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 Connick. And I'm Nick Long. And

0:13

today we are looking at six

0:16

recent IELTS essay

0:18

questions from the real exams.

0:22

Which topics are new and which

0:24

are repeated? What

0:26

ideas or arguments would Nick and I use

0:29

if we had these questions in our exam

0:32

and how difficult do we think

0:33

the current questions

0:35

are. Good

0:40

evening Nick, how are you? Again

0:42

also bad thank you very much, had a long

0:44

week and a long weekend, how are

0:47

you? That's not

0:49

good, I've had a lovely weekend, I came down

0:51

to London to visit some friends which is

0:53

very nice. Yeah. I'm basically

0:55

doing 10 days of cat sitting. Very nice.

0:57

I've got two little boys here with me until

1:00

this week until Friday for my best friend from

1:02

university and then at the weekend I'm

1:05

going to go and start cat sitting because it's Easter

1:07

isn't it next weekend. So my

1:09

sister's going away so I'm going to look

1:11

after her four cats. Wow. So

1:13

I'm doubling from two to four. Cat crazy.

1:16

It's cat crazy. Yeah

1:19

it's nice to be in London though actually. I haven't you

1:21

know been here for 10 days

1:23

for ages so I'm going to try and

1:25

do some of the sights. Yes, meet

1:27

some friends. It's all

1:29

good. So, Nick, before we begin today,

1:31

I want to say some congratulations to some

1:34

of our students. Two who

1:36

got a seven, well, not a seven

1:38

overall, they got much higher scores overall, but in terms

1:40

of writing, two who got a seven,

1:43

which is Philip and Tonya. Very

1:45

nice. Very nice,

1:48

right? So, seven is usually we're all happy,

1:50

we pat ourselves on the back, our job is done,

1:53

but we actually had three seven point fives this

1:55

week. Yes as well so

1:57

congratulations Iris.

2:00

Emily and Maya,

2:02

particularly Maya who absolutely

2:04

needed a 7.5 to go on to register for the NHS

2:08

Foundation to become a doctor. So

2:10

some absolutely cracking scores from

2:13

our students. And more importantly, Nick, because

2:15

we've got a lot of students at the moment sitting the exam,

2:19

we're getting a lot of reported questions.

2:22

So we are. So that's what we're going to be looking at today.

2:24

So these are questions, which

2:27

actually it's questions that been reported

2:29

directly by our students.

2:31

So these are questions they've had in the last

2:34

two or three weeks sitting

2:36

the exam

2:37

around different countries

2:39

in the world. So obviously,

2:43

we always say this, you know, this is one of our most popular

2:45

types of podcast episodes, but

2:47

in case we've got new listeners, let's

2:50

just make this clear. What we're going to looking at

2:52

today are

2:54

edits of what the student

2:56

remembers from their exam. So

2:59

the general topic should be pretty

3:01

much the same. Hopefully the

3:03

wording will be sincere

3:06

to the idea of the question. Right. However,

3:09

I can't guarantee that these are word

3:11

for word exactly the same

3:14

as the student had in the exam because as we know,

3:16

it's really difficult to remember things.

3:19

You know, if you've had a big exam, you know,

3:21

when you come out, your adrenaline's really high,

3:23

you can probably just remember the idea

3:26

but not word for word. So,

3:29

always, always when you practice,

3:32

you know, if you're writing essays

3:34

for your teacher or for an essay correction

3:36

service, like Nick and I offer, always

3:39

make sure that you're using

3:41

essay questions or

3:43

any type of questions from the actual Cambridge

3:45

books because those are verified 100%

3:48

real Cambridge questions. What

3:52

was the point then of today's lesson? I

3:54

wouldn't recommend the students use these for essay

3:56

correction so why are we actually looking at these essay

3:59

topics?

4:00

go through them and discuss potential ideas

4:02

that we could have for these essays and definitely

4:04

point out some of the pitfalls that

4:06

students might fall into.

4:08

Exactly. So this is really a lesson

4:11

where you're going to be able to practice idea

4:13

generation, you're going to be able to practice

4:16

thinking about organizing your essays, and

4:19

it's just going to be able to, yeah, as Nick said, hear

4:21

us discuss some of the problem

4:24

areas that students might fall into. I

4:26

have to say there are, I think,

4:29

in the sixth question I've chosen today, some,

4:31

a couple of really tricky ones.

