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Shadowing practice: The Bear and the Bee - US English accent (TheFableCottage.com)

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

Full transcript

  1. The Bear and the Bee A version of the tale by TheFableCottage .com Everybody knows that bears love honey.0:00
  2. One day, Mr.0:14
  3. Bear looks in his cupboard and...0:15
  4. He can't find any honey.0:18
  5. Oh no, no honey, he says.0:21
  6. So he goes into the forest to find some.0:26
  7. He sees a beehive in a tree.0:32
  8. He smells the honey.0:36
  9. Mmm, honey!0:39
  10. He sticks his paw into the beehive and...0:41
  11. Zzzzz!0:46
  12. A bee flies out.0:47
Show all 74 lines Show fewer lines
  1. Hey, bear, go away!0:50
  2. says the bee.0:52
  3. This is not your honey.0:54
  4. Mr.0:57
  5. Bear is annoyed.0:58
  6. I am bigger than you, he says.0:59
  7. And I am stronger than you too.1:03
  8. I can do what I want.1:06
  9. Now buzz off.1:08
  10. Mr.1:10
  11. Bear sticks his paw into the beehive again.1:10
  12. And zzzzz.1:14
  13. Zwoing.1:17
  14. Owie.1:18
  15. The bee stings him right on his nose.1:19
  16. My nose!1:23
  17. My nose!1:25
  18. I'm so angry!1:27
  19. growls Mr.1:29
  20. Bear.1:30
  21. He finds a big stick.1:31
  22. He tries to hit the bee.1:34
  23. He swings and he swings, but the bee is too fast.1:37
  24. Mr.1:42
  25. Bear gets angrier and angrier.1:43
  26. I will squash you!1:47
  27. Come here!1:50
  28. The bee flies back into the beehive.1:51
  29. Aha!1:55
  30. Now you're trapped, yells Mr.1:56
  31. Bear.1:59
  32. He swings his stick at the beehive.2:00
  33. Smash!2:03
  34. Smash!2:04
  35. Smash!2:05
  36. He smashes it to pieces.2:06
  37. Then he hears a strange sound.2:09
  38. It gets louder and louder.2:12
  39. Thousands of bees fly out of the smashed beehive.2:22
  40. They fly around Mr.2:26
  41. Bear's head.2:29
  42. They sting him on his ear.2:32
  43. They sting him on his elbow.2:37
  44. They chase Mr.2:40
  45. Bear through the forest.2:41
  46. They sting him on his arms, his legs, his hands, and especially on his nose.2:42
  47. Mr.2:51
  48. Bear runs all the way home and slams the door shut.2:52
  49. Bam!2:56
  50. Then he hears a voice behind him.2:59
  51. It's Mrs.3:02
  52. Bear.3:03
  53. You did it again, didn't you?3:04
  54. she says.3:06
  55. You lost your temper.3:08
  56. Yes, he says as he cries and counts his bee stings.3:11
  57. Here's the bee sting medicine, says Mrs.3:17
  58. Bear.3:20
  59. Also, we have honey in the cupboard.3:21
  60. It's behind the flower.3:23
  61. Moral.3:28
  62. A hot temper always gets you into trouble.3:29

An A2 American narration paced for beginner English shadowing practice

This clip retells the fable of the bear and the bee, read in an American accent at 136 words per minute, faster than most of the beginner material in this catalogue. It sits at A2, so sentences stay short and the vocabulary stays plain: paw, beehive, stings, swings. Across 74 lines the story moves quickly from a hungry bear to a swarm of angry bees, which gives you plenty of short, repeatable lines for english speaking practice.

The pace is what makes it worth shadowing rather than just reading along. At 136 words per minute the narrator does not pause to let each sentence sink in, so your mouth has to keep up the way it would in real speech. The plot is simple and visual: a bear wants honey, ignores a warning, gets stung, loses his temper, and smashes a beehive, so even at A2 you always know what the next line will say, which frees you to focus on how it sounds rather than what it means.

Three lines that reward American accent pronunciation practice

The dialogue sits inside a narrator's voice, so shadowing this clip means switching between two registers on the same page: the flat storytelling lines and the sharper, more emotional lines the bear and bee actually say.

  • "He sticks his paw into the beehive and" ends mid breath before the buzzing sound effect, so the narrator's voice trails upward. Practise holding the phrase in one breath and letting the pitch lift right where the line stops.
  • "He swings and he swings, but the bee is too fast." repeats the same verb twice before the turn on "but", which is where the stress lands hardest. Say the repetition flat, then push "too fast" out with more force to match the American accent's contrastive stress.
  • "You did it again, didn't you?" is Mrs. Bear's line, a tag question with rising intonation on "didn't you". It sits right next to "You lost your temper.", a flat statement with no rise at all, so the two lines back to back are a small drill in improving your english accent on question versus statement pitch.

How to shadow the bear and the bee fable line by line

Work through the recording in the order the story happens rather than jumping around, since each stretch trains a different part of the accent.

  • Start at line 1, the title sentence, and slow it down to get the vowel in "honey" and the rhythm of "Everybody knows that bears love honey" before speeding back up to 136 words per minute.
  • Take lines 10 to 13, where the bear's paw goes into the beehive and the bee shouts "Hey, bear, go away!", and shadow the shift from calm narration into the bee's sharp, short warning.
  • Loop line 35, "He swings and he swings, but the bee is too fast.", on its own until the double verb and the stressed ending come out without you thinking about them.
  • Pair line 65 with line 67 and say them back to back, since the rising question and the flat statement right after are the clearest intonation contrast in the whole clip.
  • Close on line 74, the one line moral "A hot temper always gets you into trouble.", and repeat it five or six times: a short, complete sentence like this is the easiest kind to turn into fluent, automatic english speaking.
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