0:03

Welcome to my IELTS classroom,

0:06

the podcast where two English experts

0:08

talk all things IELTS.

0:10

I'm Shelley Cornick. And I'm Nick

0:12

Long. And today we are looking

0:14

at a little trick that IELTS uses

0:17

in the listening exam. What

0:20

are the usual tricks that IELTS uses,

0:22

how can you avoid them and what is

0:24

this new trick that we have

0:27

noticed?

0:31

Good

0:31

evening, Nick. How are you? Good evening.

0:34

I'm all right. Thank you very much. How's it going? It's

0:37

not too bad. Weather's good here in

0:39

England. Oh, nice. I

0:41

don't know what else to say. Went to see a little

0:43

musical performance at the weekend at the local

0:46

theatre. Oh, very nice. Which was

0:48

actually really good. Yeah. It

0:50

was student, so I thought it was going to be a little bit

0:53

dodgy, but actually felt like it was at the West

0:55

End in the

0:58

tiny theatre in Lincoln. So that

1:00

was pretty good. How about you? What have you been up to?

1:02

We went away for our anniversary this

1:04

weekend. Did you? Where'd you go? We

1:07

went to a small village

1:10

in the north of Latvia. Yeah. And

1:13

we just rented a country house, had

1:15

a barbecue, had some wine, had some

1:18

beer. And then the next day we walked

1:20

to the beach, which was four kilometres

1:22

away. Right. So we did

1:24

like 15,000

1:25

steps in about

1:28

three hours. Wow. Okay.

1:30

Poor Charlie must have been exhausted by the end of that.

1:33

He was absolutely dead when we got back. He

1:36

slept the whole evening actually when we got home. Did

1:39

he? Yeah. Bless him. Is there

1:41

much coastline in Latvia? It's like

1:43

half the country, yeah. Is it? Because you

1:45

often say you go to the beach and I can't picture it

1:47

in my head. Like how far is it

1:49

from Riga? The whole left hand side of the country's on the

1:51

coast. Oh, okay. It's

1:54

lovely. Hardly any people. I

1:58

always sort of imagine it's a bit... Yeah,

2:00

a bit like Australia sort of like more land

2:02

than people. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely

2:06

Okay, well that's all very nice. I hope everybody listening

2:08

has had also had a nice week Um

2:10

today Nick,

2:12

I reckon we're gonna do a kind of deep

2:14

dive because we

2:16

sort of often in the

2:18

podcast look at I don't know a specific

2:21

element of speaking or Listening

2:23

or reading but we tend to look at questions,

2:26

right? So we do a question down

2:28

approach So we'll take her, you know, I don't know

2:30

a headings match reading question and look at how

2:32

you approach it the different skills That sort of thing.

2:35

Mm-hmm today

2:37

I'm just I just want to draw people's attention

2:39

to something which Actually,

2:41

we have touched on In the

2:43

podcast, but I mean if anybody can

2:45

remember that they must have an incredible memory because

2:48

it was like five or six sentences

2:51

In an episode. I think we did about

2:54

Two years ago about box matching

2:56

for this. Wow, right? So I kind

2:59

of understood that there was this trick

3:01

that IELTS often uses in the listening then

3:04

But

3:05

more and more recently as i've been doing sort of new

3:07

tests, I keep seeing it appear again and again and

3:09

again So I thought it might be a good idea just

3:12

to dedicate A full episode

3:14

to this mysterious trick, which

3:16

I keep referring to. All right, but

3:19

before we do that

3:22

You teach the intensive listening course, Nick,

3:24

don't you? I do. Yeah and the

3:26

live lessons and so do I so in our

3:28

course we we sort of focus a lot On

3:31

multiple choice questions and I guess

3:33

box matching questions and multiple multiple

3:35

choice questions So let's

3:37

just remind our listeners in

3:39

general, you know when you go into the listening exam

3:43

IELTS kind of use the same tricks over

3:45

and over again Don't they to try and get you to

3:47

choose the wrong answer? So,

3:49

you know if we're thinking about part one

3:52

for example The nice slow

3:54

conversation between two people

3:56

what sort of things should students expect to

3:58

see in that part of the test?

3:59

that might trick them into

4:02

choosing the wrong answer.

4:03

Well, they're definitely going to hear plausible

4:06

answers as one of them. Yes, yes. Yeah.

