Shadowing Practice: INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH STORY 👶A New Addition👶 B1 - B2 | Level 4 - 5 | BRITISH ENGLISH ACCENT SUBTITLES - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
Hello and welcome to Lovely English Stories.
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Hello and welcome to Lovely English Stories.
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Thank you for stopping by.
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This story is written for intermediate English learners.
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Ready?
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Let's get started.
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B1, B2 English Story.
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A new edition.
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Michael and Sarah had been together for four years.
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They met on a night out.
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Michael spotted Sarah across the bar and went over to talk to her.
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At first, Sarah wasn't interested in Michael at all.
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He was drunk and acting the goat.
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The following week, they saw each other again.
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This time, Michael wasn't as drunk and they had a coherent conversation.
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Michael and his friends were good fun and Sarah warmed to him.
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They saw each other several times at the pub quiz night
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before Michael plucked up the courage to ask her out on a date.
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Their first date was a bit of a disaster.
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They decided to meet at a country pub and have a carvery.
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The waiter accidentally spilt red wine all over Michael's new white shirt.
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Then Sarah tripped over someone's bags and hurt her arm.
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Then her car decided to not start up when they left.
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Michael tried to fix it and made matters worse.
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It didn't help that it was chucking it down and gale force winds.
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Their second date was much calmer.
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They met for a walk in the local park.
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They enjoyed a takeaway coffee and a good laugh.
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From then on, they started to see more of each other until they moved in together 18 months later.
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Moving in together wasn't easy at first.
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They both had different routines and ideas of how a house should be run.
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But now they had worked out how to make things work and they shared chores equally.
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Sarah was an assistant headteacher and Michael was a publishing assistant.
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They both loved their jobs and their lifestyle,
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but they were ready to take the next step and start a family.
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They had discussed it in depth before deciding this is what they wanted.
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They knew they'd be tired and stressed and have less money,
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but they wanted to have a family and create new traditions and routines with their loved one.
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Sarah's pregnancy was not an easy one.
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She suffered from severe morning sickness and high blood pressure.
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She had never had high blood pressure in her life.
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She was closely monitored by doctors and often felt lethargic and nauseous.
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This made her job as an assistant head quite difficult.
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She had to move away from her teaching duties and focus more on the office part of the job.
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That way, she wasn't moving around as much and was less likely to throw up mid-lesson.
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As Sarah's belly began to swell bigger and bigger, Michael started to panic.
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What if he was a terrible dad?
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What if their child was sick?
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What if something happened during childbirth?
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He dreaded seeing Sarah in so much pain He kept all of his concerns to himself
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and found he had many sleepless nights There wasn't much he could do except be there for Sarah whenever she needed him
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Sarah finished work two weeks before her due date She wanted
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to save as much of her parental leave as she could For
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when the baby was born She would take a full year's
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parental leave Her work colleagues got them some lovely gifts
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And some of the children at the school made her cards And brought in little presents they had made
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She was incredibly touched.
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In the two-week run-up to the baby's birth,
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they finished decorating the nursery and got all the bits and bobs they needed.
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They knew they would never feel fully prepared.
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Their life was about to change in ways they could never imagine.
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Sarah's belly was huge.
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It was uncomfortable and heavy.
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She was terrified of giving birth,
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but she was fed up with being pregnant.
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One night, at around 11.30pm,
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Michael had just dropped off and Sarah was reading in bed.
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She started to feel strange.
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She could feel twinges of pain and knew that something was happening.
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She didn't want to wake Michael yet,
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so she decided to walk around the house and try and ease the uncomfortable feeling inside her.
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She made herself a hot drink.
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This is it, she said,
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and she took a deep breath.
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She started to shake.
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She was scared.
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She knew she was about to embark on the most pain she will most probably ever experience.
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And she was petrified.
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Two hours passed
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and the pain started to become unbearable She decided it was
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time to call the midwife She explained the pain she was experiencing
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and talked through with the midwife about how often the contractions
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were happening The midwife advised Sarah to get ready for the hospital and to wake Michael up.
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She didn't need to rush,
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but she also shouldn't take her time.
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Sarah decided to have a quick shower.
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She felt tired and knew she had a long night ahead of her.
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She needed to wake up.
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Then she put on her comfortable clothes and gently woke up Michael.
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He started to instantly panic and Sarah had to calm him down.
