Shadowing Practice: Vsauce Answers the 100 Most Searched Questions | WIRED - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I'm Michael from Vsauce 1.
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Kevin from Vsauce 2.
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And I'm Jake from Vsauce 3.
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We are here in front of a box full of the 100 most googled questions according to Mondovo.
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We're gonna see if we can answer them without Google.
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Here we go.
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The 100th most googled question.
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You guys ready?
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How many calories are in a banana?
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Ooh, I'm gonna go with like, uh, 30.
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Whoa!
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We are not licensed nutritionists.
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A much easier question.
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What is the meaning of life?
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42. Google might even say, like, did you mean 42?
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Yeah, that's the Douglas Adams thing, right?
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How to cook quinoa.
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Easy.
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You put it in water and it's boiling.
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Fluff with a fork.
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It doesn't say salt.
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That's a lot.
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How to get rid of blackheads.
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I'm not a dermatologist.
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I would recommend just letting them live their life.
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What'd be a dermatologist?
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I would recommend that one.
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How many ounces in a gallon?
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64. 64, yeah.
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128!
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We were halfway there.
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128, you gotta double it.
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How to get rid of acne.
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Let's do hot water, put on the soap, wash it again with hot water, then use cold water to close the pores.
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How to draw a dog.
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Can I eat this banana by the way?
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Yeah.
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Uh, with a pen, some paint.
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Thank you.
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Oh, this is a nice pen.
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Kevin's is actually...
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Kevin's is like a work of art.
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Your dog looks like a cave painting.
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How to make money fast.
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Oh, uh, click here.
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Now, how to last longer in bed.
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Foreplay.
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Distract yourself mentally.
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Yeah, okay, communicate, whatever.
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I don't think this is very PG.
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How many people are in the world?
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A lot.
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How old is Justin Bieber?
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Twenty-two.
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Twenty-three!
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I had a birthday in March.
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Come on, Jake!
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I know, I was a believer.
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You didn't get him anything?
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Alright, how to save money?
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Don't spend it.
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Put it in a bank.
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Unless you don't trust banks, in which case, put it in your mattress.
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Next up, we have how to start a business.
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Where are you?
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There you are.
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Start it.
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Start it.
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Fired up.
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How tall is Kevin Hart?
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Five-four?
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Woo!
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Five-four!
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We know our Kevin Hart!
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How many MB and a GB?
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It should be, what, a thousand?
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Well, it's like a thousand twenty-four.
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A thousand twenty-four.
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Yeah.
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Well, okay.
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I mean, actually, right.
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Yeah, we'll see about that.
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How to delete Facebook account?
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In the old days, it used to be when it was like your security setting thing, and then there was like delete profile, and there's a bunch of, do you want to?
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And you say yes.
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How to hack Facebook account?
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Get access to their email address so you can say, I forgot the password, need to reset.
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Probably social engineer them.
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How to take a screenshot?
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Well, this depends on your device.
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If it's an iPhone, you press the volume down button and the sleep button at the same time, or the power button at the same time.
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If it's on a Mac, I believe it's Control Option 4 PC.
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You press Print Screen, and then you have to copy and paste that into Photoshop or Paint, something like that.
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If it's on an Android device, it depends on the piece of hardware that you're using.
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Samsung has a different variation than LG.
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Yeah.
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It's all very intricate.
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Here's a good one.
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How to gain weight.
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Calorado movement.
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Calorado foods would be best.
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Just drink vegetable oil.
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What is the time?
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3.14.
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They had to Google what time it was.
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What are they Googling on that doesn't have a clock?
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Oh.
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That's the question.
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How much house can I afford?
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Thinking about a house as like a unit of measurement is really funny.
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I can afford a kitchen and one living room.
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Nothing else yet.
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Oh!
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Monthly expenses should not exceed 36%.
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That's a good way to answer that.
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That is a good way to answer that.
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Okay, how many ounces are in a liter?
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32. 33.8!
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Not bad.
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How to write a cover letter.
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Dear, insert name here.
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Yeah.
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What up?
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Why is the sky blue?
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Michael, I know you know this.
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The light from the sun scatters off of the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths scatter less, the shorter ones scatter more, including the color blue.
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There's even more to that because there should be a lot more purple and indigo, but our eyes see red and purple together with the same cone.
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And so we make it a light blue.
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Other animals might see a different color sky.
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How many centimeters in an inch? About 2.4?
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2.54.
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How long to boil eggs?
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Oh, this is like eight.
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Bring it to a boil.
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12 minutes.
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Eight's for a softer boil.
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That's my like, that's a hard boil.
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How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?
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Three.
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Who sings this song?
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How many countries in the world?
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It really depends.
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195. How to solve a Rubik's Cube?
