Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to our advanced English lessons. And this
is a vocabulary lesson. In fact, we're focusing on Part 2 of the speaking test
for those of you who are considering doing IELTS. So we're going to look at vocabulary,
but in particular at the question that you'll be asked in part 2.
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So just to remind you, when you take the IELTS test, in part 2,
you will get what they call a cue card. Sometimes it's called a task card. And written on that task
card will be a particular topic, you don't get any chance, unfortunately, to change the topic,
but there are some questions there and how you will approach it. So you get approximately one
minute to read and prepare yourself. And then you have to speak for two to three minutes on
the topic. And of course, then there will be some follow-up questions by the examiner. Okay,
so what we're going to look at here is a typical example of one of those type of cue card questions
or task card questions. So I'm going to give you an idea of a topic that I would talk about,
then I'm going to give you some words that I've selected from that particular topic
just to give you a flavour and understanding as to what they mean and how to use them.
Okay, so let's get cracking. So as I said, it's a vocabulary lesson,
and it's in relation to part 2 of the IELTS exam. So this is my particular question that I was
selecting, okay. And it's about an occasion where you have to describe an occasion when the weather
prevented you from doing something. Okay, so this is what appeared on the task card describe an
occasion when the weather prevented you from doing something. And the follow up questions that they
asked you to look at and to consider when you're thinking about this as when was it?
Why did it prevent your activity? What did you do? And then explain how you fell? So you've
got to cover those four particular points in your answer. As I said,
you get one minute to prepare, and then you're expected to talk for two or three minutes.
Okay, so here's my particular situation. A few years ago, I decided to take my young family
camping. I'd always wanted to do it, and they were excited about spending a few nights under
the stars. We all had our hearts set on it. Little did we know that it was never going to happen. Not
that week anyway. The bags were packed, the tent rented from an outdoor activity centre, and the
food provisions bought and neatly packed in our backpacks. We looked like real adventures. At the
very last minute when everything was packed and ready, we decided to check the weather forecast
just out of curiosity. To our shock and horror the forecast was simply awful. The report advise
people not to travel that weekend as an adverse weather front was fast approaching. We knew then
our plans were in imminent danger. A menacing storm forced the whole week to be cancelled
and postponed until a later date. Our decision to call it off turned out to be a smart move.
The very next day we awoke to huge thunderstorms and heavy downpours of rain. The news was even
more shocking. Overnight, all flights had been grounded. The main roads were flooded. Cars and
people stranded for hours in rising flood water. Incoming flights would have diverted to other
cities, and everyone was advised to stay put in their homes. The idea of camping out suddenly
took on another perspective, we put up the tent in the living room, and the kids had a ball. So
what looked like a disaster initially turned out to be a different, but fun adventure in the end.
Okay, so that's my story as to what I would say about a situation that's something happened in the
weather, put an unfortunate end to a plan. Okay, so, I've given you there the little story. Now,
let me just give you some of the words that I've picked out and I'm gonna try
and explain them to you. And you'll find all of these words in the transcript.
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So the first one, neatly, well, neatly, it's an adverb. And when we pack, usually on our week,
travelling for a holiday weekend, whatever, we always try to pack neatly. In fact, you probably
remember that you pack more neatly on the way to your holiday than you do on the way back. So
neatly means every thing fits into its little place. Everything is easy to see and access.
So when we were packing our bags for this particular camping trip, we had a backpack
so they were packed neatly so they were easy to carry. And everything could be fitted in. Indeed,
with one that kids wanted to put in a particular type to take with them, there was a small space
left in the bag. And we said, Oh, yeah, that will fit in there just neatly. So it's the right size.
And the right shape for that particular bag so neatly is when everything is tidy.
So we can use neatly to pack our bags neatly. Or if one of the children offers to help you
with the garden or the garage or the shed, we'll make sure you put everything back neatly. Okay,
so if they're pulling out books from the library, or pulling out books on
the bookshelves are pulling out games in the storage room, is it okay, you can play with
those but make sure you put them back neatly so that everything is in its place. I don't want to
open the cupboard and everything fall on top of me. Yeah. So make sure you put it back neatly.
Next, out of curiosity. Well, when we use this expression out of curiosity, it means we are
curious to find out something. Okay, so in my particular story, I turned on the radio to listen
to the weather forecast out of curiosity, meaning, I wanted to know what they were
forecasting what the weather was going to be like. Okay. So when we do something out of curiosity,
it's out of a deep interest. When you pass by an empty shop, you might look in the window just out
of curiosity to see what's going to happen to the shop, there's some other shop going to take its
place. Or if you see an advertisement for a new apartment development... development in your area,
you might just click onto the website to look at the apartments. What they're selling for,
how big they are, what the interior looks like, just out of curiosity. You may not
be interested in buying them, but you have a curiosity and interest as to what's happening.
To our shock and horror. So these words are often used together to our shock and horror means when
we get a nasty or bad surprise. So when we tuned into the radio to listen to the weather forecast,
to our shock and horror, we got a really bad surprise. Yes. So when we open the envelope
to a shock and horror and find that all the money has gone, okay, or we're driving along the country
road and we get a first tire and to our shock and horror, we realise that we don't have a spare tire
so we have to try and phone for somebody to come and help us. So shock and horror are two words
that we use together to describe a bad situation. To my shock and horror, I discovered that the
weather forecast was going to be terrible. To my shock and horror, I realised that I had forgotten
to order the Christmas turkey. Okay, so all of these situations where something bad could
happen or did happen, and we can use those words to describe our feelings, our shock and horror.
