0:03

Welcome to my IELTS classroom,

0:06

the podcast where two English experts

0:08

talk all things IELTS. I'm

0:10

Shelley Cornick. And I'm Nick Long. And

0:13

today we are looking at listening

0:16

matching questions. What

0:19

are the basics of listening matching questions?

0:22

What technique do we recommend for more

0:24

difficult types of questions? And

0:27

how will Nick and I tackle what

0:29

I think is an extremely difficult question

0:32

in Cambridge

0:39

Good evening, Nick. How you doing? Good evening.

0:42

I'm doing all right. Thank you. How are you this fine

0:44

weekend? I am good, actually.

0:47

Yes, I feel like spring

0:49

has come. Yeah, spring has sprung. Spring

0:52

has definitely sprung. I'm looking out the window

0:54

and it is what now almost 7 p.m. and

0:57

there is still bright sunshine. The horses are

1:00

glistening in the sunshine

1:02

out there. So it's

1:04

nice, isn't it? I do think the weather

1:06

makes a big difference.

1:07

Huge difference. It's getting dark

1:09

at 8.30, 9 o'clock here now. So right.

1:12

Do you get white nights? Almost

1:15

not quite. Yeah, it's like, yeah, like

1:18

in the middle of summer, the sun goes down at about 12. Wow.

1:21

OK, so pretty

1:21

much midnight. And comes

1:23

up at about 3. So it's not quite

1:25

the same as in St. Petersburg, but it's close.

1:29

I've decided that I am going to open my swimming

1:31

season next weekend. Ooh, in the lake? In

1:34

the lake. So that will be middle of April.

1:37

So I haven't swum since my birthday, which is

1:39

the middle of September. So

1:41

I think it will still be pretty chilly.

1:44

But I might just do like two quick

1:47

mini laps, the little 200 metre laps,

1:49

and then out. And then it started. I'm back in.

1:52

But I feel like I'm ready for

1:54

my spring exercise. Definitely. Great.

1:57

It will be good. So today, Nick, I thought what

1:59

we would do, we would do a little bit

1:59

would do, I was having a look through the

2:02

Cambridge books, just for a bit of inspiration,

2:05

really. I was sort of looking at the

2:07

newest book, Cambridge 17, just to

2:09

see, have they changed any

2:11

of the questions? Is there anything new that's happening

2:14

there? Most of the stuff seems

2:16

the same as it always has, to be honest. But

2:19

while I was looking at the questions,

2:21

I realised that on the podcast, we have

2:24

never really spoken about

2:27

alternative methods or alternative

2:29

approaches to box

2:32

matching questions. We've got

2:35

an episode, how long ago

2:37

was it we did that one? A couple of years maybe.

2:39

Must have been a couple of years ago at least. Yeah.

2:42

So we've got one episode where we look

2:44

at box matching questions

2:47

in general. And actually, I had a look at that

2:49

today. It's a fantastic episode. We do

2:52

loads of practice listening. We go

2:54

through the two different types of box matching

2:56

questions and then we look at them in part

2:58

two and part three. So if

3:00

you are new to us, welcome. We are very glad

3:03

to see

3:06

you here. But if you've never done any

3:08

listening with us before, you may want to go

3:10

back and listen

3:12

through that episode first.

3:14

Because I think that is a fantastic introduction

3:17

to the general principles of box

3:19

matching. I will put a link

3:23

in the show notes to this. So that will be on today's

3:25

blog. I'm a little bit behind with blogs.

3:27

I apologise if people have been looking for them. They

3:29

should appear this week. It

3:31

will be in this blog. But it will also be, you know,

3:34

if you scroll down on your, wherever

3:36

you're listening, if you're listening on Apple or Google, if you

3:38

scroll down and just look at the episode notes, I'll put

3:40

a link in there. So you can go and do that one.

3:43

But

3:44

just I thought as a warm up, Nick,

3:47

I thought we could actually start by just

3:49

doing a basic

3:51

part, let's start with a part two

3:55

box matching activity, just to

3:57

remind everybody of you know, what

3:59

they look like.

3:59

and

4:01

the best way or the sort of, yeah, the best

4:03

practice in terms of how to tackle

4:05

them. So I will share my screen now

4:07

with you, Nick. If you are listening

4:10

at home, this is the time when you

4:12

should definitely go to our blog, blog.myartsclassroom.com,

4:16

so you can actually see this question

4:18

in front of you. So like all

4:21

box matching activities, Nick, we've got a list

4:23

of questions. We know what the questions are

4:25

because they have the numbers next to them, right?

4:28

So we have got questions 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. And what

4:35

are those items, Nick?

4:36

The items are locations

4:39

on the farm. Yes. So I've

4:41

never done this. So this is from Cambridge 17

4:44

test two part two. I've chosen

4:46

all new questions for us. I didn't do

4:48

them in the practice, so I thought we could both be students

4:50

today. Yeah. Okay. So whenever

4:53

you've got a box matching activity,

4:55

the words next to the numbers, so here

4:57

we've got locations on the farm, are

5:00

kind of the least important

5:02

things, aren't they? They are. Yes. So in

5:04

the 30 seconds before you start listening,

5:06

I would not focus on those

5:09

particular parts. You might want to quickly look

5:12

at them so you understand the main topic.

5:14

So here it's definitely locations on the farm. But

5:17

why don't we need to worry too much about those

5:19

words,

5:20

Nick? Because those words will be clearly

5:22

used by the speaker. Yes.

5:25

And when we're going to move from one question to the next,

5:28

it's going to be very, very obvious. Yeah.

5:30

They're going to signpost it. They're going

5:32

to appear in order. So the first one we've got there

5:35

is the dairy. You're going

5:37

to hear the dairy first, then the large barn,

5:39

then the small barn, then the stables, then the shed,

5:41

and then the Parkland. And as you said, IELTS

5:43

don't hide, do they, when they move between

5:46

these items, right? So obviously,

5:49

always have a quick look at those things. But

5:51

the most important things for any box

5:53

matching is what's actually inside

5:56

the box. So this box has got

5:58

this little heading. It says activity.

5:59

and we have

6:02

got A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

6:04

H. So my maths

6:07

is not great, but I think A to H in

6:10

the alphabet is more than six letters,

6:12

isn't it? It is. It's eight letters. It's

6:15

eight letters. So in this type

6:17

of listening activity or in this type of box

6:19

matching activity where you have

6:21

got six, seven, eight items

6:24

in the box, there are always

6:26

one or two extra items out there.

