Shadowing Practice: SE-Ed: The Great Emu War - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
38 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
In 1932, the Australian army went to war.
2
But the enemy wasn't another country.
3
It was an army of birds. Emus!
4
And, as you might have guessed, the birds won.
5
After the First World War,
6
many former soldiers were given land in Western Australia.
7
They were encouraged to grow wheat,
8
but then the Great Depression hit and prices crashed.
9
Life was already hard. Then the emus arrived.
10
Every year, emus travel inland after their breeding season.
11
That year, around twenty thousand of them headed for the farms!
12
They ate the wheat, trampled the crops,
13
and smashed holes in the fences,
14
which let rabbits in as well.
15
The farmers, many of them ex-soldiers, knew exactly what they wanted.
16
They asked the government for machine guns.
17
Surprisingly, the Minister of Defence said yes!
18
Major Meredith was sent with two soldiers and ten thousand bullets.
19
In November, the operation finally began.
20
But the emus didn't behave like an army at all.
21
As soon as the shooting started, they scattered in all directions.
22
One day, about a thousand birds came close,
23
but then the gun jammed!
24
Next, they tried mounting a gun on a truck.
25
But emus can run at fifty kilometres an hour,
26
and the ground was so bumpy that nobody could aim.
27
Each group even seemed to have its own lookout!
28
After less than a week, the army pulled out.
29
The soldiers did return later, at the farmers' request.
30
By December, Meredith reported almost a thousand birds killed.
31
But that had taken nearly ten thousand bullets!
32
That's about ten bullets for every single emu.
33
Meredith later said that with soldiers as tough as these birds,
34
he could face any army in the world.
35
In the end, fences and rewards paid to farmers worked much better.
36
And the emus? They're still doing just fine.
37
So if anyone asks who won the Great Emu War,
38
now you know the answer!
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
B120
35 sentences
Episode 1
Why Do We Get Goosebumps?
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B137 sentences
Episode 2
Why Does a Week Have Seven Days?
British AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
41 sentences
Episode 3
Why Is the Ocean Salty?
American AccentIELTS PrepUniversity Students
B238 sentences
Now playing
The Great Emu War
British AccentIELTS PrepUniversity Students
C11
40 sentences
Episode 5
What Really Happened to the Library of Alexandria?
British AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
Same Channel
A12,655
A Day in My Life 1: Getting Up
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1226
A Day in My Life 24: Watching TV
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1865
Fast and Slow: The Big Race
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
B11,727
Discipline Beats Motivation
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A2651
A Day in My Life 19: Cleaning the House
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A12,128
Can You Swim? What Can You Do?
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
B2522
IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Quiet Place You Like to Go
American AccentBritish AccentIELTS PrepUniversity Students
A2157
A Day in My Life 21: Taking a Taxi
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A2440
A Day in My Life 9: Doing the Dishes
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1484
A Day in My Life 5: Leaving the House
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A21,626
What's in Your School Bag?
American AccentBritish AccentKidsTeensDaily Conversation
B1206
First Day Nerves at the Café
American AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B2478
Why a Song Gets Stuck in Your Head
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1168
Hide and Seek in Maple Wood
American AccentBritish AccentKidsDaily Conversation
B143
CET-4 Listening Long Conversation: A Part-Time Job or an Internship?
American AccentCET-4/6 PrepInterview EnglishDaily Conversation
B2183
SEtalk: Sleep Is Not a Waste of Time
American AccentIELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A1215
A Day in My Life 2: Brushing My Teeth and Taking a Shower
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B1854
IELTS Speaking Part 1: Food, Shopping and the Weather
American AccentBritish AccentIELTS PrepDaily ConversationUniversity Students
A289
A Day in My Life 23: Cooking Rice
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A141
Good Morning, Good Night: Professor Hoot
American AccentKidsDaily Conversation
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B23
97 sentences
Video
British AccentDaily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B250
38 sentences
Why Birds Migrate: A Chat with an Ornithologist
American AccentBritish AccentIELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
71 sentences
The Australian Quarantine Service | IELTS Listening Practice Tests in 2026
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
B21
243 sentences
When M1 Abrams Fought T-72s
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
![[Audio] Cambridge Vocabulary For Ielts With Answers - 22 9a](https://img.youtube.com/vi/q3xAAl-ERII/mqdefault.jpg)
B22
8 sentences
[Audio] Cambridge Vocabulary For Ielts With Answers - 22 9a
IELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students
C12
58 sentences
Listening part four (THE EXTINCTION OF THE DODO BIRD) @ieltslisteningpro.24
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
B25
67 sentences
The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS unit 7 following a lecture or talk
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
C116
48 sentences
Why birds don't crash (and what humans can learn from them)
British AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B24
78 sentences
CAMBRIDGE IELTS 17 LISTENING TEST1 PART 3
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
B27
130 sentences
How humans are helping Australian animals make a comeback | Landline
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B14
144 sentences
COUNTRYBALLS: WORLD WAR ONE (part 1)
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “SE-Ed: The Great Emu War”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: emu, birds, thousand, soldiers, army. This video has 38 sentences and 316 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:11. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| emu noun | /ˈim(j)u/ | A large flightless bird native to Australia, Dromaius novaehollandiae. |
| farmer noun | /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ | A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm. |
| wheat noun | /ˈwiːt/ | Any of the several cereal grains, of the genus Triticum, that yields flour as used in bakery. |
| kilometre noun | /kɪˈlɑmɪtəɹ/ | An SI unit of length equal to 10³ metres. Symbol: km |
| scatter verb | /ˈskætɚ/ | To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse. |
| trample verb | /ˈtɹæmpəl/ | To crush something by walking on it. |
| lookout noun | /ˈlʊkaʊt/ | A vantage point with a view of the surrounding area. |
| inland adjective | /ˈɪnlənd/ | Within the land; relatively remote from the ocean or from open water; interior. |
| behave verb | /bɪˈheɪv/ | To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform. |
| rabbit noun | /ˈɹæbɪt/ | A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares) |
| breed verb | /ˈbɹiːd/ | To give birth to; to be the native place of. |
| surprisingly adverb | /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/ | In a way that causes surprise because it is unexpected, or unusual. |
| smash verb | /smæʃ/ | To break (something brittle) violently. |
| crop noun | /kɹɑp/ | A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose. |
| jam noun | /ˈd͡ʒæm/ | A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pull out verb | To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, they're, wasn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: kilometre /kɪˈlɑmɪtəɹ/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/
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 emu, farmer, wheat.
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.