Shadowing Practice: [VOL 5] IELTS Listening Test 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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259 sentences

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You will hear two friends choosing a campsite together for their holiday with their families.

First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

Shall we have a look at this information about campsites, and then perhaps we can choose where to go on holiday?

Yes.

My children are very excited about our two families going away together again this year.

Shall we look at Westerly Campsite first?

Yes.

It says it's most suitable for children under 12 years old.

So that should be fine for us.

Your daughter's just 11, isn't she?

Yes, that's right.

Now, where is the westerly campsite?

Is it the one next to a lake?

That's another one.

This one's by the sea.

Perfect.

Yes.

That's a good place to go in the summer when the weather's hot.

This brochure says that most children who go to westerly campsite love the animals they can see there.

There's a special area where they can go and feed them.

We might see some interesting birds too.

Oh, and look, it says a farmer comes every day and you can buy eggs from him.

Great for breakfast.

I wonder if he sells other things like cheese, but it's not mentioned.

I don't know.

I think they grow a lot of fruit in that area, so he might sell that.

Another thing I like about this campsite is that they let you make a fire.

We could cook some sausages and sing songs around it in the evenings.

And perhaps it would be a good way to meet other families there, too.

Great!

And it isn't too expensive – £6 per adult per night, £3 per child – but wait!

Families of four can get it for £15 .75 a night.

That works out even cheaper.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.

Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.

Let's look at a couple of other campsites before we decide.

Yes, let's look at Snetton Forest campsite.

It's even cheaper.

Five pounds per adult and children under ten are free.

They say it's a very good place if you're keen on fishing.

And they even give you tips on where to go to have the best chance of catching some.

I prefer walking or hiking, and so do the rest of my family, so I'm not sure that will attract us that much.

Oh, look.

It says you can rent a bike to go around the forest.

I'd do that.

And your children would like that too, wouldn't they?

Absolutely.

We could all go somewhere and have a picnic.

Look, this is interesting too.

At Snetton, they get all the children together to play football.

Your children would love that.

And your husband, Mike, plays too, doesn't he?

Yes, that sounds good.

Well, Mike's more into tennis, actually but I'm sure he'd be happy to be a referee if they needed one.

Here's some information about Trent Valley Campsite.

I've heard about this one.

There's a festival near the campsite in June and it's really busy, so they say for families it's better in July when it's a bit quieter.

Well, that would be just right for us because we have to go in the school summer holidays.

Let's look at what it says about it.

Oh, look, it's quite a long way to the nearest village.

Eight kilometres.

It's too far to walk.

But this one has got an open -air pool, which we'd all love in the summer.

And they have a little shop where you can buy basic things like bread and milk.

That's really useful.

And there's lots to do there.

I think on Saturday night...

That is the end of part one.

You now have one minute to check your answers to part one.

Thank you.

about starting a business first you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.

Good evening.

My name is Arthur Jones.

I'm very glad to have this opportunity to speak to you over the radio.

The host asked me to give a talk about my experience of starting my own business.

I can't say my business is successful, but there are some things that I want to share with you

which I think will be helpful if you want to start your own company.

I've talked to many young people and they told me that they are afraid of making mistakes when they start their business.

What I want to say is that mistakes are very common, especially when you do something new.

Mistakes can actually show you where you need to improve, so you can take actions about them and use the chance to learn new methods.

This is a very important attitude you should have.

Besides, most mistakes are not that fatal.

Don't be too anxious when they occur.

Next, I want to go on to talk about self -confidence, which is quite important in achieving business success.

Being self -confident means that you can have faith in yourself and what you do.

Self -confidence can be gained through hard work, even playing sports.

However, sometimes self -confidence may make you ignore problems and even cause failure.

Business leaders should remain calm and not take impulsive actions.

I know that when people start their business, they have confusions.

They don't know how they can be more professional.

They read business journals or watch related videos, but these don't seem to help sometimes.

My suggestion is that, instead of aimlessly trying many new things, they should always be committed to their goal.

As long as they stick to it, they will not be easily distracted or confused by other things, and they are sure to get better.

We will all meet difficulties, especially at the beginning.

