Shadowing Practice: How to Survive a Grenade Blast - Learn English Speaking with Video

(water splashing) - So I'm here today in Florida filming with Kevin, more commonly known as The Backyard Scientist.

- That's right.

- And today we're gonna take these two live grenades, and we're gonna be dipping 'em in this tub of liquid nitrogen.

So go ahead and hand 'em to me.

And then dude, baby alligator.

(grenades bouncing) (water splashes) (classical uplifting music) So now we're both about 15 feet away, except I'm on land with a grenade on land, and Kevin is in the water with a grenade in the water.

So the question is, which one of us has a better chance of survival?

Take a moment to decide, do you dive on the pool deck or jump in the pool?

We both had very different theories for survival.

So as firm believers in the scientific method, we decided to test out our hypotheses.

So we devised some experiments.

But before I get to those, I think it's important to understand how a grenade actually works.

So once you pull the pin, as long as you keep this handle pushed down, you're perfectly safe.

But as soon as you let go of the grenade, this handle springs off which releases a spring loaded striker that hits a percussion cap that starts a five second fuse that you can't do anything to stop.

And I never really thought about it until I made this video but the reason you see a waffle pattern in grenades is to create weak points in the shell.

So that's where it's going to break first.

And since there are 40 bumps, this grenade is basically an explosion that shoots 40 bullets in all directions.

In warfare, that's what makes them lethal.

So the best strategy is to get as far as possible in a few seconds, and then hit the deck with your feet facing towards the grenade.

This presents the smallest possible target for a flying grenade chunk to hit.

So 15 feet away.

Mathematically, that puts my chances of getting hit at less than 1%.

But things are even better for Kevin in the pool.

It's been well documented that bullets do not travel far in water at all.

The drag force is so high, they just disintegrate after a few feet.

So he has a 0% chance of getting injured by a grenade fragment in the water.

But we are thorough men of science and we wanted more information.

So we designed an experiment where we filled three balloons, half with water and half with air to roughly mimic the human body, which is mostly water, but we have pockets of air in our lungs, intestines, in our sinuses, in our ears, and then we subjected them to identical explosions, identical distances apart in both air (shot fires) and water.

(shot fires) As you can see, there isn't much effect on land, because air is compressible, which helps dissipate energy, plus the blast wave reflects around objects.

But in water, the story is different.

Water is incompressible, which means not only is the blast wave not dissipated, but it passes right through your mostly water body.

So the air in these balloons represents the air in your body, like your lungs and your sinuses.

So basically what's happening is the blast wave is pushing in on you, but the air cavities can't push back with the same force, since they're filled with compressible air, that means they move a lot really quickly, which causes permanent damage.

As a control, you could see this balloon that is filled with just water.

It is perfectly fine.

That would be like your arms and legs, which have no air in them, and they are basically incompressible like water, and would be fine.

An explosion underwater is sort of like the silver ball things.

So this represents the initial energy of the blast, which then comes down and passes through the incompressible water, and then comes out without losing any energy at the water surface.

But now your squishable lungs are surrounded by incompressible water in the path of the blast wave.

And so when the blast happens, there's a lot of relative motion, which is bad if you like your lungs the way they are right now.

And sadly, our experiment is verified in real life.

So these jerks throw an M80 into the water, and you can see the devastating effect it has.

On land, if a bird were that close to an M80, it would be startled, but it would be perfectly fine.

So now that you know, think back, which did you choose?

While it's true, there is a small chance you would get unlucky with the grenade chunk if you chose to dive next to me.

If you chose to join Kevin, you will be in that pool for the rest of your life.

(upbeat video game music) So huge thanks to the backyard scientist for dying in the name of science.

If you've never seen his stuff, you just have to check it out.

Here's a video we just finished filming.

- It's a bunch of which is a non-Newtonian fluid, and we destroyed it in every way imaginable.

- It's incredible footage.

His channel is full of this type of junk.

So check it out, subscribe, and as always, thanks for watching.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Survive a Grenade Blast”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: grenade, blast, incompressible, lungs, Kevin. This video has 53 sentences and 886 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:55. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
grenade noun	/ɡɹəˈneɪd/	A small explosive device, designed to be thrown by hand or launched using a rifle, grenade launcher, or rocket.
incompressible adjective		Not compressible.
lung noun	/ˈlʌŋ/	A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood.
balloon noun	/bəˈlun/	An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.
compressible adjective		Able to be compressed.
dissipate verb	/ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/	To drive away, disperse.
sinus noun	/ˈsaɪ.nəs/	A pouch or cavity in a bone or other tissue, especially one in the bones of the face or skull connecting with the nasal cavities (the paranasal sinus).
chunk noun	/t͡ʃʌŋk/	A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
splash verb	/splæʃ/	To hit or agitate liquid so that part of it separates from the principal liquid mass.
backyard noun	/bækˈjɑːd/	A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence.
dive verb	/daɪv/	To swim under water.
alligator noun	/ˈæl.ɪ.ɡeɪ.tɚ/	Either of two species of large amphibious reptile, Alligator mississippiensis or Alligator sinensis, in the genus Alligator within order Crocodilia, which have…
devastate verb	/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/	To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
devise verb	/dɪˈvaɪz/	To use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
disintegrate verb	/dɪsˈɪntɪɡɹeɪt/	To undo the integrity of; to break into parts.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come down verb		To descend, fall down, collapse.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
pass through verb		To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another.
push down verb		To force downwards (literally or figuratively).
think back verb		To think about a time or experience; to recall.

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 filled · are surrounded · is verified
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	body, which is · incompressible, which means · legs, which have

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, can't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: lethal /ˈliː.θəl/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: splash /splæʃ/, percussion /pɚˈkʌʃən/, squishable /ˈskwɪʃəbəl/
Long words — get the stress right: alligator /ˈæl.ɪ.ɡeɪ.tɚ/, disintegrate /dɪsˈɪntɪɡɹeɪt/, imaginable /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəbəl/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/, underwater /ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/

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 grenade, incompressible, lung.

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 →

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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?