4:08

So what does that mean? So if someone's

4:10

describing the colour of something, then

4:13

they might say three different colours and you

4:15

have to listen carefully to the context and choose

4:17

the correct one. Absolutely.

4:21

I think that is pretty much the main trick

4:23

that they use, isn't it, in part one? When

4:26

you get into parts two and three and then we've got,

4:28

multiple choice or we're trying to match

4:30

things from a box. What

4:33

do IELTS tend to do then? I guess there are a couple of

4:35

other common tricks that they use. Well,

4:37

for the multiple choice questions, you'll usually

4:39

hear all three of the answers referenced.

4:41

Yeah. And again, you just have to listen carefully

4:44

to the context of what's being said.

4:46

Exactly. Before you make your choice. Yeah, definitely.

4:49

I mean, I think that's the main thing is that they

4:52

just, as you said, they'll

4:54

throw keywords from all

4:56

the possible answers at you. And if

4:58

you're just listening for those keywords, very

5:01

likely you're going to choose the wrong answer. Because usually

5:04

if there's a word that you can read and

5:06

you hear it, it's not the answer. That's

5:08

not correct. Now, they do actually sometimes

5:11

use a keyword in the answer to stop students

5:13

just never choosing those answers. But

5:16

most of the time, yeah, that would be it.

5:18

Can you think of any other

5:19

sort of general thing that's happening? Well,

5:22

synonyms are a big part, aren't they,

5:24

of part two and part three? Definitely. I

5:27

think, I mean, it kind of goes hand in hand. If you're

5:29

not listening for keywords, isn't it? What

5:31

are you listening for? It's paraphrasing,

5:34

it's meaning.

5:35

Meaning is the key thing, isn't it? Absolutely.

5:38

Some other sort of useful tricks that you can

5:40

use for box matching and

5:43

for

5:44

multiple choices, eliminating

5:46

incorrect answers, isn't it? They often,

5:48

as you said, they often go through the three options

5:51

in multiple choice, but they'll tell

5:53

you that one or two of them are wrong. Definitely

5:56

wrong, exactly. So, eliminating

5:58

what's not correct can be good.

5:59

Um, I had another thing in my head. Then

6:02

what was it? Oh, the other thing that maybe this

6:04

is not a trick but

6:06

Very often IELTS will use a key

6:08

word in the question So it might be

6:10

I don't know if you've got a multiple multiple

6:12

choice. You've got to listen for what two

6:15

things Um does the kitchen

6:17

supervisor says? Uh

6:20

makes new employees stressed So

6:23

she'll discuss all of them, but you've got to focus on the

6:25

ones that make them

6:26

stressed or multiple choice it might

6:28

be uh, what um

6:32

What stood on park road

6:35

previously? So that previously

6:37

is the key word. It's not now not in the future.

6:40

It was in the past. Yeah. Yeah,

6:43

exactly so

6:45

IELTS are always using these

6:47

kinds of things just to When

6:50

I say trick you I don't suppose it's really

6:52

To trick you so much as to really test

6:54

that you actually understand the conversation

6:56

and that you're listening carefully and yeah You've

6:59

actually understood the question as well. I suppose.

7:01

Yeah, I mean, I think i'm a bit guilty sometimes

7:03

of using words like IELTS trickery

7:06

and actually What they're really doing

7:08

is employing very good test writing

7:11

skills. Um, it was quite

7:13

interesting. Um on Well,

7:16

what day is it today monday monday? When

7:20

was when did that happen? Oh friday kraige

7:22

i've lost track of time on friday

7:25

um

7:26

We did in as part of our live lessons

7:29

a full practice test So

7:31

the students came and we just you know, there was no teaching.

7:33

It was just press play. Let's test where

7:35

you are And i'd done

7:38

the test before and so I used my

7:40

old computer to sort of set up

7:42

the listening And I had that

7:44

happening on my computer and then while

7:46

that was happening, I was just marking to

7:48

sort of try and multitask And

7:51

it was really interesting because I had the headphones on and I

7:53

was listening to the listening text And

7:56

I was sort of

7:56

half looking at the questions To

7:58

be honest, I was being a bit cocky Nick because I was

8:00

thinking, oh yeah, I've done this before and I know

8:02

IELTS really well. And it was kind of

8:04

interesting how for some of the

8:07

questions, even in part two, the multiple choice,

8:10

if you don't listen carefully, you

8:12

can easily not get

8:15

the right answer. And obviously,

8:16

I understood all of the words,

8:19

but because I wasn't really focusing on the questions. Yeah,

8:23

you really do have to pay attention, right? So

8:25

I do think that IELTS listening, even

8:28

if you're able to listen to Nick and

8:30

I speak every week and do the washing up, it's

8:33

a completely different skill to be able to sort of listen

8:35

and find the right answers.

