The Gift of the Magi (opening) Advanced shadowing lesson
This is the opening of The Gift of the Magi, a famous short story by O. Henry, read by Marian Brown for LibriVox. Very short sentences like "That was all." sit next to long ones full of old and rare words. It is good practice for advanced learners who want to keep a steady rhythm and breath while reading literature aloud.
- Advanced
- Audio
- 1:11
- 12 sentences
Free, no account needed. The app plays one sentence and waits for you to say it.
The sentences
The Gift of the Magi.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
That was all.
And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
Three times Della counted it.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl, so Della did it, which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home, a furnished flat at eight dollars per week.
It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring.
Words and phrases
- pennies
- coins worth one cent each
- parsimony
- being very unwilling to spend money
- shabby
- old and in poor condition
- flop down
- sit or fall down heavily
- howl
- cry loudly
- sniffles
- small, quiet sounds of crying through the nose
- furnished flat
- an apartment that comes with furniture
- vestibule
- a small entrance hall
How to practise this clip
Listen for the pauses after short sentences like "That was all." and how the reader breaks the long sentences into groups of words.
- Listen for the rhythm: which words are strong and where the speaker breathes.
- Say each sentence at the speaker's speed, as one smooth phrase.
- Score your tries to see which words did not come through, then practise those sentences again.
Source
O. Henry, read by Marian Brown for LibriVox, public domain