Shadowing Practice: His Dark Secret Got Exposed - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What would you do if you found pictures of your dad wearing women's lingerie?

Well, this all starts with this kid, Dylan.

And Dylan is only 12 during this time, living with his mom in Monument, Colorado.

And here's the thing about him.

He really, really doesn't like his dad.

His dad is this guy, Mark.

And so Dylan kind of hates

Mark because of the way the divorce with his mom went down, allegedly.

And the last thing he wants to do is spend time with him.

Well, in the meantime, Mark and Dylan's mom are still currently fighting out the custody battle in court.

And the court has ordered Dylan to have scheduled visits with his dad.

So whether he likes it or not, he has to go see him.

But then, one day in 2011, something really odd happens.

Mark takes Dylan and Dylan's older brother on a road trip.

They plan to travel from Colorado over to Cleveland, Ohio.

And on this road trip one night they're staying at a hotel

and Mark is asleep in the main area of the room

While Dylan and older brother are off to the side and Dylan He's sort of just messing around on their dad's laptop

And that is when he stumbles on to some very disturbing pictures

He finds pictures of his dad dressed in women's underwear

Here is one of those pictures

Now, finding pictures of your dad dressed in women's underwear or lingerie, it's unexpected, but it's not like the end of the world.

But then he finds something much worse.

Pictures of his dad wearing a baby's diaper.

And pictures of what appears to be him eating feces from that diaper, which I'm not going to show you.

And of course, Dylan is absolutely disgusted by this and whatever little respect he had for his dad is completely gone.

And he pulls older brother into the bathroom, and he shows him, and I'm sure older brother is now disgusted as well.

Now, eventually, the road trip ends, and the boys return to their mom's house in Colorado.

But Dylan never forgets what he saw.

So, months go by, and it's now 2012, And Dylan is scheduled to visit

Mark for Thanksgiving at his house in Vallecito, Colorado.

And of course, he doesn't want to go, but, you know, court orders, he has to.

And it's not like

Mark doesn't know how Dylan feels about him, but I guess he still wants him to visit.

So Dylan gets to Mark's house, and immediately, he doesn't want to be there.

So he asks if he can go visit a friend and stay the night there.

He doesn't want to sleep at his dad's place.

He's still so disgusted by those odd diaper photos.

But Mark is like, nah, you just got here.

And Dylan isn't happy about this answer.

Now, this next part we have limited information on, so we can only speculate.

Allegedly, these two get into some kind of argument.

And this argument gets heated.

And Dylan brings up the pictures that he found on Mark's laptop.

And from here, whatever Dylan says to him really pisses Mark off.

So he grabs some sort of blunt object and he beats him with it.

And unfortunately, Dylan dies.

After that, Mark dismembers Dylan's body and he loads it all into his truck.

And he drives to two different locations, apparently, to dump the remains.

The next day, Mark texts Dylan's mom, and he tells her this bullsh story, saying that he went out that morning, and when he came back,

he saw the TV on, but that Dylan was gone.

And so he claims he just disappeared out of nowhere.

And of course, Dylan's mom is now freaking out, and she immediately calls the police and reports him missing.

And so pretty quickly, police get involved, and search teams are organized to help find missing Dylan.

Now, while this massive search is going on, Dylan's mom and older brother start to get suspicious of Mark,

thinking that maybe he was involved in Dylan's disappearance, because a lot of things he's saying just aren't adding up.

For example, Mark says that when he came home, he found Dylan gone and Nickelodeon was playing on the TV.

But Dylan doesn't watch Nickelodeon.

He pretty much only exclusively watches MTV.

Also, Mark is acting way too chill for a father whose son has just gone missing.

And he's not even helping the search crews search or anything like that.

And on top of all that, for some reason, he blocks off all contact with Dylan's mom.

I mean, I know they hate each other, but now is not the time to cut off contact.

And so all of this only makes Dylan's mom and brother even more suspicious.

And so here is where she starts to take action.

Months pass, and it's now 2013.

And Dylan's mom, she's had enough of Mark's weird -ass behavior, and she decides to take her suspicions public.

She goes on local and national TV, on the news, and she starts speaking out about Mark

and his possible involvement in Dylan's disappearance

then she goes on the Dr. Phil show with Mark like he agrees to go

and she accuses him of being involved in Dylan going missing where is Dylan

I don't have Dylan you know where Dylan is Mark

you were the last one to see him I hope

you didn't hurt him I hope you did not hurt him because I really don't trust you but see

Mark he isn't having any of that he turns around

and he starts accusing her of having something to do with Dylan's disappearance.

