Shadowing Practice: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Warns Republicans That There Will be Consequences for Cutting Medicaid - Learn English Speaking with Video

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25 sentences
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1
I thank the the ranking member for yielding his time.
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13 .7 million Americans.
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13 .7 million
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Americans are the number of people in this country whose health care are going to be stripped in this bill.
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Now, Republicans are going to try to tell you every single distraction in the book from that essential number.
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I want people at home to understand that
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Medicaid
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and the federal matching funds for Medicaid can make up 30 to 40 percent of some of the state budgets
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that we have going on in back in your home.
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Republicans have put this bill together, rushed it together in a matter of hours on the back of a napkin,
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shaking it, walking out of the White House, and brought it right here to this floor.
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They are defunding Planned Parenthood.
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They are ending tons of Medicaid coverage for 13 .7 million
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Americans, including Affordable Care Act coverage as well.
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And if you want to get an abortion and have a silver plan on a health care plan that you paid for,
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you will also be affected by this legislation as well.
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Also, allowing suppressors on guns to be deregulated to some of the largest amounts that we have seen since the 1930s.
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This is just a Christmas bill.
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I yield a general lady to show 30 seconds.
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And so I want people to understand, for my Republican colleagues who assure what is in and not in this bill,
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in this process that has been this rushed, when you wake up in the morning, you will realize that you voted to defund
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Planned Parenthood and to take away health care from 13 .7 million Americans.
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And when this country wakes up in the morning, there will be consequences to pay for this.
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And I yield back.
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Gentle lady yields back.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Warns Republicans That There Will be Consequences for Cutting Medicaid”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Americans, bill, Medicaid, yield, Republican. This video has 25 sentences and 294 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:08. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
yield verb/jiːld/To give as a result or outcome; to produce or render.
rush verb/ɹʌʃ/To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully.
rank noun/ˈɹæŋk/A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
strip verb/ˈstɹɪp/To remove or take away, often in strips or stripes.
shake verb/ˈʃeɪk/To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
ton noun/tʌn/The short ton of 2000 pounds (about 907 kg), 20 hundredweights of 100 pounds avoirdupois each.
abortion noun/əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/A spontaneous abortion; a miscarriage.
gentle adjective/ˈd͡ʒɛntl̩/Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition.
consequence noun/ˈkɑn.sɪ.kwəns/An effect; something that follows a cause as a result.
assure verb/əˈʃʊɹ/To make sure and secure; ensure.
colleague noun/ˈkɒliːɡ/A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; an associate, a workmate.
distraction noun/dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/Something that distracts.
defund verb/diːˈfʌnd/To cancel funding for.
defunding nounAn instance of something being defunded; withdrawal of funds.
deregulate verb/diːˈɹɛɡjəleɪt/To remove the regulations, or legal restrictions, from.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordPronunciationMeaning
take away verb/ˌteɪk əˈweɪ/To remove something and put it in a different place.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhave put · have seen · has been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itbe stripped · be affected · be deregulated

Pronunciation to watch

  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, abortion /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/, assure /əˈʃʊɹ/, distraction /dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/

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 yield, rush, rank.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →