Shadowing Practice: Solar Storm Could Black Out Half of America - This Map Shows Where - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
250 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Scientists just spent nearly 20 years quietly building a map of the United States that most people never knew existed.
2
Not a map of roads or rivers or mountains.
3
A map of the electricity hidden inside the ground itself.
4
And what it reveals is a little unsettling.
5
When the next big solar storm hits Earth, this map may decide which parts of America go dark and which don't.
6
Let me explain.
7
Because this is genuinely strange, and most people have no idea about it.
8
The rock beneath your feet isn't just dead stone.
9
Depending on what it's made of, what minerals, what buried water, what ancient molten material is locked inside,
10
the ground conducts electricity differently from place to place.
11
Some regions let electric current flow through them easily, others block it and nobody had ever mapped which was which until now.
12
To do it, researchers planted sensitive instruments at more than 1 ,800 locations across the country, one by one, over nearly two decades.
13
These instruments listen to the natural electric and magnetic pulses that constantly ripple through the Earth,
14
and from that, they can read the electrical personality of the rock far below, all the way down into the mantle.
15
Stitch it all together and you get the first complete portrait of America's hidden electrical structure.
16
So why does this matter?
17
Two words, solar storms.
18
Our sun regularly hurls enormous bursts of energy out into space.
19
When one slams into earth, it doesn't just cause pretty auroras, it shoves electric currents down into the ground,
20
and those currents surge into anything metal and connect it, like the power grid.
21
If they get strong enough, they can overload transformers and knock out electricity for millions of people.
22
This isn't hypothetical.
23
In 1989, a single solar storm collapsed the entire power grid of Quebec in about 90 seconds,
24
plunging millions into darkness in the middle of winter.
25
And here's the key thing this new map reveals.
26
Whether a solar storm fries your local grid or barely touches it depends heavily on the rock underneath you.
27
In areas where the ground blocks electricity, that energy has nowhere to go, so it forces its way into the power lines instead, hitting dangerous levels.
28
The map shows that this risk can change dramatically over surprisingly short distances,
29
two cities close together could face wildly different fates in the same storm.
30
One blacked out, one perfectly fine, purely because of the invisible geology beneath them.
31
Which is exactly why this map is so valuable.
32
For the first time, power companies can look at the ground itself and see where the weak spots are, which grids to protect before the sky lights up.
33
So, under America lies a hidden electrical map, and someday it may be the thing that decides whether your lights stay on.
34
A powerful solar storm can mess up life on Earth in a catastrophic way.
35
It can leave huge regions of our planet without power, disrupt communication and navigation satellites, damaged power grids, and data centers.
36
Scientists warn that the next major solar storm could become one of the most devastating natural disasters.
37
And the question isn't if it happens.
38
The correct question is when.
39
And the scary part?
40
This kind of weather doesn't happen in Earth's atmosphere at all.
41
It starts 93 million miles away, on the Sun.
42
When the sun becomes active, we can feel it on Earth.
43
This activity can mess with satellites, GPS, radio signals, and even parts of the power grid.
44
Scientists usually group space weather into three main types.
45
Radio blackouts, geomagnetic storms, and radiation storms from the sun.
46
Each one has a different effect on Earth.
47
Radio blackouts happen when the sun sends a powerful burst of energy, aka a solar flare, our way.
48
When that energy reaches Earth, it hits the upper atmosphere and disrupts the way radio signals travel.
49
Geomagnetic storms are different.
50
Sometimes the sun launches enormous clouds of superheated gas into space.
51
These eruptions are called coronal mass ejections.
52
Imagine billions of tons of solar material blasted away from the sun at a speed of millions of miles per hour.
53
If one of those clouds comes across Earth, it slams into our planet's magnetic field at full speed.
54
The result is a massive geomagnetic storm.
55
We've already seen some serious space weather recently.
56
For example, in May 2024, the strongest space weather event since 2003 hit earth gps systems
57
went through massive disruptions the u .s agricultural industry was hit hard all
58
because modern farming needs satellite navigation to work properly as for
59
the infamous 2003 event it completely cut power in parts of sweden
60
and south africa you might be wondering what will happen
61
if we get something even bigger scientists decided to figure out what a true worst -case space weather event might look like.
