Shadowing Practice: (Level-HARD)Harvesting and Processing Cocoa Beans part 2 Actual IELTS listening - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Section 2.
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You'll hear a talk between a host and a professor called Alison Downing about cocoa beans.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
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Hello and welcome to today's talk.
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Here with me is the famous botanist, Professor Alison Downing. So, Alison.
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Tell us something about cocoa beans.
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Cocoa beans, also called cacao beans, are the primary constituent in making chocolate.
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Grown in tropical areas in South and Central America, West Africa and Asia, the cocoa tree is often raised on small family -owned farms.
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When the harvested pots are open to expose the beans, the pulp and cocoa seeds are removed and the rind is discarded.
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The pulp and seeds are then piled in heaps, placed in bins or laid out on grates for several days.
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During this time, the seeds and pulp undergo a process called sweating, where the thick pulp liquefies as it ferments.
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The fermented pulp trickles away, leaving cocoa seeds behind to be collected.
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This is when the beans are harvested and then the bags holding them are ready to be transported.
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But the most important step in processing the cocoa bean is cleaning it.
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Once the beans are unloaded from the railroad cars, the packages are opened and then weighed by machines.
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Then the pots are split and the seeds or beans are covered with a sweet white pulp or mucilage.
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On arrival at the factory, the cocoa beans are sorted and put in a hopper to be cleaned more rigorously.
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The wet beans are then transported to a facility so they can be fermented and dried.
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They are fermented for four to seven days and must be mixed every two days.
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They are dried for five to fourteen days, depending on the climate conditions.
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The fermented beans are dried by spreading them out over a large surface and constantly raking them.
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Then the beans are ready to be roasted.
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Now, roasting takes place at a high temperature and then the beans are boiled in a heated chamber.
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During the roasting process, the beans will be expanded and cracked.
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But prior to this, the beans are trodden and shuffled about using bare human feet.
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During this process, red clay mixed with water is sprinkled over the beans to obtain a finer colour,
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polish and protection against moulds during shipment to factories in the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other countries.
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Now, back to what I was saying.
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After the beans are cracked, they need to be cooled.
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Then the roasted beans are sealed in pockets.
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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
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Now listen and answer questions 17 to 20.
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Well, that is not a simple process, is it?
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But someone told me that different roasting levels of coffee can lead to different kinds of flavours.
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Yes, roasting coffee transforms the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans into roasted coffee products.
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The roasting process is what produces the characteristic flavour of coffee by causing the green coffee beans to change in taste.
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Unroasted beans contain similar, if not higher levels of acids, protein, sugars and caffeine as those that have been roasted.
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but lack the taste of roasted coffee beans due to the maillard and other chemical reactions that occur during roasting.
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The vast majority of coffee is roasted commercially on a large scale,
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but small -scale commercial roasting has grown significantly with the trend toward single -origin coffees served at specialty shops.
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Some coffee drinkers even roast coffee at home as a hobby
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in order to both experiment with the flavour profile of the beans and ensure the freshest possible roast.
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So here I'm going to introduce some of these roasted coffee beans and their special flavours.
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Now, the first crack is lighter bodied
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and has a higher acidity level with no obvious roast flavour and is popular for its special mild taste.
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This level of roast is ideal for tasting the full original character of the coffee.
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The green beans are raw, unroasted coffee beans.
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They are strictly hard beans with a smoky flavour and are slightly acidic.
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We've also got French roast, and the flavour
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that comes across in French roast coffee usually has more to
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do with the roasting process than the actual quality of the beans.
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By the time the beans are dark enough to qualify as French, most of their original flavour has dissipated.
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In its place come the flavours of caramelising sugar, bittersweet coffee and often a bit of chocolate.
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And finally, espresso smoky, that is,
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coffee brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans.
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Espresso is generally thicker than coffee brewed through other methods, has a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids and has crema on top.
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As a result of the pressurised brewing process, the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso are very concentrated.
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Espresso is also the base for other drinks, such as café latte, cappuccino,
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café macchato, café mocha, flat white or café americano.
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That is the end of section two.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now turn to section 3
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “(Level-HARD)Harvesting and Processing Cocoa Beans part 2 Actual IELTS listening”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bean, coffee, flavour, roasting, cocoa. This video has 64 sentences and 880 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:08. The speaker talks slowly, about 108 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 72% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bean noun | /ˈbi(ː)n/ | Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seedpods. |
| roast verb | /ɹoʊst/ | To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance. |
| flavour noun | British standard spelling of flavor. | |
| cocoa noun | /ˈkəʊ.kəʊ/ | The dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made. |
| pulp noun | /pʊlp/ | A mixture of wood, cellulose and/or rags and water ground up to make paper. |
| seed noun | /siːd/ | Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs. |
| crack noun | /kɹæk/ | A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. |
| brew verb | /bɹuː/ | To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| pot noun | /pɑt/ | A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes). |
| harvest noun | /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/ | The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting. |
| boil verb | /bɔɪ(ə)l/ | To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas. |
| vast adjective | /væst/ | Very large or wide (literally or figuratively). |
| pocket noun | /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ | A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items. |
| chamber noun | /ˈt͡ʃeɪ̯mbɚ/ | The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is often raised · are removed · be collected |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been roasted · has grown · has dissipated |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we've, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: polish /ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/, shipment /ˈʃɪpmənt/, shuffle /ˈʃʌfəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/, acidity /əˈsɪd.ɪ.ti/, cappuccino /ˌkæpəˈt͡ʃinoʊ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bean, roast, flavour.
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.