Shadowing Practice: How Your Quick Decisions Can Change Your Life | practice English with Spotlight - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Welcome to Spotlight.
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I'm Colin Lowther.
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And I'm Liz Waid.
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Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
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It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Most people have experienced an immediate reaction.
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Think about the last time you smelled something delicious.
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Did you react with an emotion?
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Have you had a reaction to a beautiful piece of art?
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Did you react emotionally when you saw someone you loved?
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Malcolm Gladwell is a writer.
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He writes about how our brains are influenced by things we do not even know.
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Gladwell calls these immediate reactions we just thought about snap judgments or quick decisions.
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They often influence us in ways we may not even recognize.
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Today's Spotlight is on these immediate reactions and how they affect our everyday lives.
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Here is a fun example of how our brains create these immediate reactions.
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Answer these questions as quickly as possible.
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What colour are clouds?
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What colour is snow?
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What do cows drink?
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Most people answer the first two questions with white.
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But they answer the third question with the word milk.
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If you answered that cows drink milk, you are not alone.
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The correct answer is water.
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It was the colour white that made you have a snap decision that cows drink milk.
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Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about SNAP judgments called Blink.
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In this book, he tells a story about a SNAP decision. In 1983, the J.
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Paul Getty Museum received a statue.
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They believed it was from the sixth century B .C.
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Scientists at the museum did some basic tests to make sure the statue was real.
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The tests seemed to show that the statue was very old.
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Thomas Hoving is an art manager.
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He looked at the statue.
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Hoving always remembers the first word to come into his mind when he looks at a new piece of work.
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Normally, when Hoving sees an old large marble statue,
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his first word is old, beautiful, ancient, or even heavy.
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Hoving has been around art for many years.
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His experience makes it easier for him to choose between real art and copies of real art.
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And when he looked at the statue, the first word he thought of was fresh.
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His snap judgment made him think the statue was not thousands of years old.
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It was new.
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Scientists decided to do more tests.
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These further test results showed that the statue was not real.
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It was a very good copy of a real statue.
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The person who made the statue worked hard to make the statue seem old.
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The museum was not happy when they learned they would not be able to put this statue in their museum.
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But this snap decision saved the museum from years of shame and regret.
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This is just one example of the effects of snap judgments or quick decisions.
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Snap judgments can also help improve or even save our lives.
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Imagine you are walking down a street on a sidewalk.
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You are thinking about something that is very interesting.
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You are not thinking about walking down the street.
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You decide to turn right.
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You do not see that you have just stepped out onto a busy street.
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You look up and see that there is a car driving toward you.
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Without thinking, you jump back up onto the sidewalk.
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You do this to avoid being hit.
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It was your own quick decision to jump back away from the street that saved you from being hurt.
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In an emergency, quick decisions also help.
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For example, doctors use snap judgments to treat injuries.
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They react based on past experiences.
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These past experiences help doctors know, without thinking, what they must do.
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If doctors take too long to make a decision,
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it can be too late to save a person's life.
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Their quick thinking can help keep everyone safe.
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Gladwell says that people make quick decisions because they must.
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Sometimes people must make quick decisions to survive.
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Other times people make them because it is natural.
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Our past experiences help to form our decisions.
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This is what helps to make them natural.
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Snap judgements come from the unconscious part of our brain.
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So, we do not know we are making snap judgements until after we make them.
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We often do this when we meet people.
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There is a common saying in the English language,
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do not judge a book by its cover.
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This means that we should not make an opinion about something or somebody based on the way they look.
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But people do this every single day.
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And sadly, these snap judgments can easily be wrong.
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Snap judgments come from experience.
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But our experiences of people can be limited.
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Many of us do not know people of a different ethnicity or race.
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We mostly know people who are like us.
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So, when we see someone who looks different,
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our snap judgments are not based on experience.
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They are based on ideas from other people.
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Or they are based on stories in radio and television.
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These are prejudices, and snap judgments based on prejudice are often wrong.
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Often, a person's appearance does not tell us much about who they are or what they are like.
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It is natural to make snap judgments about other people.
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However, these judgments are not always true.
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For example, imagine that you see a person with a different skin color than yours.
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You may have a thought like, I am smarter than he is, or he is mean.
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These are not good snap judgements.
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Thoughts like these are judgements about a person's character and abilities.
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Sometimes we need to make a quick decision about a person to protect our own lives.
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If we see someone carrying a weapon,
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it would be right to make the snap judgment to hide or run away.
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People make snap judgments every single day.
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But we can decide how we let the snap judgments affect our lives.
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It is important to be careful not to let these quick decisions change the way we think of a person.
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Think of how your snap judgements affect your everyday life.
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You could surprise yourself.
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We will tell another story about snap judgements for members of our YouTube channel.
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Members get access to exclusive videos,
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PDFs of scripts, and can join our private Spotlight English Facebook group.
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We hope you make a snap judgment to check it out!
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If you are on YouTube, click join below.
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What kinds of snap judgments do you make?
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Have you ever regretted a quick decision?
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Tell us what you think.
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You can leave a comment on our website or email us at contact at spotlightenglish .com.
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You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
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The writer of today's program was Aaron Lehman.
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The producer was Liz Waid.
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The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States.
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You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www .spotlightenglish .com.
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This program is called, How Your Quick Decisions Can Change Your Life.
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Visit our website to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices.
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program.
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Goodbye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “How Your Quick Decisions Can Change Your Life”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: snap, judgment, decision, statue, quick. This video has 120 sentences and 1208 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:35. The speaker talks slowly, about 83 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 86% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| snap verb | /snæp/ | To fracture or break apart suddenly. |
| judgment noun | /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/ | The act of judging. |
| statue noun | /ˈstæt͡ʃu/ | A three-dimensional work of art, usually representing a person or animal, usually created by sculpting, carving, molding, or casting. |
| cow noun | /kaʊ/ | An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved. |
| react verb | /ɹiːˈækt/ | To act in response. |
| sidewalk noun | /ˈsaɪdwɔk/ | A paved footpath located at the side of a road, for the use of pedestrians. |
| prejudice noun | /ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/ | An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts. |
| scientist noun | /ˈsaɪəntəst/ | One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research… |
| ethnicity noun | /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/ | The common characteristics of a group of people, especially regarding ancestry, culture, language or national experiences. |
| unconscious adjective | /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/ | Not awake; having no awareness (usually as the result of a head injury). |
| marble noun | /ˈmɑɹ.bəl/ | A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone. |
| emotionally adverb | /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/ | In an emotional manner; displaying emotion. |
| sadly adverb | /ˈsædli/ | In a sad manner; sorrowfully. |
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| goodbye | /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/ | Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| walk down verb | To continually advance (on an opponent) and punch (the opponent) in order to control the fight and dominate the opponent, while shrugging off the opponent's… | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| run away verb | To flee by running. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Did you react with an emotion?
- Have you had a reaction to a beautiful piece of art?
- Did you react emotionally when you saw someone you loved?
- What kinds of snap judgments do you make?
- Have you ever regretted a quick decision?
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 | are influenced · being hit · being hurt |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have experienced · Have you had · has been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who made · people who are · someone who looks |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may not even recognize · may have |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: unconscious /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ethnicity /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
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 snap, judgment, statue.
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.