Shadowing Practice: The piano man Chapter 4 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Chapter 4 The Music How can I play music without leader?
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Music was my life.
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Now it is my death.
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The sound of one note on the piano goes through me like a knife.
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Oh, why did I swim to land?
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Why didn't the sea take me down, down, down, to sleep the long sleep?
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The next morning, Avril took her patient into the sitting room.
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He sat at the piano, but he did not touch the keys.
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His face was closed.
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His eyes saw nothing.
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You're a long way away, Mr. Piano Man, Avril said to him smiling.
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Where are you now?
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Are you thinking about your home, about your family?
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No answer.
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Avril took some photographs out of her bag.
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Would you like to see some photos of my family, Mr. Piano Man?
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She said.
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Look, here's my husband, Jerry.
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I told you about him yesterday.
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And this is my son, Ryan.
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He's 16 now.
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He's a big boy, taller than me.
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He loves playing football.
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And this is my daughter, Mary.
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She's 14.
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She loves music.
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She listens to it all the time.
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One by one, she gave the photos to the piano man.
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He looked at them, and then gave them back to her.
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Oh, here is one to show you.
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This is Mary when she was little.
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About eight, I think.
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She's having a piano lesson.
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But she stopped lessons after two years. So sad.
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I love listening to piano music.
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The piano man held the photo of Mary and looked at it for a long minute.
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His face did not change, but suddenly he put the photo down,
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turned round to the piano, and began to play.
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It was a happy piece of music, light and easy.
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Avril laughed.
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Oh, how wonderful.
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I know that.
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My Mary played that piece.
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Well, she didn't really play it, but she tried to learn it.
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You play it so well.
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The piano man stopped playing.
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Avril watched him.
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Can you play some more music for us? she asked.
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She looked round the sitting room.
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There was another patient, sitting at the back of the room.
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This was Doris, a very old lady.
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Sometimes Doris remembered things, sometimes she didn't.
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I think Doris is enjoying your music, Avril said.
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The piano man looked round.
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Doris nodded and smiled at him.
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The piano man turned back to the piano and began to play.
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This was a very different piece of music, fast and exciting, full of color and life.
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The piano man's eyes were closed.
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His body moved to the music, and his fingers danced over the keys.
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Avril watched his hands.
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You're a musician, aren't you?
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She said.
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A pianist.
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All that day, the piano man was in and out of the sitting room.
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Sometimes he just sat at the piano.
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Sometimes he played fast, exciting music, slow, sad music.
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Then he went back to his room and lay on his bed, with his hands over his head.
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Then back to the piano again.
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dr. Sansom came to listen to him you're right Avril he
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said he's a wonderful musician the music is talking through him there's a change coming leave him alone and wait
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late in the afternoon the piano man went to the piano again and began to play a new piece of music
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It was slow, very beautiful music, like a song.
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Avril sat with him for a time, then stood up.
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Don't stop, she whispered.
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I must see another patient for a few minutes, back soon.
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She went quietly out of the room.
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Doris was still in her usual chair at the back of the room, smiling and nodding to the music.
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Avril was with the other patient for ten minutes, then went back to the sitting room.
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She heard Doris's voice.
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Nurse?
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Nurse?
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Come quick!
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What is it, Doris?
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What's the matter?
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Look, said Doris.
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He's crying, poor boy.
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The piano man sat at the piano, with his face in his hands.
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Tears ran between his fingers and down the backs of his hands.
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Poor boy, said Doris.
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Poor boy.
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Poor boy.
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Yes, all right, Doris, Avril said.
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I'm here now.
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She put her hand very gently on the piano man's arm.
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He wants a cup of tea, said Doris loudly.
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Poor boy.
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Yes, you're right, Avril said.
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She went quickly to the nurse's kitchen and came back with a large, hot mug of tea.
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Gently, she took the piano man's hands away from his face and gave him the mug of tea.
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There, she said, drink some tea.
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Tea always helps.
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The piano man's hands closed around the hot mug.
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He looked up into Avril's face.
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Spasiba, he whispered.
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Before she went home, Avril went to the computer in the nurse's room.
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Now, what was that word?
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She thought.
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Spas something.
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Spasi.
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She tried the spelling, spas-see-ba, and Google found the word for her at once.
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Spas-eba was thank you in Russian.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Speaking Goals for This Clip: Building Emotional Expression in Dialogue

This video is perfect for IELTS speaking practice as it targets a key fluency milestone: conveying emotion through tone and pauses. The piano man’s silent despair and sudden musical breakthrough teach learners to use vocal dynamics—like softness, hesitation, and sudden energy—to make stories vivid. Whether describing a memory or a character, mastering this skill helps you score higher in IELTS speaking by showing "lexical resource" and "pronunciation" proficiency.

Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Daily Conversations

  • "You're a long way away" – A gentle way to ask someone to share their thoughts.
  • "One by one" – Useful for describing sequential actions (e.g., "I showed him the documents one by one").
  • "A happy piece of music, light and easy" – Adjectives to vividly describe sounds or moods.
  • "She didn't really play it, but she tried to learn it" – A natural structure for comparing effort vs. result.

Fix Your Weak Spots: Mastering Pauses and Rhythm

The dialogue’s slow, deliberate pace is ideal for practicing the shadowing technique. Many learners rush through pauses, making speech sound robotic. Here’s how: Use a shadowing app to play short clips (3-5 seconds) of Avril’s questions and the piano man’s silence. Shadow speak by repeating her words *immediately* after, mimicking her soft tone and the pause before the piano man responds. This trains your brain to match natural rhythm. For the piano man’s lines, focus on "Why did I swim to land?"—stress "why" and "land" to convey despair. This exercise improves "chunking" (grouping words into meaningful units), a critical skill for clear, native-like speech. Practice daily, and you’ll notice your IELTS speaking fluency and pronunciation scores rise as your rhythm becomes more natural.

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 →