62
Now, worst -case doesn't mean a once -in -a -million -year disaster.
63
Planning for something that rare isn't super useful.
64
Instead, researchers focused on events that could realistically happen once every 100 to 200 years.
65
Rare, but not impossible.
66
When a strong geomagnetic storm hits Earth, it doesn't just affect space.
67
It can actually generate electric currents in the ground, too.
68
And since power lines are excellent conductors, those currents can get inside the electrical grid.
69
It's like extra electricity getting suddenly injected into a system that wasn't designed to deal with it.
70
If the currents are strong enough, they can overload parts of the grid.
71
Safety systems may automatically shut sections down to prevent damage, potentially leading to massive blackouts.
72
Whole regions might stay without electricity.
73
But losing power isn't even the worst part.
74
The extra current can also damage transformers, those massive machines that help move electricity across the grid.
75
Some of these transformers weigh hundreds of tons and can take months or even years to replace.
76
This means that even after the storm is over, parts of the electrical network may still remain damaged for a long time.
77
The power grid on Earth isn't the only thing at risk.
78
A serious space weather event will first mess with satellites hundreds of miles above our heads.
79
And we depend on satellites far more than most people realize.
80
They help us navigate, forecast the weather, communicate with relatives and friends all over the world, and track ships and aircraft.
81
During a bad solar storm, many of those satellites could run into serious trouble.
82
One problem is radiation.
83
When the sun throws large amounts of energetic particles into space, those particles can slam directly into spacecraft.
84
Over time, they can damage electronics and slowly wear down solar panels, shortening a satellite's lifespan.
85
During an especially powerful event, some satellites could fail completely.
86
But there's another huge problem.
87
A solar flare can actually heat Earth's upper atmosphere.
88
When that happens, the atmosphere expands outward and becomes slightly thicker at altitudes where many satellites orbit.
89
The change is tiny, but for satellites, it matters a lot.
90
Imagine riding a bike on a smooth road, and then suddenly someone pours a thin layer of mud over it.
91
You can still move forward, but you'll slow down faster than before.
92
Something similar happens to satellites.
93
The thicker atmosphere creates extra drag, and that drag slowly pulls satellites into lower orbits.
94
If they lose too much altitude, some spacecraft can fall back into the atmosphere and burn up.
95
And it's happened before.
96
In 2022, solar activity caused Earth's atmosphere to expand right after a batch of Starlink satellites was launched.
97
Around 40 of them couldn't maintain their orbits and eventually re -entered the atmosphere.
98
But during a real worst -case solar storm, the situation could become way more dramatic.
99
It could also prevent us from tracking satellites and increase the risk of their collisions with space debris.
100
The next problem is radio signals.
101
Right now, they're constantly passing through the air around you.
102
Your phone, GPS, Wi -Fi, aircraft communications, ship navigation systems, emergency services, all of them depend on radio waves.
103
And a bad solar storm can mess up many of those signals.
104
Solar flares produce bursts of radio energy, and sometimes those bursts become so powerful that they drown out weaker signals on Earth.
105
It's kind of like trying to hear someone whisper while a jet engine is running nearby.
106
None of this means that a giant solar storm would send us back to the Stone Age.
107
Even a worst -case event probably wouldn't be a Hollywood -style apocalypse.
108
But it could create a chain reaction of problems.
109
Satellites could fail.
110
GPS could become unreliable.
111
Flights could be cancelled.
112
And parts of the power grid could be damaged.
113
That's exactly why scientists spend so much time studying space weather.
114
And now, they might have to come up with a pretty cool idea for protecting Earth from powerful solar storms.
115
They proposed something called Stormwall.
116
The idea is simple.
117
What if we don't just wait for solar storms to hit and deal with the damage?
118
What if we weaken the solar storm before it reaches Earth.
119
The idea is based on Earth's magnetic field.
120
Our planet is surrounded by a giant magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere.
121
It's like an invisible shield that helps protect us from charged particles coming from the sun.
