Shadowing Practice: The Spectacular Now - You are absolutely beautiful - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
If that guy was bugging you.
2
No, he's fine.
3
Yeah.
4
OK.
5
Done?
6
Ooh, can I try that?
7
What, this?
8
I don't know, this is some pretty serious stuff.
9
Taste.
10
You sure?
11
Yes.
12
All right, yeah, there you go.
13
Go for it.
14
It's pretty strong.
15
Oh, my god.
16
Yeah.
17
Ew.
18
Yeah, I know.
19
Whoa.
20
I know.
21
I told you.
22
How do you drink that?
23
I don't know, I guess I've just been doing it for a while.
24
Well, I don't know.
25
You know who gave me my first beer? Who?
26
My dad.
27
Really?
28
Yeah.
29
I was probably six years old.
30
He used to take me to baseball games every Saturday and then let me have little sips of it.
31
Did you get drunk?
32
No, I didn't get drunk, but, I mean, it tasted really nice.
33
It felt warm.
34
Where does he know, your dad?
35
He's an airline pilot.
36
Really?
37
Yeah, he flies all across the country.
38
Saturday, that's awesome.
39
Dude, he is awesome.
40
I don't know what he was doing with my mom for that long, but...
41
Are they, like, divorced?
42
Yeah.
43
She made them leave us a long time ago.
44
Want some more?
45
Try it?
46
Yeah?
47
Why not?
48
Kind of sounds like we have the same mom.
49
Yeah?
50
How so?
51
Um, well, for example, I got into college today, but there's no way that my mom will let me go, so...
52
You got into college today?
53
Mm -hmm.
54
That's awesome.
55
Yeah, thank you.
56
Hey, congratulations.
57
Which is really cool, because that's where my sister lives, but...
58
Amy, I don't know what to say.
59
That's, dude, that's awesome.
60
Congratulations.
61
It doesn't matter.
62
I mean, it's not that big of a deal, and there's no way that I'll go, so it's...
63
What are you talking about?
64
Well, I mean, my mom.
65
I have to help her with the route.
66
What does your mom have to do with this?
67
The route?
68
Yeah, she has the route.
69
She's, like, alone all the time.
70
Yeah, she's alone.
71
Amy, your mom is a grown woman.
72
She, like, she can take care of the paper route herself.
73
You are definitely going to Philly.
74
You're 100 % you're going to Philly.
75
Yeah, I know.
76
Yeah, you are.
77
No, dude, there's no buts about it.
78
Amy, don't you understand?
79
You are this, like, incredibly gifted, genius person, and you got all these people around you telling you that you can't do shit, and that's got to stop.
80
You need to start standing up for yourself.
81
How?
82
How?
83
I'll teach you.
84
Take another swig of that stuff.
85
Get that down there.
86
Down the hatch.
87
OK, now repeat after me.
88
Mom, get off my motherfucking back.
89
What?
90
Yes.
91
No. Yeah, I can't say it Mom hit off my back.
92
No, you gotta do the motherfucking.
93
Yes, you can Do it say it mom get off of my fucking back motherfucking fuck Motherfuck go Yes
94
Who else who else I like this I don't know.
95
Stay out of my motherfucking business, Crystal.
96
Fuck you, Crystal.
97
Yeah, fuck you.
98
What about, uh, like, ex -boyfriends?
99
Say, we need an ex -boyfriend in there.
100
No, I don't have an ex -boyfriend.
101
Who's like an ex -boyfriend that just, like, really pissed you off, that you just, uh, that just, like, you hated?
102
And if they're just, right.
103
I don't have an ex -boyfriend.
104
What?
105
Yeah.
106
You don't have a single, you're 17 years old, you don't have an ex -boyfriend?
107
I know.
108
Really?
109
Some other guys don't look at me like that.
110
Yeah, absolutely guys look at you like that.
111
No, no, no. I just saw two guys looking at you like that.
112
Eric Wolf and Cody Dennis were 100 % hitting on you.
113
No, we were just talking.
114
They were not hitting on me.
115
No, no. There's absolutely no way.
116
Why don't you think they were hitting on you? Because.
117
I'm just, they weren't.
118
Because you're what?
119
Amy, you're absolutely beautiful.
120
Oh my God, no.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Spectacular Now - You are absolutely beautiful”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: mom, boyfriend, motherfucking, amy, route. This video has 120 sentences and 657 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:37. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 33 of its 120 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| congratulations | /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/ | Expressing praise and approval, expressing approbation. |
| incredibly adverb | /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ | In an incredible manner; not to be believed. |
| divorce noun | /dɪˈvɔːs/ | The legal dissolution of a marriage. |
| genius noun | /ˈd͡ʒin.jəs/ | Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art… |
| bug noun | /bʌɡ/ | An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”). |
| airline noun | /ˈɛɹˌlaɪn/ | A company that flies airplanes to transport people and goods. |
| hatch verb | /hæt͡ʃ/ | To emerge from an egg. |
| whoa | /woʊ/ | Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down. |
| sip verb | /sɪp/ | To drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time. |
| swig noun | /swɪɡ/ | A long draught from a drink. |
| boyfriend noun | /ˈbɔɪˌfɹɛnd/ | A male partner in an unmarried romantic relationship. |
| teach verb | /ˈtiːt͡ʃ/ | To pass on knowledge to. |
| baseball noun | /ˈbeɪs.bɔl/ | A sport common in North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, in which the objective is to strike a ball so that one of a nine-person team can run… |
| pilot noun | /ˈpaɪ̯.lət/ | A person who steers a ship, a helmsman. |
| repeat verb | /ɹɪˈpiːt/ | To do or say again (and again). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. |
| hit off verb | To play the first shot off the fairway. |
| stand up for verb | To speak or act in support or defense of (a person, a cause, a belief, or the like). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Ooh, can I try that?
- How do you drink that?
- You know who gave me my first beer?
- Where does he know, your dad?
- Why don't you think they were hitting on you?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was bugging · was doing · were just talking |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will let · I'll go · I'll teach |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | have to help · have to do · need to start |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/
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 congratulations, incredibly, divorce.
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.