4:34

We've got a couple of completely new

4:36

topics.

4:37

Yeah, I know. I don't know where they keep coming up with

4:39

these topics. And we've

4:42

got a couple of old friends, let's

4:44

call them, who have changed

4:46

their form, format a little bit, right?

4:49

So maybe you've seen your old

4:50

friend from school and they've lost

4:52

a a lot of weight for example, something like

4:54

that. No, definitely not

4:56

me, Nick. I'm telling you, especially not in London.

4:59

But that's the idea of today. As

5:02

always for this type of lesson,

5:04

you can just keep listening and

5:06

go straight into Nick and I, giving

5:08

you our ideas. But the point is Nick and I,

5:11

luckily, don't actually need to sit the IELTS

5:13

press. You do. So

5:15

it's gonna be far more beneficial if before

5:18

you start listening to Nick and I, you pause

5:20

this video.

5:22

I always say that, you pause this podcast

5:25

and spend, I don't know, 10

5:27

or 15 minutes looking at these questions,

5:29

maybe two or three minutes per question

5:32

and just think, okay, what

5:34

would my ideas be? How would I organize

5:37

this? If it's asking for your opinion,

5:39

what would your opinion be? Why?

5:42

Really you've got, this is a great opportunity

5:45

to plan

5:47

and think about ideas for six

5:49

real exam questions, right? So you know, that

5:52

is kind of a golden opportunity.

5:54

Don't waste it. It's easy to listen,

5:56

it's much more difficult to do. All right,

5:58

so maybe pause the.

6:00

podcast now, make a cup of tea,

6:02

do something nice, but really put

6:04

the time and effort in because then when you

6:06

come back and you listen to Nick and I,

6:08

you're going to be able to see which ideas you

6:10

had that were the same, which were different.

6:13

And if you fell down any of the sort of

6:16

usual holes or if you found,

6:18

you know, what can I say,

6:20

fell foul of

6:22

some of the problem areas with these

6:24

questions. All right? So with

6:27

that said,

6:29

hopefully you You are now coming back with

6:31

a notebook full of lovely ideas for

6:33

these questions. So Nick, we will start

6:35

with question number one. Do you want to have a read of

6:38

that question

6:38

for us? Okay. Number one, then.

6:41

So some people think that water is

6:43

the most important natural resource.

6:46

Others believe that other resources like

6:49

oil and gold are more important.

6:52

Discuss both views and give your own

6:55

opinion.

6:56

So the format,

6:59

the type of question, obviously, IELTS,

7:01

classic, discuss both views, this

7:04

is definitely

7:05

a new topic. Yep, it

7:08

is. Bit of a tricky

7:10

one. Natural resources. Now, really

7:12

quickly, out of interest, would you expect this to

7:14

be a general training or an academic question?

7:16

It's an academic question, I think. Yeah,

7:19

so would I, but it wasn't. This was from

7:21

a general training. So

7:24

that in itself really surprised me, right?

7:27

I feel that this definitely feels much more

7:30

like an academic question. It's

7:32

less day-to-day life

7:33

and more kind of like the world around

7:35

us. I'm going to say, is this really a discuss

7:37

both sides question or is this a best way question?

7:41

Well, this is the other thing, right? So they

7:43

do

7:44

have discussed both sides questions

7:47

like this, which is the sort of a hybrid

7:50

of a best way. So here it's saying

7:52

water is the most important natural resource.

7:55

So it's not saying it's important, it's

7:57

saying it's the most important

7:58

number one. Yeah. I'll end this second

8:00

view is that there are other resources that

8:02

are more important. And this is

8:04

what I think is quite tricky about this question

8:07

because, I don't

8:09

know, like they've used this question before. I think

8:12

there's a question about the environment.

8:14

So some people say that loss of

8:16

species is the biggest environmental

8:18

problem. Other

8:20

people say that there are other environmental

8:23

problems that are more serious. That

8:26

kind of format is quite common actually now.

8:28

But the interesting thing for me is 99%

8:31

of the time when you've got that format,

8:34

I would encourage students to always...

8:37

Agree with the second view. Agree

8:39

with the view that says that there are other

8:42

things which are, I

8:44

don't know, most important or most serious.

8:48

Just because, you know, for the previous question,

8:50

for example, Yes, species loss is important,

8:53

but we've been losing species for hundreds

8:55

of years. Maybe climate change, do you know what I

8:57

mean? Would be something we would consider more important.