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Michael took the pre-prepared bags to the car and came back to Sarah.
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They locked up and made their way to the hospital.
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The bumpy roads did not help Sarah's pain.
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The 20-minute journey felt like two hours to her.
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Once they arrived, the midwives brought her a wheelchair and then led her to her room for the delivery.
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They gave her an examination and she was already 8 centimetres dilated,
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only two more to go.
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Sarah started to take deep breaths on the gas and air
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and tried to do all the breathing exercises she had been taught.
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Michael sat next to her,
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stroking her hand and internally panicking.
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Hours went by when nothing seemed to happen and then suddenly Sarah shouted,
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I need to push!
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The midwives came running in to check her and agreed that it was time.
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Sarah was as cool as a cucumber,
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while Michael, who didn't have to do anything,
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was running around like a headless chicken.
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Sarah started to lose her patience.
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If you don't calm down,
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you're going to have to go.
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It's not you who's in excruciating pain, so stop it.
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Michael realised he was being ridiculous and calmed down instantly.
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After almost two hours of pushing,
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sweating and crying, their baby boy entered the world and,
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as he did, Michael promptly fainted.
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Sarah couldn't help
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but laugh as they gave her their baby boy to hold
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She couldn't believe it Her own little boy A new addition to their little family
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And a new life on the planet She kissed him
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and handed him back to the midwives So they could check everything was okay By the time Michael came around,
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Sarah was sitting up in bed, cuddling their little boy.
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He weighed a whopping nine pounds and three ounces.
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No wonder her belly was so big.
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He seemed calm and content in his mother's arms.
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Michael was so proud of Sarah for going through the birth.
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He knew he could never do something as arduous.
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They took a family photo and cooed over their favourite little man.
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They decided they would call him Oliver Michael.
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Michael after his dad and Oliver after Sarah's grandad who had recently passed away.
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If Oliver Michael became half the man her grandad was, she'd be happy.
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As Sarah dozed off to sleep,
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exhausted from the birth, Michael cuddled baby Oliver and cried a little.
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This was it.
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He was now a daddy and life looked quite different to him.
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He would try to do everything he could to give Oliver a wonderful,
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healthy and happy life.
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We hope you enjoyed this lovely English story.
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Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to like, subscribe and share.
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See you soon!
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This delightful story, “A New Addition,” offers a fantastic context for English learners. The tale explores the journey of a couple, Michael and Sarah, as they navigate relationships, challenges, and the exciting yet daunting prospect of starting a family. Practicing speaking with this video can enhance your comprehension and fluency in several ways:
- Realistic dialogue: The conversations between the characters are relatable and reflect everyday situations, making it easier to learn how to communicate naturally in similar scenarios.
- Emotional context: The emotional undertones of the story provide an opportunity to practice expressing feelings and opinions in English, essential skills for any conversation.
- Common phrases and expressions: The video is rich with expressions from British English that will help broaden your vocabulary, especially in social contexts.
By engaging with this material, you can enhance your English speaking practice using a shadowing app or other effective methods found on a shadowing site. This will enable you to better absorb the natural rhythm and intonation of British English.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
As you follow along with the story, pay close attention to these key grammatical structures and expressions:
- Past perfect continuous tense: The phrase “had been together” is an excellent example of describing a continuous action that was ongoing prior to another past event. This usage adds depth to the timeline of their relationship.
- Reported speech: The story employs indirect speech, such as “They had discussed it in depth,” which is crucial for conveying conversations in a narrative form.
- Descriptive adjectives: Words like “severe” and “terrible” are used to emphasize the intensity of experiences. Learning how to use adjectives effectively can improve your descriptive capabilities in English.
Practicing these structures can significantly improve your English speaking practice and overall communication skills, especially when you use them while shadowing the story.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While watching the video, pay attention to some tricky words and phrases that may pose a challenge:
- “Carvery”: This word can be difficult to pronounce correctly for non-native speakers due to its unique combination of sounds.
- “Lethargic”: Watch the pronunciation of this adjective, as it may not be intuitive for learners. Practice it in context to ensure clarity when speaking.
- “Chuck it down”: This informal phrase means to rain heavily and can be confusing because of its idiomatic nature.
Incorporating these pronunciations into your practice, especially through the use of a shadow speech method, will make your spoken English sound more natural and fluent.
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.
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