Shadowing Practice: READING EXPLORER 1 UNIT 5A GLOBAL CITIES - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

B1
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Unit 5.
35 sentences
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Unit 5.
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A Global Cities A New York City is a star, the city of cities, wrote author John Gunther.
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But what makes a city great?
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To answer this question, the creators of the Global Cities Index looked at the following.
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Business.
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How many global companies are in the city?
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Does the city do a lot of international business?
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People.
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People.
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Does the city attract talented people from around the world?
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Are the city's universities good?
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How many residents have college degrees?
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Media Is it easy to get information from different sources?
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TV, radio, internet?
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How many residents have internet access?
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Entertainment Does the city have many entertainment options?
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Museums, sports, music and different types of restaurants?
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Politics How many embassies and international organisations are in the city?
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Future leaders.
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B. As the graph on the previous page shows, most cities on the Global Cities Index are strong in certain areas.
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Beijing's strength, for example, is business, while Los Angeles' strength is people.
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New York, London and Paris are at the top because they are strong in all five areas.
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See which cities will become more powerful in the future.
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Creators of the Global Cities Index predict the most growth in the following places.
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Asia, Beijing and Shanghai are both business centres and will continue to grow.
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In a few years, they will be as powerful as New York.
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Other Chinese cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen will also grow.
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Indian cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi have a lot of business potential too.
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South America, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina and Bogota in Colombia will become more powerful.
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In these cities, the middle class is growing and life for many people is improving.
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The Middle East, Istanbul in Turkey, Cairo in Egypt and the cities of the United Arab Emirates, UAE, such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi,
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will hold more power in international politics and business, especially in helping East and West work together.
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d.
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In 10 years the top cities on the index may be different, but one thing is certain.
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With over 50% of the world's people now living in urban areas, tomorrow's global cities will be more powerful than ever.

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About This Lesson

You're practicing English with "READING EXPLORER 1 UNIT 5A GLOBAL CITIES" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.

Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.

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.