8:38

But what I want to talk about

8:40

today then is another,

8:43

and I think this is actually a trick. I think some

8:46

of the other things that IELTS does, like

8:49

use paraphrase, use keywords, that's

8:51

all kind of cool. But I've noticed recently, they do something

8:54

I might call a little bit dirty.

8:57

And that is using, I'm

9:00

going to call it opposite language. So

9:03

let's imagine you had a friend, Nick, who always

9:05

told you

9:07

everything, but only ever using

9:10

opposite language. So by that, I would mean

9:12

if you asked your friend, were

9:15

you early this morning, they

9:17

would say, well, I wasn't late.

9:20

And if you ask them, how do

9:22

you feel today, they might say, well, instead

9:24

of saying I'm healthy, they might say, well,

9:26

I'm not sick, right? So using

9:30

IELTS, I've noticed when

9:32

they're using paraphrasing, we know that

9:34

they're not going to use the same words. What

9:37

they tend to do is they try and play

9:40

on these opposites. And the thing about

9:42

opposites is that our brains, I think, if I

9:44

hear the words

9:45

sick, my brain

9:48

kind of automatically goes to sick. Even

9:51

if I hear the negative, I almost have to double

9:53

think and go, wait a minute, not

9:55

healthy. Yeah, not sick. That

9:57

means healthy. And some of

9:59

double, I don't know what to even call

10:02

them, like negative, these

10:04

negative plays with the negatives

10:07

can honestly make me, I'm

10:09

sitting there going, I know what they said, I know

10:12

what I can read. Do

10:14

they have the same meaning? It could be quite difficult,

10:16

particularly, you know, in a multiple choice, when

10:18

you're listening to lots and lots of options,

10:21

it could be hard to choose the right option

10:23

when you've got an opposite. So what we do today

10:25

is I've gone through, I

10:28

mean, it was quite a lot of work, I've gone through six

10:30

or seven tests and I've chosen

10:33

just six

10:35

or seven questions which just show how IELTS

10:38

uses these opposites because it is, I'm

10:40

not saying it's every test, but it is pretty

10:43

frequently. So let's start

10:46

with a multiple choice example.

10:49

All right, so I

10:51

can't remember which Cambridge book this is from,

10:53

all of the examples today are from the Cambridge

10:55

book, I think it's a pretty recent one, I reckon it's 15

10:58

or later. And it is

11:00

the multiple choice questions

11:04

where they're discussing mammoths.

11:08

You know, there's, I think we've had some mammoth questions

11:10

on the podcast before actually, right? So

11:13

I can't remember what they're called. Oh

11:15

yeah, Rosie. And

11:16

then there's a guy talking to their tutor

11:19

about this presentation that they're going to do about woolly

11:21

mammoths, which are those old elephants,

11:24

I had lots of hair that are dead now. So

11:28

for this first question, what we're supposed to

11:30

be listening for

11:32

is what was surprising

11:35

about the mammoth tooth

11:37

found by Russell Graham,

11:40

right? So we need to focus on what's surprising.

11:42

So obviously, you know, before

11:44

we even have the trick of

11:46

the opposites, we're already in part

11:49

three here, listening for an emotion. So

11:52

Nick, if it says what is surprising, what should,

11:54

what type of language should the students

11:57

really be focusing on while they listen?

11:59

hear an exclamation. Right,

12:02

like what would that be? Oh I had no idea.

12:04

Can you believe

12:07

that? That's crazy. Could

12:09

have knocked me down with a feather.

12:11

Or we might hear inversion. Right.

12:14

Not only did we find

12:16

this but we also found this.

12:19

Oh that could be good to show surprise. I

12:21

couldn't believe it. Yeah, you

12:24

definitely want to hear, I reckon, listen for

12:26

some sort of exclamation

12:28

that this thing was not

12:30

expected. So it might, you know, and the

12:33

intonation of their voice might

12:34

help you. It's going to go up. Probably. It's going

12:36

to go, because when we're surprised

12:38

we're like, no, really?

