Shadowing Practice: Roald Dahl | The Magic Finger - Full audiobook with text (AudioEbook) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl.
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The farm next to ours is owned by Mr and Mrs Greg.
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The Greggs have two children, both of them boys.
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Their names are Philip and William.
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Sometimes I go over to their farm and to play with them.
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I'm a girl and I'm eight years old.
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Philip is also eight years old.
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William is three years older.
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He is ten.
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What?
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Oh, all right then.
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He's eleven.
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Last week, something very funny happened to the Greg family.
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I'm going to tell you about it as best I can.
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Now the one thing that Mr. Greg and his two boys loved to do more than anything else was to go hunting.
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Every Saturday morning they would take their guns and go off into the woods to look for animals and birds to shoot.
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Even Philip, who was only eight years old, had a gun of his own.
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I can't stand hunting.
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I just can't stand it.
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It doesn't seem right to me that men and boys should kill animals just for the fun they get out of it.
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so I used to try to stop Philip and William from doing it.
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Every time I went over to their farm I would do my best to talk them out of it, but they only laughed at me.
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I even said something about it once to Mr. Greg, but he just walked on past me as if I wasn't there.
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Then, once as a morning, I saw Philip and William coming out of the woods with their father and they were carrying a lovely young deer.
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This made me so cross that I started shouting at them.
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The boys laughed and made faces at me, and Mr. Greg told me to go home and mind my own pees and cues.
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Well, that did it.
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I saw red, and before I was able to stop myself, I did something I'd never meant to do.
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I put the magic finger on them all.
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Oh dear, oh dear.
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I even put it on Mrs. Greg, who wasn't there.
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I put it on the whole Greg family.
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For months I had been telling myself that I would never put the magic finger upon anyone again, not after what happened to my teacher, old Mrs. Winter.
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Poor old Mrs. Winter.
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One day we were in class and she was teaching us spelling.
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Stand up, she said to me, and spell cat.
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That's an easy one, I said.
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K-A-T.
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You're a stupid little girl, Mrs. Winter said.
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I'm not a stupid little girl, I cried.
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I'm a very nice little girl.
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Go and stand in the corner, Mrs. Winter said.
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Then I got cross, and I saw red, and I put the magic finger on Mrs. Winter good and strong, and almost at once.
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Guess what?
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Whiskers began growing out of her face.
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They were long black whiskers, just like the ones you see on a cat, only much bigger, and how fast they grew.
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Before we had time to think, they were out to her ears.
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Of course the whole class started screaming with laughter, and then Mrs. Winter said, Will you be so kind as to tell me what you find so madly funny, all of you?
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And when she turned around to write something on the blackboard, we saw that she had grown a tail as well.
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It was a huge, bushy tail.
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I cannot begin to tell you what happened after that, but if any of you are wondering whether Mrs. Winter is quite all right again now, the answer is no, and she never will be.
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The magic finger is something I have been able to do all my life.
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I can't tell you just how I do it, because I don't even know myself.
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But it always happens when I get cross, when I see red.
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Then I get very, very hot all over.
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Then the tip of the forefinger of my right hand begins to tingle most terribly, and suddenly a sort of flash comes out of me, a quick flash, like something electric.
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It jumps out and touches the person who has made me cross.
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and after that the magic finger is upon him or her and things begin to happen.
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Well, the magic finger was now upon the whole of the Greg family and there was no taking it off again.
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I ran home and waited for things to happen.
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They happened fast.
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I shall now tell you what those things were.
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I got the whole story from Philip and William the next morning after it was all over.
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In the afternoon, the very same day that I put the magic finger on the Greg family, Mr. Greg and Philip and William went out hunting once again.
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This time they were going after wild ducks, so they headed towards the lake.
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In the first hour they got ten birds.
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In the next hour they got another six.
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What a day, cried Mr. Greg.
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This is the best yet.
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He was beside himself with joy.
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Just then, four more wild ducks flew over their heads.
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They were flying very low.
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They were easy to hit.
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Bang, bang, bang, bang, went the guns.
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The ducks flew on.
