Shadowing Practice: [VOL 5] IELTS Listening Test 6 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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296 sentences

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Part 1.

You will hear a man who runs a volunteer agency interviewing a woman called Grace who is applying to do volunteer work.

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

Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

Hello, Grace.

I'm William.

Thanks for coming in for this interview it's very important for us to meet our volunteers in person.

I understand.

It's no problem at all.

OK.

Let's get started.

What's the best phone number to contact you on?

My mobile phone's probably best.

The number's 021 636 7189.

But I can't always answer it during the day.

I'll give you my email address as well.

I check it frequently.

OK.

I'll make a note that email's a good way to contact you.

What's the address?

It's graceb .travel .co .nz.

I chose it when I was younger, and I just haven't changed it since.

It's easy to remember.

Now, do you have any particular qualifications, Grace?

I'm a housewife now, but I used to be in teaching.

I trained for that and got my diploma, although I haven't done it for years.

Before having children, I worked as a bank teller.

All right.

I need to find out when you'll be available during the week.

You said you have children.

Are they at school?

Yes, both of them are.

So I can't start work before 8 .15 in the morning or work past 3 o 'clock in the afternoon.

So you'd be looking for about four or five hours a day, say 9 .15am to 2pm?

That gives you time to get to and from school to work.

That's perfect.

It's important for me to be there for my children. Of course.

And are you looking to work Monday to Friday?

Yes.

If it gets to be too much, I can rethink it later.

Now, Grace, you obviously have a lot of work experience, but have you done any volunteer work before?

Um, during the Rugby World Cup, there were many visitors who didn't know their way around or what they should see and do in Auckland City,

so I worked as a guide to help introduce the city to tourists.

I really enjoyed it.

OK, good.

Have you done anything else?

Perhaps when you were at school or university?

Did you do any volunteer work there?

When I was at university, the manager of a netball team asked me to be the coach, and I did that.

Great.

It sounds like you like your sports.

I used to, but not so much nowadays.

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

Now listen and answer questions six to ten.

If not sports, do you have any other interests?

Oh, yes.

I love to get out in my garden, and I grow most of my own vegetables.

I love flowers and flower arranging.

But I don't suppose there's much volunteer work associated with those kinds of things.

You'd be surprised.

Any other hobbies?

Like most people, I guess, I like music.

Actually, I can play the guitar, but I haven't done much for a while so I'm a bit rusty.

One day I'd like to have a go at the flute.

OK, that gives me a good idea of the type of work you might be interested in.

Ideally, it'd be something that combines your experience and your hobbies.

If you're interested in something outdoors, I have a position helping out on a farm.

That's just for a month.

It's not too physically demanding, though it does require you to be on your feet all day.

And it'd be nice as long as the weather is fine, but I imagine it could be uncomfortable in the rain or the heat.

In the past, we've had many positions working in community centres.

They've been working with the disabled or teens.

The position we have available now is with elderly men and women.

They have activities like flower arranging, music lessons, sing -alongs, things like that.

Both of those sound great.

I'm really open to anything.

That's nice to know.

Just a couple more questions.

Why do you want to do volunteer work?

Well, now that both my children are in school, I'd like to make some friends as I've got the time on my hands.

Also, I like the idea of helping others.

And last question, how did you find our agency?

We aren't in the phone book.

Did a friend tell you about us?

No, I was on my way to school the other day and I saw your advertisement at the supermarket.

It's good to know someone sees those ads.

Thank you again for coming.

That is the end of Part 1.

You now have one minute to check your answers to Part 1.

Part 2 You will hear the owner of a strawberry farm talking to a group of new employees.

First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14.

Thank you.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.

Hello, my name's

Peter Blakewell and I'm the owner of the Strawberry Farm.

All of you are starting work here next week,

so I thought it would be helpful if I explained a bit about the farm and what you'll be doing.

Well, the farm operates all year round,

but summer is when we open to the public and people come here to pick their own strawberries as a family activity.

100

It's also our busiest period, which is why we need you for the next few months.

101

Well, first up, what do you need to bring for a long day?

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You'll be working outside a lot, so fill up your water bottles at home and have them with you at all times.