122
Researchers noticed that Earth's atmosphere already helps strengthen this shield.
123
Tiny particles escape from the atmosphere and interact with the outer edge of the magnetosphere.
124
So scientists decided to try to boost that process on purpose.
125
Their plan involves six spacecraft orbiting Earth.
126
Each spacecraft would carry materials like barium or lithium.
127
If you release them into space, sunlight would charge those materials, turning them into a cloud of plasma.
128
Plasma is basically a gas whose particles carry electric charges.
129
The sun itself is mostly made of plasma.
130
The idea is that those artificial plasma clouds would form near the edge of Earth's magnetic shield, and when a solar storm arrived, the plasma would help absorb,
131
redirect, and weaken some of the storm's energy before it reaches Earth.
132
According to the team's simulations, the system could reduce the strength of a serious geomagnetic storm by 50%.
133
That would be a really great result.
134
A storm that's cut in half would mean less damage to satellites, fewer communication problems, fewer GPS disruptions,
135
and less stress on power grids.
136
Of course, this is still just a concept.
137
Nobody has built the storm wall yet.
138
Nobody even knows for sure whether it would work exactly as planned in the real world.
139
But the researchers say that the physics behind it checks out.
140
And apparently, modern rockets can indeed launch the equipment we'd need for such a mission.
141
There's just one problem, and it's money.
142
Building and launching six spacecraft wouldn't be cheap.
143
Plus, once the material is released into space, it's gone.
144
You can't collect it, refill it, or use it again.
145
The researchers believe that the mission would use about as much material as a dozen large tanker trucks.
146
That's why the price of a truly massive solar storm could be exorbitant.
147
In May 2024, stunning auroras adorning the night sky demonstrated all the power that solar storms emit as radiation.
148
But sometimes, our sun does things that are far more destructive.
149
I'm talking about solar particle events.
150
During these events, blasts of protons coming directly from the surface of the sun
151
can shoot out like giant cosmic searchlights according to records an extreme particle event hits earth every thousand years
152
or so it often causes bad damage to the ozone layer
153
and increases levels of ultraviolet radiation closer to the surface of
154
our planet luckily earth's magnetic field acts as a powerful protective
155
cocoon for our planet fending off electrically charged radiation from the sun.
156
In its normal state, this field functions like a ginormous bar magnet, with field lines rising from one pole, looping around the planet, and dropping at the other pole.
157
This pattern is sometimes called an inverted grapefruit.
158
This vertical orientation of the magnetic field at the poles allows
159
some ionizing cosmic radiation to get through the field as far down as the upper atmosphere.
160
There, it interacts with gas molecules and produces the glow we know as auroras.
161
But over time, Earth's protective bubble changes.
162
In the past century, the North Magnetic Pole moved across northern Canada at a speed of about 25 miles per year.
163
Plus, it weakened by more than six percent even more shockingly
164
according to geological records there have been periods of time as long as centuries
165
and millennia when our planet's magnetic field was super weak
166
or entirely absent
167
but we'll talk about those tragic times later it's easy to
168
imagine what our planet would look like without its protective bubble
169
if you look at mars the red planet lost its global magnetic field long, long ago.
170
And once this field disappeared, most of Mars's atmosphere vanished too.
171
In May 2024, a strong solar particle event hit the planet.
172
It disrupted the operation of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft
173
and made radiation levels at the surface of the red planet
174
rise around 30 times higher than what a person receives during a chest x -ray.
175
The sun's outer atmosphere constantly emits a changing stream of electrons and protons, the solar wind.
176
At the same time, the surface of the star also produces bursts of energy, mostly protons, during solar particle events.
177
These bursts of energy have a connection to solar flares, extremely powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation that can last from minutes to hours.