6:29

Right. So they are

6:29

just there. They are the distractors. They

6:32

are there just to try to confuse

6:34

you. The other thing to remember

6:37

is that when you've got

6:39

six, seven, eight items in the box,

6:42

you must only use each letter

6:45

or each answer once. There

6:48

is a second type of box matching

6:50

where you only have three options

6:53

in the box. It's always A, B, C. For

6:55

those ones, you are able to use

6:58

each answer more than once, which is obvious

7:00

because if there are six questions and only three

7:02

choices, you absolutely

7:05

have to use them more than once. But for

7:07

this type of question, once you've chosen,

7:09

for example, D,

7:11

that answer should not be chosen

7:13

again. You can. I mean,

7:15

if you don't understand

7:18

anything, you could put D for all

7:20

the answers and hope that one of them is correct,

7:23

but it might be the distractor. So

7:26

for this type, you can only use each letter

7:29

once. That's the main thing, isn't it? And

7:31

I guess really for this type of

7:34

question, Nick, where we've got, you know, the eight

7:36

possible answers, as

7:38

we're listening, what would be the main piece of

7:40

advice we would give to our students

7:43

for this type of activity? It would

7:45

be to try and think of synonyms

7:47

that might be used for these activities

7:49

because you're probably not going to hear those words in

7:51

the box used when the person is speaking.

7:55

Exactly. So, and I think that

7:57

is it. In fact, what you'll probably find

7:59

is. is that as Nick just

8:01

said the actual answer most

8:04

likely will be given to you in

8:06

a paraphrase form. But

8:08

what IELTS is going to do for each of the answers,

8:11

so just take for example

8:13

the first location is the dairy okay

8:16

so option A

8:19

the first activity is shopping all

8:21

right let's imagine shopping is not the answer

8:23

yeah

8:24

they might actually use the word shopping

8:26

yes they might while they describe

8:28

the dairy so they might say something like the

8:31

dairy used to be a shopping

8:33

center but we have converted

8:36

it into a place to milk the cows

8:39

so be really careful

8:41

when you're listening you might hear lots

8:43

of the words in the answers but usually

8:46

when you hear the exact same

8:49

words as the answers that is an indication

8:51

that it is not the answer

8:53

if that makes sense right because what we're listening

8:55

for are phrases

8:58

that have the same meaning

9:00

as the items in the box we're not just listening

9:02

for the words in the box we're

9:05

listening for phrases that have got the same

9:07

meaning and what IELTS does to trick lower

9:09

level students so for example I can see that

9:12

D the answer is eating and drinking

9:14

I bet we will hear the words

9:16

eating and drinking a lot yes throughout

9:19

this description however eating

9:22

and drinking is not going to happen maybe in

9:24

any of the locations on the farm they'll just keep using

9:26

some of these words to trick you so the

9:29

best bit of advice we can offer is really

9:32

don't focus so much on the actual words

9:34

in the box focus on the meaning

9:37

of the sentences matching them so

9:40

as a little practice then why don't we go through

9:42

Nick just

9:45

quickly all of the different activities which are

9:47

the possible answers and then

9:49

you and I will try to guess what words

9:52

we might hear

9:54

as the paraphrases so the first activity

9:56

is shopping so

9:58

what could we hear? maybe buy stuff

10:02

yeah I think you might heard I might

10:04

think you might hear the word gift maybe

10:07

or purchase or buy yeah

10:10

so there's always a gift shop on a farm

10:12

in England now okay

10:14

so option B then watching

10:17

cows being milked

10:18

I would say for watching they might use the

10:20

word view yes or

10:23

see yeah you can see milk

10:25

being taken from our cows yeah

10:28

I think it's quite tricky right because

10:30

it's a passive isn't it cows being milked

10:33

so somebody is basically as you said taking

10:35

the milk

10:37

from the cow so if you're gonna see

10:39

them I know put those that equipment on

10:41

the poor cow and get the milk

10:44

yeah okay seeing old

10:47

farming equipment they

10:49

might say something like combine

10:52

harvester mechanical

10:55

rather than electric

10:58

equipment mm-hmm

10:59

yeah so what I think I think you're absolutely

11:02

right I think often what they do in these

11:04

boxes for is they

11:06

have some sort of summary so when it says here

11:09

see old farming equipment as

11:11

you said I expect

11:14

it will probably

11:16

be they're not gonna say farming

11:18

equipment they're probably gonna give examples of

11:21

farm equipment so you said combine harvester

11:23

collection of tractors I was

11:26

gonna say tractors plow

11:29

I mean it's quite high level vocabulary

11:31

but I'd probably be listening for examples of farming

11:33

equipment mm-hmm okay eating

11:35

and drinking

11:36

food and drink food

11:39

and drink maybe there's a canteen

11:41

get something to eat yes

11:43

right exactly so I like that

11:45

Nick casinos aren't always word for word are

11:47

they yeah

11:49

yeah okay starting

11:51

a trip isn't

11:53

it yeah so I'm guessing

11:55

at one of these places you

11:58

might be able to have maybe

11:59

like a tour or

12:02

an excursion. So

12:05

that would be the words I'd be listening for. Now

12:10

this is quite difficult vocabulary I think for

12:12

some students. Seeing rare breeds

12:15

of animals. What

12:18

is a rare breed?

12:20

I guess it's going to be a type of cow, horse,

12:23

sheep or something like that, isn't it?

12:25

Yes. And what makes something rare? Usually

12:28

like the colour patterns maybe.

12:31

Yeah. So it could be a black sheep

12:33

for example.

12:34

It

12:38

could be a black sheep. I mean I'm not

12:40

sure what it is but I reckon it'll be something...

12:43

Yeah, maybe they might use a word like

12:46

different or unique.

12:48

I guess if something's rare, different

12:52

or unique. Helping

12:54

to look after the animals. Again,

12:58

I'm guessing this

13:00

will be a description maybe of different

13:03

ways that you can look

13:05

after animals. So if you're on a farm, what do you

13:07

think that might involve? Grooming.

13:12

Sheering the sheep for example. Right.

13:15

So grooming, maybe like say brushing

13:17

the animals. Maybe it would be

13:20

like they might use a word like

13:22

blacksmith if it's, you know,

13:24

if they're looking after a horse. Sort

13:27

of doing its hooves

13:29

and stuff like that.

13:30

That's interesting because I understood it that maybe

13:33

the children or the family might need to

13:35

help look after the animals. So

13:37

it might be maybe they get to brush a horse

13:39

or maybe you get to feed the goats

13:42

or something. But it could be

13:44

for

13:45

something more complicated like a blacksmith.

13:47

So maybe you can like help make the shoes

13:49

or something. And

13:52

then using farming tools.

13:57

So this one, which one is this one similar

13:59

to? farming tools? Seeing old farming

14:01

equipment. Yeah so

14:03

what is the key difference between those two answers?

14:06

Seeing and using. Right so

14:08

now we might have the same tools like the tractor

14:12

or a spade or something but

14:14

now you are actually going to be using them.