12:40

I know. I couldn't believe

12:42

it. So we're definitely already

12:45

focusing on listening for some

12:47

language of surprise, right? So as you listen,

12:50

I'm going to ask everyone, I'm not going to tell you what the three

12:52

options are, okay? I just

12:54

want

12:55

people listening to do two things. Number one,

12:57

I want you to just write down

13:01

word for word what they tell us

13:03

was surprising about

13:06

the mammoth tooth. And

13:08

so if you can do that, that's fantastic. And even

13:10

better, what language signaled

13:14

that they found that information

13:16

surprising? What was the phrase you

13:18

heard that signal surprise? So we'll

13:20

do two little things. But what I'm really interested in

13:22

is what was surprising. So if you can

13:24

remember that, particularly if you can remember word

13:27

for word, that would be incredible.

13:29

So Nick, are you ready?

13:31

We'll just cue it. So it's just one question, okay?

13:33

And what you are going to hear the tutor and Rosie,

13:36

the girl speaking.

13:41

Then you're describing the discovery

13:44

of the mammoth tooth on St.

13:46

Paul's Island in Alaska, and

13:48

why it was significant.

13:50

Yes, the tooth was

13:52

found by a man called Russell Graham.

13:55

He picked it up from under a rock in

13:57

the cave. He knew it was

13:59

special.

13:59

For a start it was in

14:02

really good condition, as if

14:04

it had been just extracted from the animal's

14:06

jaw bone. Anyway, they

14:09

found it was 6,500 years old.

14:13

So why was that significant?

14:16

Well, the mammoth bones previously

14:19

found on the North American mainland

14:21

were much less recent than that, so

14:24

this was really amazing.

14:26

Then we're making an animated diagram

14:29

to show that you...

14:34

Okay, so they

14:37

did use the phrase special early,

14:39

didn't they? They knew it

14:41

was special. Do you remember what was special

14:44

about it? The age of it,

14:46

the condition it was in? Oh, right, yeah, exactly.

14:49

It was in good condition. Unfortunately, there

14:51

was no option of good condition in

14:55

the multiple choice options, right? And

14:57

I guess special is not necessarily

15:00

what they found surprising. I

15:02

think later

15:04

Rosie used a phrase that really

15:06

said the sentence before she

15:08

thought was surprising. Do you remember what

15:11

the phrase was that she used? I

15:15

know she said 6,500 years old. Yeah,

15:20

she did. And then

15:22

the tutor says, well, why was that significant?

15:25

And then she gave us the answer and then

15:27

said, so this was really

15:30

amazing. So I guess

15:32

that phrase, this was really amazing...

15:34

Is the surprising element.

15:37

Is the surprising element. But now again, this

15:39

is the problem. I think with IELTS listening, you need

15:41

an incredible short term memory. Because

15:45

if you heard that's really amazing, but you can't

15:47

remember what she said before that...

15:49

You're done. You're cooked. The

15:52

answer is gone, right? You're not going to get it.

15:54

So can you remember roughly what she

15:56

said before it? found

16:00

it was six thousand five years old it was in really good

16:02

condition yeah and she

16:04

said something about

16:07

the mammoth bones in that area had been

16:09

were older were

16:11

much older than that right and this

16:14

is where I think it gets confusing because what she said

16:16

was you have summarized

16:18

very well her actual words

16:21

were the mammoth bones previously

16:24

found on the North American mainland

16:27

were much less recent

16:29

than that

16:32

so that is honestly

16:34

a mental conundrum I think

16:37

because it's saying the mammoth bones

16:39

found before were

16:43

much less recent so if

16:45

they were much less recent I guess

16:47

that means that

16:50

they were older

16:53

yeah actually

16:56

mate you know what I don't understand this question much

16:59

less recent doesn't that mean that they were

17:01

older

17:03

yes it means that yes

17:07

it means that they were older yeah the

17:10

previous let's call them original but

17:12

the original bones were older of course yeah and it was not

17:14

as old as mammoth remains from elsewhere

17:18

yes so yeah one

17:21

of the answers is that

17:23

the tooth is not as old mm-hmm

17:27

so you've got to understand that the

17:29

bones

17:31

were much less recent which means

17:33

that they were older and you've

17:35

got to connect that mm-hmm

17:37

with the answer it was not as old

17:40

as mm-hmm do you not think

17:42

that is a massive mental

17:45

puzzle I mean it is but

17:48

we also have to consider the other

17:50

answers as well right I think

17:53

that's probably where

17:56

the

17:58

clever students are gonna get

18:00

the correct answer because the

18:03

other two probably are not going to be mentioned

18:05

at all or can be eliminated very easily. I

18:08

think

18:08

you're absolutely right. The other two options

18:11

are about, it was still embedded in the

18:13

mammoth jaw bone, so it's about where the tooth

18:15

was. The option

18:17

B is was it was from an unknown species

18:20

of mammoth, so it's about the type of mammoth.