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You'll come in for lunch around one o 'clock.

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We'll be putting sandwiches out for you.

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And there's also short morning and afternoon breaks.

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Gloves should be worn at all times.

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You'll find them in the packing shed.

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Just make sure they get returned, please.

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Now, if for some reason you can't come into work, there's a procedure to follow.

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There's no point phoning the office.

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By the time someone picks up your message, it'll be too late to find a replacement.

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You need to get hold of the duty manager.

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Phone and speak to him directly, and he'll let your team leader know you're going to be off.

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But before I forget, last year we had a problem with customers getting to the checkouts

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and not realising how much they have to pay per kilo for the strawberries.

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But we've got signs with price lists all round the farm this year, so that's been dealt with.

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One annoying thing is people taking baskets out of the shop and leaving them in the car park, or worse, taking them home.

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They're expensive to replace, so please keep an eye on them.

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If you're in the fields, no doubt you'll see people popping a couple of strawberries into their mouths,

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but we don't need to worry about this too much.

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I should mention the benefits of working here.

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For a start, you get to take home a good -sized carton of strawberries at no charge.

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Your family members can also get 15 % off the fruit they pick.

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Discounts don't apply to the gift shop, I'm afraid.

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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20.

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Thank you.

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all right let's look at the map you all have to give you an idea of the farm's layout

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we'll start with the staff room see the main building the

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entrance is at the bottom of your map well above the

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main building on the map is a row of three smaller buildings the staff room is the middle one

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if you need to go to administration

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that's easy to find in the main building you've got the three checkout desks in the bottom right hand corner

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and the cafe in the top corner

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and the other large inside area is the shop

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so administration is the other room

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there it's in the top left hand corner some of you are working in the packing shed

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you see where the main building is

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and then at the top of the map

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there are the round water tanks four of them the packing

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shed is the bigger of the two buildings directly below the tanks on your map.

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Not easy work, but at least you'll be in the shade.

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If you're driving to work, you'll need to know where the staff car park is.

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So that's to the left of the main building, the area nearest the bottom of the map.

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Park there and then either use the front entrance or that little door on the left of the main building.

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Right, let's talk about where the customers can and can't pick their own strawberries.

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They're not allowed to enter the commercial growing areas, and you can see area one already marked on your map.

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That means there are two sections where customers are allowed to pick their own fruit.

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The section with strawberries that are ready to pick now,

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the ripe strawberries, that's the L -shaped section right at the top of the map on the left.

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The unripe strawberries will be ready in about three weeks so

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that section it's above commercial growing area one

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and you can see it from the cafe okay

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so does anyone have any questions

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that is the end of part two you now have 30 seconds to check your answers to part two

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Part 3 You will hear an engineering student called Kathy discussing a piece of work with her tutor.

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First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26.

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Thank you.

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Hello, Cathy.

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How's your dissertation on water pumps going?

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Not too bad, thanks.

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I'm getting on well with the literature review now, and my lab work's fine so far.

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Oh, that's good.

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Remember, you should aim to have your results section completed by the end of next month,

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so there's plenty of time to finalise the whole thing by the summer deadline.

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Anyway, looks like you're on track.

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I've been through your first chapter now and I was quite impressed.

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Oh, that's a relief.

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Well, sometimes your sentences are a little long and over complex, but the overall structure of the piece is very clear.

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I'd recommend you get a critical friend to go through it with you.

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Then, once you've built in citations of other work in the field, I think it'll be pretty good.

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Oh, thanks.

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I was pleased I decided to focus on water pumps.

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You seem to be testing an appropriate range of pump design.

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Lots of students make the mistake of either restricting their range too much or, conversely, not narrowing it down enough.

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You've managed to avoid those twin traps.

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However, I think you'd get more convincing results if you took some additional measurements.

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I've noted exactly what I mean on your work.

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Yes, I thought that might be necessary, and I know I need to get down to some more library work too.

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Well, I don't think that's essential at the moment.

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Oh, right.

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So what do you suggest I do next? repeat my last experiment using different variables?

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Well, you could have a word with James Higgins tomorrow.

