Shadowing practice: The Hidden Code in the Mars Landing #shorts
Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Full transcript
- You may have noticed the weirdly patterned parachute in NASA's recently released landing footage on Mars.0:00
- One eagle -eyed Twitter user figured out how to decode the secret message that lay within that pattern, by assuming these red and white panels were coding for binary ones0:05
- and zeros.0:15
- Let's see what the innermost ring says.0:16
- The ring is split into eight equal sections, each representing 10 -bit sequences.0:18
- These sequences are coding for numbers, a simple number cipher, where the numbers represent letters in the alphabet.0:23
- These sections have numbers higher than 26 and are assumed to be junk code.0:30
- Translating this then provides the word dare.0:35
- The first word in JPL's motto, dare mighty things.0:38
- And indeed, mighty things are both coded into the next two concentric circles of the shoot.0:41
- The outermost section is a mixture of numbers and letters and provides us with the GPS coordinates for JPL's lab in Pasadena, California.0:47
English speaking practice with a B2 Irish narration on the Mars parachute code
This clip gives you english speaking practice built around a single Irish voice explaining how a Twitter user decoded a hidden message in NASA's Mars landing parachute. At 181 words per minute the pace is quick, faster than most of the catalogue, so you are shadowing a real explainer speed rather than slowed down textbook audio.
It sits at B2, and all eleven lines stay on one topic: a patterned parachute, a ring of binary, a word, then a set of coordinates. That makes it useful if you want to improve english speaking on connected, information heavy narration instead of short disconnected sentences, and to get used to an Irish accent on top of the American and British voices most learners hear first.
The language in this Mars parachute recording
A few lines are worth slowing down on before you try them at full speed.
- "You may have noticed the weirdly patterned parachute in NASA's recently released landing footage on Mars." One long sentence with no pause marks in the audio, a good line for practising how to pronounce english words back to back without dropping the ends of them.
- "One eagle -eyed Twitter user figured out how to decode the secret message that lay within that pattern, by assuming these red and white panels were coding for binary ones" carries the phrasal verb figured out and the compressed compound eagle eyed, both said fast and run into the next word.
- "Let's see what the innermost ring says." is short and flat in intonation, useful as a warm up line before the longer ones.
- "Translating this then provides the word dare." and "The first word in JPL's motto, dare mighty things." are the punchiest lines in the clip, each stressed word landing hard, which makes them good for isolating word stress in your own recording.
How to shadow this B2 clip line by line
Work through the eleven lines in this order rather than jumping straight to the fast ones.
- Start on line 4, "Let's see what the innermost ring says." It is short and gives you the narrator's baseline rhythm before the harder material.
- Take line 1, "You may have noticed the weirdly patterned parachute in NASA's recently released landing footage on Mars," and break it at natural word groups: noticed, patterned parachute, landing footage on Mars.
- Shadow line 2 in two passes: first at half speed to get "figured out how to decode the secret message" clean, then at full speed to match the 181 words per minute pace of the recording.
- Finish on lines 8 and 9, "Translating this then provides the word dare" and "The first word in JPL's motto, dare mighty things." Record yourself on these two and compare your stress on dare against the narrator's.
- Once those four points hold, run the full eleven lines straight through as one english shadowing practice pass and listen back for where your pace drifts from the original.