18:23

I guess even if your brain

18:25

is going, wait

18:26

a minute, not as old as, much

18:28

less recent, what you do understand

18:31

is that what she thought was amazing was something

18:33

about time. So

18:35

C is the only option which is about

18:38

time. That's

18:38

about time. And A actually, you can eliminate

18:40

A before that because she says as

18:44

if it had just been extracted from the animal's

18:46

jaw bone.

18:47

And that's another, now we've looked at that

18:50

in reading actually, so when it says

18:52

as if, does that mean it had

18:54

happened?

18:56

No. No, it's like it had happened,

18:58

but she's making a very nice

19:00

comparison like

19:02

a metaphor. Yeah. And

19:04

actually B is not mentioned here anywhere. There's

19:07

nothing about the species of, so

19:09

yeah, very tricky, very, very tricky question. But

19:12

I think the higher level students would

19:14

see it's clearly not B. There's no reference to that

19:16

whatsoever. No. And I think, yeah,

19:19

there probably would be maybe a little bit tricky

19:21

between A and C depending on your level.

19:23

Definitely. And like you said, whether it's about

19:26

time or whether it's about the location

19:28

of the bone. Exactly. So.

19:31

But as I said, I think this

19:33

is a great introduction to the

19:35

idea of, they are using

19:38

in the recording the word less

19:41

recent. So you've got recent, and

19:43

then on the paper, it's not as old. So you've got

19:45

two opposites, recent and old, but

19:48

they've got the same meaning because they've been used in

19:50

different ways.

19:51

Do you know what the worst thing about that question is? What's

19:53

that? It's question 22. So

19:57

if you spend five or 10 seconds thinking

19:59

about it. done for question 23.

20:02

You're absolutely right. You've probably still got,

20:04

you might have 23 and even like 24 left.

20:07

That's only the third multiple choice. Yeah. You might

20:10

have another five after that. Yeah. Horrible.

20:13

Horrible. It is cruel.

20:16

So let's do another one. Cause that was, so that was

20:18

our example. Okay. Um,

20:21

let's do another one, which as I say is a little bit

20:23

easier. Cause I think in this one and what

20:25

I want to show you is that sometimes IELTS

20:27

gives you two bytes of the same

20:30

cherry. That's a nice idea.

20:32

What does that mean, Nick, if you're getting two bytes

20:34

of the cherry. It

20:35

lets you have two attempts basically to get

20:37

the correct answer. Yes. Right. They

20:39

often will give you a really difficult

20:42

way to get the answer and

20:44

then a really simple way to

20:46

get the answer. So you still, it doesn't matter which

20:48

way you use to get the answer. And I'm guessing

20:51

if you understand the difficult, you can also get the easy.

20:53

But in this one, so we're now listening,

20:57

a completely different listening now we've moved

20:59

on to a multiple choice, which

21:02

is somebody's doing a, um, presentation

21:05

about the life and work of Thor

21:07

Heiderdahl. Um,

21:10

yeah. So, oh no, that

21:12

that's it. They're doing a presentation

21:15

about Thor Heiderdahl. I think he's

21:17

some dude who built a boat. Yeah, he

21:20

sounds like a Viking. He built a boat and sailed

21:23

thousands of miles and nobody really understands

21:25

how we did it. So at

21:28

this point of the discussion, we've got two

21:30

students who are making a presentation

21:33

about Thor. And one

21:35

of the students has used a

21:37

textbook by a man called William

21:40

Oliver. All right. And what we

21:42

need to listen for is the criticism

21:45

that the speakers make of William

21:48

Oliver's textbook. So what do the

21:50

students not like about

21:52

the textbook?

21:53

So again, if we're looking for a criticism, Nick,

21:56

what type of language should we be looking out

21:58

for when we're trying to spot?

21:59

what the criticism is. It's definitely negatives. I

22:02

didn't like that. That wasn't interesting.

22:04

This part wasn't very good.

22:06

Yes. I wasn't impressed. Yeah.

22:09

It wasn't very useful. Maybe

22:11

what could be wrong with textbooks. No pictures.

