Shadowing Practice: Real Ways People Escaped Prison - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Three crazy ways people escape from prison.
2
First is Grant Hardin, the man who escaped using nothing but a marker.
3
For six months, he drew on his prison clothing, little by little.
4
He made a fake badge out of a tin can lid
5
and stored everything in the bottom of a trash can that nobody ever searched.
6
When he put it all together, it looked like a correction officer's uniform.
7
And then the entrance guard let a convicted killer with an 80 -year sentence walk right out the front gate.
8
Next, a former British soldier who strapped himself to the bottom of a food delivery van.
9
I can't believe this is actually working.
10
The prison didn't even notice he was gone until roll call.
11
And finally, the man who could look at a guard's key and copy it from memory.
12
As a kid, he was diagnosed with autism, but he had a savant -level talent for mechanics.
13
When his father died, his dad left him his tools and a will, but his stepmother called the police and claimed he stole them.
14
He was sentenced to four years, but after just one month, he climbed over the razor -wired fence and ran, but was later caught.
15
He could glance at a guard's key ring and memorize every single ridge.
16
Then he filed a piece of scrap metal into the exact same shape and lit himself out.
17
After 13 escape attempts, his four -year sentence stretched to over 30 years, most of that in solitary confinement.
📺 Same Channel
B24
Kids Vs Adults: Prison Around The World
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
This Video Is Getting A YouTuber 31 Years In Prison
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
Amazon Sent The Wrong Package, Can You Keep It?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Eating Death Row Inmates Last Meals
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
Comparing Prisons Around The World!
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B23
I Tested Illegal School Products
TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B2Crimes YouTubers Got Away With
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
B21
446 sentences
How to Escape Alcatraz With Basic Engineering
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
156 sentences
The scammer who got away
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
32 sentences
Preason Break 1.sezon 1. bölüm (0 - 3.58 dk.)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B250 sentences
HE BROKE HIS LEG ON PURPOSE!
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
66 sentences
Prisoners - The Kidnapping | RV Scene (HD)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
272 sentences
I Defeated The Prison Boss And Became Their King - Stories For Men
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2110 sentences
He Told 911 He Had a Gun. Then He Walked Into a Hospital.
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
50 sentences
6'9" Brilliant Psychopath Who Hunted College Students (America's Most Evil Serial Killers)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
81 sentences
How to Survive Being Lost in the Amazon
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2125 sentences
Homeless guy spits some truth.
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Real Ways People Escaped Prison”. This video has 17 sentences and 251 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:13. The speaker talks fast, about 205 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 78% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| clothing noun | /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/ | Any of a wide variety of articles, usually made of fabrics, animal hair, animal skin, or some combination thereof, used to cover the human body for warmth, to… |
| gate noun | /ˈɡeɪ̯t/ | A doorlike structure outside a house. |
| killer noun | /ˈkɪlɚ/ | One who or that which kills. |
| soldier noun | /ˈsoʊld͡ʒɚ/ | A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member. |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
| trash noun | /tɹæʃ/ | Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse. |
| steal verb | /stiːl/ | To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. |
| entrance noun | /ˈɛn.tɹəns/ | The action of entering, or going in. |
| stretch verb | /stɹɛt͡ʃ/ | To lengthen by pulling. |
| uniform noun | /ˈjunɪˌfɔɹm/ | A distinctive outfit that serves to identify members of a group, company, prison inmates, etc. |
| climb verb | /ˈklaɪ̯m/ | To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending). |
| fence noun | /fɛns/ | A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc. |
| ridge noun | /ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped. |
| badge noun | /bæd͡ʒ/ | A distinctive mark, token, sign, emblem or cognizance, worn on one’s clothing, as an insignia of some rank, or of the membership of an organization. |
| autism noun | /ˈɔːtɪzəm/ | Autism spectrum disorder, a condition characterized by impairment in social communication and interaction, as well as a need or strong preference for… |
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 | was diagnosed · was sentenced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | man who escaped · man who could |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, stepmother /ˈstɛpmʌðə/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: trash /tɹæʃ/, correction /kəˈɹɛkʃən/
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 clothing, gate, killer.
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.