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We missed, said Mr. Gregg.
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That's funny.
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Then, to everyone's surprise, the four ducks turned around and came flying right back to the guns.
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Hey, said Mr. Gregg.
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What on earth are they doing?
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They are really asking for it this time.
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He shot at them again.
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So did the boys.
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And again they all missed.
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Mr. Greg got very red in the face.
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It's the light, he said.
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It's getting too dark to see.
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Let's go home.
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So they started for home, carrying with them sixteen birds they had shot before.
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But the four ducks would not leave them alone.
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They now began flying around and around the hunters as they walked away.
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Mr. Greg did not like it one bit.
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Be off, he cried, and he shot at them many more times, but it was no good.
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He simply could not hit them.
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All the way home, those four ducks flew around in the sky above their heads, and nothing would make them go away.
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Late that night, after Philip and William had gone to bed, Mr. Gregg went outside to get some wood for the fire.
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He was crossing the yard when all at once he heard the call of a wild duck in the sky.
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He stopped and looked up.
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The night was very still.
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There was a thin yellow moon over the trees on the hill, and the sky was filled with stars.
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Then Mr. Gregg heard the noise of wings flying low over his head, and he saw the four ducks, dark against the night sky, flying very close together.
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They were going around and around the house.
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Mr. Gregg forgot about the firewood and hurried back indoors.
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He was now quite afraid.
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He did not like what was going on, but he said nothing about it to Mrs. Gregg.
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All he said was, come on, let's go to bed, I feel tired.
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So they went to bed and to sleep.
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When morning came, Mr. Gregg was the first to wake up.
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He opened his eyes.
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He was about to put out a hand for his watch to see the time, but his hand wouldn't come out.
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That's funny, he said.
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Where is my hand?
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He lay still, wondering what was up.
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Maybe he had hurt that hand in some way.
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He tried the other hand.
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That wouldn't come out either.
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He sat up.
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then for the first time he saw what he looked like he gave a yell
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and jumped out of bed mrs greg woke up and
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when she saw mr greg standing there on the floor she
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gave a yell too for he was now a tiny little
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man he was maybe as tall as the seat of a chair but no taller
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and where his arms had been he had a pair of duck's wings instead.
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But, but, but, cried Mrs. Gregg, going purple in the face, my dear man, what's happened to you?
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What's happened to both of us, you mean? shouted Mr. Gregg.
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It was Mrs. Gregg's turn now to jump out of bed.
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She ran to look at herself in the glass, but she was not tall enough to see into it.
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She was even smaller than Mr. Gregg, and she too had got wings instead of arms.
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Oh, oh, oh, oh, sobbed Mrs. Greg.
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This is witch's work, cried Mr. Greg, and both of them started running around the room, flapping their wings.
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A minute later, Philip and William burst in.
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The same thing had happened to them.
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They had wings and no arms, and they were really tiny.
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They were about as big as robins.
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Mama, Mama, Mama, chirped Philip.
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Look, Mama, we can fly, and they flew up into the air.
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Come down at once, said Mrs. Gregg.
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You're much too high.
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But before she could say another word, Philip and William had flown right out the window.
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Mr. and Mrs. Gregg ran to the window and looked out.
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The two tiny boys were now high up in the sky.
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Then Mrs. Gregg said to Mr. Gregg, Do you think we could do that, my dear?
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I don't see why not, Mr. Gregg said.
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Come on, let's try.
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Mr. Gregg began to flap his wings hard, and all at once, up he went.
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Then Mrs. Gregg did the same.
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Help! she cried as she started going up.
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Save me!
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Come on, said Mr. Gregg.
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Don't be afraid.
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So out the window they flew far up into the sky, and it did not take them long to catch up with Philip and William.
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Soon the whole family was flying around and around together.
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Oh, isn't it lovely, cried William.
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I've always wanted to know what it feels like to be a bird.
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Your wings are not getting tired, are they, dear?
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Mr. Gregg asked Mrs. Gregg.
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Not at all, Mrs. Greggs said.
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I could go on forever.