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He's coming here to give a lecture on hydraulics to the faculty

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and it would be a great chance to have a chat with him,

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especially as your experimental work has drawn so heavily from his last article in the British Engineering Journal.

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Oh, fantastic!

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And you never know how successful a chat with him might turn out to be.

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I got my first research posed when I was a final year student

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and asked a visiting professor to explain what he meant in some article he'd written.

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So I urge all my students to take any such opportunity that arises.

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But times have changed.

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People like that are too busy to talk to mere students these days.

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I don't know about that.

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Anyway, is there anything else I can help with?

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Any practical information about layout, perhaps?

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Well, I suppose I'm a bit unsure about how the bibliography should be presented.

197

Mind you, I can just check what's normally done in journal articles, so that's not something to bother you with.

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I'd welcome some guidance, though, about what I should or shouldn't include in the appendices.

199

I know some things, some of my data tables or details of specs perhaps,

200

are not really needed in the main body of the text and I'm likely to be pushed for words there.

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OK, I can certainly help you with that.

202

But it will take a while, so can we deal with that next week?

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I've got that solar panel seminar to go into in a few minutes.

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There's plenty of work you can be carrying on with in the meantime.

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Sure, that's no problem.

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I think I'll go and investigate the latest version of the CAD software to see

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if it might help with my pump design experiments at all.

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Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30.

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Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.

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Before you go, though, I'd like quickly to run through what you should be doing over the next few months, not just for your dissertation,

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but also to help your chances of getting the research post you'd like.

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Is that OK with you?

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Yes, that would be really helpful.

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Well, you certainly need to become a member of the Mechanical Engineers Society, and then you'll be able to go along to their meetings.

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There you must make a point of making yourself known to various people, like Professor Jones.

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He's the current president and is very approachable.

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OK, so I could do some networking there.

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Exactly.

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Also, I think you should try to set up some visits to industry.

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Go to a lot of different workplaces just to see how things are done.

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It's actually a very good way of making sure you're familiar with the cutting edge of what's going on.

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Textbooks, even academic articles, sometimes lag behind industry.

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That sounds really interesting.

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Also, I'd love the chance to do a bit of work abroad for a while.

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Well, that's actually the next thing I was going to recommend.

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I'm sure we could set up a month for you in either the States or Canada,

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and that would be a great way to find out how things are done elsewhere.

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That'd be good.

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Thank you.

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And the last thing I was going to suggest was

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that you could go to the European Water Engineering Conference being held in Spain in May.

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I could even present my dissertation there.

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Yes.

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Oh, thank you so much.

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That's all really helpful.

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Good. So now...

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That is the end of part three.

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You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to part three.

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Part 4 You will hear part of a lecture about American salt marshes, which are areas of low land found near the sea.

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

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Thank you.

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Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

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Right.

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This morning I want to give you a brief introduction to a different kind of habitat,

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American salt marshes, and then we'll examine a particular inhabitant of the marsh, the horseshoe crab.

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Okay, so what are the defining features of a salt marsh to

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begin with? well salt marshes are found on the coast in various parts of the usa

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they are really areas between land and water obviously these are very wet areas

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and the salinity that's the amount of salt in the water

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ranges from ocean strength to almost fresh in other words very low indeed

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and the salt marshes are affected by daily changes in sea

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levels the sea might wash in over them as frequently as twice a day

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so the habitat is constantly changing the amount of salt in the water rises

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and falls as does the depth

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and warmth of the water we'll be having a detailed look at the horseshoe crab in a moment

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but marshes provide plentiful food for other creatures that feed there too, such as worms and shrimps.

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This food comes in the form of plants that thrive there.

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Interestingly enough, 200 years ago, the flow of water in marshland in the United States was controlled so that rice could be grown there.

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Little is grown there today, but 15 % of coastal marshes are enclosed artificially in order to attract wild birds to the area,

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and we'll be examining those too.

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But before looking at the wildlife, there are a few political issues to make you aware of.

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There are always controversial issues

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when humans decide to make changes to natural habitats during the

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past 20 years many objections have been voiced to the building of artificial earth walls

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or dikes to use the correct term on salt marshes to

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control the natural flow of seawater since the walls restrict the movement of high volumes of water this means

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that the natural habitat of local aquatic life is reduced and

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because the water is shallower the temperature of the water may rise significantly during periods of low rainfall.