8:59

For this question though, Nick, if we've got to compare

9:02

water to other resources,

9:05

which side would you encourage or which side do

9:07

you personally incline to agree with? I think it's

9:09

going to be very difficult to say that water is not

9:11

the most important resource. So

9:13

do I. Which is

9:16

why I think this is really tricky. But

9:18

my question was really based around the idea that

9:21

they've given us two examples like

9:24

oil and gold. Does that mean we should

9:26

discuss oil and gold or are they just giving us

9:29

suggestions for what other resources

9:31

could be?

9:32

So I'm now thinking that maybe,

9:35

very good point, and this is why

9:37

you should not even, you know, I am a certified

9:41

exam writer. This is

9:43

why reported questions you need to be very careful.

9:45

I'm now wondering if we've

9:47

had this discussion before, haven't we? When IELTS gives

9:50

us examples in brackets, like

9:52

such as,

9:54

I think that it is they are

9:56

just giving you an idea or a clue

9:59

what the other resources.

10:00

are. So I don't think it has to be limited to

10:02

oil and gold.

10:05

I'm not sure. What would

10:07

we call people who study natural resources? Like geologists,

10:10

would it be? I guess so, yeah. Yeah.

10:12

What other resources they are. I mean, my inclination

10:14

for this goes against everything I would usually

10:16

teach. And just to

10:19

say

10:20

it's going to be water, I guess. But to

10:23

be able to make that

10:25

decision, the first thing we need to do is actually

10:27

think what makes these things

10:29

important. So why don't we

10:31

start then? We're really looking for two arguments

10:34

for each of you. Water's

10:37

going to be the easiest because we've only got one natural

10:39

resource to focus on there I guess. So it's all

10:41

about water. So off the top of your head

10:43

Nick, I mean what arguments would we have for

10:45

water? I believe we need it for life.

10:49

Exactly. Life can't carry on without

10:51

it. I mean it's pretty important isn't it?

10:53

Paragraph one no water no life

10:56

next Exactly. No

10:58

life can't carry on actually So

11:00

I guess if you've you know, what I always

11:02

say is if you've got one big idea like

11:04

no water no life We

11:07

probably need to separate that into sort

11:09

of smaller

11:10

Tights into two parts. So if

11:13

we need to sort of think about the connection between water

11:15

and life What how could we divide

11:17

that maybe

11:17

I guess two argument one of them is definitely

11:20

going to be sustenance that

11:22

what that humans need so we need to drink

11:25

it we need to we need it to grow food

11:29

mm-hmm I guess yeah

11:32

could we do those as two separate ones I guess we could actually

11:35

couldn't we we could do it as like one

11:37

part is that we need it

11:40

for like every day today sustenance

11:43

yeah we need we need to drink water

11:45

yes otherwise we get dehydrated,

11:48

otherwise we get sick very

11:50

easily. And

11:51

then the second argument

11:53

could be that we actually need water to grow food

11:55

as well. I think that's the

11:57

two more long-term sustainability.

12:00

of humankind. Definitely.

12:03

Yeah and I mean you've used some great vocabulary

12:05

there already like dehydration. I

12:08

would say you know we're talking about water

12:10

to feed us

12:12

as well. We can talk about you know words like crops,

12:16

irrigation. Also

12:19

like the animals that we eat also need

12:21

water don't they? Yeah

12:23

so I mean

12:26

I'm sure I mean, again, if you don't know anything

12:28

about water, I mean, that's kind of embarrassing,

12:31

isn't it? I feel like this is something we should study.

12:33

Everyone should know something about, yeah. What's

12:35

water? If you don't know,

12:37

you could obviously Google something for other

12:39

ideas. But I mean, I would say those,

12:42

I think if we divided it between

12:44

sort of like the human need, you know, like water,

12:46

people, you know, need water first beyond

12:49

anything, don't they? And talk about dehydration,

12:51

maybe drought. And

12:53

then talk about we need it to grow food. What's

12:57

an idea? So the student who had this question

12:59

in their exam, they said one of their ideas

13:02

for water was that water

13:04

or places with water are important

13:07

centres for tourism. Would

13:09

that be relevant for this? Well,

13:11

I mean, most cities are either built on a coastline

13:14

or on a river, so kind

13:16

of true. True, but

13:18

I'm not sure in this one, if you're talking about

13:20

important resource, a

13:22

natural resource. I guess, you

13:24

know, when you think water, the main thing

13:26

is that like you say, no, no, no water,

13:29

no life. I guess if we're talking about water

13:31

as a resource, we could talk about dams and hydroelectric

13:33

power and reservoirs, maybe. Right.