We can't always rely on ourselves to solve all the problems.

I had a problem with marketing earlier this year.

100

Luckily I found an expert to help me deal with it so there's always a way, but we should know how and when to seek help from these people.

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Business leaders have different kinds of styles.

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Some are very good at public speaking, others are very down -to -earth and have strong executive skills.

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But in general, they should be able to win the respect from their employees

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so that they can carry out their orders more easily.

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there are times

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when a company might face risks during such times leaders will need to take prompt actions

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and they can't always plan for distant future leaders should analyze

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and deal with the risks with caution if they bear this in mind there is always a way out

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before you hear the rest of the radio program you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.

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Now, listen and answer questions 17 to 20.

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At the beginning of my business, I experimented with quite a few strategies, hoping to find out the best solution for my business.

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Here is what I found.

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At first, my company wanted to work out prices for the products and make them realistic.

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However, prices are always changing, so they can't be fixed.

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Another thing I always keep in mind is that leaders must stay committed to their jobs.

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Without enough commitment, you may easily give up when problems happen.

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I have some friends whose businesses didn't survive during difficult times it wasn't

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because they were stupid it was just a lack of commitment I can't always be sure

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that my products or services are better than my competitors

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but I pay attention to details

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and try to improve all the little things as they can actually make a big difference you might worry

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that you don't have a very clear

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and sophisticated business strategy personally I don't think it's a problem

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because you will be changing them all the time anyway in terms of support, at any stage we do need support from others to back up our business.

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The support can really make a difference.

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Before I started my business, my family helped me a lot, both financially and mentally.

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There were also people who gave me advice on how to run businesses successfully.

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However, these advice and ideas were not so practical to me, so I didn't really use them.

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Looking back, I felt lucky that I followed my own way of thinking.

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Also, I was short of funds back then, and I loaned money from the bank to start my company.

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I was grateful for that.

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That's what I want to share in today's program.

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If you have any questions for me, please send it to my email, which is...

134

That is the end of section 2.

135

Thank you.

136

about their presentation on some dolphins which are unique to New Zealand.

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First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24 on page 5.

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Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.

139

Hi, Mark.

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Thanks for coming around.

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Hi, Fran.

142

No problem.

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We need to try and get this presentation finished.

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Mark, let's start with the way dolphins make sounds.

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Well, we all know that dolphins make clicking noises to communicate.

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Yes, they have tongues and larynxes as humans do,

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but what's really strange about the dolphin is that the sounds are focused through an extraordinary organ called the melon, which most other sea mammals don't have.

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So, shall I take over from there and speak about the different dolphin types?

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I want to share what we found out about those rare dolphins that are special just to New Zealand in particular.

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Yeah, great.

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Put the emphasis on them.

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The rarest of all is the Hector's dolphin, isn't it?

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They are endangered, aren't they?

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I think that's mainly because so many of them get tangled up in fishing gear, especially gillnets, and die.

155

I know that some conservationists are worried about the impact of the tourism industry on dolphin numbers, but I don't think that's a problem yet here.

156

Also, remember that this species has a very long reproductive cycle, so their numbers don't get replenished quickly.

157

Yeah, that's really sad.

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But at least the New Zealand government established a sanctuary for them, didn't it?

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The fishing industry was against it, but I remember reading that the general public were very supportive of the decision.

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It was a consequence of a study done by some marine biologists.

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Having a protected breeding area has made a big difference to the dolphin population already.

162

Yeah, I think their numbers have swelled to over 7 ,000

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in total with a tiny group of just 89 living down off Southland, nearly 2 ,000 living near Christchurch on the east coast and the biggest group surviving off the west coast.

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It's pretty wild country over there so I guess there aren't as many tourists and fishermen to disturb them.

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Before you hear the rest of the discussion you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30 on page 6.

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Thank you.

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twenty five to thirty

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okay so how do you suggest I structure my part of the talk

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well you could start with the common dolphin which inhabits the whole of the sea around New Zealand

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and once you've covered everything to do with them feeding and so on

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you could go on to the more unusual types the dusky dolphin is especially interesting

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because you know how all the dolphins travel in small social groups called pods

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While the dusky dolphins travel in pods as big as 800 members.

