Shadowing Practice: MOVERS 1 TEST 3.6 READING | ZOOS | Cambridge Smart - Learn English Speaking with Video

This video has 9 sentences and 81 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:30. The speaker talks slowly, about 54 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

• zoo /zuː/ (noun) — A park where live animals are exhibited.
• elephant /ˈɛlɪfənt/ (noun) — A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia.
• playground /ˈpleɪɡɹaʊnd/ (noun) — A large open space for children to play in, usually having dedicated play equipment (such as swings and slides).
• tiger /ˈtaɪɡə/ (noun) — Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
• lion /ˈlaɪən/ (noun) — A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe.
• snake /sneɪk/ (noun) — Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.
• duck /dʌk/ (noun) — Any of certain aquatic birds of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet, distinguished from swans and geese by generally being smaller and…
• monkey /ˈmʌŋki/ (noun) — A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails…
• hothouse (noun) — A heated greenhouse.
• holiday /ˈhɑləˌdeɪ/ (noun) — A day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.
• bird /ˈbɜːd/ (noun) — An animal of the clade (traditionally class) Aves in the phylum Chordata, characterized by being warm-blooded, having feathers and wings usually capable of…
• animal /ˈænɪməl/ (noun) — A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia that is usually mobile, with cells that are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing them from plants…
• fish /ˈfɪʃ/ (noun) — A typically cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills; any vertebrate that is not a tetrapod.
• shop /ʃɑp/ (noun) — An establishment that sells goods or services to the public; originally only a physical location, but now a virtual establishment as well.
• ride /ɹaɪd/ (verb) — To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc.

Pronunciation to watch

• The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fish /ˈfɪʃ/, shop /ʃɑp/

How to practise with this video

1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like zoo, elephant, playground.