Shadowing Practice: Mount Rushmore: Đề thi thật IELTS LISTENING Test 21 Section 2 (IELTS Listening Recent Actual Test) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Section 2 You will hear part of a talk about Mount Rushmore given by a tour guide.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.
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Good morning everybody and welcome to Mount Rushmore.
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To start your visit, I'm just going to give you a brief account of the
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history of the memorial before letting you roam about on your own.
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I won't keep you long, OK?
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Mount Rushmore is South Dakota's top tourist attraction and features the heads of four United States presidents George Washington,
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Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
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Each head is 18 metres tall, which is taller than the heights of 11 people combined.
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The sculptor initially wanted to depict the presidents from head to waist, but due to a lack of funding,
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the construction had to stop before this vision could be realised.
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In total, it cost the government $1 million to sculpt the heads at Mount Rushmore.
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Before the construction of the President's heads, the mountain was just bare rock and forest, attracting only a few hikers a year.
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The new carving at Mount Rushmore has become an iconic symbol of presidential greatness
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and has appeared in works of fiction and other popular works.
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The sculpture has also worked perfectly as a way to develop tourism, which was its intended purpose,
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and now attracts over two million people a year.
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The original plan was to carve the president's faces into the granite pillars known as the needles.
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However, the sculptor soon realised that these rocks were too eroded and delicate to support such a large sculpture.
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Instead, he chose to locate the carving at Mount Rushmore due to its grand appearance
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and brightly lit rock faces that experience maximum exposure to sunlight throughout the day as a result of the southeast orientation.
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Upon seeing Mount Rushmore, the sculptor declared, America will march along that skyline.
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The name of Mount Rushmore also has an interesting history.
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The location was originally known as the Six Grandfathers.
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However, during an expedition in 1885, the mountain was renamed after Charles E.
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Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer who joked
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that his annual treks to the mountain had earned him the right to have it named after him.
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Forty years after the mountain was renamed, Charles E.
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Rushmore donated $5 ,000 towards the sculpting of the president's heads, the largest single contribution.
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In 1927, the construction work started and seven years later was complete with no fatalities.
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So that's the history for you.
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If you'd like any more information, please feel free to ask me questions or you can soak up the information from our fantastic guidebook.
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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.
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Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.
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Now I'm going to give you a plan of the site
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and I'd just like to point out where everything is so that you can explore everything for yourself.
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We're currently standing at the entrance which is marked with the arrow on the map.
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If you follow the trail up to our left you will find the information centre.
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There's a great photo booth there where you can have your
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photograph taken with Mount Rushmore in the background for a fee of only $10.
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What a great souvenir.
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In front of us is the refreshment centre where you can help yourselves to coffee,
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locally grown tea and a delicious selection of cold drinks and biscuits.
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Be sure to stay hydrated as it can get really hot up here.
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To our right, not far up the trail, is the gift shop.
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Here we sell copies of the guidebook and it's also the perfect place to pick up some small souvenirs for yourself, your family and friends.
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Now, further up the trail, behind the gift shop, is a big stone building with a workshop.
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This is where all of our souvenirs are made by hand, which you can purchase in the gift shop, like I said before.
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Some are even carved from pieces of rock taken from Mount Rushmore itself.
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If you carry on walking up the trail past the workshop, you'll find our state -of -the -art visitor centre,
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where you can find maps of the walking trails here at Mount Rushmore.
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Now for the real treat.
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After you have walked past the visitor centre, you can follow the trail up to the left, which will take you to our wooden shelter.
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From here, you will have the best view of Mount Rushmore that there is.
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An experience not be forgotten.
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Right, if anyone wants a guided tour, then I'm starting at the Information Centre.
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If you'd like to follow me, this way please.
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That is the end of Section 2.
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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 video has 62 sentences and 806 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:13. The speaker talks at a steady 112 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| trail noun | /tɹeɪl/ | The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the… |
| realise verb | Non-Oxford British standard spelling of realize. | |
| attract verb | /əˈtɹækt/ | To pull toward without touching. |
| workshop noun | /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/ | A room, especially one which is not particularly large, used for manufacturing or other light industrial work. |
| visitor noun | /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/ | Someone who visits someone else; someone staying as a guest. |
| sculpture noun | /ˈskʌlpt͡ʃɚ/ | A three-dimensional work of art created by shaping malleable objects and letting them harden or by chipping away pieces from a rock (sculpting). |
| carving noun | /ˈkɑɹvɪŋ/ | A carved object. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| exposure noun | /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/ | The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected. |
| fiction noun | /ˈfɪkʃən/ | Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose. |
| memorial noun | /məˈmɔːɹi.əl/ | Something, such as a monument, by which someone or something is remembered. |
| entrance noun | /ˈɛn.tɹəns/ | The action of entering, or going in. |
| contribution noun | /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/ | Something given or offered that adds to a larger whole. |
| delicious adjective | /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/ | Pleasing to the sense of taste; tasty. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. |
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 | could be realised · was renamed · is marked |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has become · has appeared · has also worked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | tall, which is · tourism, which was · entrance which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 9 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you'd, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: southeast /sawˈθɪjst/, booth /buθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/, exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: memorial /məˈmɔːɹi.əl/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, expedition /ɛkspəˈdɪʃən/, fatality /feɪˈtælɪti/
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 trail, realise, attract.
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.