178
Protons are way heavier than electrons
179
and carry more energy that's why they can reach lower levels
180
of earth's atmosphere exciting gas molecules in the air these excited molecules emit x -rays invisible to the unaided eye
181
dozens and hundreds of relatively weak solar particle events happen during every solar cycle
182
now let's speak about solar cycles for a minute you see from a distance the sun seems to be calm
183
and steady but if you zoom in you'll see
184
that its surface is constantly seething
185
and churning it keeps transforming from a uniform ocean of fire to a chaos of warped plasma
186
and back again in repeating cycle every 11 years or
187
so the magnetic field of our star gets tangled up imagine
188
a ball of tightly wound rubber bands that's what it looks like at such moments
189
and then at one point it It snaps and flips completely, turning the North Pole into the South Pole and vice versa.
190
Right before this event, the Sun steps up its activity.
191
It starts to spit out giant blobs of fiery plasma, emit powerful streams of radiation, and grow planet -sized spots.
192
This period has the name of solar maximum.
193
It's a rather dangerous time for Earth since it gets regularly hit by solar storms.
194
Such storms have the potential to disrupt communications and damage power infrastructure.
195
Even worse, solar storms can harm astronauts working in space and even make satellites crash into the planet.
196
As the cycle ends, it fades back to the solar minimum, and then a new cycle begins.
197
Anyway, back to our solar particle events.
198
researchers have found traces of extremely strong solar events happening throughout the history of earth
199
and some of them were thousands of times stronger than anything
200
our modern instruments have ever recorded such extreme solar particle events
201
happen approximately every few millennia the most recent one occurred around
202
993 ce beyond the immediate effect they have solar particle events
203
can kickstart a chain of chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere
204
and these processes often lead to depletion of ozone
205
which isn't a good thing ozone absorbs harmful solar uv radiation
206
which can damage not only our eyesight
207
but also the dna of living beings plus changing the amounts
208
of ozone in the atmosphere can impact the climate in a
209
recent study researchers used large computer models to examine how extreme solar particle events affect Earth.
210
They found out that if a solar proton event arrives during a period of time
211
when our planet's magnetic field is very weak, then ozone damage can last for six years,
212
and the level of UV radiation might increase by 25%, boosting solar -induced DNA damage by around 50%.
213
And apparently, this dramatic combination of a weak magnetic field and extreme solar proton events happens quite often.
214
And some researchers believe that it may even explain a few mysterious occurrences in the past of our planet.
215
For example, the most recent period of weak magnetic field started 42 ,000 years ago and lasted for around 1 ,000 years.
216
This period included a temporary switch in the North and South Poles.
217
Several major evolutionary events happened during that time.
218
For example, the last Neanderthals disappeared in Europe, along with the extinction of marsupial megafauna in Australia.
219
Yeah, sadly, we won't see any giant wombats and giant kangaroos anymore.
220
One more even bigger evolutionary event might also be linked to Earth's geomagnetic field.
221
Multicellular animals appeared at the end of the Edeokaran period, which started around 635 million years ago,
222
and it occurred after a 26 -million -year period of extremely weak or even absent magnetic field.
223
The rapid evolution of different groups of animals in the Cambrian
224
Explosion about 539 million years ago might have also been related to high UV levels and geomagnetism.
225
The simultaneous evolution of hard body shells
226
and eyes in multiple unrelated groups could have been necessary to detect and avoid harmful incoming UV rays.
227
A complete reversal of Earth's geomagnetic poles might have a serious
228
impact on the climate of our planet luckily such flips don't
229
happen overnight the entire process stretches over thousands of years plus
230
even though the magnetic pole weakens during a pole reversal it
231
doesn't disappear completely that's why the magnetosphere continues protecting the planet from cosmic rays
232
and charged solar particles even though there might be some amount of particulate radiation
233
that will make it to earth's surface our planet's magnetic fields are generated by moving electric charges.
234
If some material allows these charges to easily move in it, it's called a conductor.
235
Metal is a great conductor, and we often use it to transfer electric currents from one place to another.
236
In this case, the electric current's negative charge, called electrons, move through the metal.
237
The current is what generates a magnetic field.
238
Earth's outer core is made of liquid iron and nickel.
239
In other words, there are layers and layers of conducting material inside our planet.
240
Currents of charges are constantly moving throughout the core, and the liquid metal is also moving and circulating there, generating the magnetic field.
241
This magnetic field, in turn, produces something resembling a bubble around the planet.