Adverse weather. Well, something that's adverse is opposite to what you're expecting. So adverse
weather conditions means bad weather conditions. So you're expecting blue skies, a little bit of
wind, nice warm weather. But to your shock and horror, you advise that there were adverse weather
conditions approaching whether it's going to be strong winds, gale force winds, heavy downpours,
tropical downpours, whatever, where you would like to describe the bad situation, the weather
was certainly not going to be very favourable. So adverse meaning against you. Yeah, an adversary,
somebody who is against you in a competition. So adverse weather conditions, really bad conditions
that were going to spoil your fun, as they did spoil our fun on our planned camping trip.
Imminent danger. Well, when something is in or somebody is in imminent danger, it means
immediate. Yeah. So you have to be really, really careful. There's an imminent danger of a very
heavy storm. If you continue to travel along that road, and there are flood warnings, then you could
be in imminent danger, meaning immediate danger. So it's not something that's going to happen over
a long period of time, it's going to happen immediately. So you have to be really, really
careful. So when they give out these warnings, and they have a yellow or orange or red warning
for the weather forecast, the red warning is that you're going to be in imminent danger, meaning
something's likely to happen or is about to happen very, very quickly, imminent, meaning immediate.
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A menacing storm. Well, a menacing anything is something that is going to threaten you like a
menacing dog that when you walk along the street and the dog is there are gnarliness
teeth at you and growling and looking ready to lunge and bite you well, then this would
be a menacing dog. So a menacing storm is a storm that's really going to threaten you.
It's not just a blow over in five minutes. It's a stone that's going to last for some
considerable time. And it's going to be strong winds, thunder and lightning, heavy downpour,
risk of flooding all of these aspects will come together to create a menacing storm a
storm that's likely to threaten you and the people with whom you are travelling.
To call something off. When we call something off, we cancel or postpone. Usually, when it's
called off, it means completely postponed. So the football match was called off because the
pitch was covered in snow and ice from the fall of snow of the last few days. So they called it
off because they couldn't clear the snow or the ice from the pitch and therefore no game
could be played. When the rains come, and they're very heavy and the roads are flooded or there's a
risk of flooding to the roads. We had to call off the planned camping trip so it was called
off at the last minute. So anything that is cancelled permanently would be called off.
It's a phrasal verb. To call is the verb. Off is your preposition. So to call off something
or to call something off, means to postpone. The wedding was called off when the bride or the groom
got cold feet, meaning they didn't want to go ahead with the wedding. So they called it off.
A heavy downpour on a downpours when the heavens open and all the rain comes
down with a very very sudden for Okay. Just one minute you're standing there.,
two minutes later, you're really completely wet from a heavy downpour of rain. So a
very thunderous shower could be like a tropical storm where past passes within
a few minutes. But in that few minutes, a lot of rain falls and you get very very
wet if you happen to be underneath that. So a heavy downpour it's a very heavy rainfall.
To be grounded well, when planes cannot take off and the announcement from the airport is that no
planes will fly tonight then all of the planes from all airlines have been grounded, they are
forced to stay on the ground and cannot leave the airport because of the fear of heavy rain.
Strong winds thunder and lightning all conditions coming together will make it impossible for flying
and there's a great risk to the passenger. So the planes are grounded for that period,
whether it's for a few hours or even until the next day so all planes have been grounded. We
also use grounded when we're talking about a punishment for children who have misbehaved.
So the parents might say you're grounded which means you cannot go and meet you Have friends, you
can't go to your club, you can't play football, you can't do anything, you're gonna have to stay
in a room. So you're grounded for one to three days, depending on how strong the punishment is,
depending on how strong the missdead you did, okay. So you're punished badly, you're grounded
for three days of the punishment is not so bad, you might only be grounded for one day. But to
be grounded means not to be permitted to leave your bedroom or leave the home. And in the same
way the aeroplanes have been grounded because of the problems in the atmosphere with the weather.
And then finally, stranded. When you're stranded, it means you're stuck somewhere,
you cannot move you kind of go in or out. So if we're driving along the road,
and we've haven't listened to the warnings, or we're not aware of the warnings,
and we suddenly see lots of water ahead, and our car is stuck, we are stranded in the car,
we can't go forward and we can't go back. So what do we do we sit there waiting and hoping that the
water levels won't rise any further. And you'll often see pictures on the TV where cars have been
people have been stranded there sitting actually on the roof of the car. Now, if they're fortunate
enough to be in a little bit of high ground, they can still be stranded but they're not going to be
in any immediate danger. But the problem is they cannot leave that piece of high ground because to
do so would be dangerous and they're not able to go down so they have to stay there and hopefully
be rescued. And again when we watch some scenes from devastation across the world where they've
been heavy storms and rivers have broken their banks. Then you find a lot of people stranded or
animals stranded so people in remote areas they are seek higher ground and wait to be
rescued because they have been stranded our cut off because of the rising floodwaters or
the heavy rain water that has caused the river to burst its banks. Okay, so that's stranded.
So let me give them to you again. Neatly. Out of curiosity. To our shock and horror.
Adverse weather. Imminent danger, in imminent danger. Menacing storm, a menacing storm.
To call something off or call off something.
Heavy downpour. To be grounded. And then finally stranded.
Okay, well, that ends that particular lesson in relation to vocabulary. And particularly
for part two of the speaking task for IELTS. And if anybody is contemplating doing IELTS over the
next few months, I wish you luck. There's a lot of work you have to do but if you plan carefully,
you can be successful. And this is one lesson of a series that I'll be putting together for
those of you who are contemplating those types of exams. As always,
thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Join me again soon