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Hey, look down there, said Philip.
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Somebody's walking in our garden.
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They all looked down and there below them, in their own garden, they saw four enormous wild ducks.
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The ducks were as big as men, and what is more, they had great long arms like men instead of wings.
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The ducks were walking in line to the door of the Greggs' house, swinging their arms and holding their beaks high in the air.
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Stop! called the tiny Mr. Gregg flying down low over the heads.
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Go away!
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That's my house!
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The ducks looked up and quacked.
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The first one put out a hand and opened the door of the house and went in.
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The others went in after him.
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The door shut.
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The Greggs flew down and sat on the wall near the door.
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Mrs. Gregg began to cry.
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Oh dear!
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Oh dear! she sobbed.
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They have taken our house.
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What shall we do?
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We have no place to go.
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Even the boys began to cry a bit now.
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"'We will be eaten by cats and foxes in the night, said Philip.
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I want to sleep in my own bed, said William.
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Now then, said Mr. Gregg, it isn't any good crying.
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That won't help us.
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Shall I tell you what we are going to do?
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What, they said.
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Mr. Gregg looked at them and smiled.
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We are going to build a nest.
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A nest, they said.
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Can we do that?
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We must do it, said Mr. Greg.
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We've got to have somewhere to sleep.
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Follow me.
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They flew off to a tall tree, and right at the top of it, Mr. Greg chose the place for the nest.
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Now we want sticks, he said.
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Lots and lots of little sticks.
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Off you go, all of you, and find them and bring them back here.
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But we have no hands, said Philip.
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Then use your mouths.
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Mrs. Greg and the children flew off.
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Soon they were back, carrying sticks in their mouths.
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Mr. Gregg took the sticks and started to build the nest.
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More, he said.
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I want more and more and more sticks.
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Keep going.
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The nest began to grow.
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Mr. Gregg was very good at making the sticks stick together.
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After a while, he said, that's enough sticks.
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Now I want leaves and feathers and things like that to make the inside nice and soft.
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The building of the nest went on and on.
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It took a long time, but at last it was finished.
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"'Try it!' said Mr. Gregg, hopping back.
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He was very pleased with his work.
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"'Oh, isn't it lovely!' cried Mrs. Gregg, going into it and sitting down.
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"'I feel I might lay an egg any moment.' The others all got in beside her.
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"'How warm it is!' said William.
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"'And what fun to be living so high up!' said Philip.
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"'We may be small, but nobody can hurt us up here.' "'But what about food?' said Mrs. Gregg.
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"'We haven't had a thing to eat all day.' "'That's right,' Mr. Gregg said.
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so we will now fly back to the house
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and go in by an open window and get the tin of biscuits when the ducks aren't looking.
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Oh, we will be pecked to bits by those dirty great ducks, cried Mrs. Gregg.
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We shall be very careful, my love, said Mr. Gregg, and off they went.
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But when they got to the house, they found all the windows and doors closed.
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There was no way in.
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Just look at that beastly duck cooking at my stove, cried Mrs. Gregg as she flew past the kitchen window.
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How dare she!
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And look at that one holding my lovely gun, shouted Mr. Gregg.
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One of them is lying in my bed, yelled William, looking into a top window.
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And one of them is playing with my electric train, cried Philip.
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Oh dear, oh dear, said Mrs. Gregg.
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They have taken over our whole house.
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We shall never get it back.
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And what are we going to eat?
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I will not eat worms, said Philip.
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I would rather die, or slug, said William.
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Mrs. Gregg took the two boys under her wings and hugged them.
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Don't worry, she said.
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I can mince it all up very fine and you won't even know the difference.
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Lovely slug burgers, delicious worm burgers.
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Oh no, cried William.
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Never, said Philip.
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Disgusting, said Mr. Gregg.
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Just because we have wings, we don't have to eat bird food.
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We shall eat apples instead.
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Our trees are full of them.
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Come on.
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So they flew off to an apple tree.
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But to eat an apple without holding it in your hands is not at all easy.
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Every time you try to get your teeth into it, it just pushes away.
