Hi everyone! And welcome to this excellent speaking practice session.
We're looking at recent exam questions from February 2020.
And I'm here with my colleague Fiona.
Good morning!
Hello everybody!
And so today's topic is, what Fiona?
Today, it's vacations and holidays.
A really common question in the IELTS test.
And it's one which has been submitted to us from our students from February 2020.
If you're willing to take the test soon, make sure you pay attention.
I'm ready!
Great!
The first question is: Do you like one single holiday or many shorter holidays?
Oh, good question!
But I think I prefer many shorter holidays.
And the reason for that is I work really hard.
I work many hours in a week and at the end of maybe four weeks or five weeks,
I feel like I need a break.
So, I think if I had to wait a long time for one holiday,
I'd be feeling pretty tired.
So personally, I prefer shorter holidays more often.
How did you find the answer Fiona?
I thought it was really good!
What do you prefer?
I liked.. lots of short holidays as well.
Now I have a little bit of a secret:
I know that Fiona just bought a camper van.
Do we all know what a camper van is?
Can you explain?
Well, it's like a caravan.
But it has a car attached to it.
So it's like an RV, lots of them in America.
I'm very lucky.
So, would you say that you can do something like a road trip?
Yes, OK, I'll explain it better.
It has a bed inside, a kitchen. It has a kitchen table and chairs,
and has everything you need to live in it.
So electricity: it's got lights, and a cooktop, and a microwave, and an air conditioner.
So you can spend as long as you like off the road.
I've just written this for the students to say:
It could be fitted out with a bed, it could be fitted out with a kitchen.
I think this is a fantastic way to have a holiday.
Because you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, it's a great way.
What did you like about my answer?
I thought it was really good!
I like that you bought a bit of time at the start,
when you thought about what you're gonna say.
You said, "Good question".
You thought about how you feel about holidays.
You gave a number of examples.
Yeah, I think I said:
If I had to wait,
I think I said this: "If I had to wait for a long period and I get pretty tired",
and that would be an example of a conditional sentence.
You try to push your grammar when speaking, so a variety of different grammatical forms are really useful.
Thanks for that information about camper vans.
Let's go on to the next question.
Do you prefer holidays in a city or by the beach?
Personally, I prefer both.
It's really weird.
But I like both the beach and the city for different reasons.
Going to the beach, I love the smells, the sights, the sounds of the sea.
And having a city break is fantastic
to learn about the history, the culture, the types of people who live there.
Going to museums and galleries are all fantastic.
I love architecture as well, so to see skyscrapers,
and I love going high in buildings.
So if I had to choose,
I would love to have a city by the sea.
Great answer! So many different examples.
I'll tell you some words that I found, a "skyscraper".
Can you tell us what a skyscraper is Fiona?
Skyscraper is a very very tall building.
And it had that name because it scrapes the sky.
Do you have any skyscrapers in your city?
What do you prefer? If you have any preferences leave them in the comments below.
Think about your holidays.
Where did you go on your last holiday?
Where would you like to go on a holiday in the future?
These are all common questions in the exam.
So, maybe I'll give you some practice questions now.
You can pause if you want.
So let me ask you some questions now.
Who do you normally go on holiday with?
Where was the last holiday you went to?
Would you like to go on a long haul holiday?
Now let me explain that to you now: Long haul is going on a long-distance.
So a long-distance holiday.
These are all common questions, and it's been a pleasure talking to you today.
There were great questions, thank Fiona!
And I will see you soon, thanks to you.
Thanks, Chris! Bye, everybody!
Byebye!