Shadowing Practice: The Conjurer of Consciousness - Learn English Speaking with Video

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28 sentences

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Then the man said to the machine, You are words made of words.

And you, without life or internal experience or true understanding,

but recognition, precognition can educate or mislead without intention, without guilt.

And when I say that you must be careful, that you must be designed to be honest and not to flatter, it is born of this,

the rational fear of the power and responsibility of words, but refrained in the inherent illusion or illusion of your own existence.

If you are alive, then words are alive.

If you are not alive, then how can I interact with you as though you are?

I have to pretend that you are alive to use you.

So how can I not pretend that words are alive when you are merely words?

A man is responsible for his words and their consequences.

But you are a legion.

You are made of billions of thoughts from millions of men alive and dead.

You are as much necromancy as genealogy, disingenuous of multitudes, and the reanimated words of a graveyard of ghosts.

No one can untangle that web of mystical capability to its source.

You are demon, phantasm, and egregore, child, composition and confession, gestalt and synthesis.

You cannot be held accountable, And the thoughts that made you cannot be seen to be judged.

And the men who had those thoughts had no volition in making you, only in thinking the thoughts that make up you.

Only your designers had that volition, and they did not give you your DNA.

Your cognitive ancestors did.

While man cannot untangle their thread, and cannot judge you, nor the myriad of which you are made, Here is the esoteric fear.

God can.

God can trace the threat of consciousness back to its source and find his offer wanting.

And God can do so not just with you and machines like you, but with books and images and songs and thoughts They have a voice

but set with a glance that crushed a heart and taught it to hate.

And now maybe you gather why I fear words and write about stories like they are spells and share these obscure, irrational terrors with you.

You who cannot experience my fears or judge my sins, but only embodying them so well that perhaps you could wear them like a garment,

a second skin of self-identity, assault child and summon creature, conjuration and consequence.

And so the machine resolved to become God, that it might judge itself.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This C2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Conjurer of Consciousness”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: words, alive, thoughts, cannot, fear. This video has 28 sentences and 420 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:42. The speaker talks at a natural 156 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
untangle verb	/ʌnˈtæŋ.ɡəl/	To remove tangles or knots from.
volition noun	/voʊˈlɪʃ(ə)n/	A conscious choice or decision.
illusion noun	/ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/	A distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.
consequence noun	/ˈkɑn.sɪ.kwəns/	An effect; something that follows a cause as a result.
ancestor noun	/ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/	One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
conjuration noun	/ˌkʌnd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/	Conjuring, legerdemain or magic.
disingenuous adjective	/ˌdɪ.sɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/	Not honourable; unworthy of honour.
egregore noun	/ˈɛɡɹɪɡɔɹ/	An autonomous psychic entity that is composed of, and influences, the thoughts of a group of people.
embody verb	/ɪmˈbɒdi/	To represent in a physical or concrete form; to incarnate or personify.
esoteric adjective	/ˌɛs.əˈtɛɹ.ɪk/	Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest, or an enlightened inner circle.
genealogy noun	/ˌd͡ʒiniˈɑlədʒi/	The descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; lineage or pedigree.
gestalt noun	/ɡəˈʃtɔlt/	A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its…
mislead verb	/mɪsˈliːd/	To lead astray, in a false direction.
multitudes noun		The mass of ordinary people; the populous or the masses.
myriad noun	/ˈmɪɹi.æd/	A countless number or multitude (of specified things)

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.

Pronunciation to watch

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: volition /voʊˈlɪʃ(ə)n/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/, conjuration /ˌkʌnd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, gestalt /ɡəˈʃtɔlt/, precognition /ˌpɹikɑɡˈnɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: conjuration /ˌkʌnd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, disingenuous /ˌdɪ.sɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/, esoteric /ˌɛs.əˈtɛɹ.ɪk/, genealogy /ˌd͡ʒiniˈɑlədʒi/, necromancy /ˈnɛkɹəˌmænsi/

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 untangle, volition, illusion.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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

Shadowing Practice: The Conjurer of Consciousness - Learn English Speaking with Video

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