I personally have a lot of suspicions that

Elaine could be involved in this.

And from here, they basically just confront each other.

It's not.

No, Elaine, I wouldn't hurt him.

What kind of mother are you to even think that I was capable of doing something like that?

Now, after all this back and forth, Dr. Phil asks

Mark to take a polygraph test.

And as I always tell you, lie detector tests are not based in any real science.

But then again, neither is Dr. Phil.

And so Mark initially agrees to take the test, but then he backs out.

And Dr. Phil gets, like, upset at him that he won't take this bullsh polygraph test.

In fact, he gets so mad that he actually starts yelling at him.

Are you kidding me?

I devoted two hours of national television time to try to find your son,

And I have asked you to do things to eliminate yourself

so we can direct resources to other people and you won't do one damn thing to help.

Now, after this interview, his general shady demeanor and his refusal to take the polygraph test make the public suspicious of Mark.

So now a lot of people believe that he had something to do with his son going missing.

And then, things get even worse for him.

Because a few months later, a search team finds some of Dylan's remains.

So now, this isn't a missing persons case anymore.

It's a possible homicide investigation.

100

And so, police search

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Mark's house for a second time.

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And that's when they find some of Dylan's blood inside the place, on the floor, and on the living room furniture.

103

And when police bring in a cadaver -sniffing dog, it detects the scent of human remains on Mark's truck and on his clothes.

104

But, even so, police don't quite have enough evidence to arrest

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Mark for anything.

106

Until.

107

About two years go by, and it's now 2015.

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And one day, some local hikers just happen to find more of Dylan's remains, including his skull.

109

And when police examine the skull, they find evidence of blunt force trauma.

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So now it's confirmed that Dylan's cause of death has gone from undetermined to homicide.

111

And with that, police are extremely suspicious of Mark.

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And they start looking more closely into his possible involvement.

113

And eventually, in 2017, they finally have enough to make an arrest.

114

And so, bam, they arrest Mark.

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Here's his mugshot and ultimately he goes to trial

116

and he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to 48 years in prison

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “His Dark Secret Got Exposed”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Dylan, Mark, mom, pictures, dad. This video has 116 sentences and 1387 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:44. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
suspicious adjective	/səˈspɪʃ.əs/	Arousing suspicion.
disappearance noun	/dɪsəˈpɪəɹəns/	The action of disappearing or vanishing.
disgust noun	/dɪsˈɡʌst/	An intense dislike or loathing someone feels for something bad or nasty.
involvement noun	/ɪnˈvɑlv.mənt/	The act of involving, or the state of being involved.
laptop noun	/ˈlæp.tɑp/	A laptop computer.
allegedly adverb	/əˈlɛdʒ.ɪd.li/	According to allegation(s); supposedly, reportedly.
suspicion noun	/səˈspɪʃ.ən/	The act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.
underwear noun	/ˈʌndɚˌwɛɹ/	Clothes worn next to the skin, underneath outer clothing.
blunt adjective	/blʌnt/	Having a thick edge or point; not sharp.
homicide noun	/ˈhɑ.məˌsaɪ̯d/	The killing of one person by another, whether premeditated or unintentional.
accuse verb	/əˈkjuz/	To find fault with, blame, censure.
lingerie noun	/ˌlɑn.ʒəˈɹeɪ/	Underwear or nightclothes (typically women's), especially when lacy or designed to be seductive.
confirm verb	/kənˈfɝm/	To strengthen; to make firm or resolute.
nowhere adverb	/ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/	In no place.
resource noun	/ɹɪˈzɔːs/	Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
add up verb		To take the sum of; to total.
back out verb		To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.
bring up verb		To mention.
come back verb		To return to a place.
cut off verb	/ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf]	To remove by cutting.
fight out verb		To settle through conflict.
go down verb		To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.

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	is absolutely disgusted · is scheduled · are organized
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has ordered · has just gone · have asked

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 20 contractions and reduced forms, such as doesn't, don't, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, suspicion /səˈspɪʃ.ən/, lingerie /ˌlɑn.ʒəˈɹeɪ/, shady /ˈʃeɪdi/
Long words — get the stress right: disappearance /dɪsəˈpɪəɹəns/, allegedly /əˈlɛdʒ.ɪd.li/, exclusively /ɪkˈskluːsɪvli/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/

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 suspicious, disappearance, disgust.

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: His Dark Secret Got Exposed - Learn English Speaking with Video

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10살때 아빠가 청불영화 보여줬어요, 에밀리 블런트

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?