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Watching tutorials on YouTube.
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What time is it in Hawaii?
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Three hours behind Los Angeles.
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So it's like 9 a.m there.
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What is the temperature?
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Like 68.
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What is the temp?
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The temp is the person who's just here temporarily.
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When is Labor Day?
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January 23, 1986.
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My mom went into labor on that day and I came out.
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Fourth of September.
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When is Memorial Day? May.
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What time is it in Australia?
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What are they, 16 hours ahead of us?
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Depends what part of Australia you're talking about, because Melbourne and Perth are in different time zones.
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How to make money online.
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Create a YouTube channel.
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Mm-hmm.
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Go fund me.
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How many days until Christmas?
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Ooh.
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I don't even actually know what day it is.
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What does HMU mean?
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Hit me up.
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HMU!
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How many days in a year?
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Well, it depends on the year.
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What is daylight saving time?
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Yeah, cool.
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How to tie a bow tie.
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YouTube videos.
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How to write a check.
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I'm just gonna write pay to the order of Jake Roper.
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Jake, I present to you this check for a lot of money.
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What time is sunset?
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8.12.
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7.56.
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How many ounces in a cup?
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8. What time is the Super Bowl?
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6.30 Eastern.
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How many tablespoons in a cup?
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Oh, that's a lot.
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How to make slime.
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Well, guess what?
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Subscribe to Vsauce's Curiosity Box and you'll get two colors of slime.
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How to make love.
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It's something that you demonstrate every day through many different ways of appreciating another person's existence.
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How to make French toast.
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Bread, eggs, cinnamon, and then syrup.
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What is your name?
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Uh, my name is Michael.
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How to use Snapchat.
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It's very unintuitive.
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I actually had to have a younger person explain it to me because I just didn't care.
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Oh, man.
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Well, maybe that's step one.
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How do you spell?
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I mean, you're pretty much there.
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You're already doing it.
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How to have sex.
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That's me googling, then.
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Alright, how many ounces in a quart?
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Four times eight is 32.
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How many grams in a pound?
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Oh, brother.
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These metric to imperial ones are tough.
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How to make a pizza?
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What you gotta do is you get some yeast, you get some flour, you get some water, warm water, you put into a bowl, put a little olive oil on the dough, put it in the fridge, cover it in plastic wrap,
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take it out after it's risen, put it down on the table with a little bit more flour there so it doesn't stick, roll it out, turn it into a circle, put your pasta sauce on top of it that you hopefully made yourself, put cheese if you're not lactose intolerant,
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whatever toppings you want, throw it in the oven, cook it at some degree for a certain amount of time, and you're done.
215
How to draw a rose.
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Ooh!
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A rose is much harder than I thought.
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That maybe looks more like a rose.
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That's more of a carnation.
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I think I drew an artichoke.
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How to get rid of bed bugs.
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You can't.
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How old am I?
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How old is Google?
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Google is what, 98?
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97?
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Yeah.
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What time is it in London?
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8.25.
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8.34.
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Pretty close.
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How many days till Christmas?
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2.35?
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Yeah!
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How many cups in a gallon?
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Four cups in a quart, four quarts in a gallon, 16 cups in a gallon.
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How to take a screenshot on a Mac.
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It's control option 4.
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How to delete Instagram account.
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You go to settings?
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Yeah, you go to settings and then there's probably a delete thing.
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Are you sure you want to delete?
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How to boil eggs?
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You heat the water up until it's boiling.
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12 minutes.
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12 minutes.
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Is what I've been told.
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10 to 12.
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Good.
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How to download videos from YouTube.
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According to YouTube, you shall not download videos.
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You shall not?
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YouTube talks like Gandalf.
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You shall not download video.
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Okay.
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What is the weather today?
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It's nice.
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It's sunny.
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A little bit cool.
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Where is my phone?
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Where is my phone?
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I think mine's in a...
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Oh, I put it on silent over there.
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Is it going to rain today?
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No. No. I don't think so.
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How to lose belly fat?
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Leave it in a cab.
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I lose everything that way.
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How old is Hillary Clinton?
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Sixty-two.
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No. What does SMH mean?
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Shaking my head!
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What time is it in California?
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12...
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It's like 12.30.
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42. It's not that late.
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How many feet in a mile?
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5,600?
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5,142?
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How many grams in an ounce?
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Goodness gracious.
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How to make money.
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Buy a printer or scanner that's old enough that they don't have a security feature installed.
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And then you scan the money.
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You know Photoshop won't let you do that?
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When we were young.
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Whoa.
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Poetry.
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When we were young?
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How to make pancakes.
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Buy some Bisquick.
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Yeah, buy Bisquick.