13:36

So they also sustain,

13:38

I mean, no, yeah, no water, no life. If

13:41

we wanted to get into a more sort

13:43

of using water for energy. Yes,

13:46

you could do that then we could talk about dams

13:49

and reservoirs and hydroelectricity

13:51

and stuff like that. Yes and also

13:54

I guess the thing right and I guess the thing about

13:56

water well maybe we'll come back to that in the next one then.

13:58

So if we think about other results...

14:00

is. I think the problem here

14:02

is we've got to think about arguments that summarize

14:06

the importance of all the other

14:08

resources. So you don't just want to focus on

14:10

oil or gold. And gold,

14:13

yeah. Or, I mean, you might want

14:15

to, but let's think then about, you know, what makes

14:17

the other resources important. I

14:20

think this is going to be, if we focus

14:22

on, let's say we could have one

14:25

that talks about fossil fuels.

14:28

Right. Yeah, so gas, coal and

14:31

oil, which are important

14:34

for sustaining our modern way of life.

14:36

Yes. And we could use that as an argument.

14:39

I mean, we're not going to die without them. Yeah,

14:42

but the quality of life would be much lower without

14:44

right.

14:44

So we'd still be alive, but we wouldn't

14:47

be going we sort of be going backwards

14:49

in terms of development. Good. Yeah.

14:51

And then I guess maybe you could talk

14:55

about precious metals. That's

14:57

what I'm thinking. That's the other one. So on the one hand, you've got

15:00

things like gold and silver, which is used for

15:02

currency, or at least to

15:04

define currency, maybe if it's not actual

15:07

currency itself. Yeah. And you could also

15:09

talk about things like the sort

15:11

of precious metals that go into

15:14

modern technology.

15:15

I was thinking about that as well,

15:17

because there are like, I can't actually remember,

15:19

what is it like we use in sort of computer

15:22

processes and silicon. Right.

15:25

Oh, Silicon Valley, literally. Yeah.

15:27

And a lot of our medical equipment relies

15:30

on sort of particular resources

15:32

like helium, I think. A

15:35

word which has come into my mind or

15:38

something I'm thinking of a bit globally,

15:40

I'm not sure which we put it in, is that

15:42

I guess water

15:45

is a renewable resource, right?

15:47

So we can clean water. It

15:50

rains. I mean, this is another basic question,

15:52

Nick. When it rains, we're just getting

15:54

the old water back again, aren't we? Isn't it the water

15:57

that's like evaporated?

15:58

Evaporated. So

16:00

the sky and back. So I guess the water

16:02

is kind of like, I guess the difference between the

16:05

other resources and water is that the other

16:07

resources are kind of scarce or finite.

16:10

Like once they've gone, they've gone.

16:12

Or it will take thousands of years to get in the back.

16:14

Whereas at least water can be

16:16

cleaned. You can, yeah,

16:18

you can even use seawater for drinking if you clean

16:21

it properly. Yes. So desalination.

16:23

I mean, goodness, if you could use that. Now

16:26

that might be a much more philosophical

16:28

approach to this essay, you know, sort of

16:31

a very, very high level student might want to talk

16:33

about, you know, the non-recyclability

16:35

or the recyclability of water and

16:37

the finite of the other one, which maybe

16:40

you might say something that's finite

16:42

or can't be replaced is more important, right?

16:44

Because once it's

16:44

gone, it's gone. Yeah.

16:47

So that could be an argument for the other

16:49

resources.

16:50

So actually talking

16:52

about it, I I suppose you could actually

16:55

agree

16:57

with, I mean, in any essay you can

16:59

agree with either side, but I thought

17:01

it might be easier, surprisingly, for this one

17:04

to agree

17:04

with water. Yeah, it

17:06

was the most important part. But actually having

17:08

discussed it with you, I think there are good arguments

17:11

for the other resources as well. Yeah,

17:13

like you said, like, yes, we'll be alive, but

17:15

our quality of life wouldn't be as high.

