Shadowing Practice: LA fires could 'take off' again, fire chief warns, with high winds expected | BBC News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
The number of people known to have died in the Los Angeles wildfires has risen to 24.
152 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
The number of people known to have died in the Los Angeles wildfires has risen to 24.
2
With high winds forecast over the coming days,
3
fire crews are now facing a race against time to avert further destruction.
4
But from the ashes, many remarkable stories are rising as people battle to stop their neighbourhoods from burning down.
5
Our correspondent Helena Humphrey has this report.
6
Oh, my house.
7
For 36 years, fighting fires was Rich Snyder's profession.
8
Now retired, when flames tore through his community in Pasadena, it was personal.
9
Armed with a hose and with his bare hands,
10
suddenly he wasn't just saving strangers.
11
He was saving his neighbors and their homes.
12
Lord help us.
13
Lord, with your hands.
14
Whether it was divine intervention or Rich's sheer determination,
15
their lives were saved, among them a neighbor with additional needs,
16
confused amid the chaos.
17
No, no, Greg, your house is on fire.
18
Greg, Greg, you have to come with me.
19
I've still got to process it.
20
Yeah, my neighbor needed needs assistance and we told him early on to leave and he said,
21
no, I'll stay.
22
And I grabbed him and I was pulling on him
23
and He was fighting me because he was going to go back in his burning house and lock the door.
24
You know, we got him out and we looked back and his house was fully involved.
25
Across L.A.
26
County, some 60 square miles of land now scorched earth.
27
Firefighters have gained ground against the two largest blazes,
28
the Palisades and Eaton fires.
29
But the devastation left behind is staggering.
30
This is Malibu.
31
Normally you wouldn't be able to see the Pacific Ocean from here.
32
but all of those multi-million dollar mansions are gone.
33
It is destruction as far as the eye can see and the road to recovery will be long.
34
And with forecasters warning that the fierce Santa Ana winds could return,
35
the battle is far from over.
36
Residents in the fire's path face a cruel waiting game,
37
fearing that the nightmare will strike again.
38
I am terrified because if it does change,
39
I actually don't know where I would go, to be honest.
40
Like, I don't have family here.
41
I have friends, but they're all affected.
42
So I don't have a set plan in mind, and it's terrifying.
43
Amid the terror, a political storm brews.
44
President-elect Donald Trump has criticized what he calls incompetent California politicians for the crisis.
45
In just over a week,
46
it will be one he inherits.
47
Is the incoming president expected to come here?
48
I believe so.
49
What awaits Donald Trump, if he comes,
50
may reveal an even bleaker reality than what is known so far as the number of missing continues to grow.
51
Helena Humphrey, BBC News, Los Angeles.
52
Well, former California legislature and LA resident Mike Ghetto told us anger is mounting at how the authorities have reacted.
53
There's a lot of anger here.
54
I'm not going to lie to you.
55
You know, I am a Democrat.
56
California is a state that is run by Democrats.
57
There's a lot of voters here who are Democrats.
58
But more
59
and more, I am hearing quite a bit of rage from people who live in Los Angeles at our Democratic elected officials.
60
They, the common phrase that's going around is that this was 50% weather and 50% incompetence.
61
It's things like the response time,
62
the preparation, did we heed the warnings?
63
You know, I mean, Angelino,
64
just to give you a sense of things,
65
the other day we all got a frantic notice on our cell phones that said you need to evacuate.
66
Just about everybody in this county of 10 million thought that their house was on fire or their street was on fire.
67
It turned out to be a false alarm.
68
They announced it was a false alarm.
69
And then a few hours later,
70
we got another evacuation notice that was another false alarm.
71
And so, you know, just things like that don't really impart much trust with authorities.
72
If you can't listen to the evacuation notices and it becomes the boy who cries wolf,
73
people going to die because they're going to ignore the next one.
74
Well KJ Matthews, a journalist in LA,
75
told us what she's been doing to help her neighbors as thousands have lost their belongings and their homes.
76
I'll be honest with you.
77
I was born and raised in Los Angeles.
78
And so this is scary.
79
This is my hometown.
80
This is the town that raised me.
81
And to see all the people,
82
many that I know that have been displaced,
83
either they have lost their home completely and they're homeless,
84
or there's been damaged to their home and their area has been evacuated and it's just untenable.
85
They can't move right back in until repairs are made.
86
So to see that and then every day you're waking up
87
and you're hoping that today is the day that all the fires will be put out.
88
And that's not the case.
89
And the winds either die down or they pick back up.
90
Over this weekend, I was lucky enough to have the winds die down a bit
91
so that I can get out and donate.
92
I've always wanted to donate the last couple of days,
93
but I was a little bit afraid because they had more evacuations going on,
94
particularly in the San Fernando Valley.
95
And so I didn't want to drive in that area.
96
I didn't want to be an impediment to the hardworking firefighters that were trying to put out the fires.
