Shadowing Practice: Holt's Impossible Brain Teaser | Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Do you want any else for lunch, sir?
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Oh, no, I've already consumed the required calories for this day period.
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Yummy.
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But I do have some fun lunch chit-chat.
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When I was a detective, my old CO, Jim Martins, used to keep us on our toes by having us solve brain teasers.
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I thought maybe you'd like to try one?
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Don't just tease my brain, Captain.
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Really go to town on it.
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Yeah.
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Bring it on, sir.
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I love puzzles.
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They're like power squats for your mind.
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Good.
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Here's the problem.
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There are 12 men on an island on an island.
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Eleven weigh exactly the same amount, but one of them is slightly lighter or heavier.
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You must figure out which.
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And what do these men look like facially and with respect to their bodies?
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It's unimportant.
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So like Tyrese.
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It's the land of Tyrese's.
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Sure.
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The island has no scales, but there is a seesaw.
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The exciting catch?
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You can only use it three times.
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That sounds super exciting.
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Is this thing mandatory?
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Oh, I hope so.
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Please say yes.
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No, but there is a prize for whoever solves it first.
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Two tickets to this Sunday's Beyoncé Knowles rock music concert.
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I'm in.
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Marcus loves Beyoncé.
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Everyone loves Beyoncé.
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My girls were conceived and bootylicious.
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Don't tell my wife I told you that.
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You might as well save yourself some paper and give up now, Sarge.
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You know I'm gonna solve this first.
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You probably can't tell, but I am flexing my brain like crazy right now.
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Yeah, you're both wasting your time.
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Beyonce's my spiritual twin.
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Those tickets are my birthright.
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No offense, but this is gonna come down to me and Sarge.
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Whoa, you think you two are the only ones that can solve puzzles?
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Yeah, what about Rosa, Gina, and me?
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Is this how you wanna die, Hitchcock?
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Look, it's just that the Sarge and I are really into puzzles.
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Remember when I took that Sudoku cruise?
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I never even went on deck.
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A hundred bucks says Gina and I can solve this thing before you two puzzle dorks.
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Deal.
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You're going down.
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You're really not a part of this, Hitchcock.
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Are you here because you've solved my brain teaser?
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Sir, you've been an underdog your whole life, but you defied the odds by having others secretly help you, because you didn't have what it took.
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That's not my story.
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But now we're the underdogs.
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And we're the ones who need a handout, so just tell us the answer.
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Or have you forgotten where you come from?
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I'm not gonna help you.
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I told you that was not gonna work.
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Stop the clock.
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We're here and we have the solution.
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First, you waste six versus six.
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Wrong.
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That'll never work.
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You just wasted your time and mine.
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Click!
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I just captured the exact moment when you realized you had failed.
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I guess we all got something out of this.
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So that's it?
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This problem is beyond all of you.
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No one solved it.
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Believe me, no one is more disappointed in me than me.
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Than I, Santiago.
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Click!
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Wait, Captain.
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Gina and I figured out your dumb brain teaser.
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I highly doubt that, sir.
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I'll judge for myself, Santiago.
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Okay, Diaz, what's the solution?
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We have no idea.
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Told ya.
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But neither do you, sir.
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What?
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Captain Holt, you don't know what the solution is.
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Excuse me?
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Here's how we cracked it.
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I took the photo of you demolishing Amy's spirit and made these clever t-shirts that say, hashtag nerd fail.
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It's not that clever.
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It's hilarious.
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Look at this.
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Your expression is the same as Amy's because you're both devastated that you just let down your mentors.
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I looked at your calendar.
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You're supposed to have breakfast with your old CO.
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You wanted us to solve the problem before you saw him.
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That's crazy.
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She's right.
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What?
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No. He posed that problem to me 20 years ago.
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Every time I see him, he asks, do you have the answer yet?
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And I never have.
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Those islanders and their pathetic seesaw haunt my dreams.
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They mock me in my sleep, riding up and down on a teeter-totter of taunts.
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Cool.
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So who gets the Beyonce tickets?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 106 sentences and 711 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:01. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% 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:

WordPronunciationMeaning
solve verb/sɒlv/To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
puzzle noun/ˈpʌzəl/The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in…
clever adjective/ˈklɛv.ɚ/Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.
clock noun/klɑk/A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
capture verb/ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem.
disappointed adjective/ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down.
odd adjective/ɑd/Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.
whoever/huˈɛvɚ/Who ever: an emphatic form of who.
crack noun/kɹæk/A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
deck noun/ˈdɛk/Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop.
spiritual adjective/ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
twin noun/twɪn/Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling.
versus/ˈvɝsəs/Against; in opposition to.
calendar noun/ˈkæl.ən.də/Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years.
hilarious adjective/hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/Very funny; causing great merriment and laughter.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordMeaning
figure out verbTo come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
come down to verbTo reach by moving down or reducing.
give up verbTo surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
go down verbTo descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
let down verbTo disappoint; to betray or fail somebody.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, gonna, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

  • The “th” sounds: pathetic /pəˈθɛtɪk/, birthright /ˈbɝθ.ɹaɪt/
  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, hashtag /ˈhæʃˌtæɡ/, demolish /dɪˈmɒl.ɪʃ/, facially /ˈfeɪʃəli/
  • Long words — get the stress right: disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/, mandatory /ˈmæn.dəˌtɔɹ.i/, devastated /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/, unimportant /ˌʌnɪmˈpɔɹtənt/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like solve, puzzle, clever.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowI've already consumed · you've solved · you've been
Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see cominggonna solve · gonna come · gonna help
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around nowam flexing · You're going
Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or predictionThat'll never work · I'll judge

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 →