17:18

And the scarcity. I

17:21

don't know, what do you think about that question, Nick? It's a

17:23

good one. I mean, it's terrible as a general

17:25

training question because it's going to stump a

17:27

lot of people, I think. Yeah.

17:30

I mean, the general training topics tend to be

17:32

more... Friendly. Well,

17:34

friendly, right. So, sort of, you know, things that focus

17:37

more on sort of, you know, family culture,

17:39

that type of thing, which is, you

17:41

know, when this student emailed it to me, I had to

17:43

say, what was your task one question? Because I

17:45

thought she was a general training student and I thought I

17:48

got it wrong, but no, she said it was a letter. So it

17:50

was definitely. Wow. So

17:52

in terms of difficulty, I think this is

17:55

high.

17:55

Very high. Yeah, I'd put this up at like 8, 9,

17:57

10 probably. Yeah, probably

17:59

max. difficulty. In terms

18:01

of interest and kind of opportunity

18:05

for vocabulary is also a 10. Yes,

18:08

right, it is isn't it? That's right

18:10

Nick. And I do feel that sometimes

18:13

with the general training questions, although the questions

18:15

can be a bit friendlier, sometimes

18:18

because the topics are a lot

18:20

simpler, I think it can,

18:22

for high level students, it can make it difficult

18:26

for them to show their range

18:27

of vocabulary. Yeah. Right. If they're

18:29

talking about, I don't know, you

18:31

know, apartments versus houses, right?

18:34

There's not such a, the

18:37

opportunity for sort of sophisticated Lexus,

18:39

but here there definitely is. However,

18:41

for lower level students.

18:42

And a struggle. Yeah,

18:45

students who just need a five to go to university,

18:47

this could be a difficult

18:50

one, I think. Okay,

18:52

so let's move on then. Let's look at the

18:54

second question, which is no easier.

18:56

Number

18:58

two, too much emphasis is placed

19:01

on education. More government

19:03

money should be spent on providing free

19:06

time activities. To what

19:08

extent do you agree or disagree?

19:12

Okay, so this

19:15

one was an academic question. Yeah,

19:18

not surprised. Yeah,

19:20

so I mean obviously

19:22

the actual question is quite easy to understand.

19:25

I I don't think anybody would go off topic

19:27

with this question, which is what can happen

19:30

when you've got an agree-disagree question.

19:33

I don't

19:34

know, Nick, off the top of your head, would you

19:37

agree with this or disagree

19:39

with this? I mean, it's really, it's

19:41

difficult to say. I would probably have to sit down

19:43

and think about ideas and arguments for both sides.

19:47

Inclination right at the beginning is to disagree.

19:49

Sorry, it's to agree. Sorry, it's to agree. Is

19:52

it to agree? Yeah, yeah. But

19:55

I'm gonna so I'm coming at it from a

19:57

more academic versus

19:59

practice practical skills kind of thing.

20:02

So if I kind of reinterpret

20:05

or what the question is saying too much emphasis

20:07

is placed on academia and

20:09

more government money should be spent on. I

20:13

struggle to think that this question actually

20:15

said free

20:15

time activities. This is what I'm

20:18

also wondering as well but this

20:20

student's very very good and I'm not and

20:22

I which makes me feel that that probably

20:25

is the wording but I'm not sure.

20:27

I guess one

20:29

of the key things here is going to be defining what free

20:31

time activities are. Because

20:34

if it is stuff like board

20:38

games or something like that, it would probably

20:41

disagree with the question. But if it

20:43

was like building

20:45

things, teaching skills, like language

20:47

classes, for example,

20:50

then it would be much easier to agree with that. I'm

20:53

wondering if it was I wondering if

20:55

the free time activities on

20:58

my okay. I think this is great So I think

21:00

the first thing what we're obviously struggling with is

21:02

what are free time activities? So

21:05

I guess we're gonna have to define that

21:07

was the first step Knowing your opinion

21:10

the first that came in it came into my mind there

21:12

was more things like sports

21:14

club fitness stuff, yeah Sort

21:17

of like community activities like choirs craft

21:21

Stuff like that in which case I would agree

21:24

still Yes,

21:26

now now I've done that I would as well because

21:28

I guess I guess

21:31

Those free time activities. Well, what are those free?