14:17

So I would always say in the 30 seconds you've

14:19

got

14:23

spend all of the time really

14:26

looking at the box, understanding

14:29

the different options. If there

14:31

are options which are similar like

14:33

seeing old farming equipment and using

14:36

farming tools or maybe are there any

14:38

other things which are similar here? Well

14:40

there's a lot about animals isn't there like seed rebraries

14:43

helping to look after watching cows being

14:45

milked? Yes I think that one

14:47

I think watching cows being milked and

14:49

helping to look after animals is

14:52

quite similar. Yeah so the more

14:54

you can look at these understand the difference

14:56

between them hopefully you're

14:58

going to be able to recognize them as

15:01

they start speaking. So once they

15:03

press play and once the recording

15:05

starts you're going to first

15:08

hear the dairy. Listen carefully don't

15:10

just listen for the words to match you know

15:12

don't just match words that you hear in the box

15:15

listen to

15:15

what they're saying to you. What can you actually

15:17

do on these locations

15:21

and how well can it match? My only other

15:23

tip would be when we finish we're going to have two

15:25

answers that we have not used. Have

15:28

a look at those and just check they

15:30

are definitely not answers that they weren't

15:33

anything you know nothing was really said about them

15:35

or they were just the distractors. If

15:37

you're a really good student what you can do as you

15:40

listen is you can actually listen

15:42

for these distractors. They are

15:45

going to try to trick us right

15:47

so as well as listening for the answers

15:49

you could also listen for

15:52

the ways that you think IELTS is trying to

15:55

trick you into choosing the wrong answer.

15:57

Did they use the word shopping for example

15:59

when

15:59

describing the dairy when that's not

16:02

actually the answer. Yeah. Okay,

16:04

so I think we're ready to go. Should we just do this one as a warm-up

16:07

there Nick? Yep, let's do it as a warm-up. Okay.

16:17

We'll also be going into

16:19

the farm that's part of the estate

16:22

where there's plenty to do. Most

16:25

of the buildings date from the 18th

16:27

century so you can really step

16:30

back into an agricultural

16:33

past. Until

16:36

recently the dairy was

16:38

where milk from the cows was turned

16:41

into cheese. It's

16:43

now the place to go for lunch or

16:46

afternoon tea or just a

16:48

cup of coffee and a slice of homemade

16:50

cake.

16:52

The big stone building that dominates

16:54

the farm is the large barn

16:57

and in here is our collection

16:59

of agricultural tools. These

17:02

were used in the past to plow

17:04

the earth sow seeds make

17:07

gates and much more.

17:10

There's a small barn also

17:12

made of stone where you can groom

17:15

the donkeys and horses to keep

17:17

their coats clean.

17:19

They really seem to enjoy having

17:21

it done and children love

17:23

grooming them. The

17:25

horses no longer live in the stables

17:28

which instead is the place to go to

17:30

buy gifts books

17:34

our own jams and pickles and

17:36

clothes and blankets made of wool

17:38

from our sheep. Outside

17:41

the shed which is the only brick

17:43

building you can climb into

17:46

a horse-drawn carriage for

17:48

a lovely relaxing tour of

17:50

the park and farm. The

17:52

carriages are well over a

17:54

hundred years old.

17:57

And finally the parkland.

18:00

which was laid out in the 18th

18:02

century with a lake and trees

18:04

that are now well established.

18:07

You'll see types of cattle and sheep

18:09

that are hardly ever found on farms

18:12

these days. We're helping

18:14

to preserve them, to stop their numbers

18:16

falling further. OK,

18:20

well, if you'd like to come with me,

18:22

we will start...

18:28

OK, Nick, so just very

18:30

quickly, first impressions. Not

18:34

too difficult, but there were definitely

18:36

one or two very sneaky tricks

18:39

in there that were used. Yeah, I

18:41

agree. I mean, I think really, you

18:44

know, if you think about just the speed of

18:46

the text that we listen to compared to how

18:48

quickly we speak, I

18:51

would hope that most of the listeners to our podcast

18:53

would be able to get most,

18:56

if not all of these questions, correct,

18:58

I think. OK, so the dairy...

19:01

The dairy is where

19:03

you can get some food, eating and drinking. It

19:06

is now eating and drinking, isn't it? So

19:09

was our prediction correct? They didn't say eating

19:11

and drinking. What did they say instead? They

19:13

listed different types of food,

19:15

didn't they? Yeah, just like lunch,

19:17

meal. I can't remember. Yeah,

19:20

you can have lunch, afternoon tea, cup of coffee

19:22

or something like that. So very,

19:24

very, very clearly that is the place you go now

19:26

for food.

19:27

Yeah, but he did say, by

19:29

the way, he did say that that's where

19:31

the cows used to. They

19:34

used to turn the cow's milk into cheese. Yes.

19:37

So cow milk, that was

19:39

used, but that wasn't the answer. Watch the cows

19:41

being milked. Well done,

19:44

Nick. I didn't actually pick up on that, but

19:46

you're absolutely right. Yeah, if you

19:48

were just matching the word cows, you'd

19:51

probably be quite happy that you heard cows,

19:53

wouldn't you?

19:54

Yeah, right. That was well done. I

19:56

couldn't understand the distracter for that one, but that

19:58

was it. The large

20:00

barn. This one had a very big distracter.

20:03

Yeah, it was. So what is the answer? The

20:06

answer is C. C'ing old farming equipment.

20:09

It is. But he called it farming

20:12

tools. I think he said

20:14

agricultural tools. Agricultural tools. But

20:16

I think that's worse. Why? Well,

20:19

no, because I think if a student hears farming

20:21

tools, it seems too obvious. Ah, okay. I

20:23

see what you're saying. But if they hear agricultural tools,

20:26

they'd probably be quite proud. Ooh, I

20:28

understood the synonym for farming. Yeah.

20:31

Oh, it's not farming. It's agricultural. But

20:33

actually, and this is where it becomes tricky,

20:35

do they get to use? No. There

20:38

was nothing about using them, so you can just see them. You

20:41

can just see them. So the synonym there for

20:43

agricultural tools was farming

20:46

equipment. Yeah. So

20:48

that is, I think, quite, for a lower

20:51

level student, you know, understanding,

20:53

yeah, using and seeing. They

20:56

are the key words there, really. All

20:58

right. And then for the small barn, question 17.

21:01

Small

21:01

barn is helping

21:03

to look after animals. Yeah. And

21:06

it was that word groom, which I think is quite

21:08

difficult, right? What did they say?

21:11

Was it a donkey that they had? The donkeys.

21:13

You can groom the donkeys and the horses. Yeah. So

21:16

if you don't know the word groom, that could be difficult.

21:19

But like always, and I'll say, do actually

21:21

then give a bit of definition because it does say

21:23

to keep their coats clean. But again,

21:26

if you're a lower level student, you might not

21:28

know that a horse has a coat. So

21:31

that could be quite confusing.

21:35

So, yeah, I mean, I think that's just a

21:37

sort of intermediate level vocabulary

21:39

check, really, isn't it? Yeah.

21:42

Okay.

21:43

Now these stables. That was shop.

21:46

Can they are the shop? I knew they'd

21:48

use the word gift. Yeah. So

21:50

you can buy gifts, books, jams and pickles.

21:52

I mean, English people love a gift shop. Funny

21:55

enough, I went to a house like a sort

21:57

of stately country home a couple of weeks

21:59

ago. And I've one of my best friends

22:02

who's now living in New York, he sometimes writes

22:04

these books and he's

22:06

a bit embarrassed about them because it's things like

22:09

50 cats

22:12

that saved the world or something. And

22:15

I was in the gift shop and I was like, what's

22:17

this book? 50 dogs. I was like, it's got

22:20

to be my friend Dan. And it was his

22:22

book. Yeah, in this gift shop. Oh, 25

22:25

pounds or something, like really expensive.