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In addition, although the insects are very happy there, many people are unhappy with the dikes.

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This isn't because they distract from the natural beauty of the landscape, but because their presence means it's more difficult for walkers,

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who appreciate the marshes, to go where they want.

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There is controversy over the different values placed on the resources of the marshes.

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Some people would like to see them used more fully for hunting, while others would like to see business permits granted to allow for further development.

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Interestingly, in the mid -20th century, marshes were not thought of as valuable at all,

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and over half of the salt marshes in the USA were destroyed at that time.

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In the main, this was due to filling the marshes to create more land for housing developments

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and to control the mosquito population.

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However, state laws now do reflect the importance and growing appreciation of marshes, not only as natural habitats,

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but also because they provide a natural barrier against storm damage and therefore limit the amount of land lost to the sea.

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Right.

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We'll be debating some of those issues in the seminars, but let's now turn our attention to the horseshoe crab,

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which is the focus of our study this morning.

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Horseshoe crabs have changed very little in the last 350 million years.

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I find them interesting in many ways because they are, in fact, distant relatives of the spider and not crabs at all.

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They look quite dangerous.

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In fact, they are absolutely harmless.

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The horseshoe crab's main diet is one of shellfish, but they will eat worms too.

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The crab places its food near its mouth, in the center of its underside, where its legs are attached, and grinds and crushes it there.

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It has five pairs of legs.

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The female lays between 200 and 300 eggs and comes ashore to do that.

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This process takes place in spring, before the sand heats up in the summer months.

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Right, what I'm going to do now is show you some photos.

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That is the end of part four.

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You now have 45 seconds to check your answers to part 4.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “[VOL 5] IELTS Listening Test 6”. This video has 296 sentences and 3252 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:38. The speaker talks at a steady 118 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
marsh noun	/mɑɹʃ/	An area of low, wet land, often with tall grass or herbaceous plants.
strawberry noun	/ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/	The sweet, usually red, edible accessory fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.
volunteer noun	/ˌvɑlənˈtɪɹ/	One who enters into, or offers themselves for, any service of their own free will, especially when done without pay.
crab noun	/kɹæb/	Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
habitat noun	/ˈhæb.ɪ.tæt/	Conditions suitable for an organism or population of organisms to live.
pump noun	/pʌmp/	A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas.
carefully adverb	/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/	With care; attentively, circumspectly.
helpful adjective	/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/	Furnishing help; giving aid; useful.
dissertation noun	/ˌdɪsəˈteɪʃən/	A formal exposition of a subject, especially a research paper that students write in order to complete the requirements for a doctoral degree in the US and a…
clock noun	/klɑk/	A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
flower noun	/ˈfloʊɚ/	A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens…
entrance noun	/ˈɛn.tɹəns/	The action of entering, or going in.
experiment noun	/ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/	A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of…
examine verb	/ɪɡˈzæmɪn/	To observe carefully or critically to learn about someone or something.
lecture noun	/ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/	A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come in for verb		To be subjected to.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
do over verb	/ˈduˌoʊvɚ/	To cover with; to smear or spread on to.
fill up verb		To make (something) completely full.
get down to verb		To start focusing on doing something serious
get off verb		To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.

Sentences worth repeating

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

What's the best phone number to contact you on?
Have you done anything else?
Perhaps when you were at school or university?
Did you do any volunteer work there?
How's your dissertation on water pumps going?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If you're driving to work, you'll need
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't changed · haven't done · have you done
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	should be worn · been dealt · are allowed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	man who runs · period, which is · marshes, which are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 80 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you'll, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, warmth /wɔɹmθ/, thrive /θɹajv/, rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: marsh /mɑɹʃ/, dissertation /ˌdɪsəˈteɪʃən/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, controversial /ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/, crush /kɹʌʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: dissertation /ˌdɪsəˈteɪʃən/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, experimental /ɪkspɛɹəˈmɛntəl/, controversy /kənˈtɹɒv.ə.si/

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 marsh, strawberry, volunteer.

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 6 - 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?