Hi everyone! I'm Chris, the IELTS expert.
And today, you're watching a video on recent exam questions for part three
of the IELTS speaking test.
I'm here with Fiona!
Hi, Chris!
Today, we're looking at recent questions from February 2020.
Remember, these questions could be reused in the future.
So, if you're watching this in the future,
Hi!
These questions are still really important for you.
I don't know these questions.
What's the topic?
Today's topic is:
Teamwork.
Okay! My first question is:
Should countries work together?
I think the European Union is a great example of countries working together.
At the end of the day, we don't choose where we are born on this planet.
So, I would say that working together as a globe,
as a planet,
is much better than individual countries working for their own purposes.
I would say that
collaboration is a much better way to find a solution to a problem
than individualistic cultures.
So...
For me personally, I'm really behind a global system
rather than individual countries.
I'm really for teamwork.
Great answer!
Some good words in there.
Tell me.
You said, "collaboration".
Collaboration.
So collaboration comes from the word: to collaborate.
It means to work together.
So, we collaborated.
There is a collaboration between countries.
And you said, "Individualistic".
Just kind of... the opposite of collaboration.
Kind of the opposite.
Yeah.
Individualistic is an adjective which describes a mentality where
people work just for themselves.
And individualistic society,
it could be the opposite of a collaborative society.
So I'll just write down the adjective.
Collaborative.
Alright, that's the adjective.
And I like that you said, "working together as a globe, as a planet".
Yeah.
That, from the picture of my head, which was nice.
Again, a good story.
In the IELTS exam,
you do need to make sure that
you talk naturally.
Try not to spend too much time
thinking about your answer.
What would you say to your friend
if your friend asked you about this?
I know that it's really tricky to find the words sometimes.
But you just have to keep pushing through, and trying.
And I think I said, "at the end of the day"...
I was just about to bring that up.
And you know...
That's something that English people like to say.
I'm Australian,
but I noticed that English people like to say that.
What does that mean?
It's a filler phrase,
which means kind of... in conclusion
or when all is said and done.
These are filler phrases that you can use at the beginning.
Could you think of a synonymous phrase that...
It's tricky.
In summary...
In summary,
I know I can actually.
At the end of the day,
my opinion is...
It's a good phrase, "at the end of the day".
You can practice it now.
At the end of the day...
Alright.
Let's do question two.
Should children be encouraged to work in a team?
Given that most people work in teams
when they go into their working life,
they could be in an office,
or in a hospital.
I think that preparing students and children for teamwork
is a really great idea.
However,
I would say
that
if we have a situation where
everybody is equal all the time,
it would lead to a few problems in terms of decision making,
or somebody being a leader.
So,
having some sort of competitive situation
or an individualistic situation
can have some positive benefits.
But on the whole,
or by in large,
I do think that having teamwork for kids
is a great idea.
But we should also push for them to be competitive,
and to reach the next level.
What do you think?
I thought you actually just thought of some synonyms
or a similar phrase to
"at the end of the day".
You said,
"On the whole", or "by in large".
They are great filler phrases.
"On the whole", and "by in large",
they kind of mean "in summary".
And what are your thoughts?
Do you think that preparing kids for
teamwork or making them work in teams,
do you think it's a good thing?
Very much, definitely.
I think, you know,
it teaches people how to...
how to do what needs to be done
without having any personal conflicts,
which children find it hard to do sometimes.
So, let's talk about that on the side.
And conflict resolution
is something that you have to think about when
you're working in a team.
What happens if you don't work well together?
How do you resolve that conflict?
So having dialogue, talking,
sharing your feelings and opinions
is very useful.
I think that this is a really good question
to use some great vocabulary here,
given some really good examples.
I also like that you said,
"Given that", such and such...
It would lead to... such and such...
You talked about
effects.
And, you talked about benefits.
You didn't talk about negatives
but you talked about benefits
of doing something.
Right. So,
given that...
It's like cause and effect.
Cause and effect.
It's almost like an if-sentence.
Given that something happens,
then you would continue the sentence.
I think my phrase was,
"Given that children will work in teams
in the future",
it's a great idea to prepare them for teamwork now.
Okay, so it's a dependent sentence.
So you would have two parts of the sentence.
Give that... one part of the sentence
and then followed by another part of the sentence.
Tricky.
Good.
Tricky.
I did give you some tricky ones there.
That's because it was a tricky answer.
Part three is something that students always complain about.
Just keep talking.
Even if you go off-topic,
it's not a problem
if you go off-topic.
Thanks very much for the questions today.
Thanks, Chris!
I'll see you all soon.
Come back for the next video.
Bye for now.
Bye!