything around the rifle.
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An optic on every weapon, armor that fits the mission, and the ability to fight at night.
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Iran's answer has been to copy, to build at home, and to give its best gear to the units that matter most.
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The American answer has been to give the best gear to everyone.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Gear Compared: USA vs IRAN Soldier”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: rifle, soldier, Iranian, carries, guard. This video has 109 sentences and 1400 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:36. The speaker talks at a steady 146 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 |
|---|---|---|
| rifle noun | /ˈɹaɪfəl/ | A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel. |
| soldier noun | /ˈsoʊld͡ʒɚ/ | A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member. |
| helmet noun | /ˈhɛlmɪt/ | A hard, protective head covering, typically part of armour. |
| armor noun | /ˈɑːɹ.mɚ/ | A protective layer over a body, vehicle, or other object intended to deflect or diffuse damaging forces. |
| gear noun | /ɡɪɚ/ | Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor. |
| pistol noun | /ˈpɪstəl/ | A handgun |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| bullet noun | /ˈbʊlɪt/ | A projectile, usually of metal, shot from a gun at high speed. |
| missile noun | /ˈmɪs.aɪl/ | Any object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet. |
| optic adjective | /ˈɑp.tɪk/ | Of, or relating to the eye or to vision. |
| optics noun | /ˈɑptɪks/ | The physics of light and vision: basic optical science. |
| cartridge noun | /ˈkɑɹtɹɪd͡ʒ/ | The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition. |
| belt noun | /ˈbɛlt/ | A band worn around the waist to hold clothing to one's body (usually pants), hold weapons (such as a gun or sword), or serve as a decorative piece of clothing. |
| reliable adjective | /ɹɪˈlaɪəbl̩/ | Suitable or fit to be relied on; worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; dependable, trustworthy |
| laser noun | /ˈleɪzɚ/ | A device that produces a monochromatic, coherent beam of light. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| grow out of verb | To emerge from (something); to take a particular shape as a result of (something); to come to exist from (an origin). |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has learned · has been · has already reached |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was designed · was built · can be moved |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thermal /ˈθɜːməl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/, operational /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃə.nəl/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, camouflage /ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/, illumination /ɪˌlumɪˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, operational /ˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃə.nəl/
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 rifle, soldier, helmet.
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.