Hi and welcome to this my latest IELTS speaking video a key thing in your IELTS
speaking is the news a wide range of vocabulary in this lesson we're going to
look at 14 collocations or common word combinations for less common words 3
idiomatic expressions and 3 phrasal verbs all of this based on the common
IELTS topic of reading so we're going to look at part 3 questions here is the
question are fictional books more interesting than factual ones unbalanced
I'd have to say yes these days we're bombarded with factual news and
statements from all angles in our day-to-day lives
social media is riddled with stories that claim to be news or fact and there
seem to be endless discussions on television and on the radio about
politics and things like that also everybody is always banging on about
self-improvement and there are a plethora of books about
this what people don't have enough of in their lives is escapism the ability to
escape your day-to-day life and immerse yourself in a make-believe world of
ruthless gangsters intrepid explorers or imaginary beasts so let's have a quick
look at some of this vocabulary to bombard this is a word a less common
word that has its origin in war and weaponry if you fire a gun or a cannon
at somebody repeatedly then you are bombarding them what you might do if you
have your enemies surrounded is to make that bombardment from all angles to make
the attack from lots of different places so if we imagine here poor news er of
something like social media having news lots of news sent at them from all kinds
of different places all day every day and this is the idea of being bombarded
from all angles social media is riddled with
stories if something is riddled with something then it is full of that thing
so in this case there are lots and lots and lots of stories on social media
probably too many so for example if a dog is riddled with fleas a dog has lots
and lots of fleas endless discussions a common collocation it really means lots
and lots of talk about something without a conclusion being reached to bang on is
a phrasal verb meaning to talk endlessly about something and it has a negative
connotation it's a negative expression so if somebody is talking a lot about
something that you really enjoy and you enjoy listening to them
you would never news this phrasal verb to bang on only if it's about something
where you really think oh I don't want to hear this anymore a plethora of
something is another way of saying there are lots of something escapism is the
idea of in your mind being able to get away from your current reality into a
pretend reality somewhere else make-believe world and make-believe
world is the same as an imaginary world or a fictional world if you like if you
immerse yourself in something then you really put yourself into that place
because to immerse means to put yourself down into a liquid so you might immerse
a metal in a solution or liquid if you were doing chemistry but if you immerse
yourself it's as if you imagine that this world is a hot bath and you are
going to plunge yourself into this hot bath and lie down in it ruthless
gangsters if you are ruthless then you will stop at nothing to get what you
want an intrepid explorer if you are intrepid
then you have no fear and you will go wherever you want without fear an
imaginary beast simply a fictional or make-believe beast so we'll look at
another part three answer in a minute in the meantime if you want to be notified
when I upload new videos please subscribe to this video and make sure
you click the bell next question how important is it that children be
encouraged to read more I think it depends if a child is struggling with
basic literacy then that's clearly a big problem but I don't think parents should
get too het up or worried unduly about whether or not a child that is literate
is reading of course it's vitally important that kids learn new things but
reading isn't the only way to gen up on new things there is lots of educational
content available on television these days especially now that there are more
channels than you can shake a stick at you've got channels dedicated to things
like history and science and if you're worried about things like developing the
imagination of a child there are a million and one fantasy sagas such as
Game of Thrones let's look at the vocabulary basic literacy just means a
basic ability to be able to read and write if you get het up about something
then you become really anxious really worried about that thing to worry unduly
the advert unduly means without good cause or in a way that is more than you
should do so if you worry unduly you worry where you don't really have a big
reason to worry vitally important just a collocation
meaning very very important the phrasal verb to Gen up very informal but it
means to learn more about something especially our perhaps with a purpose to
doing some sort of quiz or something like that so if you do a pub quiz you
might Jen up beforehand by for example reading about all the films that have
won Oscars in recent years educational content simply material on TV which is
designed to educate people the expression an idiomatic expression more
of something than you can shake a stick at means there is a very very large
amount of something lots and lots and lots of something in this case TV
channels because let's face it how many TV channels are there these days there
are hundreds No ah another expression a million and one something it's just
another kind of informal way of saying that there are lots and lots and lots of
something it's not to be taken literally there aren't really 1 million 1 million
and one TV channels but there are a lot so a million and one a fantasy saga a
saga is a word meaning a long story especially one with lots of twists and
turns twists and turns mean where the where
there are surprising developments on a regular basis in the story so that's it
for today and I hope you've enjoyed it if you have please subscribe and click
the bell please like the video please share it on your social networks if you
have Twitter or Facebook or anything like that and also comment if you have
any questions please ask me in the comment section below also let me know
if there's a particular topic that you'd like me to make a video about ok so
that's all for today thank you and goodbye