22:14

It was boring. It was, you know, basically

22:16

we're listening for what the problem is.

22:19

So we'll listen again. I'm not going to tell you the three

22:21

options. I just want you

22:23

to tell me

22:26

what do the speakers say

22:28

is wrong with the textbook. And

22:31

if you can write down just the words that tell

22:33

you that,

22:33

that would be fantastic.

22:41

Yes. Right. Well,

22:43

I'll prepare a PowerPoint slide at the

22:45

end that acknowledges our sources. I

22:48

mainly used the life and work of

22:50

Tor Heyerdahl by William Oliver.

22:53

I thought the research methods he used were

22:55

very sound. Although I must

22:57

say I found the overall tone somewhat

22:59

old fashioned. I think they need

23:01

to do a new revised edition. Yeah,

23:04

I agree. What about the subject

23:06

matter? I found it really challenging.

23:09

Well, it's a complex issue. I

23:12

thought the book had lots of good points.

23:15

What did you think of the illustration?

23:20

So, sorry, I said

23:22

Thor, his name's Tor. What did they

23:25

dislike about William Oliver's book about

23:27

Tor? Well, the Australian guy

23:29

said that the work

23:32

was very old fashioned. The writing style was very

23:34

old fashioned. Yes. And there needs to

23:36

be a revision.

23:37

Exactly. So

23:40

I think, can you see where we might be going

23:42

with the two bites of the cherry? So

23:44

old fashioned is going to be the difficult

23:47

one. Actually, maybe

23:49

the opposite. And then there needs to be a revision.

23:53

I guess because yeah, there should be or

23:55

there needs to be. It's like... We're

23:58

talking about the future. So here...

23:59

option A for the multiple choice was its

24:02

style is out of date.

24:03

Okay, yeah. So that is old fashioned is the easy

24:05

one. Yeah. Yeah. So they've definitely said

24:07

the tone, which is the style is

24:10

old fashioned. And then I think

24:12

just to make this a bit more difficult,

24:14

that's when they say I think they need to do

24:17

a new revised

24:19

edition. So they've used the word new and

24:21

revised.

24:22

But they said they need

24:24

to do that, so this particular

24:27

option is

24:29

just out of date. So

24:32

that is, I guess, a use of opposites,

24:34

which I think is a bit easier than the first example

24:36

that we did. But again, they're still sort

24:39

of playing that same idea

24:41

through. Let's see,

24:44

let's test everyone at home then. Let's do a more difficult

24:46

one. Okay. Now, I

24:48

think for this one,

24:50

the only way we can really do this is

24:53

to actually tell

24:55

you what the options

24:58

are before we start listening. Okay. So

25:01

I will read,

25:04

actually no, Nick, you

25:06

can read it. I'll just do it so you can't see the answer

25:08

because I'm being mean. Okay. So

25:10

we're now, we're doing a listening

25:13

now, again, another multiple choice. It's

25:17

a guy and a girl who are talking about

25:19

a project or a module they have just

25:21

completed on children's literature. All

25:24

right. So they've spoken about different

25:26

types of children's stories in different countries.

25:29

And now they're about to talk about

25:31

books or stories which are aimed

25:34

at just boys or just girls. So do you want to

25:36

read this question for us, Nick?

25:37

So question 25, it says, with

25:41

regard to books aimed only at

25:43

boys or only girls,

25:46

Trevor was surprised again.

25:49

So

25:50

yeah, again, it's a surprise. So he

25:52

was surprised, first of all, how long the distinction

25:54

had gone unquestioned. He

25:57

was surprised how few books were aimed

25:59

at both.

25:59

girls and boys or he was surprised

26:02

how many children enjoyed books

26:05

intended for

26:06

the opposite sex.

26:08

Cool. So we've got quite a lot of how questions.

26:10

We've got a how long, so a time one.

26:12

How long the distinction between

26:14

boys' books and girls' books went unquestioned.

26:18

He was surprised how few books were

26:20

aimed at both boys and girls, so

26:22

not many for boys and girls, and how

26:24

many children enjoyed books intended

26:27

for the opposite sex. So how many girls

26:30

liked the Beano? I

26:32

don't know. How

26:34

many boys like Bumpty? They are

26:37

old fashioned comics in England. I

26:40

might actually put this, if I get time

26:42

this week to do, and if you're lucky, and I have

26:44

made a blog post, I will put this question

26:46

because I do think that the confusion here is

26:49

much stronger when you read it. Okay?