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In the end, they were able to get a few small bites each, and then it began to get dark, so they flew back to the nest and lay down to sleep.
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It must have been about this time that I, back in my own house, picked up the telephone and tried to call Philip.
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I wanted to see if the family was all right.
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Hello, I said.
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Quack, said a voice at the other end.
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Who is it?
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I asked.
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Quack, quack.
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Philip, I said, is that you?
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Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.
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Oh, stop it, I said.
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Then there came a very funny noise.
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It was like a bird laughing.
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I put down the telephone quickly.
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Oh, that magic finger, I cried.
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What has it done to my friends?
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That night, while Mr. and Mrs. Greg and Philip and William were trying to get some sleep up in the high nest, a great wind began to blow.
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The tree rocked from side to side and everyone, even Mr. Gregg was afraid that the nest would fall down.
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Then came the rain.
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It rained and rained and the water ran into the nest
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and they all got as wet as could be and oh it was a bad bad night.
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At last the morning came and with it the warm sun.
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Well said Mrs. Gregg thank goodness that's over.
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I never want to sleep in a nest again.
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She got up and looked over the side.
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Help! she cried.
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Look, look down there.
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What is it, my love? said Mr. Gregg.
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He stood up and peeked over the side.
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He got the surprise of his life.
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On the ground below them stood the four enormous ducks as tall as men, and three of them were holding guns in their hands.
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One had Mr. Gregg's gun, one had Philip's gun, and one had William's gun.
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The guns were all pointing right up at the nest.
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No, no, no! called out Mr and Mrs Greg, both together.
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Don't shoot.
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Please don't shoot.
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Why not, said one of the ducks.
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It was the one who wasn't holding a gun.
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You're always shooting at us.
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Oh, but that's not the same, said Mr Greg.
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We are allowed to shoot ducks.
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Who allows you, asked the duck.
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We allow each other, said Mr Greg.
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Very nice, said the duck and now we are going to allow each other to shoot you.
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I would have loved to have seen Mr. Gregg's face just then.
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Oh, please, cried Mrs. Gregg, my two little children are up here with us.
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You wouldn't shoot my children.
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Yesterday you shot my children, said the duck.
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You should haul six of my children.
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I'll never do it again, cried Mr. Gregg.
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Never, never, never.
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Do you really mean that, asked the duck.
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I do mean it, said Mr. Gregg.
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I'll never shoot another duck as long as I live.
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That is not good enough, said the duck.
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What about deer?
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I'll do anything you say if you will only put down those guns, cried Mr. Gregg.
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I'll never shoot another duck or another deer or anything else again.
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Will you give me your word on that, said the duck.
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I will, I will, said Mr. Gregg.
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Will you throw away your guns, asked the duck.
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I will break them into tiny bits, said Mr. Gregg, and never again need you be afraid of me or my family.
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Very well, said the duck.
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You may now come down, and by the way, may I congratulate you on the nest?
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For a first effort, it's pretty good.
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Mr. and Mrs. Gregg and Philip and William hopped out of the nest and flew down.
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Then all at once, everything went black before their eyes, and they couldn't see.
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At the same time, a funny feeling came over them all, and they heard a great wind blowing in their ears.
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Then the black that was before their eyes turned to blue, to green, to red, and then to gold, and suddenly there they were,
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standing in lovely bright sunshine in their own garden, near their own house, and everything was back to normal once again.
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"'Our wings have gone,' cried Mr. Gregg, "'and our arms have come back, and we are not tiny any more,' laughed Mrs. Gregg.
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"'Oh, I am so glad!' Philip and William began dancing about with joy.
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Then, high above their heads, they heard the call of a wild duck.
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They all looked up and they saw the four birds, lovely against the blue sky, flying very close together, heading back to the lake in the woods.
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It must have been about half an hour later that I myself walked into the Greggs' garden.
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I'd come to see how things were going and I must admit I was expecting the worst.
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At the gate I stopped and started.
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It was a queer sight.
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In one corner Mr. Gregg was smashing all three guns into tiny pieces with a huge hammer.
