Shadowing Practice: The Ugly Duckling | Full Story | Fairytale | Bedtime Stories For Kids | 4K UHD - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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The Ugly Duckling On a beautiful summer day, a family of ducks is taking a swim while another is enjoying a stroll by the bank.
141 sentences
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The Ugly Duckling On a beautiful summer day, a family of ducks is taking a swim while another is enjoying a stroll by the bank.
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But one duck is sitting on her eggs among the tall leaves.
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I wonder when my babies are going to come out.
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They are taking so long to hatch!
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It is so lonely, no one has the time to visit me.
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But Mommy duck didn’t have to wait too long.
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Soon the eggs started cracking and the little ducklings started taking small unsteady steps out of their shells.
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Quack quack, quack quack.
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Oooh, my babies are so beautiful!
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Now come and line up here all of you.
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One..Two..Three..Four…Five..Hey, there should be one more.
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Mother duck looked around, and saw one egg which had not yet hatched I think I will have to sit again on this egg till it hatches.
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It seems pretty large.
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Soon the last egg hatched, but the duckling that crept out was large and ugly.
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This little fellow doesn’t look like his brothers and sisters.
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The next day, Mother Duck leads her brood to the water.
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Oh! I am proud today that my ducklings are swimming so well!
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And how well the youngest one is swimming.
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Come on kids, that’s enough for today.
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We must get to the farm before it turns dark.
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The duck family makes its way to the farmhouse, where there are lots of other ducks.
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What is that strange looking creature doing here?
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The other ducklings are so cute but this one is so big and ugly.
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He is ugly. We don’t want him here.
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That’s not a nice thing to say.
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He is still small, and I’m sure he will grow up to be beautiful too.
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But the other ducklings continued to bully and make fun of the ugly duckling.
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I hope the ducklings stop this nonsense.
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I can’t bear to see that poor child looking so sad.
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But as days went by, things started becoming worse for the ugly duckling.
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Wherever he went, everyone was mean to him.
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Have you ever seen anything uglier than this?
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Ugh!! Seeing this creature in the morning, my day will also be as ugly as he is.
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Ha..Ha…he seems to be getting uglier by the day.
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The Ugly Duckling just wanted to hide somewhere and cry.
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Even his brothers and sisters were rude to him.
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Mother Duck was very sad to see everyone treat the ugly ducking so badly.
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Nobody wants to talk to me or play with me because I am ugly.
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I will run away from here.
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So the ugly duckling flew over the fence of the farmyard, and continued flying till he spotted a large moor.
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He decided to spend the night there.
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I am so tired.
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I think I will spend the night here.
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Next morning, the ugly duckling woke up to the sound of loud quacking.
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He opened his eyes and saw a flock of wild ducks.
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Who are you?
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What are you doing here?
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Can I please stay here for a while?
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I have nowhere to go.
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You are ugly….Stay here, but don’t get in our way.
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The Ugly Duckling stayed on the moor for a few days.
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He felt lonely, but no one bullied him or hurt him because of his looks.
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One morning, the duckling heard a noise like a big bang.
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He lay still, too scared to move.
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When he finally lifted his head and looked around, all the other ducks had fled.
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The ugly duckling also fled from the moor as fast as it could.
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It flew as fast as its young wings would take him.
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However, suddenly there was thunder and lightning, scaring the little duckling.
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Arrr. I am so wet and cold.
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That cottage there looks warm, maybe I can take shelter there.
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The cottage belonged to an old lady, who lived with her tomcat and hen who found the duckling the next morning.
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What is happening here?
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Why are you making so much noise?
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What is this we have here?
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Looks like a duck, though a very ugly one. I know what I will do.
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I will keep it with me and wait for it to lay eggs.
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Then I will have eggs from my hen and from this duck too.
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Ah, but I do hope this is a duck and not a drake.
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So the ugly duckling stayed with the old lady in her cottage.
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But here also, the tomcat and the hen made its life so miserable!
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Hey you, don’t you get scared when you see your face in the mirror? Look at me my coat is so silky.
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Look at my whiskers, so long and beautiful. The mistress says my walk is so graceful.
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You are such a loser. You cannot even lay an egg!
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Look at my eggs, such lovely big and brown ones.
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The ugly duckling continued to be lonely.
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He would sit in front of the window looking at the small pond outside.
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How I wish I could swim in that pond.
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It used to be so nice when I swam in the cool water back home.
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Are you mad?
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The mistress is not going to let you go.
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You have a safe house, what more do you want?
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Behave yourself and don’t anger the mistress, the cat, or even me.
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Want to swim, indeed!
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The ugly duckling felt very, very sad, wondering what to do.
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I know this place is safe, but I feel like a prisoner here, being punished by being not allowed to swim.
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I want to swim – I want to be free to swim and fly as I please.