26:52

So let's have a listen to this one then.

26:58

What about books for girls and

27:01

books for boys? Does the course

27:03

go into that? Yes, there's a module

27:05

on it. For years, lots of

27:08

stories, in English at least, assumed

27:10

that boys went out and did adventurous

27:13

things, and girls stayed at home

27:15

and played with dolls. I

27:17

was amazed how many books were targeted

27:20

at just one sex or the other.

27:22

Of course, this reflects society

27:25

as it is when the books are written. That's

27:27

true. So it sounds as though

27:29

you think it's a good course. Definitely.

27:32

Right. Interesting. Mm-hmm.

27:35

Very. Mm-hmm.

27:40

So what is the correct answer?

27:43

It's B. B. So

27:45

the correct answer is how few books

27:47

were aimed at both boys and girls. Good.

27:51

How was that information

27:53

given to us though, Nick? How many

27:55

books

27:57

were just targeted at boys

27:59

or girls?

27:59

I think he said once I

28:02

saw the other story Yeah,

28:05

so they have this is a good

28:07

I mean, this is probably the best example of the complete

28:09

opposite Yeah complete opposite.

28:11

So instead of saying how few they've

28:13

said how many mm-hmm, and then

28:16

it's not both boys and girls It's just

28:18

one sex or the other. I Mean,

28:22

I remember listen to this. I understood

28:25

what I heard and I understood

28:27

what I read But trying to understand if they were the same

28:29

thing took

28:30

you a bit of time. It's

28:32

quite tricky. Mmm Yeah, it

28:34

is tricky. So, you know how many how few

28:37

that's a clear play on the opposite.

28:40

Mm-hmm That

28:42

is so tricky isn't it and actually they've got a couple

28:44

of key words from that second answer because how

28:46

many children enjoyed books Intended

28:49

for the opposite sex. They've got

28:51

how many and they've also got opposite

28:53

I know they've got one sex or the other

28:55

I guess which

28:56

but they've got sex. Yeah. Yeah Mm-hmm,

28:59

and if you don't really understand what intended means

29:03

It does say targeted at so

29:05

aimed at targeted at yeah So

29:08

there's I mean that's almost like if you

29:10

just look for Word for

29:12

word paraphrases without the meaning of that

29:14

sentence See has got

29:16

the whole set of paraphrase there hasn't almost

29:19

yeah. Mm-hmm.

29:20

It would be so so tempting to

29:22

go Yeah,

29:24

that's right But

29:28

I do think they love this particularly words

29:30

like more less many few That

29:34

they that those seem to be the words that they sort of put

29:37

in the washing machine to have the

29:39

same meaning Let's do one more. It's quite

29:41

similar actually. Okay, so

29:43

this time we're listening to two students

29:46

who are talking about a presentation about

29:49

biofuels bio

29:51

biofuels

29:51

fuels

29:54

that come from crops Yeah,

29:56

I don't really know much about them to be honest. I just know

29:59

that you can burn Like is

30:01

it true that some cars I think the student

30:03

from Brazil told me that they have

30:05

some cars which are fueled by like Corn

30:08

oil

30:08

or something? Yeah, you can use oils

30:10

like it's big in Germany. They

30:13

they have lots of rapeseed oil

30:16

In Germany, they grow like rapeseed is the biggest

30:18

crop in Germany in a minute and they can't eat it.

30:20

They just use it for I

30:25

Didn't know that Okay, so what

30:27

we're listening for now is that the students are

30:29

discussing this is quite an easy one for us to do

30:32

Without the students being able to see

30:35

the answers or like the possible answer. So

30:37

again, it's a multiple choice This

30:39

time we just need to

30:41

identify which source of biofuel

30:44

Do the students agree is the least?

30:47

environmentally friendly

30:50

So if it's the least environmentally friendly,

30:52

I guess it's the worst

30:53

the worst one for the planet So

30:56

there are three options sugar cane corn

30:58

and

30:59

Canola, I don't even know what canola

31:01

is. I've just heard my American relatives to take canola

31:04

Anyway, let's have a listen, which is

31:06

the least environmentally friendly sugar

31:09

cane corn or canola? And

31:11

again, what words did you hear

31:14

that gave the answer?