22:28

It's just funny. So I took a picture of me with it,

22:31

selfie and sent it to him. Found your book. Okay.

22:35

So we need to go to the stables for

22:38

the shopping.

22:40

What's

22:42

in the shed? In the shed, we

22:45

can see rare breeds of animals. That's

22:49

the last one. That's the Parkland. There's the...

22:51

Oh, sorry. Yeah. In the

22:54

shed, that's where

22:56

you start the trip. It is where

22:58

you start the trip. So they did use that word taw,

23:00

didn't they? I'm

23:03

just trying to think what the distracter is here. So

23:05

I think they said you can climb into a horse drawn

23:08

carriage. Quite difficult vocabulary.

23:10

Yeah. So maybe some people might

23:13

think that's old farming equipment. Maybe,

23:15

yeah. Yeah. And that the carriages

23:17

are over 100 years old or something. So you

23:20

might think, yeah, maybe that's about farm. Somebody

23:22

might think that's about farming equipment, but it's

23:24

not. It's about where you can start a trip.

23:27

And finally, what are you going to see in the Parkland?

23:30

Rare

23:30

breeds of animals. Yes.

23:32

Now I thought they might say, use

23:34

the word unique because that is IELTS favourite

23:36

word for rare. They didn't. Do you remember what they

23:39

said?

23:39

Well, I was thinking they might use exotic. Oh,

23:42

yeah, that would be good. They said,

23:45

if I remember correctly, some

23:48

horses and sheep that you can't really find

23:50

anymore or can't really see anymore.

23:52

Exactly. Hardly ever found or hardly

23:54

ever seen. And we're helping to preserve

23:57

them to stop their numbers falling. So

23:59

all of that.

24:00

that was about the rare breeds of animals,

24:03

which means the two which were not

24:05

used would be... Watching

24:07

cows being milked and using farming tools.

24:10

And using the farming tools, which let's be honest,

24:12

would be pretty dangerous if you

24:15

were allowed to drive

24:17

a tractor. But

24:20

anyway, there we go. So I think that's a

24:22

really good example of

24:25

a...

24:26

well, of any box matching really, but particularly

24:29

a part two box matching where

24:31

as long as you keep focus, I

24:33

would hope that most of us will be able to come

24:36

away from that with

24:38

full marks. I do think though,

24:40

that when we get matching in part three,

24:43

and I have to say, you know, the two places where

24:45

you're most likely to get matching activities

24:47

are part two and part three. Once

24:49

we go to part three, I do think that

24:51

the level definitely gets

24:54

more difficult. So why

24:56

would that be, Nick? I mean, let's just have a quick

24:58

chat about what's going to make doing the same

25:00

thing more difficult in part three than part

25:02

two. Well, the first thing is you're going to have

25:04

more than one person speaking. Yes.

25:07

Probably two, but possibly three. Yes.

25:10

And also we're going to have to listen carefully for

25:12

emotion and for attitudes.

25:15

Yes, exactly. So some

25:17

of the questions, even the box matching questions

25:19

may ask us to focus

25:21

on agreement or surprise. You know, it might

25:24

be, you know, you've got to listen for what surprised

25:26

the students or something like that. I

25:29

think that's absolutely right, Nick. The other thing I would

25:31

say is, is that

25:33

in part two, the

25:36

synonyms and the paraphrases that they use

25:39

are quite,

25:39

usually quite easy. It's

25:42

quite easy to connect to that paraphrasing

25:45

to the option. So when you hear, you know, gift

25:47

shop, blah, blah, blah, you understand shopping.

25:50

Yeah. Right. Because

25:53

the things they're talking about are a little bit more complicated

25:56

in part three, I think one of

25:58

the more difficult things.

25:59

can be, you know, while

26:02

you're listening, trying to remember

26:04

what you've heard and find the synonym

26:07

at the same time.

26:08

So this is really the

26:11

reason that we're doing today's lesson. Okay.

26:13

So I think that

26:15

one really good

26:18

thing to practice, I think, for these

26:20

box matching is, you know, it doesn't matter

26:22

if you're in the computer-based or the paper-based

26:24

test, you will have access

26:26

to a pencil and a piece of paper. Yep. Ideally,

26:31

as we listen,

26:33

we are going to be able to match what

26:35

we hear to something in the box, right? So when you

26:37

hear the answer, for example,

26:40

gift shop, you're going to be able to connect that

26:42

to cooking. However, I

26:44

find this

26:46

quite often, actually, in part three, is that I've

26:48

understood everything the students have said, but

26:51

I'm struggling while the tape

26:53

is going to actually find the answer from

26:55

the box. So I thought what we do today

26:58

is a little practice. So in that situation, what

27:00

we want to do in the exam is if we can't actually

27:02

find the answer, we probably

27:04

just want to write down the words which

27:06

we think

27:08

will lead us to the answer,

27:10

if that makes sense. So, you know, for that last one,

27:12

you might want to write down breakfast, lunch and

27:15

dinner.

27:16

And then later, when you go back, you can say, oh,

27:18

okay, that's eating and drinking. Now,

27:20

obviously, that's much easier in

27:23

part two than it is in part three. So

27:26

what I thought we do then is we're going to listen to Holly.

27:29

So is Holly going to be the man or the woman

27:32

speaking there? Female.

27:33

Yes, be the lady. And her tutor.

27:36

Yeah. Right.

27:38

So the question says, what do Holly

27:41

and her tutor agree is

27:44

an important aspect of each of

27:46

the following event management

27:49

skills. So let me share

27:51

my screen with you, Nick. So

27:53

we have got

27:55

a list of skills

27:57

which are needed by an events manager. we

28:00

got here,

28:01

communication, organization,

28:04

time management, creativity, leadership

28:06

and networking. Oh, that all

28:08

sounds like an exhausting

28:11

job. So these are the skills that

28:13

an event manager will need. What

28:16

we need to identify is what

28:18

Holly and her tutor agree

28:21

is an important aspect of each one.

28:23

So every time I say agree Nick, I'm

28:26

stressing it like I'm giving the lecture right?

28:28

What, why is it really important that word

28:30

agree?

28:31

Because they

28:33

both have to agree that

28:35

this is the thing that they

28:38

are discussing. So what usually happens in

28:40

this type of question is one of the

28:42

people will suggest something and

28:44

the other person will either confirm or suggest

28:47

something else.

28:49

Exactly. Usually. Yes. So

28:52

they might say, I don't know, for example, for listening,

28:55

the tutor might say, or probably

28:57

more likely the student might say, I think

29:00

the most important part of listening is being

29:02

able to give clear instructions.

29:03

So you

29:05

might think that's the answer, but what do we need to wait?

29:08

We need to wait until the other person confirms.

29:11

Yeah. So if if the if the teacher

29:13

agreed, then what might they say? You're

29:16

right. Yep. Totally.

29:19

Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

29:22

More likely though, if she says, I think

29:24

that I think the most important part of communication

29:27

is, is being able to give precise

29:30

instructions.

29:31

What, what will the tutor most likely say?

