Shadowing Practice: What If We Cool Down the Sun? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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16 sentences

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Let's make the sun 30 % cooler.

Turning down the sun's heat makes it 75 % dimmer.

That's because hot objects lose their power much faster than temperature.

As it cools, the sun emits fewer photons.

These have longer wavelengths and less energy, turning our sun orangey -red.

The drop in solar power would be the least of our worries.

Plants usually feed on red and blue light, but this visible light gets weaker and the now dominant infrared light tends to bounce off.

Vegetation as we know it ceases to exist, with severe consequences for everything from insects to crops.

We could probably survive for a year or two before stockpiles ran out, but we'd freeze long before that.

Within a week, temperatures on the surface drop by around 10 degrees, though the oceans hold on to some stored heat.

But after a year, the average temperature falls well below zero,

Ice spreads from the poles and glaciers begin to form on almost every mountain range as the entire ocean surface freezes over.

And as ice and snow reflect more sunlight back into space than soil, it gets even colder.

Geothermal areas like

Iceland with 38 -degree thermal springs are now the only safe spots on this snowball Earth.

On the bright side, you'll never need another pair of shades.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “What If We Cool Down the Sun?”. This video has 16 sentences and 215 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:17. The speaker talks at a natural 167 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
freeze verb	/ˈfɹiːz/	Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
soil noun	/sɔɪl/	A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
reflect verb	/ɹɪˈflɛkt/	To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface.
visible adjective	/ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/	Able to be seen.
fewer	/ˈfjuː.ɚ/	Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer
dominant adjective	/ˈdɑmənənt/	Ruling; governing; prevailing
pole noun	/pəʊl/	Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
shade noun	/ʃeɪd/	Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
crop noun	/kɹɑp/	A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
consequence noun	/ˈkɑn.sɪ.kwəns/	An effect; something that follows a cause as a result.
thermal adjective	/ˈθɜːməl/	Pertaining to heat or temperature.
cease verb	/sis/	To stop.
bounce verb	/baʊns/	To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
weaker adjective	/ˈwikɚ/	Said of one proposition with respect to another one: that the latter entails the former, but the former does not entail the latter.
sunlight noun	/ˈsʌnˌlaɪt/	All the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun; especially, that in the visible spectrum and that bathes the Earth.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
bounce off verb	To test (ideas) on someone.
run out verb	To use up or consume all
turn down verb	To refuse, decline, or deny.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things	faster than
Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction	you'll never need

Pronunciation to watch

The “th” sounds: thermal /ˈθɜːməl/, wavelength /ˈweɪvˌlɛŋ(k)θ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shade /ʃeɪd/, vegetation /ˌvɛd͡ʒəˈteɪʃən/, glacier /ˈɡleɪ.ʃɚ/

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 freeze, soil, reflect.

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: What If We Cool Down the Sun? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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