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And I think the duskies like to travel along beside fishing and tourist boats, don't they?

175

Whereas the hectares dolphins are different in that they prefer to go in the wake of boats, that is, coming along in the rear.

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Yeah, they do.

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But they also dive down deep to avoid fast boats.

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Oh, let's not forget the Maui, because they are endangered too, aren't they?

179

There are only 150 of them left and they inhabit only the western coastal waters off the North Island of New Zealand.

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Yeah, it's a pity.

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They also face problems because of their tiny size.

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Now the orca is actually a dolphin too, right?

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Yes, surprisingly.

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So I'll include that in my talk.

185

People call them killer whales, but in fact they're not whales.

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They're a huge and very fierce type of dolphin.

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In New Zealand, Kaikoura in the South Island is the best place to spot orcas swimming by, so people mistakenly think that's where they live,

188

but actually orcas cover vast distances.

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Let's not forget to mention the bottlenose.

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It's bigger than nearly all the other dolphins, even the common dolphin.

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Oh, but still not as big as the orca, right?

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That's right.

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Well, I think that's our presentation done now.

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That is the end of Section 3.

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You now have half a minute to check your answers.

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Now turn to section 4 on page 7.

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Part 4.

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You will hear a man giving a lecture on his tyre recycling company to environmental science students.

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First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

200

You Thank you.

201

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

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Good afternoon.

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I'm the Managing Director of Melectra Technologies and we are involved in recycling tyres from vehicles such as cars and trucks.

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This might not sound new or exciting, but the method we use is quite radical compared to traditional tyre recycling methods.

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We strongly believe that the business of recycling tyres is crucial, as amazingly, every month in Australia alone,

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the number of old tyres that are discarded exceeds 1 .5 million.

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And when you look at the figure globally, it is a staggering 1 .2 billion each year.

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For decades, various recycling methods have been trialled with varying degrees of success.

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In some cases, the solution was as bad as the problem.

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Incinerating tyres, for example, generates toxic fumes which are harmful to the environment.

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Breaking up whole tyres is energy intensive and produces a contaminated product with very little value.

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As a result, there was little incentive to get into the business because there was no profit in it.

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And yet, a tyre is made up of so many valuable components.

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And it is for this reason that we started trying out new recycling methods.

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In the end, our factory came up with a much improved system for recycling old tyres.

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The Melectra process is different for a number of reasons.

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Firstly, it is a lot cheaper to run because our machines are much more compact in comparison to traditional systems.

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This in turn reduces energy consumption.

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The wear and tear on the shredding equipment, which cuts up the tyres, is also reduced, as the tyres fed through them have already been softened.

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Costs are reduced by over 30 % using our system.

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And, significantly, our machines can handle a tyre of any size,

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from the smallest bicycle or wheelbarrow right up to the largest earth -moving truck.

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Most other processes can only handle car tyres.

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Our technology has proven to work

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and we have won many awards including the Australian Museum's Eureka Award

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and last year on a national TV program we were chosen as the invention of the year.

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Winning

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that certainly opened many doors for us with interest coming from 27 countries around the world including the United States and China.

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To cope with the demand, we will soon have 10 more factories which will operate 24 hours a day just to stabilise the current stockpile.

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We are passionate about taking this process further, and so we have chosen to dedicate 5 % of every dollar we make to research.

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In this way, we can ensure we are always the best in the business.

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So, let's look at the process we use, what we extract from the tyre in each stage of the process, and the uses that those materials can be put to.

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The first step of the process mechanically extracts the steel wires from the rim of the tyre.

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This high -quality wire can be cut into small pellets suitable for sandblasting shots.

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Next, after the tyres have been sliced into a number of segments depending on tyre diameter, they are chemically treated.

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This chemical treatment is essential as it removes dirt from the rubber prior to the rest of the process.

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The cleaning process also softens the tyres, making them easier to chop up.

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In the next stage, the fibre cords contained in the tyre segments are separated from the rubber using rollers.

