Shadowing Practice: Your Life Now Vs. In The Past - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Times feel rough, with natural disasters, major political conflicts, and uncertainty about the future.
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But as the memes roll in about it being a horrible time to be alive, you might be surprised to see your life now versus what it would have been in the past.
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Much of history actually involves humans succumbing to malnutrition and hunger.
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In ancient Egypt, a severe drought could hit and 5-10% of the entire population would die.
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Of course, things aren't perfect today, with 11% of even France suffering from food insecurity, which means their diet is limited due to socio-economic status,
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and they eat less nutritious foods and excess amounts of carbohydrates and salt, but compare this to the years of 1692 to 1694,
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when 15% of France's population literally died because food was simply too expensive.
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Today, while millions do suffer from malnutrition, advancements in technology, government agencies and NGOs help to ensure that most are not dying.
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In fact, for the first time in human history, more people are overweight than suffering from malnutrition.
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As Homo sapiens began to live in cities, there was a massive increase in disease.
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In the 1330s, a horrifying outbreak of what they believed were demons, bad air, or angry gods killed 75 to 200 million people.
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We now realize it was the flea-dwelling bacterium Yersinia pestis, known historically as the Black Plague.
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But at the time, people really had no idea what was killing them.
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In 1520, a Spanish flotilla heading to Mexico had an individual on it carrying an early case of smallpox virus.
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Within two months, the disease had killed one third of Mexico's population.
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In the following years, there were so many infectious disease outbreaks in Mexico
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that the population fell from 22 million to 2 million over the course of only 60 years.
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People were constantly dying of disease, and nobody knew how to cure them.
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Remedies at the time included praying, having cold baths, or rubbing black beetles on sores.
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Even as recently as 1918, the Spanish flu spread internationally, and within a few months, one-third of the entire world population was infected,
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and 3-5% of the world died.
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Today, most of our flu worries are based around the pain of needles.
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Modern medicine saves millions of lives.
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The smallpox vaccine fully eradicated the disease from our planet.
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When diseases like SARS or Ebola appear, and the world prepares for a severe public health emergency, far fewer people die due to international organization,
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modern technology, and continued advancements in medicine.
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When Europe colonized the Americas, an estimated 100 million people died, though precolonization populations of indigenous people is not well documented,
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making some estimates millions higher.
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As many as 85 million people died in World War II, and in ancient agricultural societies, human violence caused 15% of all deaths.
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Today, human violence accounts for around 1% of deaths.
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In 2012, only 120,000 people died in war, whereas 1.5 million died of diabetes.
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For the first time in human history, when most people consider the future, they don't assume war.
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As we look to this year, while there is still starvation, disease, war and inequalities, it's drastically better than most of human history.
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But we must continue to be critical of our governments, challenge companies and rethink the way human society is structured in order to continue progress.
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By acknowledging the successful human efforts in medical research, economic reform, peace initiatives and governmental support to decrease starvation,
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disease and violence, we can find hope for the future.
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Hope is a valuable notion to focus on as we look for a way to be content in a world that, at times, can seem so overwhelmingly bad.
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If you could use a little light-hearted fun, check out our latest t-shirt design, The Rotation of the Earth Makes My Day,
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which we just launched and is available for the next two weeks only at asapscience.com slash merch.
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We really appreciate all the support through the years and couldn't make these videos without you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Your Life Now Vs. In The Past”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: disease, population, died, malnutrition, violence. This video has 42 sentences and 692 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:01. The speaker talks at a natural 172 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| malnutrition noun | /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/ | A lack of adequate nourishment. |
| smallpox noun | /ˈsmɔlpɑks/ | An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s, but still exists… |
| starvation noun | /stɑɹˈveɪʃən/ | A condition of severe suffering due to a lack of nutrition. |
| advancement noun | /ædˈvæns.mənt/ | The act of advancing; promotion to a higher place or dignity |
| outbreak noun | /ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/ | An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc. |
| bacterium noun | /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/ | A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles. |
| carbohydrate noun | /kɑɹboʊˈhaɪdɹeɪt/ | A sugar, starch, or cellulose that is a food source of energy for an animal or plant. |
| colonize verb | /ˈkɑlənaɪz/ | To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony. |
| eradicate verb | /əˈræd.əˌkeɪt/ | To destroy completely; to reduce to nothing radically; to put an end to. |
| flotilla noun | /floʊˈtɪlə/ | A small fleet of warships (usually of the same class), or a fleet of small ships. |
| horrify verb | /ˈhɒɹɪfaɪ/ | To cause to feel extreme apprehension or unease; to cause to experience horror. |
| infect verb | /ɪnˈfɛkt/ | To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a… |
| nutritious adjective | /nuːˈtɹɪʃəs/ | Providing nutrients; healthy to eat or drink. |
| pestis noun | Plague. | |
| rethink verb | /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/ | To think again about something, with the intention of changing or replacing it. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as aren't, couldn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: malnutrition /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, starvation /stɑɹˈveɪʃən/, nutritious /nuːˈtɹɪʃəs/, infectious /ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/, notion /ˈnoʊʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: malnutrition /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, carbohydrate /kɑɹboʊˈhaɪdɹeɪt/, eradicate /əˈræd.əˌkeɪt/, overwhelmingly /ˌəʊ.vəˈwɛl.mɪŋ.lɪ/, governmental /ˌɡʌvɚnˈmɛnt(ə)l/
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 malnutrition, smallpox, starvation.
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.