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I have to escape from here somehow.
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So one night, the duckling quietly crept out of the cottage and went in search of a new home.
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Soon he found a beautiful lake where he could swim and dive.
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Ahhhhh! This is such a lovely place.
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It feels so good to swim after so long.
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I hope the other animals and birds here are friendly so I don’t have to move away from here also.
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But alas, here too the other animals did not want to be friends with the ugly duckling.
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Why does everybody keep avoiding me?
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Just because I am ugly, it doesn’t mean everyone has to be mean!
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No one wants to play with me or even talk to me!
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So life continued in this miserable way for the ugly duckling.
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Soon, the seasons changed.
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Autumn set in, and the colour of the leaves changed from red to orange and then gold.
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Winter followed.
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The forest turned white, and a very cold wind set in.
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The dark clouds made the duckling feeling even more gloomy and sad so the duckling decided to go to the lakeside.
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And what a lovely sight he saw there!
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What are these beautiful birds?
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I don’t think I have seen them before.
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How beautifully they spread their large wings!
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It looks like they are not flying but just gliding through the sky.
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Though the winter grew colder and colder, the duckling continued to swim despite the freezing water and then finally took refuge in some bushes.
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Finally, it was spring again.
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Plants started sprouting and the sun peeped down from the sky.
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The duckling was so happy that it was becoming warm again.
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Everything around me has become so beautiful.
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My wings have also become strong and I can now swim in the pond close by.
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Suddenly, the duckling once again saw the same beautiful birds that he had seen at the start of spring and quickly ran and hid behind some bushes.
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Those birds are so beautiful.
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I better not go near them, or they too will make fun of me.
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I am so scared that they might even kill me!
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I am so tired of being picked on by everybody, first the ducklings at the farm, my own brothers and sisters the hen and tomcat at the cottage, and everybody else.
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I wish I had never been born!
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The duckling went to a quiet spot on the lake where nobody could see him.
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He was very, very sad, and big fat tears rolled down its face.
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Suddenly, the duckling saw its own reflection in the lake, and couldn’t believe its eyes!
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For staring at him in the clear water below was his own reflection, no longer a dark, grey bird, ugly and repulsive to look at.
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Instead, he had turned into a graceful and beautiful swan.
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The ugly duckling had transformed into a beautiful swan!!
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All the other swans came to greet the newcomer, and stroked his neck with their beaks.
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Finally, the ugly little thing was accepted and loved by his new friends, to whom he belonged, the beautiful and graceful swans.
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A family with two children came to see the swans swimming.
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Look, there is a new one.
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Father, mother, come here, there is another swan.
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A new one has arrived.
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The new one is the most beautiful of all.
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Oh, he is so young and pretty!
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The swan did not know how to react to so much praise.
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He felt shy and tried to hide his face.
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After being mocked and taunted and bullied for so long, he couldn’t believe he was being appreciated and accepted!
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And he was actually being called beautiful!
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I never dreamt that I would see a day when someone would call me beautiful!
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I wish I had received the same love and affection when I was the little and ugly creature i wouldn’t have spent such a sad childhood.
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Why do people treat others according to their looks?
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That is so, so sad!
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, learners will practice their English speaking skills through the charming story of "The Ugly Duckling." This timeless fairytale provides valuable opportunities to enhance both listening and speaking abilities. By shadowing the dialogues and descriptions within the video, students can improve their pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation. The engaging narrative allows for a comprehensive understanding of emotions and situations, which aids in the development of conversational English. By the end of this practice session, learners will feel more confident expressing themselves in English.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Duckling: A young duck.
- Hatch: To emerge from an egg.
- Ugly: Unpleasant or unsightly in appearance.
- Brood: A family of young animals, especially birds, produced at one hatching.
- Farmhouse: A house and buildings on a farm.
- Bully: To intimidate or harm someone weaker.
- Moor: An open, uncultivated land, often covered with heather.
- Flock: A group of birds gathered together.
Practice Tips
When using this shadowing site or practicing with the video, consider the following tips to maximize your shadow speech practice:
- Watch the video once without pausing to get a sense of the story and flow. Then, play it again, but this time, pause after each sentence or phrase to repeat what you've heard.
- Pay attention to the tone and emotion in the narrator's voice. Try to mimic the inflections and expressions to enhance your delivery.
- For challenging sentences, break them down into smaller parts. Repeat each part until you're comfortable before moving on.
- Use a shadowing app to record your voice as you practice. Listening to your recordings can help you identify areas for improvement, such as pronunciation and pacing.
- As you shadow the characters, imagine the context of the story. Embodying the emotions of the ugly duckling can help you connect with the material, improving your memorization and speaking fluidity.
By employing these tips, students will effectively learn English with YouTube, allowing them to develop their speaking and listening skills in an enjoyable and engaging manner.
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.