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In another corner Mrs. Gregg was placing beautiful flowers upon sixteen tiny mounds of soil,
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which I learned later were the graves of the ducks that had been shot the day before.
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And in the middle of the yard stood Philip and William with a sack of their father's best barley beside them.
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They were surrounded by ducks, doves, pigeons, sparrows, robins, larks, and many other kinds that I did not know,
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and the birds were eating the barley that the boys were scattering by the handful.
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Good morning, Mr. Gregg, I said.
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Mr. Gregg lowered his hammer and looked at me.
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My name is not Gregg anymore, he said.
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In honour of my feathered friends, I have changed it from Gregg to Egg.
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And I am Mrs Egg, said Mrs Grey.
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What happened, I asked.
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They seem to have gone completely dotty, all four of them.
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Philip and William then began to tell me the whole story.
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When they had finished, William said, Look, there's the nest.
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Can you see it?
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Right up in the top of the tree.
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That's where we slept last night.
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I built it all myself, Mr Egg said proudly.
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Every stick of it.
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If you don't believe us, Mrs Egg said, Just go into the house and take a look at the bathroom.
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It's a mess.
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They filled the tub right up to the brim, said Philip.
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They must have been swimming around in it all night.
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And feathers everywhere.
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Ducks like water, Mr. Egg said.
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I'm glad they had a good time.
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Just then, from somewhere over by the lake, there came a loud bang.
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Someone's shooting, I cried.
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That'll be Jim Cooper, Mr. Egg said.
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Him and his three boys.
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They're shooting mad, those Coopers are.
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The whole family.
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Suddenly I started to see red.
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Then I got very hot all over.
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Then the tip of my finger began tingling most terribly.
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I could feel the power building up and up inside me.
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I turned and started running towards the lake as fast as I could.
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Hey, shouted Mr Egg, what's up?
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Where are you going?
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To find the Coopers, I called back. But why?
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You wait and see, I said.
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They'll be nesting in the trees tonight, every one of them.
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The End Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Gregg, duck, Philip, greg, William. This video has 370 sentences and 3731 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:45. The speaker talks fast, about 189 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| duck noun | /dʌk/ | 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… |
| nest noun | /nɛst/ | A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young. |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| bang noun | /ˈbæŋ/ | A sudden percussive noise. |
| shout verb | /ʃaʊt/ | To utter a sudden and loud cry, as in joy, triumph, exultation or anger, or to attract attention, to animate others, etc. |
| beside | /bɪˈsaɪd/ | Next to; at the side of. |
| deer noun | /dɪɹ/ | A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla… |
| yell verb | /jɛl/ | To shout; holler; make a loud sound with the voice, especially to express intense emotions such as anger or excitement. |
| feather noun | /ˈfɛðə/ | A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display. |
| flash verb | /flæʃ/ | To cause to shine briefly or intermittently. |
| ear noun | /ˈɪə̯/ | The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea. |
| telephone noun | /ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/ | A telecommunication device which converts data or sounds (usually speech) into electrical signals which are then transmitted to enable two or more people to… |
| hop noun | /hɒp/ | A plant of species Humulus lupulus, native to northern Europe, female flowers of which are used to flavour many types of beer during brewing. |
| tail noun | /ˈteɪ̯l/ | An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something. |
| robin noun | /ˈɹɑ.bɪn/ | A European robin, Erithacus rubecula. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| look down verb | To lower one's eyes; to direct one's look downwards. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| close together adjective | Near each other in time or space. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. | |
| put down verb | To insult, belittle, or demean. | |
| put out verb | To blind (eyes). | |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What's happened to both of us, you mean?
- Your wings are not getting tired, are they, dear?
- Philip, I said, is that you?
- What has it done to my friends?
- What is it, my love?
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 | have been · has made · I've always wanted |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is owned · was filled · will be eaten |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who has · one who wasn |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were carrying · was teaching · were going |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: feather /ˈfɛðə/, thin /ˈθɪn/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shout /ʃaʊt/, flash /flæʃ/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/, smash /smæʃ/
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 duck, nest, finger.
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.