Shadowing Practice: Rolling a Reliant Robin | Top Gear | BBC - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Here we go.
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Reliant robin.
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Oh, no. I've crashed it.
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I've crashed it almost immediately.
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I mean, literally, 20 feet.
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I can't get out, obviously.
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I'm completely stuck.
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Luckily, people in the north of England are friendly and keen to help out.
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Excuse me.
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Boop, boop, boop.
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Excuse me.
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Oh, heavens, look who it is.
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It's Phil Oakey.
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Do you think you could push me back on my wheels?
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Yeah, certainly.
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Thanks very much.
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No way back, sir.
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You're.. thank you so much.
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Thank you very much, Phil Oakey, out of the human league.
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Pleasure.
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I suppose, as a Sheffield boy, Phil Oakey spent a lot of his youth putting Robin Reliance back on their wheels,
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when he wasn't rescuing waitresses from cocktails.
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Help!
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Again, help!
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Where's Martin Frye?
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Out of ABC when you need him.
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That's a useful feature.
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In the early days, the Robin had a 750cc engine.
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With 32 brake horsepower on tap, 0 -50 took 22 seconds.
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0 -60 wasn't really possible.
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In 1975, though, Reliant fitted an 850cc engine.
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This improved the acceleration enormously, but the consequences were catastrophic.
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The big engine increased the top speed, too.
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It would now do 85, and that was catastrophic as well.
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Oh, not again!
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Oh, no. I'm 50 years old.
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I'm on the side on a street in Sheffield.
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Oh, is that the sound of somebody?
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Hello?
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Hello.
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Peter Stringfellow.
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Were you just walking by, or...?
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Oh, nearly.
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Yes.
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Thank you so much, Peter Stringfellow, out of lap dancing clubs.
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My pleasure.
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Really, I can't thank you enough.
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To try and understand why the robin was so popular up north, I pulled over to chat to some enthusiasts.
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How do you drive a Reliant?
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Straight lanes.
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You don't go round roundabouts.
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You get to it and you see where you're coming off and you go straight across.
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Right.
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Try to avoid the middle.
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Right.
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Sack of cement on passenger seat helps.
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Cement?
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Sack of cement on passenger seat helps balance.
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Why do you think Reliant owners have big toolboxes? To weigh it down.
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I was going to say, your teeth.
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Did you lose these in a Reliant accident?
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You did, didn't you?
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Why do you think, everybody, Reliance was so popular at North?
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A lot of miners used them.
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Yeah, but why?
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Because they were more expensive than minis.
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No, because a lot of miners originally started with motorbikes, and they didn't have a full driving licence.
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So to get out of weather in winter, when it were absolutely siling it down, they bought a Reliant.
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So, it was just because miners didn't have a driving licence?
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Some of them, but other ones, also in winter, with them being light, you'll get your normal car stuck in snow or whatever.
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These just simply glide over the top of it.
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Until you get to a corner.
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Well, as long as you live somewhere with a straight line to a pit.
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Soon, I was back on my perilous journey.
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In this, it feels like I'm driving through South Yorkshire in the 1970s again.
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Because I grew up not far from here, so did James May for that matter.
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But now we're a lad round here.
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Whole rich people, them's as good a food.
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It's all wheels on the car.
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They all had larders, lardy -dars, we called them.
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You didn't want to hit one of them, I'd tell you that for no. They were built like tanks.
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One of the best ways to protect your robin was to lavish it with an exotic paint job, such as this Starsky and Hutch homage.
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The idea was that having spent many hours with the spray cans and the masking tape, you'd drive more carefully.
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But this didn't always work.
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It really is a wonder how anyone in the north survived the 1970s.
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Of course, a lot didn't.
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In 1971, the population of Sheffield was 573 ,000.
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Since then, it's dropped to just 513 ,000.
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Some of the lost 60 ,000 moved down south, of course, but many, many,
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many more were wiped out by their three -wheelers.
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Today, of course, most of the Robins are gone and people up here drive Kias and Hyundai's instead.
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And this means the local TV news channel has to think of things other than reliant crashes to put in its bulletins.
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OK, to Braithwell in South Yorkshire now and a blooming mystery that's baffling its green -fingered residents.
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Harry is there for us.
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Harry, what's going on?
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Welcome here to beautiful Braithwell.
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You can see the sun exploding on a kaleidoscope of colour.
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And I have to say, there's been a real area of controversy here because...
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Oh, well, that's been big.
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My God!
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Are you all right, sir?
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Are you all right?
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Yeah, I'm getting used to it now, thanks.
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Oh, all right.
105
Thanks very much.
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If you could just plop me back on the wheels.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Harry Grayson, out of Luke North.
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Pleasure.
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Thank you so much.
111
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 111 sentences and 823 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:29. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| robin noun | /ˈɹɑ.bɪn/ | A European robin, Erithacus rubecula. |
| cement noun | /səˈmɛnt/ | A powdered substance produced by firing (calcining) calcium carbonate (limestone) and clay that develops strong cohesive properties when mixed with water. The… |
| miner noun | /ˈmaɪnə(ɹ)/ | A person who works in a mine. |
| passenger noun | /ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒɚ/ | One who rides or travels in a vehicle, but who does not operate it and is not a member of the crew. |
| sack noun | /sæk/ | A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with… |
| catastrophic adjective | /ˌkætəˈstɹɑfɪk/ | Of or pertaining to a catastrophe. |
| 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… |
| rescue verb | /ˈɹɛs.kjuː/ | To save from any violence, danger or evil. |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| mystery noun | /ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/ | Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown. |
| mini adjective | /ˈmɪn.i/ | Miniature, tiny, small. |
| tape noun | /teɪ̯p/ | Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape. |
| resident noun | /ˈɹɛzɪdənt/ | A person, animal or plant living at a certain location or in a certain area. |
| mask noun | /mæsk/ | A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection. |
| controversy noun | /kənˈtɹɒv.ə.si/ | A debate or discussion of opposing opinions; (generally) strife. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come off verb | To become detached. |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| go round verb | To physically swirl or rotate. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| help out verb | To provide assistance. |
| move down verb | To demote |
| wipe out verb | To destroy (especially, a large number or complete set of people or things); to obliterate. |
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 | I've crashed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were built · were wiped |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 24 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, homage /(h)oʊˈmɑʒ/, lavish /ˈlævɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: catastrophic /ˌkætəˈstɹɑfɪk/, controversy /kənˈtɹɒv.ə.si/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, enthusiast /ɪnˈθuːziˌæst/, kaleidoscope /kəˈlaɪ.dəˌskoʊp/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like robin, cement, miner.
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.