21:33

I mean, we know what education

21:34

is providing don't we? Yeah, right. So

21:36

I guess what what are those free

21:39

time activities giving us a sense

21:41

of community? friendship Yeah,

21:45

which we don't have anything of

21:47

at the moment really right

21:51

Exactly, so it's more about wellbeing

21:53

maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Okay,

21:56

so I guess so. All right. So let's imagine

21:58

then that we are going. to

22:02

agree. So

22:04

then I guess the other thing we have to do is so now

22:06

that we've sort of understood what free time activities

22:09

are, we're going to have to make sure I guess

22:11

in our essay that we are

22:13

comparing the importance of those

22:15

free time activities to

22:18

education because in a way this

22:20

is a comparison essay isn't it really?

22:23

So we're complacing education free

22:25

time activities. For that reason,

22:27

I,

22:30

you know, obviously we could

22:32

just have two arguments why free time

22:34

activity are more important, why

22:36

we agree, or not more important or

22:38

why they should have more emphasis.

22:44

You

22:44

know, reason one, reason two. So that

22:47

could literally be, couldn't it? Like

22:49

free health could be the first one.

22:51

So it could be more investment in gyms, encouraging

22:54

people to go outside. The second one could be community.

22:57

We live in an isolated world, blah, blah, blah.

23:00

So if we do that approach, how

23:02

are we going to focus or how are we going to include

23:05

the comparison to education?

23:06

I guess, well, when you're talking

23:08

about community, I definitely think you could say,

23:10

you could write about what they've

23:13

said here that too much emphasis is placed on

23:15

education. So you could maybe mention that children

23:17

maybe have worked a little bit too hard in school.

23:20

A a lot of emphasis is placed on getting

23:22

a university education at

23:24

all costs, which means people only

23:26

really have time to study and to maybe work

23:29

as well part-time and they don't have enough

23:31

time to focus on other areas of life,

23:34

for example. Right. Yeah.

23:36

And hence why... And you can...

23:39

Sorry, go on. Yeah, sorry.

23:40

No, I was just thinking that if you talk about education,

23:43

not everybody is academically minded,

23:45

are they? Yep.

23:47

Yeah. So like not everybody

23:49

benefits from, that

23:52

could be a good argument, not everybody benefits from

23:54

the emphasis, place and education, whereas everybody

23:56

would have an equal opportunity to

23:58

benefit

23:59

from

24:00

provision of free time activities.

24:03

Yes, we could do some

24:05

sort of, so you could add some sort of balance, I guess,

24:08

you know, because the obvious thing, I mean, if we were

24:10

going to disagree and say, no,

24:12

we should focus on education, what

24:14

would the arguments, you know, why

24:16

is it necessary to focus on education? Why

24:19

is that a good thing?

24:21

Well, we could say that having a good education

24:23

gives a person more opportunities. Yeah.

24:27

And they can spend their time once

24:30

they finished education, however they choose to.

24:32

If they want to engage in free time activities,

24:34

they're free to choose to. I think

24:36

that they would be my two arguments. I think the

24:38

first one would be in education, you know, not

24:40

only benefits the individual who can then

24:43

get a better job, but it also benefits the society

24:45

because it's going to be more developed. And

24:47

then my second paragraph would be, you

24:49

know, people, you know,

24:52

anybody can choose to do or you know,

24:54

if they've got that money, people themselves can spend

24:56

money on free time activities, or there's

24:58

nothing stopping an educated person

25:01

having free time, um, activities.

25:03

And that might be an easier essay to write.

25:06

Yeah. So

25:08

how would you, if you were going to, then if you were going

25:10

to agree with this, Nick, what would your two paragraphs

25:13

be? Mine, as I said, would be the health one, and

25:15

then maybe the community

25:16

one. No, I would do the same. I think that

25:18

that's a good approach. Yeah, definitely

25:22

Focus on health specifically

25:25

things like swimming pools gyms especially

25:29

like Subsidized gyms because

25:31

gyms are very very expensive. Yeah,

25:34

usually memberships are very expensive

25:36

So if you had like gyms in schools, for

25:38

example

25:39

Yeah, the students could use or in

25:41

colleges or if you could you could

25:43

have a gym that is in

25:45

a public building like a school or a college

25:48

but members of the community can get a discount

25:50

if they live close by or something like that rather

25:52

than you know going

25:54

to a private

25:56

gym. Definitely. So for health

25:58

that and then yeah community as well, organising

26:01

local community events, getting

26:03

the people who live there to know each other

26:05

better and take part in various...

