Hi everyone!
Welcome to IELTS daily.
I'm Jay,
and today,
we're going to be talking
or I'm going to be answering
a question from part two
of the IELTS speaking test.
And with me is Chris
who's going to be critiquing
or giving me a little bit of feedback
on my response.
Hi Chris!
Hi Jay!
How are you doing?
I'm all right, you?
Yeah, I'm really well.
We've just finished lockdown.
So we're going back
into the swing of IELTS questions,
and we've got a
super question for you today.
Students,
I hope you are excited.
Are you excited, Jay?
I'm very excited.
I'm going to send a picture
to your computer
which you have in front of you.
And this question is as follows:
please read the question for us.
Describe a time
when you received some good news.
I should say what the news,
was when I received it,
how I received the news,
and why I thought
it was good news.
Great.
So you're going to have
a minute to prepare your answer,
and the students
are going to come back
right after this.
Okay, Jay!
Welcome back!
You've had your
one minute of preparation time.
Students,
have you been thinking about
this particular question as well?
You've had it on your screen
to have a look.
Jay,
do you have some ideas?
I do.
Fantastic.
You are going to have
one to two minutes
to give your response,
maximum two minutes.
Don't worry if I stop you.
Go!
So the news that I received
that I thought was really good
was when I was told
that I was given a lecturing position
at my current job.
I got this news
about four and a half years ago,
so I'm still working there.
I still teach there.
It's been a really good experience.
Obviously,
I've received the news
probably a few days
after going through a very gruelling
and rigorous interview process
where I had to go in
and answer questions
from four people
who were sitting across from me,
grilling me with very difficult questions.
And you know,
walking out of that interview,
I didn't feel too good about the interview,
you never do.
If you think back to taking an exam,
like even the IELTS,
sometimes you don't feel like
you did very well.
But I ended up doing very well
and they called me up on the phone
a few days later and told me
that I had the position.
And obviously,
I think it was really good news
because...
you know,
anytime you get a new job
or are able to start your career off,
it feels,
it feels wonderful.
It feels like
you've accomplished something
and that you've succeeded.
So that's probably something
that was really good...
good news that had happened to me.
Fantastic!
That was just about
one minute and 15 seconds.
Great!
Should we talk about
some of your wonderful language?
Students,
Jay spoke really quickly in this one
and he used good
filler phrases like, "you know".
Okay.
And that's a very common one
that people use nowadays
and that's normal
for people to use that.
So well done.
A few really great words here:
Gruelling.
What does gruelling mean?
Very difficult.
Something is gruelling,
it's difficult to achieve.
Yeah.
Spelling is quite difficult,
so you'll see that on the screen there.
And the pronunciation,
would you like to
give it to us again?
Gruelling.
Now,
you said that
some people grilled you.
They were grilling me.
What does that mean?
Well,
they didn't put me
on a barbecue.
They were asking me
very difficult questions.
So,
if someone is...
asking questions,
you know,
one after the other,
towards you,
we would say that
you are being grilled
or you are they are grilling you.
Incredible.
And you said that you...
it felt like you'd accomplished something.
Could you think of
a synonym of accomplished?
I achieved something
or I succeeded at something.
Great.
And those are two really good words:
I've achieved something
and I've accomplished something.
So what advice
would you give
on this particular topic
about good news?
Could you think about
some other examples
where students might have
had good news?
Well,
they might get
good marks on an exam
or high IELTS band scores.
That's definitely hearing good news.
Great examples.
What about maybe
they get married
or if they have a baby, a child?
Somebody in their family
might have had a baby?
You know they might
become an uncle or an auntie;
It's often very good news for people.
Right.
Yes,
absolutely.
So jobs,
schools,
exams,
family life,
being accepted into a university
that you really wanted to study at,
and being notified
that you were accepted
is also very good news.
Excellent ideas.
So students,
if you can think of your own ideas,
where should we put them, Jay?
In the comments below.
So thank you for me.
Thank you.
See you soon.
see you guys!