Shadowing Practice: I Tested CREEPY Brookhaven Myths.. - Learn English Speaking with Video
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “I Tested CREEPY Brookhaven Myths.”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: card, brookhaven, myth, inside, secret. This video has 468 sentences and 4148 words to shadow. The speech runs for 22:16. The speaker talks fast, about 186 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| myth noun | /mɪθ/ | A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are… |
| creepy adjective | /ˈkɹipi/ | Moving by creeping along. |
| bunker noun | /ˈbʌŋ.kə/ | A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks. |
| doll noun | /dɑl/ | A small figure resembling a human being that is used as a toy. |
| scare verb | /skɛɚ/ | To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way. |
| gosh | /ɡɑːʃ/ | A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm. |
| clown noun | /ˈklaʊ̯n/ | A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly… |
| whoa | /woʊ/ | Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down. |
| barn noun | [ˈbɑɹn] | A building, often found on a farm, used for storage or keeping animals such as cattle. |
| dig verb | /dɪɡ/ | To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More… |
| binoculars noun | /(ˌ)baɪˈnɑ.kjə.lɚz/ | A hand-held device consisting of a series of lenses and prisms, used to magnify objects so that they can be better seen from a distance, and looked at through… |
| shelf noun | /ʃɛlf/ | A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects. |
| basement noun | /ˈbeɪsmənt/ | A floor of a building below ground level. |
| dirt noun | /dɝt/ | Soil or earth. |
| involve verb | /ɪnˈvɑlv/ | To have (something) as a component or a related part; to comprise, to include. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dig up verb | To excavate something. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| add up verb | To take the sum of; to total. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Am I able to do that?
- What do you suppose the purpose of this is?
- How do we do that?
- How do I get this thing?
- Anyways, let's go inside and what the freak?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you want more and i'll see |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is hit · is confirmed · is secreted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been · I've never seen · has been enacted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | motorcycle, which is · bunker, which is · station, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 108 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: myth /mɪθ/, pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, thirteen /ˌθɝtˈtin/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, shovel /ˈʃʌv.əl/, ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: binoculars /(ˌ)baɪˈnɑ.kjə.lɚz/, ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, elevator /ˈɛləˌveɪtɚ/, entity /ˈɛn.tə.ti/ [-tʰi], animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/
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 myth, creepy, bunker.
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.