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The fibres, which can include nylon and rayon, can be used as a reinforcement for concrete or they can be used to form plastic panels.

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Then, the rubber is cut up into very small pieces known as crumb rubber.

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For a tyre weighing 10 kilograms,

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Melectra can recover 7 .5 kilograms of crumb rubber that can be used to manufacture a range of rubber products, such as asphalt used in road making.

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It is also used as insulation in buildings, or something simple like tiles for the floor.

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Alternatively, any or all of this crumb rubber can continue through to the final stage.

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This final stage involves our patented Melectrovac machine, which uses industrial microwave energy.

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This changes the remaining rubber into hydrocarbon, which can be used to make three different products.

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We can cheaply produce activated carbon, which is usually quite expensive to make from new materials.

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It's used for treating water, as well as being an integral part of air filters.

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Secondly, as the carbon produced is very pure, in fact it's over 97 .4 % pure,

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we can crush it to form something called carbon black, which is used in the manufacture of batteries and also ink.

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Our process is very flexible and we can alter the quantity of each of the three products depending on demand.

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Finally, we can even use the hydrocarbon to make oil and we use this to generate electricity to power our own machines.

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It certainly helps to keep the costs down.

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And that's just about it.

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That is the end of Part 4.

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You now have one minute to check your answers to Part 4.

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Thank you.

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That is the end of the listening test.

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You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “[VOL 5] IELTS Listening Test 1”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: tyre, dolphin, questions. This video has 259 sentences and 3028 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:24. The speaker talks at a steady 111 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tyre noun	/taɪə(ɹ)/	The ring-shaped protective covering around a wheel which is usually made of rubber or plastic composite and is either pneumatic or solid.
dolphin noun	/ˈdɑlf.ɪn/	A carnivorous cetacean, typically with a beak-like snout, famed for their intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.
campsite noun	/ˈkæmpˌsaɪt/	A place where one or more tents may be pitched for an overnight stay in an outdoor area.
recycle verb	/ɹəˈsaɪkəl/	To break down and reuse component materials.
orca noun	/ˈoɹkə/	A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.
crumb noun	/kɹʌm/	A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
dusky adjective	/ˈdʌs.ki/	Dimly lit, as at dusk (evening).
westerly adjective	/ˈwɛs.tɚ.li/	Coming from the west; originating in the west.
hydrocarbon noun		A compound consisting only of carbon and hydrogen atoms.
inhabit verb	/ɪnˈhæbɪt/	To live or reside in.
kilogram noun	/ˈkɪləɡɹæm/	In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical…
fibre noun	/ˈfaɪ.bə(ɹ)/	A single piece of a given material, elongated and roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibres to form thread.
pod noun	/ˈpɑd/	A seed case for legumes (e.g. peas, beans, peppers); a seedpod.
endangered adjective	/ɪnˈdeɪn.d͡ʒɚd/	in danger, at risk, said of something where there is a strong possibility something bad will happen to it (for example, a species in danger of going extinct)
whale noun	/ˈweɪl/	Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.
back up verb		To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
break up verb		To break or separate into pieces.
carry out verb	/ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/	To hold while moving it out.
come around verb	/kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/	To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
cut up verb		To cut upward.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

And your children would like that too, wouldn't they?
I've heard about this one.
Let's look at what it says about it.
That's what I want to share in today's program.
Mark, let's start with the way dolphins make sounds.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've heard · I've talked · has made
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	can be gained · will not be easily distracted · can't be fixed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	children who go · confidence, which is · people who gave

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 41 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, can't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: brochure /bɹoʊˈʃʊɚ/, fisherman /ˈfɪʃ.ɚ.mən/, asphalt /ˈæʃfɑlt/, insulation /ˌɪnsəˈleɪʃən/, caution /ˈkɔːʃ(ə)n/
Long words — get the stress right: biologist /baɪˈɒləd͡ʒɪst/, contaminate /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/, kilometre /kɪˈlɑmɪtəɹ/, mechanically /məˈkænɪkli/, mistakenly /mɪˈsteɪ.kən.li/

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 tyre, dolphin, campsite.

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: [VOL 5] IELTS Listening Test 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?