29:35

Something very neutral, not

29:38

necessarily negative. So

29:40

maybe something like,

29:42

perhaps, maybe,

29:45

yeah,

29:47

I don't know, maybe something like, that's

29:50

not quite what I had in mind or something

29:52

like that.

29:53

Exactly. So what they'll probably do is exactly

29:55

as Nick said, they go, yes, listening is

29:57

important, but right, there'll

29:59

be.

29:59

some kind of but or however

30:02

and then he's probably going to give something

30:04

which he thinks is more important. And

30:06

she was like, I suppose you're right. Yes,

30:09

you're right there. I didn't consider

30:11

that. Yes. So that's

30:13

essentially what we need to be careful of, right? So

30:16

what I like about this practice that

30:18

we're going to do is, you know,

30:20

I think

30:21

when students are practicing, it's easy just to grab

30:23

answers, isn't it? We're all looking for the answer.

30:26

But let's, for this listening, forget

30:28

the box. We're not going to even look at it. Okay.

30:31

Your job is just going to be to write

30:33

down the words that you think

30:36

Holly and the tutor say.

30:39

And is essentially what do

30:41

you think or what are they telling

30:43

us is the most important aspect of

30:46

each of those things. What words are

30:48

the paraphrases that will lead us

30:50

to the answer? Because this is

30:52

part three, you might actually find it's

30:54

not just one or two words. It might be, you

30:56

know, a couple of phrases, right?

30:59

So Holly might give a phrase and the tutor

31:01

might agree and give another phrase. Anything

31:04

you basically think is what they finally

31:06

agree is the important aspect.

31:09

Write it down. I would expect for each

31:11

of the items. So

31:12

again, look on our website,

31:15

but if you can't do that,

31:17

write them down quickly. Communication first,

31:20

then organization, then time

31:22

management, then creativity, then

31:24

leadership, then networking. What

31:27

do they say is the most important aspect of

31:29

each of these things.

31:29

And just before we begin, I want to add one

31:31

more thing. If you

31:34

hear one of them say, I agree,

31:36

that's not the answer. Because

31:40

usually it would be something like, I

31:42

don't think this is very important.

31:45

When we're talking about communication, I

31:48

agree. I think this is much more

31:50

important. Yes, you're right. That's how it

31:52

usually works. I've noticed actually doing these part

31:54

three's with agreement that I agree

31:56

is often used, but it's never

31:59

for the end.

31:59

That's really clever.

32:02

So they often use literally the words I agree

32:05

when they are agreeing that something is not

32:07

important or talking about something else. Yeah.

32:10

So for that communication, then it might be something

32:12

like I think people put too much

32:14

emphasis on speaking when they

32:17

think

32:17

about. Exactly. I agree. When

32:20

in fact it's listening

32:22

that is more important. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay,

32:24

Nick, that's really useful.

32:26

Well done. Snaps for Nick. So just

32:28

be careful with the phrase. I agree in that. Yeah,

32:31

that is really true because it's obviously, yeah,

32:33

so it's really going to depend what comes before I

32:35

agree as to whether or not that

32:38

is the answer or not. Yeah,

32:40

very good. All right. So this

32:42

is a new activity. I've never done it before. Let's

32:44

just see how we get on. I haven't listened to

32:46

it either, Nick. Okay. So it's going to be interesting

32:49

to see what words we both write down. Yeah.

32:51

And then if we're able to use those

32:53

words to then find

32:56

the answer

32:57

afterwards. Okay. Now just

32:59

to say, I don't recommend you do this in the exam.

33:02

In the exam, I would like you, ideally

33:05

we're going to be able to identify the paraphrases

33:07

immediately. Yeah. What we're doing here

33:09

is if you can't find the paraphrase immediately

33:12

and you've got to keep listening, you

33:14

might want to make a note of those words so that

33:17

then at the end you can go and find it. But we're

33:19

not doing this for every answer, okay? We're

33:21

just doing it for the ones where you can't find

33:23

the paraphrase. Okay.

33:27

Good luck.

33:35

Now, the aim of your work placement

33:37

is to give you the opportunity to develop

33:39

the skills that an events manager needs.

33:42

So let's talk about those a bit.

33:45

Well, I think my communication

33:47

skills are pretty good. I can

33:49

talk on the phone to people and book

33:51

venues and that kind of thing.

33:54

Good. Just remember it isn't

33:56

only about what you say. If

33:58

you meet someone face to face. face and want

34:00

to persuade them to be a sponsor, for example.

34:03

Oh, I'll dress up for that, sure.

34:06

Good. Let's go on to think

34:08

about your organisational skills. You're

34:11

working in a very people-based industry,

34:14

and that means things won't always go

34:16

to plan. I guess it's being prepared

34:18

to make changes that matters. That's

34:21

right. You may have to make an on-the-spot

34:23

change to a timetable because of

34:25

a problem you hadn't anticipated. Just

34:28

do it, OK? How's

34:30

your time management these days? I'm

34:33

working on it. I'm certainly

34:35

better when I have a deadline, which is

34:37

why this work suits me.

34:39

Yes, but it's how you respond as

34:41

that deadline approaches. I know

34:43

I've got to look calm, even if I'm

34:45

in a panic. Just think to yourself,

34:48

no-one must know I'm under pressure. Yeah,

34:51

even though I'm multitasking like crazy.

34:55

Another skill that events managers need

34:57

is creativity.

34:59

Often your client has what we call

35:01

the big picture idea, but

35:03

it's up to the events manager to think of

35:05

all the fine points that go to making

35:07

it work.

35:08

Right. So I need to listen

35:10

carefully to that idea and then

35:12

fill in all the gaps. That's right.

35:15

And you'll have a team working under you. So

35:18

another key skill is leadership. Your

35:21

team may have lots of ideas, too,

35:24

but you've got to make the ultimate choices.

35:27

Do we have refreshments inside

35:29

or out, for example? Isn't it

35:32

better to be democratic? It's

35:34

a nice idea, but you have the ultimate

35:37

responsibility. So believe

35:39

in what you think best. Be

35:42

prepared to say, yes, that's

35:44

a good idea, but it won't work

35:46

here. I see what you mean. What

35:49

about the networking side of things? I

35:52

know it's an area that a lot of students worry

35:54

about, because we don't have much

35:56

experience to offer others.

35:59

But even Even without it, you can still

36:01

be an interesting person with useful

36:03

ideas, and the more

36:05

people you impress, the better. I

36:08

guess that will help me when I apply for a

36:10

real job. Exactly. Think

36:13

ahead. Remember what your ambitions

36:15

are and keep them in mind. Definitely.

36:18

Alright

36:19

then, Nick. I

36:22

don't know, I've made

36:25

a lot more notes than I thought I was.

36:27

Yeah, me too. So maybe

36:29

what we can do then is we could play. So the

36:31

game is, let's paraphrase like

36:34

an examiner. Alright,

36:36

so for example, for the first one, communication,

36:39

what have you written down? What do

36:41

you think is going to be the most important

36:43

aspect? Well, she said, I need

36:46

to dress up. Yeah. And

36:48

I think we're going to see smart appearance

36:51

or something like that. Looking smart, smart appearance.

