The Wolf, the Mother and Her Child Intermediate shadowing lesson
This is Aesop's fable about a hungry wolf who believes a mother's angry words to her crying child, read by Vicki Barber for LibriVox. The story mixes telling and speech, and the clear reading makes it good for intermediate shadowing.
- Intermediate
- Audio
- 0:52
- 8 sentences
Free, no account needed. The app plays one sentence and waits for you to say it.
The sentences
The Wolf, the Mother, and Her Child. A hungry wolf was prowling about in search of food.
By and by, attracted by the cries of a child, he came to a cottage.
As he crouched beneath the window, he heard the mother say to the child, Stop crying, do, or I'll throw you to the wolf.
Thinking she really meant what she said, he waited there a long time in the expectation of satisfying his hunger.
In the evening, he heard the mother fondling her child and saying, If the naughty wolf comes, he shan't get my little one.
Daddy will kill him.
The wolf got up in much disgust and walked away.
As for the people in that house, he said to himself, You can't believe a word they say.
Words and phrases
- hungry
- wanting food
- in search of
- looking for
- attracted by
- pulled towards something by
- crouched
- bent low, close to the ground
- Stop crying
- do not cry any more
- meant what she said
- was serious, not joking
- in much disgust
- feeling very annoyed and fed up
- said to himself
- thought, or spoke only to himself
How to practise this clip
Listen for the short forms in the spoken lines, I'll, shan't and can't, and how the t in can't believe is almost silent.
- Listen to a sentence before you read it.
- Say it right after, at the speaker's pace, with the same pauses.
- After the first round, hide the text and practise from the sound alone.
Source
Aesop's Fables, read by Vicki Barber for LibriVox, public domain