Shadowing Practice: Iran war puts global food production at risk: fertiliser boss: BBC Learning English from the News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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In this programme, Iran war puts global food production at risk, according to Fertiliser Boss.
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Hello, I'm Neil.
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And I'm Georgie.
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In this programme, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
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You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
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So, let's hear more about this story.
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Global food production is being threatened by an interruption of fertiliser supply, according to the boss of one of the world's biggest fertiliser producers.
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Fertiliser is something that farmers put on fields to help plants grow.
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The boss of Yara, a company which makes fertiliser, says that this means the world will be able to produce 10 billion fewer meals a week, and this will hit poorest countries hardest.
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The UN World Food Programme estimates that the Middle East conflict could cause 45 million additional people to experience severe hunger in 2026.
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Let's have our first headline.
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Trade zone, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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And that headline again, Trade Zone, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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And that's from the Business News section of the RBC Bank.
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Now, there's a couple of interesting pieces of vocabulary in this headline.
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We have a perfect storm.
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That refers to a situation, usually negative, which happens because of a combination of circumstances.
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In this context, there's a combination of factors affecting global food production.
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For example, the war in Iran and climate change.
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That's a perfect storm.
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But we're looking at this word rippling.
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Yes, ripple comes from water.
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So if you drop a stone in water, it creates a ripple, a series of small waves in a circular shape.
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Now that's literal, but metaphorically, ripple is used to mean that a problem spreads from one place to another, causing effects as it moves.
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In the headline, ripple is a verb and is followed by a cross, a perfect storm rippling across the world's food supply chains.
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The headline is saying that the effects of the war in Iran are felt across the world.
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The effects on food supplies are rippling or spreading beyond the Middle East.
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Yes, now in the headline we see ripple across.
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You're also likely to hear ripple through.
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For example, news of their colleague's resignation rippled through the office.
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It's spread through the office.
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And another common phrase you'll hear is ripple effect.
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That's a situation where an an initial event causes other things to happen.
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For example, her charity donation created a ripple effect.
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Other people were inspired to donate as well.
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We've had ripple spread and affect many places.
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For example, rising fuel prices are rippling through the economy.
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This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
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Today we're talking about threats to global food production caused by the war in Iran.
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So why is global food production under threat?
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When the United States and Israel struck Iran on the 28th of February, the Strait of Hormuz, which is a narrow waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, effectively shut down.
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About one third of the world's fertiliser trade normally passes through the strait.
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The strait is also a vital channel for imports to the Middle East, including food, medicines and technological supplies.
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Let's have our next headline.
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This one is from Al Jazeera, an international news organisation.
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As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow.
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That headline again from Al Jazeera.
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As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow.
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Now, this headline is from a couple of weeks ago and it's about fears that the war in Iran will lead to global food catastrophe.
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Catastrophe is similar to disaster, something that is very bad.
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We're looking at the phrasal verb drag on.
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The Iran crisis drags on.
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But what does that mean?
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It probably helps to understand the verb drag in its literal sense.
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Drag means to pull something heavy across a surface, usually the floor.
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So imagine moving a heavy sofa to a new place.
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You might drag it across the floor.
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It's hard and slow to do and it takes a lot of time.
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The phrasal verb drag on means to last for a long time, but it has that same sense that something's slow and difficult.
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It lasts longer than it should or longer than people expect.
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Yes, so the headline says the Iran crisis drags on, meaning perhaps it's lasting longer than people expected.
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Now, war is a very serious context to use this phrasal verb, but it has some more everyday uses as well.
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For example, today's meeting really dragged on, I couldn't wait for it to end.
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Yes, or that film didn't need to be three hours long, it really dragged on.
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We've had drag on last for a long time, perhaps longer than expected.
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For example, teacher strikes dragged on for years because neither side could agree.
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This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.
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We're talking about the impact of the US-Israel war with Iran on global food production.
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The price of fertiliser has increased by 80% since the beginning of the US and Israel's war on Iran.
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One of the regions that will be most affected is Asia and the Pacific, where food insecurity is expected to rise by 24%.
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Food insecurity means that people don't have a reliable source of food.
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In the UK, food inflation – and that means the rising price of food – could reach 10% by December, according to the Food and Drink Federation.
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This is because less fertiliser means less food is grown, and if there is less food available, then prices rise.
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And our next headline is about this.
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This one is from Sky News.
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food price inflation still rising as lower income households feel the squeeze, study says.
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That headline again from Sky News.
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Food price inflation still rising as lower income households feel the squeeze, study says.
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So this headline is about the impact of the Iran war on UK food prices.
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We're looking at this phrase, feel the squeeze.
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Well, think about squeezing a lemon.
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You hold it and press it firmly on all sides so that juice comes out.
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You put pressure on it to make it smaller.
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Yes.
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Now the expression feel the squeeze means you feel financial pressure because things are becoming more expensive.
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The pressure means that you have less money to spend.
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So in this context, households with less money are finding it harder to afford food.
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They're feeling the squeeze.
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The expression feel the squeeze is about money and rising costs.
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So another example, her family's been feeling the squeeze since she lost her job.
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Another useful phrase to use when someone can't afford things, you can say that someone is struggling to make ends meet.
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We've had feel the squeeze – experience financial pressure.
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For example, they're feeling the squeeze since their rent went up last month.
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That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.
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We'll be back next week with another news story.
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And if you're interested in learning more English about the topic of money, you should check out our special page with lots more programmes about money.
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Find it at bbclearningenglish.com.
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Bye for now.
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Goodbye.
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You're practicing English with "Iran war puts global food production at risk: fertiliser boss: BBC Learning English from the News" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.

Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.

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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