97
So I waited until the weekend
98
and I was able to donate to a lot of teenage girls
99
that lived in the Eaton area where the Altadena
100
and Pasadena fires have been happening and was just able to get out there and to deliver,
101
you know, shoes and socks and clothing and toothpaste and toothbrush and just things that they need,
102
you know, because many of them that left their homes,
103
they thought they would be back in like three days and then they came back and they had nothing.
104
We can speak to our correspondent,
105
David Willis, who is in Brentwood in LA for us live.
106
So, David, we've been hearing the news of the further winds that could hamper the firefighters' tasks.
107
Can you just tell us a little bit more about that?
108
That's right.
109
And just to bring you up to speed,
110
it is, what, just after one o'clock in the morning here,
111
and as you can see behind me,
112
a curfew is in place on this,
113
the outskirts of Brentwood, the latest upmarket enclave to find itself in the crosshairs of the worst disaster in California's history.
114
Evacuation orders are in place around here
115
and the power is out all around us in this part of Sunset Boulevard after winds picked up over the weekend.
116
And those winds are expected to gain in strength over the course of the next three days to hurricane force in places.
117
And that's prompted officials here to declare
118
that the evacuation orders will remain in place until Thursday morning at the earliest before they are lifted.
119
To obviously the chagrin of many here who've been displaced from their homes
120
and are very anxious to get back there to see what
121
if anything remains of their homes and their belongings
122
and a little earlier on it was revealed
123
that cadaver dogs have been brought in to help with the
124
search for human remains in the worst affected areas of these fires
125
and the LA coroner's office has revealed
126
that 24 people are now known to have died in these fires with 16 people still missing.
127
That death toll is almost certain to rise.
128
You mentioned those displaced people.
129
Where are they, David?
130
And are they getting the food,
131
the shelter, the help that they need at this time?
132
Well, there are about nine separate evacuation centres that have been set up around Los Angeles,
133
funded by church groups and other community organizations.
134
Some people have gone there.
135
Others have housed themselves in hotels.
136
Airbnb is offering some sort of dispensation to people who can't afford their normal prices.
137
And there are those, of course,
138
who have moved out of town completely,
139
as some to relatives in other states,
140
as some perhaps to seek a new life away from the sort of threat that these fires compose.
141
It's going to be a massive rebuilding operation,
142
and I think there's quite a few people who won't have the stomach for it.
143
The curfew you mentioned, can you just explain,
144
David, why that's in place?
145
it's basically to prevent people who may want to come back into the evacuation zones possibly to steal
146
or loot from being able to do
147
so there were reports of looting in the first few days of this disaster
148
and as a result the national guard officers who've been you see behind me perhaps have been drafted in,
149
hundreds of them, to help the police secure these areas and make sure that people who've gone through one tragedy
150
don't have to endure a second such tragedy.
151
David Willis in Brentwood in LA.
152
Thank you.
Download App
AI scoring for every sentence you speak
TRENDING
Popular
Context & Background
The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have had a profound impact on the community, leading to heartbreaking stories of loss and resilience. In a report by BBC News, retired fire chief Rich Snyder embarks on a personal mission to save his neighbors and their homes as flames threaten to consume everything in sight. The fire has destroyed vast areas, and residents are left grappling with fear and uncertainty. Through the vivid narratives of those affected, we can learn valuable phrases and expressions that emerge in times of crisis, fostering a deeper understanding of emotional communication in English.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "Lord, help us." - Expressing a plea for assistance or hope in dire situations.
- "Your house is on fire." - A straightforward alert to someone at risk.
- "I actually don't know where I would go." - Communicating uncertainty and concern regarding safety.
- "It's terrifying." - A strong expression of fear or anxiety.
- "I have to process it." - Acknowledging the need to reflect on traumatic experiences.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To truly enhance your speaking skills and improve English pronunciation through shadowing, follow this step-by-step guide inspired by the challenging dialogue in the viral wildfire report:
- Listen Actively: Play the video a few times and immerse yourself in the emotional tone and urgency of the speakers. Pay attention to how they articulate their words, especially during moments of stress.
- Text Breakdown: Write down the key phrases highlighted in the previous section. Understand the context in which they are used, which will help you grasp the emotional nuances of each expression.
- Echoing the Speech: Use a shadowing app to replay short segments of the video and begin to mimic the speakers. Focus on their intonation, rhythm, and emotion. The shadow speech technique encourages you to align your voice with theirs, enhancing your fluency and pronunciation.
- Record Yourself: After shadowing, record your own voice as you replicate the dialogue. This allows you to compare your pronunciation with that of the speakers and identify areas for improvement.
- Practice Regularly: Incorporate this shadowing technique into your daily practice. Aim to engage with various speakers and styles of communication to diversify your vocabulary and improve your overall speaking confidence.
By integrating phrases from real-life situations like the LA fires into your language practice, you will not only become more familiar with the vocabulary but also develop an empathetic understanding that deepens your conversational skills.
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.
☕ Buy us a coffee
ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