Shadowing practice: Top 10 UK Google Searches in 2020 | Easy English 58

This clip is a British host counting down the most googled UK search terms of 2020, from Kim Jong un to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. It sits at B1 and moves at 169 words per minute, which is quicker than most of the catalogue, so it is a good test of whether your ear can keep pace with real british english pronunciation practice rather than slowed down teaching audio.

The subject matter shifts every few lines: a North Korea scare, a basketball star's death, a government dining scheme, a Prime Minister's year. That constant topic change is exactly what makes it useful for english speaking practice. You are not repeating one story shape five times, you are training your ear to reset fast, the same skill you need for daily British news, podcasts and conversation.

The host writes in full news sentences, not casual chat, so the vocabulary and rhythm are worth studying line by line.

• "The highly decorated basketball star died in a Southern helicopter crash in January." A single clean clause with formal word choice. Say it as one breath group, the way a newsreader would, and you get the stress pattern of a British news read for free.
• "Eat Out to Help Out was a scheme created by the government to encourage customers back into restaurants, bars and cafes in August." Long but grammatically simple, built from one main clause plus a purpose infinitive. Good for practising how a British speaker keeps a long sentence intelligible by leaning on a few stressed words.
• "Baffling with decisions on saving the economy or lives, customers would receive a 50 % discount worth up to £10 a person on meals at many participating outlets from Mondays" runs on into the next numbered line before the transcript even reaches a full stop. Shadow it exactly as split, pausing where the host pauses, and you will hear how a British speaker holds a sentence together across a breath.
• "The seventh most googled thing in 2020 was Bojo Johnson." Short and punchy right after two long sentences. Notice how much lighter and faster the delivery gets once the grammar simplifies.

Work the countdown in short stretches rather than end to end, since the topic resets every few lines anyway.

• Start with line 9, the Kobe Bryant sentence. It is short and grammatically plain, a safe warm up before the pace picks up.
• Move to line 14, the Eat Out to Help Out sentence. Read it once silently to see the shape, then shadow this line out loud three times before checking your score.
• Take lines 15 and 16 together as one unit, since the sentence itself spans both. This is the hardest stretch in the opening section, so slow the clip down first if the app allows it, then bring it back to full 169 words a minute speed once you can keep up.
• Finish on line 18, the short Bojo Johnson line, and compare how much easier it feels after the long sentence before it. That contrast is the whole point of this english shadowing practice: your mouth has to switch speed as fast as the content does.
• Repeat those four lines as one set, then move on to the next topic in the countdown rather than trying to master all 56 lines in one sitting.