Shadowing Practice: Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
The mixer tap.
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Brilliant invention, and yet something that seems to have passed Britain by.
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You'll get Americans coming over here and asking why our taps look like they're from the 1940s.
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And even here, in my parents' bathroom, I'm visiting my folks this weekend, and I just have a new bathroom put in.
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Separate hot and cold taps.
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And there are all sorts of theories out there about why that might be, generally revolving around that we're British and stiff upper lip, and, you know, we don't need mixer taps, we've never had them and,
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well, that's partly true, but it also goes back to how houses in Britain were constructed after World War II.
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In most old British houses, there's a cold -water storage tank up in the attic.
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It's reasonably sized, about 250 litres, and that, in turn, feeds a hot -water storage tank that's for the central heating
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and for hot water in the bathroom and the kitchen and so on.
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But the trouble is, that might not be entirely safe drinking water, because that cold water storage tank, in some houses that weren't properly maintained,
12
might have been open to the elements, or silted up, or covered with iron rust, or in one particular case that you can read about, have a couple of dead rats floating in it.
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That water might technically not be drinkable, and under the regulations it is not counted as drinking water.
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The cold, meanwhile, at least certainly in the kitchen and sometimes the bathroom too, that cold water comes straight from the mains.
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That counts as drinkable.
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So here's the thing, you have cold, safe, the regulations call it wholesome drinking water, and you have, well, almost certainly safe,
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but not technically, not legally under the regulations, hot water.
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And never the twain shall meet.
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If you have a mixer tap, then technically, the unsafe hot water, in worst -case scenario where there's a backwash valve failure and the mains turns off,
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that unsafe water could go back, backwash through all the systems and go out to contaminate the rest of the street or the rest of the water system.
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That's not legal, therefore, no mixer tap.
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You don't cross the streams.
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Nowadays, of course, it's a little bit different.
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This house had its hot water tank ripped out a few months ago.
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The attic is now just a big empty space again.
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And, well, there's a very modern, shiny bit of technology downstairs that heats up water on demand.
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All new -build houses, go this way, they've got mixer taps, it'll be absolutely fine.
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But, I remember being told as a kid, never drink from the hot water tap.
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And that stuck with me.
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Even now, if there is a mixer tap and I want to drink from it, I will run the cold water for a few seconds, just to make sure that anything that's unsafe has come out of it.
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Even now, old habits die hard, and sometimes these things just feel a bit safer.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: tap, cold, hot, mixer, bathroom. This video has 32 sentences and 510 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:49. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| mixer noun | /ˈmɪksə(ɹ)/ | One who, or a device that, mixes or merges things together. |
| unsafe adjective | /ʌnˈseɪf/ | Not safe (various senses); dangerous. |
| technically adverb | /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/ | Based on precise facts, which, however, may be contrary to common belief or casual terminology. |
| backwash noun | /ˈbæk.wɑʃ/ | A backward flow of water, as from oars, a propeller, breaking waves, etc. |
| drinkable adjective | /ˈdɹɪŋk.ə.bəl/ | Able to be drunk (as liquid). |
| attic noun | /ˈætɪk/ | The space, often unfinished and with sloped walls, directly below the roof in the uppermost part of a house or other building, generally used for storage or… |
| contaminate verb | /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/ | To make something dangerous or toxic by introducing impurities or foreign matter. |
| revolve verb | /ɹɪˈvɑlv/ | To cause (something) to turn around a central point. |
| litre noun | /ˈli.tɚ/ | The metric unit of fluid measure, equal to one cubic decimetre. Symbol: L, l, or ℓ. |
| wholesome adjective | /ˈhoʊl.səm/ | Promoting good physical health and well-being. |
| downstairs adverb | /daʊnˈstɛɹz/ | Down the stairs. |
| rust noun | /ɹʌst/ | The deteriorated state of iron or steel as a result of moisture and oxidation; it consists mostly of iron(III) oxide (ferric oxide) and iron(II) oxide (ferrous… |
| stiff adjective | /stɪf/ | Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible. |
| float verb | /fləʊt/ | To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object). |
| construct verb | /ˈkɑn.stɹʌkt/ | To build or form (something) by assembling parts. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| heat up verb | To heat, to cause to become hotter. |
| rip out verb | To remove by ripping |
| turn off verb | To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.). |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, it'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: backwash /ˈbæk.wɑʃ/, invention /ɪnˈvɛnʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, contaminate /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/, reasonably /ˈɹiː.zən.ə.bli/
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 mixer, unsafe, technically.
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.