36:54

Exactly. Right, so that's exactly what I think we should

36:56

do. So I've got that. I said, I can talk on

36:58

the phone, blah, blah, blah. But then he said,

37:00

yeah, but sometimes you're going to have to

37:02

meet people face to face. So

37:05

I agree. I think that answer is going to be something like

37:07

smart appearance. OK, organization.

37:10

Organization, she

37:12

said something about making changes. Yes.

37:16

Yes. Quickly

37:17

and on the spot. So I think flexible.

37:20

Being flexible. Right, this is what I think. So

37:23

I don't know. So being prepared to make changes

37:25

on the spot. So maybe quick decision

37:28

making. Yeah. Decision.

37:30

Something about decisions, I think that answer is going

37:32

to be. OK, what about time

37:34

management?

37:35

Not looking under pressure. I've

37:38

got. Yes. That's what I've got.

37:40

So you look calm. Appearing calm. Yeah.

37:43

No one must know I'm under pressure. So yeah,

37:45

keeping a, what do we call it? Keeping up appearances.

37:48

Yeah, keeping a level head. Keeping

37:52

calm. Being level headed maybe. Yeah, something

37:54

like that. Question 28,

37:57

creativity.

37:58

Listen carefully and fill in the gaps. gaps.

38:01

Yeah. So I've got think

38:03

of all the fine points, fill in the gaps.

38:05

I'm thinking details. Details

38:07

yeah. Like small details

38:10

or detail orientated or

38:12

I don't know, I think the word details has

38:15

got to be in there somewhere. What about

38:17

leadership?

38:18

Well he said you've got

38:21

to be prepared to say yes

38:24

but. So be prepared to say

38:26

no. Ability to

38:28

say no, ability to reject

38:31

ideas.

38:31

Yeah. Because there was something

38:34

about like she said there

38:36

was something else about you've got to make, I've got down,

38:38

you've got to make the ultimate choices or you

38:41

have the responsibility. So it could be something

38:43

like either because sometimes

38:46

it could be I think it could be be

38:48

prepared to say no like be prepared to contradict

38:51

or

38:52

to go against or it might be just something.

38:53

Go with your gut. Yes.

38:56

Take being able to take responsibility or

38:58

something like that. And

39:00

then networking. Yeah.

39:03

He said you should be interesting, have useful ideas

39:05

and impress people. Yeah. Confidence

39:08

maybe. Confidence. The only

39:10

thing I think was interesting was at the end he then said

39:12

think ahead. Think of your ambition.

39:15

So that might also be something about

39:18

your career or something. Like

39:20

future career. Yeah. I don't

39:22

know. All right so shall we reveal

39:25

the box? Reveal. Ladies

39:28

and gentlemen reveal the box. I

39:30

mean I hope you were playing along at home as well.

39:33

Nick and I had just played the game. I forgot

39:36

to say that. All right so let's

39:38

have a look at the box. Oh look being flexible

39:40

focusing on details. Okay. Yeah. I think

39:43

everything's

39:43

here. Yeah. We

39:45

really have. So communication is

39:47

definitely you said this word for word.

39:49

Having a smart appearance. C. Having

39:53

a smart appearance. Organization. Flexible.

39:56

Being flexible. Yeah. Being prepared

39:58

to make changes. Time management. Time

40:01

management, I'm

40:04

going to say hiding your emotions. Yeah.

40:07

What did we say though? I

40:09

said not looking under, well he said not looking under pressure.

40:12

Yeah, hiding emotions, having a poker

40:14

face. Good. Creativity.

40:18

Details.

40:19

Yeah, focusing on

40:21

details. B. B.

40:24

Leadership, what's this? You've got to make the choices.

40:26

Trusting your own views. Yes,

40:28

okay. That's a good one actually. Trusting

40:31

your own views. That does summarise what we heard, doesn't

40:33

it? Yep. And then networking.

40:36

It

40:36

is going to be, all right, what do we have

40:38

left? So we've got left. We've got relying

40:41

on experts, doing one thing at a time, thinking

40:43

of the future. It's thinking

40:46

of the future, isn't it? Yeah. Okay.

40:49

So as you can see, yeah.

40:53

Now there are two reasons I think this is useful. Number

40:55

one is, if you actually listen to what they're saying, the

40:59

meaning,

41:00

I think finding these answers is

41:03

not as difficult as it may seem. Because what we're

41:05

really doing is, we're not just matching the words,

41:07

we're just, you know, if you listen to the information, process it, you should

41:09

be able to summarise it. So this is

41:11

a really good practice to actually

41:14

get you actually listening.

41:16

But the second thing is, as I said before,

41:18

you know, as you're listening, you may be able

41:21

to, you know, as they're talking about number 25, communication, you might

41:23

be able to match, have a smart appearance really easily. Okay.

41:26

As they're talking

41:28

about organisation, you

41:31

may be able to match, what

41:33

was it? Small changes, being flexible

41:35

really easily. Okay. However,

41:38

for 27, when they're talking about deadlines

41:40

and no one must know that you're under pressure, you might

41:42

not be able to match hiding your emotions immediately.

41:44

You

41:46

might struggle to find that

41:48

paraphrase. So just quickly,

41:50

on a bit of paper, write down 27, no one must know you're under pressure.

41:53

Or look calm,

41:56

write down the words you think are important. And then at

41:58

the end,

41:59

look at the ones you haven't used, which

42:02

is what you just did then Nick, which is really important,

42:04

and choose the one that best matches.

42:07

I think this is just a really good practice to

42:09

get students listening. Nick,

42:12

do you think we've got time to do this last final?

42:15

Let's go for it. Okay, let's do it. Because

42:18

I saw this one, so as I was looking through to pick

42:21

which listening activities to do, I saw this one

42:24

and my initial reaction was, oh no

42:27

way. But the more

42:29

I thought about it, then my thought would be quite interesting for

42:32

us to look at this. So you haven't

42:34

seen this before.

42:36

So

42:38

I'll read the instruction,

42:40

it says, which opinion do the speakers give

42:42

about each of the following aspects of the

42:44

Emporium's production of Romeo

42:47

and Juliet? So we

42:49

have obviously been to the theatre

42:52

and seen Romeo and Juliet, and

42:54

we're going to discuss the set, which

42:56

is what's on the stage, the lighting,

42:58

the costume design, the music and

43:01

the actor's

43:01

delivery. So

43:03

far, so normal. However,

43:06

why do you think I panicked when I looked in the box

43:08

Nick? Because in the box we've got a mishmash

43:12

of confusing things. We've

43:16

got a mishmash of confusing things.

43:18

So in the previous

43:21

listening, what we were listening for only

43:24

was agreement, wasn't it? What did

43:26

the speakers agree? This

43:28

time we have got a mix of all

43:31

of the wonderful

43:33

emotions and agreements and stuff

43:35

which we teach on our course. So

43:38

the first option A is they

43:40

both expected this to be more traditional.

43:42

There's surprise. So

43:44

they are surprised that it was not more traditional.