242
It's called the magnetosphere, and it's located above the uppermost part of the atmosphere.
243
This layer shields and deflects high -energy cosmic ray radiation, which otherwise would be extremely hazardous to people and other forms of life on Earth.
244
The magnetosphere also interacts with the ionosphere,
245
the layer of our planet's atmosphere containing loads of ions and free electrons and capable of reflecting radio waves.
246
The interaction between these two layers and magnetized solar winds is what scientists call space weather.
247
The solar wind is normally mild, and there's no space weather whatsoever.
248
That's it for today.
249
So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
250
Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B21
What Is The Rain Shadow Effect? Here's A Simple Explanation!
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
A Journey Inside Your Body
TeensDaily Conversation
B18
10 Habits That Can Improve Your Routine
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2Astronomers Just Found Earth's Secret Second Moon
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B110
Unusual Foods You'd Have for Breakfast Around the World
Travel EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
B23
What Would Happen If Earth Started to Spin Backwards
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B29
I Lived Like Elon Musk for a Week But One Day Was Enough
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
A Journey Through Your Nervous System
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
Fossils of a Giant Superpredator Found in Antarctica
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
Why They Say Airplanes Are Safer Than Cars
Travel EnglishDaily Conversation
B2What If Megalodon Met the Biggest Snake Ever
High School StudentsUniversity Students
B1A 4-Minute 3-Day Routine to Refresh Your Schedule
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B226 sentences
China Wrapped Entire Mountains in Solar Panels — And That's Just the Start
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
10 sentences
Dangerous heat wave hits the US with highs exceeding 100 degrees
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
396 sentences
Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
37 sentences
The Megatsunami That Struck the Entire Planet
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2471 sentences
This Carbon Emissions Video Also Doubles as Economic Development… and That’s Awkward
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2296 sentences
Canada Responds To Elon Musk & Blatant Election Interference Happening By Trump!
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B150 sentences
Excitement Builds in Europe for First Total Solar Eclipse in 25 Years
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
9 sentences
Americas monsoon is vital to the Southwest heres why
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C14
28 sentences
Comparing Low Voltage Vs. Medium Voltage Equipment on Solar Sites
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
38 sentences
3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! 3/3
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
137 sentences
The Race To Power AI Is Reshaping America's Electric Grid
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
174 sentences
The Mission to the Sun - Part 1
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 250 sentences and 3226 words to shadow. The speech runs for 22:50. The speaker talks at a steady 141 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| magnetic adjective | /mæɡˈnɛtɪk/ | Of, relating to, operating by, or caused by magnetism. |
| atmosphere noun | /ˈætməsˌfɪɹ/ | The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body. |
| satellite noun | /ˈsætəlaɪ̯t/ | A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one. |
| particle noun | /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/ | A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. |
| radiation noun | /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The shooting forth of anything from a point or surface, like diverging rays of light. |
| pole noun | /pəʊl/ | Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object. |
| grid noun | /ɡɹɪd/ | A rectangular array of squares or rectangles of equal size, such as in a crossword puzzle. |
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| electricity noun | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/ | Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now… |
| layer noun | /ˈleɪ̯ɚ/ | A single thickness of some material covering a surface. |
| burst verb | /bɜːst/ | To break from internal pressure. |
| plasma noun | /ˈplæzmə/ | A state of matter consisting of partially ionized gas and electrons. |
| spacecraft noun | /ˈspeɪsˌkɹæft/ | A vehicle that travels through space. |
| electrical adjective | /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/ | Related to electricity (or electronics) |
| cloud noun | /ˈklaʊ̯d/ | A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| mess up verb | To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. |
| burn up verb | To catch fire and burn until destroyed. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| close together adjective | Near each other in time or space. |
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| fall back into verb | To return to old habits; to return to an unhealthy or unhappy situation. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you zoom in you'll see |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is locked · are called · was hit |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've already seen · has built · have been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as isn't, doesn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, thin /ˈθɪn/, smooth /smuːð/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: radiation /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/, shield /ˈʃild/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/
- Long words — get the stress right: radiation /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/, electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/
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 magnetic, atmosphere, satellite.
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.