Shadowing Practice: News Report: A Heatwave Hits the City - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
28 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Good evening, and welcome to the evening news.
2
For the third day in a row, the city has broken a temperature record.
3
This afternoon, it reached thirty-nine degrees in the city centre.
4
Our reporter is in the main park. So, how hot is it out there?
5
Honestly? It feels like standing next to an open oven!
6
The grass here has turned completely brown,
7
and people have been told to stay out of the sun at midday.
8
Ha, the shade under the trees is the most popular place in town!
9
In the main square, children have been playing in the fountain all day.
10
But the fire service has asked people not to swim in the river.
11
The water is much colder and deeper than it looks.
12
But not everyone is unhappy about the heat. Right, sir?
13
Ha! Are you kidding? This is the best week I've ever had!
14
I've sold more ice cream in three days than in all of June.
15
By two o'clock today, we'd already run out of chocolate!
16
Still, I keep calling my old mum to check she's okay.
17
Doctors say the heat can be dangerous, especially for older people.
18
We've seen a lot more patients this week, mostly elderly people.
19
So please, drink water often, even if you're not thirsty.
20
And if you have an older neighbour, knock on their door and check on them.
21
To help, the city has opened cooling centres in ten public libraries.
22
Inside, it's lovely and cool, and anyone can come in for free.
23
They'll stay open until ten o'clock every evening this week.
24
And finally, there's some good news in the forecast!
25
Temperatures are expected to fall to around twenty-five degrees by Saturday,
26
with some light rain in the afternoon.
27
Until then, stay in the shade, and look after each other.
28
That's all from us tonight. Good night!
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
A11,714
A Day in My Life 1: Getting Up
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1582
Fast and Slow: The Big Race
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
B11,343
Discipline Beats Motivation
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A11,958
Can You Swim? What Can You Do?
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
A2332
A Day in My Life 19: Cleaning the House
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2362
IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Quiet Place You Like to Go
American AccentBritish AccentIELTS PrepUniversity Students
A21,516
What's in Your School Bag?
American AccentBritish AccentKidsTeensDaily Conversation
A2342
A Day in My Life 9: Doing the Dishes
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1397
A Day in My Life 5: Leaving the House
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2375
Why a Song Gets Stuck in Your Head
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A124
A Day in My Life 24: Watching TV
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B1141
First Day Nerves at the Café
American AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
A1101
Hide and Seek in Maple Wood
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
B1748
IELTS Speaking Part 1: Food, Shopping and the Weather
American AccentBritish AccentIELTS PrepDaily ConversationUniversity Students
A1445
Lunch Break: What Do You Want to Eat?
American AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B2143
SEtalk: Procrastination Isn't About Laziness
American AccentIELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B1610
Calling In Sick: I Can't Come to Work Today
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
A180
Big Ball, Small Ball: Pippa's Snowman
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
A1123
A Day in My Life 2: Brushing My Teeth and Taking a Shower
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B277
SEtalk: Sleep Is Not a Waste of Time
American AccentIELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B21
10 sentences
Dangerous heat wave hits the US with highs exceeding 100 degrees
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B13
21 sentences
Under the Weather
British AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B13
167 sentences
A Day in London during the Heatwave
British AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B13
13 sentences
English in a Minute: The Calm Before the Storm
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B19
15 sentences
21 tháng 8, 2026
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
15 sentences
B1 Listening practice- numbers
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
19 sentences
07 Not the normal news
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
A2324
16 sentences
Easy English Podcast - A2 - The Weather 🌥 #learnenglish
American AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
400 sentences
210826 BBC Points West, Evening News
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B1114 sentences
Best Summer Cooling Products to Beat the Heat
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
161 sentences
1071 - How Americans Talk About Hot Weather
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “News Report: A Heatwave Hits the City”. This video has 28 sentences and 309 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:56. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 90% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 14 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shade noun | /ʃeɪd/ | Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked. |
| grass noun | /ɡɹɑːs/ | Any plant of the family Poaceae, characterized by leaves that arise from nodes in the stem and leaf bases that wrap around the stem, especially those grown as… |
| thirty noun | /ˈθɝti/ | A commercial lasting 30 seconds. |
| knock verb | /nɑk/ | To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. |
| reporter noun | /ɹɪˈpoɹ.tɚ/ | Someone or something that reports. |
| swim verb | /swɪm/ | To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means. |
| elderly adjective | /ˈɛldɚli/ | old; having lived for relatively many years. |
| forecast noun | /ˈfɔːkɑːst/ | An estimation of a future condition. |
| unhappy adjective | /ʌnˈhæpi/ | Not happy; sad. |
| oven noun | /ˈʌ.vn̩/ | A chamber used for baking or heating. |
| fountain noun | /ˈfaʊn.tɪn/ | A natural source of water; a spring. |
| thirsty adjective | /ˈθɝs.ti/ | Needing to drink water or any liquid that can supply water. |
| neighbour noun | /ˈneɪbɚ/ | A person living on adjacent or nearby land; a person situated adjacently or nearby; anything (of the same type of thing as the subject) in an adjacent or… |
| midday noun | /mɪdˈdeɪ/ | Noon; twelve o'clock during the day. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come in for verb | To be subjected to. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has broken · has turned · have been told |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been told · are expected |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most popular · the best |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, they'll, we'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thirty /ˈθɝti/, thirsty /ˈθɝs.ti/
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 shade, grass, thirty.
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.