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Pour oil and water in there and then you put in the thing, Whip it around, pour it onto a non-stick pan, flip it, then you're done.
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Where are you now?
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Where are you now in your life, Michael?
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I don't know.
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I don't want to know.
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My dad only gave me one piece of advice ever.
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He said, don't peak too soon.
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I could die today.
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I might never die.
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We might discover mortality before then.
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Point is, where am I now is undefined.
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That was a good answer.
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How to lose weight fast.
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Gastric bypassers?
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Gastric bypass juice class.
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How old is Donald Trump?
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He's 72.
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70!
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70. Wow.
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How to screenshot on Mac?
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We've answered this twice.
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How to download YouTube videos?
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You literally, morally can't.
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How to get pregnant?
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Ah, when two people fall in love and Can I run it?
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Yes What is my IP address?
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Check your router.
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We actually featured that in a dong how to find your IP address.
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Mo and my IP.
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Mo and my IP was a pretty good one.
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Check that out.
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13. When is Father's Day?
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It's like June.
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June?
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7th?
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12th?
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Yeah, it's the Sunday in June.
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How many weeks in a year?
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52. How many ounces in a gallon?
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Golly, didn't we already answer this?
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Yeah, I feel like 128.
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Top ten questions.
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Top ten.
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How many ounces in a pound?
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It's 16.
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When is Mother's Day?
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Oh, that's May 2-ing.
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It's a Sunday in May.
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Yeah.
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My mom's birthday is in two days, by the way.
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Love you mom.
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Happy birthday.
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How many ounces in a cup?
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Eight.
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How to lose weight.
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Eat better.
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What song is this?
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John Cage's 411?
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Silence.
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Can you run it?
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That's a threat.
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Can you run it?
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Can you run it?
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How to tie a tie.
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Oh, yeah.
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Hey, hey.
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I don't actually know the name of it.
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It's just the one way I know how to tie a tie.
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Once you tighten it, tighten that baby.
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Whatever.
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How to register to vote.
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It's a really good question.
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Well, it depends on the state.
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Google it.
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What time is it?
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3...48.
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Question number one.
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What is my IP?
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Is it static?
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Is it dynamic?
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We don't really know.
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So as we can tell, the world is full of questions.
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How many of them did we get right?
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A bunch!
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A bunch!
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Hey!
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We did it!
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Congratulations!
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We did a bunch!
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I was like, you know, my goal for today is to get a bunch.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Vsauce Answers the 100 Most Searched Questions”. This video has 367 sentences and 2042 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:39. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 106 of its 367 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ounce noun | /aʊns/ | An avoirdupois ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₆ of an avoirdupois pound, or 28.349523125 grams. |
| boil verb | /bɔɪ(ə)l/ | To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| gallon noun | /ˈɡælən/ | A unit of volume, equivalent to eight pints |
| delete verb | /dɪˈliːt/ | To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. |
| quart noun | /kwɔɹt/ | A unit of liquid capacity equal to two pints; one-fourth (quarter) of a gallon. Equivalent to 1.136 liters in the UK and 0.946 liter (liquid quart) or 1.101… |
| scatter verb | /ˈskætɚ/ | To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse. |
| screenshot noun | /ˈskriːn.ʃɑt/ | An image of computer or smartphone screen output at a given moment in time. |
| dermatologist noun | /ˌdɝ.məˈtɑ.lə.d͡ʒɪst/ | A person who is skilled in, professes or practices dermatology. |
| gastric adjective | /ˈɡæstɹɪk/ | Of or relating to the stomach. |
| slime noun | /slaɪm/ | Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive; bitumen; mud containing… |
| tablespoon noun | /ˈteɪbəlˌspun/ | A large spoon, used for eating food from a bowl. |
| tighten verb | /ˈtaɪ.tən/ | To make tighter. |
| gram noun | /ˈɡɹæm/ | A unit of mass equal to one-thousandth of a kilogram. Symbol: g. |
| whoa | /woʊ/ | Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Can I eat this banana by the way?
- You didn't get him anything?
- How much house can I afford?
- Are you sure you want to delete?
- Golly, didn't we already answer this?
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 not licensed · I've been told · is undefined |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been told · We've answered |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might even say · might see · might never die |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | you're using · are they Googling · you're talking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 43 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: screenshot /ˈskriːn.ʃɑt/, carnation /kɑɹˈneɪ.ʃən/, nutritionist /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ənɪst/, gracious /ˈɡɹeɪʃəs/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: dermatologist /ˌdɝ.məˈtɑ.lə.d͡ʒɪst/, intolerant /ɪnˈtɑləɹənt/, nutritionist /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ənɪst/, mortality /mɔɹˈtælɪti/, temporarily /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/
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 ounce, boil, depend.
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.