Shadowing Practice: What Is Life? Is Death Real? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Life is fundamentally different from dead stuff, or is it?
2
Physicist Erwin Schrödinger defined life this way.
3
Living things avoid decay into disorder and equilibrium.
4
What does this mean?
5
Let's pretend that your download folder is the universe.
6
It started orderly and got more and more chaotic over time.
7
By investing energy, you can create order and clean it up.
8
This is what living things do.
9
But what is life?
10
Every living thing on this planet is made of cells.
11
Basically, a cell is a protein -based robot too small to feel or experience anything.
12
It has the properties we just assigned to life.
13
It has a wall that separates it from the surroundings creating order.
14
It regulates itself and maintains a constant state.
15
It eats stuff to stay alive, it grows and develops, it reacts to the environment, and it's subject to evolution,
16
and it makes more of itself.
17
But of all the stuff that makes up a cell, no part is alive.
18
Stuff reacts chemically with other stuff, forming reactions that start other reactions, which start other reactions.
19
In a single cell, every second, several million chemical reactions take place, forming a complex orchestra.
20
A cell can build several thousand types of protein, some very simple, some complex micromachines.
21
Imagine driving a car at 100 km an hour
22
while constantly rebuilding every single part of it with stuff you collect from the street.
23
That is what cells do.
24
But no part of the cell is alive, everything is dead matter moved by the laws of the universe.
25
So is life the aggregate of all these reaction processes that are taking place?
26
Eventually, every living thing will die.
27
The goal of the whole process is to prevent this by producing new entities.
28
And by this, we mean DNA.
29
Life is, in a way, just a lot of stuff that carries genetic information around.
30
Every living thing is subject to evolution, and the DNA that develops the best living thing around it will stay in the game.
31
So, is DNA life then?
32
If you take DNA out of its hull, it certainly is a very complex molecule, but it can't do anything by itself.
33
This is where viruses make everything more complicated.
34
They are basically strings of RNA or DNA in a small hull and need cells to do something.
35
We're not sure if they count as living or dead.
36
And still, there are 225 million cubic meters of viruses on Earth.
37
They don't seem to care what we think of them.
38
There are even viruses that invade dead cells and reanimate them so they can be a host for them, which blurs the line even more. Or mitochondria.
39
They are the power plants of most complex cells and were previously free -living bacteria that entered a partnership with bigger cells.
40
They still have their own DNA and can multiply on their own, but they are not alive anymore they are dead
41
so they traded their own life for the survival of their DNA
42
which means living things can evolve into dead things as long as it's beneficial to their genetic code
43
so maybe life is information that manages to ensure its continued existence
44
but what about AI artificial intelligence by our most common definitions we are very close to creating artificial life in computers
45
It's just a question of time before the technology we build gets there.
46
And this is not science fiction either.
47
There are a lot of smart people actively working on this.
48
You could already argue that computer viruses are alive.
49
Hmm, okay, so what is life then?
50
Things?
51
Processes?
52
DNA?
53
Information?
54
This got confusing very fast.
55
One thing is for sure, the idea that life is fundamentally different from non -living things
56
because they contain some non -physical element or are governed by different principles than inanimate objects turns out to be wrong.
57
Before Charles Darwin, humans drew a line between themselves and the rest of living things.
58
There was something magical about us that made us special.
59
Once we had to accept we are, like every living being, a product of evolution, we drew a different line.
60
But the more we learn about what computers can do and how life works, the closer we get to creating the first machine that fits our description of life,
61
the more our image of ourselves is in danger again.
62
And this will happen sooner or later.
63
and here's another question for you
64
if everything in the universe is made of the same stuff does this mean everything in the universe is dead
65
or that everything in the universe is alive
66
that it's just a question of complexity does this mean we can never die
67
because we were never alive in the first place is life
68
and death an irrelevant question
69
and we haven't noticed it yet is it possible we are
70
much more part of the universe around us than we thought
71
don't look at us we We don't have any answers for you, just questions for you to think about.
72
After all, it's thinking about questions like this that makes us feel alive and gives us some comfort.
📺 Same Channel
C1106
Can Earth Run Out of Water?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C1536
What If You Never Slept?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
Your Skeleton Is Electric
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C171
Could Humans Evolve Flight?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
Would You Upload Your Mind?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C164
What the Flu Does to Your Body
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
Your Brain on Magic Mushrooms
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C17
3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Terrible! 2/3
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
We Finally Know More About Humanity’s First Civilization
Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students
C1148
How Antidepressants Work
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
Is War Over? — A Paradox Explained
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C1757
How Stress Changes Your Brain
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
How ADHD Medication Works
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
The Most Complex Language in the World
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C14
Your Brain Peaked at Birth
University StudentsWorking Adults
C170
We Won’t Explore the Galaxy...
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B25
Let’s Steal a New Moon
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
What Happens AFTER Nuclear War?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! 3/3
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C14
Why Ebola Keeps Coming Back
University StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
C11
190 sentences
Most People Waste Their Life Without Realizing It | Naval Ravikant
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C148
66 sentences
What science can’t answer, according to physicist Jim Al-Khalili | Big Think
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C17
77 sentences
The True Meaning Of Life (Animated Cinematic)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
114 sentences
There's a Giant Hole In Earth's History
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
530 sentences
Human Immortality 4K | Can Science Defeat Aging?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
216 sentences
What’s In a Name?
University StudentsWorking Adults
C1158 sentences
Introduction to Biology: Crash Course Biology #1
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
C111
24 sentences
Do you understand your own life? | Yuval Noah Harari
University StudentsWorking Adults
B21
165 sentences
Philomena Cunk vs Prof. Jim Al Khalili CBE (2025 Edition)
British AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
618 sentences
2. Foundations: This Is Your Brain
University StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 72 sentences and 861 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:32. The speaker talks at a natural 156 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| virus noun | /ˈvaɪ.ɹəs/ | A submicroscopic, non-cellular structure that consists of a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat, that requires a living host cell to replicate, and… |
| evolution noun | /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/ | A manoeuvre of troops or ships. |
| genetic adjective | /d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/ | Relating to genetics or genes. |
| artificial adjective | /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Man-made; made by humans; of artifice. |
| react verb | /ɹiːˈækt/ | To act in response. |
| hull noun | /hʌl/ | The outer covering of a fruit or seed. |
| fundamentally adverb | In a fundamental or basic sense; reaching the very core of the matter. | |
| partnership noun | /ˈpɑɹtnɚʃɪp/ | The state of being associated with a partner. |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| fiction noun | /ˈfɪkʃən/ | Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose. |
| comfort noun | /ˈkʌm.fət/ | Contentment, ease. |
| string noun | /stɹɪŋ/ | A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together. |
| collect verb | /ˈkɑlɪkt/ | To gather together; amass. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, can't, haven't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, partnership /ˈpɑɹtnɚʃɪp/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
- Long words — get the stress right: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, entity /ˈɛn.tə.ti/ [-tʰi], beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
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 virus, evolution, genetic.
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.