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Shadowing practice: Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.'s absence raises broader questions about Congress

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. Well, primary voters in New Jersey last night also finalized the race for one of the nation's most competitive seats, and one of the most unusual, because the incumbent Republican,0:00
  2. Congressman Tom Cain Jr., hasn't been seen on the campaign trail or Capitol Hill for months.0:10
  3. As congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports, his absence raises broader questions.0:16
  4. Whoever else has come by Congressman Tom Cain's Capitol Hill office for the past three months, he was not one of them.0:23
  5. What do we know about where he is or not?0:30
  6. We really don't know anything.0:33
  7. Benjamin Hewlach is the Washington correspondent for NJ Spotlight.0:34
  8. Tell us the status of Congressman Cain right now.0:37
  9. Wish I could.0:41
  10. I'm not trying to be oblique, but he last voted in the House on March 5 and has not been seen in public since.0:42
  11. And the only thing I've gotten out of his office is that he has a personal medical issue.0:50
  12. This was Cain's last known day in Washington.0:55
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  1. He appeared at a committee hearing.0:58
  2. I heard my colleagues to support this legislation.1:00
  3. Cain waited until late April to issue a cryptic statement, writing that a doctor forecast full recovery very soon.1:03
  4. I asked House Speaker Mike Johnson about this today.1:11
  5. As soon as he's ready to talk about that, you're all going to breathe a sigh of relief and say that makes sense.1:14
  6. What he's dealing with is something very common and not a big thing.1:20
  7. Cain's has been the longest, but not the only absence this year.1:23
  8. Democrat Fredriga Wilson, who's retiring, has missed a month of votes, eventually saying she had eye surgery.1:29
  9. Republican Julia Letlow missed two weeks of votes as she campaigned for U .S.1:36
  10. Senate.1:39
  11. These are 212.1:40
  12. The nays are 212.1:41
  13. The concurrent resolution is not adopted.1:42
  14. This all led to a tie, a near win for Democrats on a statement vote last month to end the war in Iran.1:44
  15. So far this year, the House has been in session 76 days.1:52
  16. Congressman Cain has missed more than half of that.1:56
  17. But many days, a dozen or more are absent in a one or two -vote margin Congress.1:58
  18. As the legislation becomes more important, in my case for appropriation bills, every vote counts.2:05
  19. I represent 772 ,047 individuals, Republicans, Democrats, independents, and they expect me to show up to my job.2:11
  20. Voters, by and large, are very, very understanding.2:19
  21. What upsets them is when there's a lack of transparency.2:22
  22. Now both parties need every single member to be there on every single vote.2:26
  23. Ellie Powell of University of Wisconsin -Madison studies when members miss votes and points out that Congress used to issue internal penalties for missed votes.2:31
  24. And stronger local journalism was a factor.2:41
  25. Sort of as an earlier era of congressional history, where your local paper would post how many votes you had missed and it would be really embarrassing during a campaign,2:43
  26. Congress has just sort of stopped caring.2:54
  27. The public has started noticing.2:56
  28. Two years ago, the Dallas Express discovered Congresswoman Kate Granger had been living in an assisted living facility.2:59
  29. She had not voted in Congress for six months.3:05
  30. The rules of the House require that members be present for votes unless they have a formal or necessary excuse.3:08
  31. They can put in for an official leave of absence, but rarely do.3:15
  32. House leaders can reprimand members with fines, but these days, they never do.3:19
  33. And what we're seeing now is that members are disappearing for weeks at a time and just they just don't seem to be involved in the process.3:24
  34. Our next witness is Daniel Schumann.3:30
  35. Daniel Schumann directs the Nonpartisan American Governance Institute and is expert in congressional accountability.3:32
  36. Reasons abound for absences, Colorado's Brittany Peterson missed votes to give birth.3:38
  37. Others like Thomas Massey or Chip Roy have missed votes while in competitive primaries.3:43
  38. But add to that something harder to track, motivation.3:48
  39. This arises from like just sort of the member sense of personal responsibility, but it also arises from institutional incentives in the chamber where most of the laws are being3:53
  40. written by leadership.4:02
  41. Polling shows Americans' opinion of Capitol Hill is near historic lows.4:04
  42. And as a branch, Congress is facing unprecedented challenges from President Trump.4:09
  43. While most members are showing up to work, the problem of those who aren't undermine its power.4:14
  44. They should be engaged in lawmaking.4:19
  45. They should be engaged in debate.4:21
  46. Cain was unopposed and won his primary last night.4:23
  47. He posted on social media that he plans to be back within weeks and then will be completely transparent about his condition.4:26
  48. But for now, NJ Spotlights Benjamin Hulak is covering a campaign for Congress where the Republican nominee is absent.4:34
  49. And when you're absent, you just don't really give a yardstick to voters about how to judge you.4:41
  50. And in modern times, voters are the only ones who decide if absent members get penalized.4:47
  51. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardins.4:53
  52. Support journalism you trust.5:07
  53. Support PBS News.5:09
  54. Donate now or even better.5:11
  55. Start a monthly contribution today.5:14

American accent training with a PBS NewsHour report on a missing congressman

This clip is narration, a PBS NewsHour segment about Congressman Tom Kean Jr.'s long absence from Capitol Hill. It is rated B2 and read at 183 words per minute, faster than 48 percent of the catalogue, so it is a real test of pace, not a slowed down teaching clip. The voice is a professional American broadcast register: correspondent Lisa Desjardins narrating over quotes from a Washington reporter, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and a fellow congressman. Good material for english speaking practice because the tone stays even and controlled from start to finish.

What is actually happening: a competitive New Jersey primary has just been decided, and the incumbent has not been seen in public for months. The report stitches together a reporter's uncertainty, a cryptic statement from the congressman's office, and a colleague's defense of him, all inside a fairly dense two minutes. That density, more than the vocabulary, is what makes it worth practising speaking out loud.

The colloquial turns worth an english shadowing practice pass

Three or four lines carry most of the interest here, and none of them are simple statements read at a crawl.

  • "I'm not trying to be oblique, but he last voted in the House on March 5 and has not been seen in public since." A hedge, oblique, followed by a long factual clause with no pause. Shadow this line for the way the speaker keeps momentum through the comma.
  • "As soon as he's ready to talk about that, you're all going to breathe a sigh of relief and say that makes sense." The idiom breathe a sigh of relief sits inside a run on sentence with three clauses chained together. Good for practising rhythm across a long breath.
  • "We really don't know anything." Four words, flat and blunt, with the stress landing hard on really. Useful for the falling intonation of a plain denial.
  • "As the legislation becomes more important, in my case for appropriation bills, every vote counts." A technical word, appropriation, dropped into an otherwise plain sentence. Say it on its own first, then rebuild the full line around it.

Working through this B2 american english news clip line by line

This is a case where order matters, because the story only makes sense once you have heard the setup.

  • Read line 1 once before you press play, so the sentence shape, primary voters in New Jersey last night also finalized the race, is already in your head.
  • Take line 6, "We really don't know anything," on its own and repeat it five times, matching the flat delivery rather than adding your own emphasis.
  • Move to line 10 and shadow it twice slowly, then once at full speed, watching for how little the pace drops for the word oblique.
  • Practise line 17 as one continuous breath. If you run out of air before makes sense, the pace was too slow at the start of the line.
  • Finish on line 30, "As the legislation becomes more important, in my case for appropriation bills, every vote counts," and say appropriation on its own before running the full line at speed.
  • Once those five lines feel solid, play lines 1 through 20 straight through as ongoing english listening practice, without pausing to fix mistakes.
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