31:21

So, um the main plants

31:23

that are used for biofuel production

31:26

now sugar cane

31:29

Corn and canola

31:32

of all of them canola is probably

31:34

the least harmful Because machines

31:37

that use it don't produce as

31:39

much carbon monoxide

31:41

sugar cane seems to be controversial

31:45

It doesn't require as much fertilizer

31:48

as corn does to grow But

31:50

when they burn the sugar cane fields

31:53

that releases loads of greenhouse

31:55

gases

31:56

Yes, but some critics have

31:58

suggested that the production of corn

32:01

ethanol uses up more fossil

32:03

fuel energy than the biofuel

32:05

energy it eventually produces.

32:08

For that reason I'd say it was more

32:10

harmful to the environment.

32:12

I see what you mean. You're probably

32:14

right.

32:15

It's interesting how everyone

32:17

saw it. Right,

32:21

so which

32:24

one was the least

32:26

environmentally friendly? It was corn. It

32:29

was corn? How did they tell us

32:31

that? Oh, what a carry on. They

32:35

started talking about canola first

32:38

and they said that it was the least

32:42

harmful to the environment, which

32:44

means it's the most environmentally

32:47

friendly. Exactly. Least harmful

32:50

means most environmentally friendly. So they use

32:52

that word least but it's not the answer. The opposite

32:54

basically. Then they spoke

32:56

about sugar canes, controversial, some

32:58

problems with it, some good things. Then they moved

33:00

on to corn

33:04

and she said for that reason I would

33:07

say it was more harmful

33:09

to the environment. So

33:11

it's the least environmentally friendly. And

33:14

because this was an agreed question, Mike

33:17

said, I say what you mean, you're probably right.

33:20

Oh yeah, Mike. I'm agreeing with you there. It

33:23

is little confirmation, two confirmations

33:25

actually. So lots of confirmation

33:27

but again, your brain has got a juggle.

33:29

Least environmentally friendly

33:32

means bad, bad, bad, harmful

33:34

for the environment. So the answer is

33:37

corn. We do this on our intensive listening

33:40

course and I have to say we get a lot

33:42

of really strong students, a lot of students who

33:44

need an eight, right? So they're doing really well. They're only

33:46

making three or four

33:48

mistakes and that question

33:51

almost always catches them out.

33:51

Yeah. Yeah. And

33:54

I know it's going to. So that's why I really want to

33:56

draw attention to this. Now actually,

33:58

Nick, what I'm thinking is

34:00

I've got another set of questions which

34:02

are playing with opposites. However,

34:04

these are doing it not by

34:07

using opposite sort of adjectives, so

34:10

sort of, you know, like recent old-fashioned

34:12

or quantifiers more or less. They're

34:15

doing it by using a particular

34:17

type of grammar structure. But we're already

34:19

at 35 minutes. So,

34:21

shall we use this, should we deep

34:24

dive into this version

34:26

of the trick next week? We can

34:28

do if

34:28

that's what you want to. Yeah, and then we can

34:31

maybe even have a little grammar lesson or

34:34

review grammar lesson on conditions. Oh,

34:36

we should. We haven't done that for a long time. Exactly.

34:39

So, I think we'll pause here or watch,

34:42

we won't say pause, we say we will decide

34:44

not to continue now and

34:49

we won't work for

34:51

a week and then we will

34:53

not not come back next week

34:55

to not pause. I'm

34:58

sure that's very clear, isn't it? Very, very clear.

35:01

Very, very clear. All right. But

35:04

why don't you, while you're practicing this week,

35:06

you know, if you're doing and they

35:09

tend to appear in multiple choice questions, not

35:11

always, they can also appear in

35:14

box matching questions

35:16

as well. But if

35:18

you're listening and you hear one of these negative

35:20

questions, email me with which exam

35:22

you were practicing and what

35:25

the question

35:26

was, what the opposite

35:29

words were and then

35:31

we can maybe just sort of spread it. Because I think the more

35:34

examples of this that the students see the better,

35:36

right?

35:37

Fantastic. Have you got anything you'd like to say,

35:39

Nick, before we finish? Just

35:44

don't be upset. Exactly.

35:50

So, not hello until

35:52

next week. Bye.

36:01

My IELTS Classroom podcast is a production

36:04

of My IELTS Classroom Limited. Nick

36:07

and I do not represent IELTS

36:09

and everything you heard in this episode

36:12

is our own personal

36:13

opinion. You can

36:15

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36:17

for this episode on our blog, that's

36:20

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36:24

and if you're looking for our video courses,

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36:35

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36:55

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36:57

we'll see you next week.