43:47

So we'd have to recognise that one of these things

43:50

was not traditional. They both

43:53

thought that this was original. So

43:56

this is agreement, and this is agreement

43:58

I think on a difficult vocabulary. words.

44:01

If you say something is original, what does

44:04

that mean in this context? It's like kind of novel,

44:06

isn't it? New,

44:09

different, basically different,

44:11

unusual, something they have

44:13

never seen before.

44:14

And they both have

44:16

to agree on that. So the first two start with they

44:18

both. So the first one is they

44:20

were both surprised

44:22

or they both expected something to be more traditional,

44:25

which means that it was not traditional.

44:26

And they

44:28

both thought something was original. Then we've

44:30

got two agrees. They

44:33

agree this created the right

44:35

atmosphere. Yes.

44:38

Right. So I don't know, like that's difficult

44:41

to identify. That's unlikely

44:43

to be the actor's delivery, to be honest.

44:45

That is true. Maybe even the costume

44:48

design. It's probably going to be the set, the lighting

44:50

or the music. If it's one of the answers.

44:52

That's a brilliant point Nick. So something that creates

44:54

atmosphere is not usually the words, is it? But it's something

44:57

in the set. So

44:59

now D, they agree

45:01

this was a major strength.

45:04

That's very general. So something they both

45:07

agree

45:07

was good. Yeah.

45:09

It was one of the best things about it. Yes.

45:12

E, they were both disappointed

45:14

by this. So we've got,

45:17

for A, we've got to recognize that they were both

45:19

surprised. For E, we've got to recognize

45:22

that they were both disappointed. I mean, what language

45:24

might we hear for disappointment? It wasn't

45:25

as good as I thought it would be. Yes.

45:28

I thought it would be better. Yes.

45:33

And then F and G are two things

45:35

that they disagree about. And I think this

45:38

makes it really tricky. So F

45:40

is they disagree about

45:42

why this was an issue. So

45:45

in that one, I guess what we'll hear is they're

45:48

not going to be happy with one aspect. And

45:51

one person will say, I think it's because of this.

45:53

And the other person will say, no, I think it's because of this.

45:56

Exactly. So you've got, there's a lot of inferred

45:58

meaning in that sentence.

45:59

isn't there? So basically they both

46:02

agree it's a problem,

46:04

but they disagree about what the, as

46:06

you've just said, what the cause of the

46:08

problem was. So it might be

46:10

like something like, I mean, let's imagine, you

46:13

know, we both agree, we've watched a

46:15

film and we both found it difficult to hear

46:17

the dialogue.

46:19

So we both say, oh, it was difficult to hear

46:21

it. But I might say, I think that's

46:23

because the actors

46:25

were speaking very softly. And

46:27

I might say the music was too loud or something

46:29

like that. Yes, exactly. Right. So that

46:31

would be an example of that. And then

46:33

G is kind of similar. Looking at

46:36

this last question, it's actually

46:38

really hard because we had E, they were both

46:40

disappointed by this. Yeah.

46:42

And then G says they disagree about how this

46:45

could be improved, which means they

46:47

were disappointed by it initially and

46:49

they have different suggestions for how it could

46:51

be better. Right.

46:52

So I think you have to be really

46:55

careful with E and G. Yeah.

46:57

So I guess E, the difference is, I

47:00

guess, is that we've got to actively

47:02

have disappointment for E. Yeah. So

47:04

we could both say, oh my God, the, the,

47:08

I dunno, the acting was terrible, but

47:10

we might say, but you know, I knew that

47:12

would happen. Yeah. So we're not disappointed

47:15

because we expected it would be bad. We expected it.

47:17

There are so many layers, I

47:19

feel, here of understanding

47:22

just for understanding the actual

47:24

meaning of the sentences.

47:25

Yeah. 30 seconds is not going to be enough

47:28

time. 30 seconds is not a lot.

47:30

Okay. Which again, I haven't

47:32

listened to this yet. Neither of you. Nope. It's going

47:34

to be interesting to see because the box

47:36

is so complex. Yeah. Maybe

47:39

the discussion will actually be a little bit easier.

47:41

Maybe. Yes. But who knows?

47:43

This is our, so everybody let's

47:46

all do our best. Okay. If

47:48

you get all of these correct, then

47:50

when you finish listening, you can, you know, do something

47:53

really

47:53

special to reward

47:56

yourself. You give yourself some snaps, go for a coffee,

47:58

eat your cream cake. That's what I'd say. Alright,

48:01

now there's no guarantee Nick and I will actually get that's

48:03

true. I got a question wrong this morning in class.

48:07

Let's do our best.

48:17

So what about the Emporium Theatres

48:20

production of the play? I thought some

48:22

things worked really well, but

48:24

there were some problems too. Yeah What

48:27

about the set for example? I

48:29

think it was visually really

48:31

stunning I'd say that was probably

48:34

the most memorable thing about this production.

48:36

You're right The set design was really

48:39

amazing, but actually I have

48:41

seen similar ideas used in other productions

48:45

What about the lighting some of

48:47

the scenes were so dimly lit it was

48:49

quite hard to see I didn't dislike

48:52

it It helped to change the

48:54

mood of the quieter scenes. That's a

48:56

good point What did you think of

48:58

the costumes? I was a bit surprised

49:01

by the contemporary dress. I must say

49:03

yeah I think it worked well,

49:05

but I'd assumed it would be more conventional

49:08

me, too I liked the music

49:10

at the beginning and I thought the musicians

49:12

were brilliant But I thought

49:14

they were wasted because the music

49:17

didn't have much impact in acts two

49:19

and three. Yes, that was a shame One

49:22

problem with this production was that the actors

49:24

didn't deliver the lines that well. They

49:26

were speaking too fast

49:28

It was a problem. I agree, but

49:30

I thought it was because they weren't speaking loudly

49:32

enough Especially at key points

49:34

in the play. I actually didn't

49:36

have a problem with that It's

49:38

been an interesting experience watching different

49:41

versions of Romeo and Juliet, hasn't it?

49:43

Definitely It's made me realize

49:46

how relevant the place still is right

49:48

I mean a lot's changed since Shakespeare's time, but

49:51

in many ways nothing's changed There

49:53

are always disagreements and tension

49:55

between teenagers and their parents. Yes,

49:58

that's something all young people can relate

50:01

to, more than the violence and

50:03

the extreme emotions in the play. How

50:06

did you find watching it in translation?

50:08

Really interesting. I expected

50:11

to find it more challenging, but I could

50:13

follow the story pretty well. I

50:15

stopped worrying about not being able to understand

50:18

all the words and focused on the actors' expressions.

50:21

The ending was pretty powerful. Yes, that

50:24

somehow intensified the emotion for

50:26

me. Did you know Shakespeare's

50:28

been translated into more languages than

50:31

any other writer? What's

50:34

the reason for his international appeal,

50:36

do you think? I was reading that it's

50:38

because his plays are about basic themes

50:41

that people everywhere are familiar with. Yeah,

50:44

and they can also be understood on different

50:46

levels. The characters have such

50:49

depth. Right, which allows directors

50:51

to experiment and find new angles.

