Shadowing Practice: Let’s Tie All Planets Together - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
What happens if we tie all the planets together?
2
First, let's line them all up on one side of the Sun.
3
Next, we'll need a 4 .5 billion kilometer long rope.
4
But planets orbit the Sun at very different speeds.
5
The inner planets sprint around the Sun, and the outer planets crawl.
6
When we tie them all together, massive planets like Jupiter act like anchors, slowing fast inner planets down and yanking slow outer planets forwards.
7
The next problem we have to tackle is that planets also spin.
8
Venus spins backwards, and Uranus spins sideways, so we can't simply tie them together.
9
The only way to avoid the rope twisting and knotting is to decouple the rope from the planet's spin.
10
So, let's attach each planet to the rope like a bauble with a rotating hook, so they don't wind the rope into planet -sized balls of yarn.
11
Even if we fix this, if the planets reach opposite sides of the Sun, the rope will pass through it, heat up to millions of degrees, and turn into plasma.
12
But at least we tried.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Let’s Tie All Planets Together”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: planet, rope, spin, Sun, tie. This video has 12 sentences and 181 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:58. The speaker talks fast, about 188 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 73% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| rope noun | /ɹoʊp/ | Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line. |
| bauble noun | /ˈbɔbəl/ | A cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw. |
| decouple verb | [diːˈkʌpəɫ] | To unlink; to take apart or come apart. |
| kilometre noun | /kɪˈlɑmɪtəɹ/ | An SI unit of length equal to 10³ metres. Symbol: km |
| sideways adverb | /ˈsaɪdweɪz/ | With a side to the front. |
| rotate verb | /ˈɹoʊ.teɪt/ | To spin, turn, or revolve. |
| yarn noun | /jɑɹn/ | A twisted strand of fibre used for knitting or weaving. |
| backward adjective | /ˈbækwɚd/ | Situated toward or at the rear of something. |
| knot noun | /nɑt/ | A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its… |
| attach verb | /əˈtæt͡ʃ/ | To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively). |
| crawl verb | /kɹɔːl/ | To move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby. |
| venus noun | /ˈviːnəs/ | Any of the bivalve molluscs in the genus Venus or family Veneridae. |
| plasma noun | /ˈplæzmə/ | A state of matter consisting of partially ionized gas and electrons. |
| sprint noun | /spɹɪnt/ | A short race at top speed. |
| anchor noun | /ˈæŋ.kəː/ | A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, don't, we'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 rope, bauble, decouple.
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.