Shadowing Practice: Track 19b - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
18 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Recording 19b Would you like to be famous?
2
I think a lot of people want to be famous nowadays, and that's why reality TV is so popular.
3
But I wouldn't like to be famous at all.
4
Being famous nowadays simply means that you're in the tabloids a lot, and you're followed by the paparazzi everywhere you go.
5
I'd find that very intrusive.
6
Famous people have no privacy at all in any part of their life.
7
Their life also seems to be very superficial
8
because they spend all of their time going to parties and trying to look glamorous It all seems very artificial to me,
9
they just don't seem to be part of the real world
10
at all Do you think famous people have a positive or a negative influence on young people?
11
I think they should have a positive influence on young people, but many of them don't Some personalities are good role models
12
and use their celebrity status to encourage people to think about important issues, but we often see photos of famous people behaving badly.
13
Nowadays, we have access to the news 24 hours a day.
14
What effect does this have?
15
I think it can affect us in both positive and negative ways.
16
On the one hand, it's very convenient to be able to catch up with what's happening in the world, at any time of the day or night, no matter where you are.
17
But on the other hand, this kind of news can give you a distorted view of what's happening,
18
because even minor news stories are given more importance than they perhaps should have.
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
B1Track 07a
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
35 Audio Track
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B118
15 Audio Track
Travel EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Track 03b
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B13
09 Test Practice Track 02
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
B2Track 18
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B2Track 16 2
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Track 15a
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B1Track 09a
University Students
C144 Audio Track
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B138 Audio Track
Travel EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B221 Audio Track
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C120 Test Practice Track 03
Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students
B133 Normalisation In Written English
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B128 Relative Clauses
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B216 The Noun Phrase
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B114 ADJectives And Adverbs
Travel EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B110 Countable And Uncountable Nouns
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B107 Past Tenses 02
University Students
B2Track 20b
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B27
21 sentences
Vocabulary for IELTS - 19b
IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B27
58 sentences
IELTS SPEAKING PART 2 + 3: Describe a positive change that you have made in your daily life recently
IELTS PrepDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B248 sentences
F and F
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B27
87 sentences
🔊 IELTS Speaking PART 2+3 Band 7.5+ | Popular Person Topic 🕺💃 | Shadowing and Vocabulary practice
IELTS PrepDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B24
164 sentences
IELTS Speaking Part 3 – Boredom, Places, and Technology
IELTS PrepDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B2155
26 sentences
🤐 WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER SHOW OFF ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
43 sentences
What No One Told Ethan Hawke About Being Famous
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B11
19 sentences
07 Not the normal news
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
156 sentences
No one has personality anymore
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
![[B2] Smartphone Addiction Conversation | English Listening & Speaking Practice](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DRhbklTkLM0/mqdefault.jpg)
B2471
60 sentences
[B2] Smartphone Addiction Conversation | English Listening & Speaking Practice
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B225
8 sentences
Daily shadowing day 8 #english #reading #shadowing #dailyenglish #estudyme
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
The speaker keeps coming back to these words: famous, nowadays, positive, seem. This video has 18 sentences and 269 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:41. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 3 of its 18 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 14 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| nowadays adverb | /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/ | At the present time; in the current era. |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| badly adverb | /ˈbæd.li/ | In a bad manner. |
| privacy noun | /ˈpɹaɪ.və.si/ | The state of being secluded from the presence, sight, or knowledge of others. |
| celebrity noun | /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/ | Fame, renown; the state of being famous or talked-about. |
| artificial adjective | /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Man-made; made by humans; of artifice. |
| convenient adjective | /kənˈviː.niənt/ | Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient. |
| behave verb | /bɪˈheɪv/ | To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform. |
| superficial adjective | /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/ | Existing, occurring, or located on the surface. |
| glamorous adjective | /ˈɡlæ.mə.ɹəs/ | Having glamour; stylish, attractive. |
| distort verb | /dɪsˈtɔːt/ | To bring something out of shape, to misshape. |
| intrusive adjective | /ɪnˈtɹuːsɪv/ | Tending to intrude; doing that which is not welcome; interrupting or disturbing; entering without permission or welcome. |
| paparazzo noun | /ˌpɑ.pəˈɹɑt.soʊ/ | A freelance photographer who sells photographs of celebrities to the media, especially one who pursues celebrities and attempts to obtain candid photographs. |
| tabloid noun | /ˈtæbˌlɔɪd/ | In full tabloid cruiser: a small yacht used for cruising. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are given |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, superficial /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, superficial /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/, paparazzo /ˌpɑ.pəˈɹɑt.soʊ/
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 nowadays, encourage, badly.
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.