50:54

It's really important.

51:00

So, Nick, this

51:03

question was in the same test

51:06

as our first listening, locations on the

51:08

farm, cows being milked. In

51:10

terms of difficulty, how

51:13

much easier and more difficult was this question?

51:15

Probably, is a million percent a number?

51:18

I think a trillion gazillion bazillion

51:21

percent. I mean, I

51:24

was right. I knew when I saw this box,

51:26

it would be tricky because I think the thing

51:28

is, is that there are very, very little

51:31

or very few key

51:34

words for us to hold on to because we're not really

51:36

focusing here on the themes, right? We're

51:39

focusing almost completely

51:42

on the speaker's opinion or their feelings.

51:44

And I just think that makes it so

51:46

much harder to grasp

51:49

the answer than just because you can't really match

51:51

a paraphrase here. I guess that's the thing.

51:54

Let's start with the set. I

51:58

thought this one, it started off...

51:59

okay, I felt quite confident. Yeah.

52:02

Question 23. I'm going

52:04

to say that the answer is D. That's

52:06

right. They agree it was a major strength.

52:08

I think that one was fairly obvious, to

52:10

be honest. Yes. Because he said it was

52:12

visually stunning. It was most memorable. You

52:14

could hear that they were loving. Yeah. The

52:17

set. Then we had the lighting.

52:20

I'm not going to lie, Nick, I felt a little bit sick

52:22

in the pit of my stomach. I had to listen to

52:24

this twice before I was even a little bit sure what the

52:26

answer was. Yeah. I mean, this

52:29

is extremely hard. Mostly

52:31

because,

52:33

I think when they start speaking, it was

52:36

quite, again, this is not because I don't

52:38

understand the words, okay. She

52:40

said it was really dimly lit.

52:43

So she was saying something negative. That's

52:45

what I was thinking. Okay. So she doesn't

52:48

like this. And then he said, what

52:50

did he say? It was

52:52

something

52:56

like, he said, I didn't dislike

52:59

it. So I mean, that's a double negative.

53:00

Double negative. I didn't

53:02

dislike it means he thought it was okay.

53:05

So there's some disagreement there. And

53:08

then he said it helped to change the

53:10

mood of the quieter

53:12

scenes. The mood atmosphere. Yeah. And

53:15

that mood is the only thing that saved

53:17

me there because that was a direct synonym

53:19

for atmosphere. And then she

53:22

said, that's a good point. So in a way,

53:24

she kind of agrees with him.

53:27

Yeah. She sort of changes her mind a little bit,

53:29

doesn't she? She's sort of saying, oh, it was really dimly

53:31

lit. It's not great. And then he said, yeah,

53:33

but that sets the mood. And she then agrees.

53:36

So the answer for that was C,

53:38

create the right atmosphere. Honestly, I don't

53:41

think I would have, this was a great example

53:43

where I would not have done that

53:44

on the first listen.

53:47

But if I had written the word mood, yeah,

53:50

you would have gone back and looked and thought, okay, I

53:52

could have gone back. I'd have looked at the answers I hadn't

53:54

used and said it must have been this,

53:56

but I am using all of my

53:59

listening skills. at this point. I mean this

54:01

is not just listening but my sort of logic

54:04

as well. What about the costume

54:06

design?

54:06

This one wasn't too bad. He

54:09

said that he

54:12

assumed it would be more conventional. Yes

54:15

and she said I was surprised by the contemporary

54:18

dress. So you've got traditional, contemporary,

54:22

conventional, they're all antonyms

54:24

aren't they? Yeah. So I think that

54:26

one was again, that one gave me a bit more confidence

54:29

back. A, then

54:31

the music. What did they say about the music?

54:34

That

54:37

it was really good. It was another one like

54:39

this. It was really good in act one. Yes.

54:42

But it wasn't used enough in act two and three.

54:45

Yes. And then I

54:47

think the key word here, because remember they do

54:49

actually always use a direct, if they're asking

54:52

you to identify an emotion. They

54:54

usually give you a word that really signifies

54:56

that emotion. Ed said

54:58

yes, that was a shame.

54:59

Yep. Disappointing.

55:02

So a shame is disappointing.

55:04

But again, you've got to understand, right?

55:07

It was used in part one. They liked it. That's

55:10

something positive, right? However, it wasn't

55:12

used because they liked it and it wasn't

55:14

used, they were disappointed. I hope

55:17

everybody said,

55:18

yeah, like a good strong breakfast

55:21

this morning, because this is not easy stuff. Okay.

55:24

And then finally, the actors delivery.

55:27

Yeah, this is exactly what you said. Before

55:30

we started listening. It's a lucky guess. Yeah. I

55:32

mean, not exactly what you said, but it was very,

55:34

very close to what you said that

55:36

they disagreed. Suggestion about

55:38

one thing, suggestion about a different thing was the problem.

55:41

It was that. Yeah. I think she said they

55:43

spoke too fast. He said

55:45

they didn't speak loudly enough.

55:48

So it was about the volume. So they both

55:51

thought that the delivery

55:53

was a problem, but they disagreed about why

55:56

therefore the question is F. Now,

55:59

have to say that is about as difficult as

56:02

a box matching gets. I don't think I've ever seen anything that

56:04

difficult in IELTS before. No. It's

56:07

interesting that there are only five questions

56:09

here and actually if you have a look the

56:11

first question is a multiple multiple choice

56:13

then you've

56:14

got this and then there are still three

56:16

questions left. I think this was

56:18

probably originally seven or

56:21

eight but it was so difficult

56:23

they had to cut the questions down to five

56:27

because it was just too confusing. Yeah possibly.

56:30

If you got three or more for that

56:33

I think you've done a brilliant job. Because

56:36

that is extremely difficult but again just

56:39

writing down mood will have saved

56:41

me my nine. And

56:42

shame as well possibly as well. And shame

56:45

yeah mood and shame writing those two words

56:48

could honest to god might be the difference

56:50

between you know 7.5 and an eight

56:52

I would say but that is as

56:55

tricky as it gets. So Nick

56:57

I think we both deserve to finish there

56:59

and go and have well you've got to still edit this

57:01

it's very late where you are yeah so

57:03

you can have a nice hot chocolate maybe as a reward.

57:06

I'm going to make myself some tea the sun

57:08

has gone from my window the horses

57:10

are already lying down. I

57:13

would say well done if you've reached the end that

57:15

was a great episode. I have definitely used my

57:17

brain so I'm sure that you have and

57:20

come back next week where I'll try and find us something

57:22

a little

57:22

bit more relaxing for next week okay.

57:25

Take care until then bye bye.

57:33

My IELTS Classroom Podcast is a

57:35

production of My IELTS Classroom

57:37

Limited. Nick and I

57:39

do not represent IELTS and

57:41

everything you heard in this episode

57:44

is our own personal opinion. You

57:47

can find the show notes and transcript

57:49

for this episode on our blog that's

57:52

blog.myiodesclassroom.com

57:56

and if you're looking for our video courses

57:58

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57:59

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58:02

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58:07

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58:08

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