26:07

Yeah. I think people today

26:09

are really isolated. Like, you know,

26:11

we've got a decent education

26:13

level in our country anyway, right? So

26:15

why do we keep on focusing on that?

26:17

Maybe it's time to focus on the other problem areas,

26:20

which is like isolation, lack of community.

26:23

I do think that there could be an argument

26:25

here for doing a bit of a best way approach,

26:27

is like, yes, education is important,

26:29

paragraph one. However,

26:32

there are other aspects of life that would definitely

26:35

benefit and then have that. I

26:37

wouldn't recommend that

26:38

unless you've done a lot of preparation or have

26:41

got a lot of guidance because you could easily get that one

26:43

wrong. So you don't really want to usually

26:45

dedicate a paragraph to the opposite

26:47

view. But

26:50

I actually suppose it's not... I

26:53

think that's quite an interesting question. It's a good

26:55

one, I like it. Yeah. It's maybe

26:57

not quite as difficult as the first one, but it's still quite

27:00

hard, I think that one. I think

27:02

it's quite hard, as you said, defining what free

27:04

time activities are and then making

27:06

sure that your arguments are kind of comparing

27:09

education to

27:11

the other things. Yeah.

27:13

It's good. All right, let's have another...

27:15

Let's have a read then of question number

27:17

three. Celebrities

27:20

and famous people require constant

27:22

attention from the media,

27:24

newspapers and internet.

27:26

Do you agree or disagree? Right.

27:30

So this one is a general training

27:33

question. Of course, talking about celebrities.

27:35

Exactly. But it's a bit of

27:38

a strange one, isn't it, Nick? Do you know what it reminds

27:40

me of the one that we have

27:42

on our course about being a

27:44

celebrity? has benefits

27:46

as well as negatives to the benefits outweigh the negatives.

27:49

Right. A little bit like that. Well,

27:52

it's definitely an old topic,

27:55

right? IELTS love, particularly for general

27:57

training, famous people is

27:59

their life.

28:00

difficult or is it hard? That's

28:02

what concerns me because

28:05

what is the key word in this question, Nick?

28:08

Like the word which I think it doesn't

28:10

look like it's the key word, but if students misunderstand

28:13

this, they could easily go... Constant.

28:16

Right. Well, I think it's require

28:18

constant attention. So

28:21

is this question, I guess,

28:23

is question asked is this question asking

28:26

us do famous people

28:28

have attention from the media? No

28:31

it's not so this is not a question that's like

28:34

oh yes poor famous people

28:36

they don't have any private life it would

28:38

you know they

28:39

would an argument like they don't have a private

28:41

life be relevant here. No it's not it's not

28:44

relevant at all actually. No so

28:46

what what would help us what do we need to understand

28:49

to get inside this question. If you

28:52

can be a

28:54

famous person

28:55

without any media attention.

28:58

Exactly. That is exactly

29:01

the question. So I think to answer

29:03

this, to sort of think about your

29:05

opinion, you just want to think, do

29:08

I know any famous people who don't

29:11

constantly have...

29:12

Some kind of media attention. Media

29:14

attention. So

29:16

that's the first thing I would do. So, you know, Is

29:18

it necessary if I'm kind

29:20

of

29:21

struggling to understand or

29:23

to think of examples of people who are famous?

29:25

Then you know the answer to the question, don't you? So

29:27

then the question is yes, but then the

29:30

next question you've got to ask yourself is why

29:33

do they need

29:35

that constant attention? So gut

29:37

reaction, Nick, obviously I've seen these questions

29:38

before because I've looked at them. I

29:41

would agree with this one probably. Yeah.

29:44

And I think that's the only logical

29:46

answer.

29:48

I think it would be much more difficult to argue that

29:50

they don't require constant attention.

29:53

No, because you could think of maybe some specific

29:56

examples, but sort of understanding

29:58

what is it that those.

30:00

people are doing to be famous that

30:02

doesn't require media attention would

30:05

be very complicated, I think. So

30:07

if we think about,

30:09

you know, I think most people, you

30:12

know, when we're talking about famous people

30:14

or celebrities, we kind of think of music stars, social

30:16

media stars, film stars. I

30:19

guess the question is then is,

30:21

we need two arguments. I

30:24

can only think of Right.

30:26

Which is that, obviously, being

30:29

in, now this is a really useful word for this, right?

30:31

Because they're the public eye,

30:33

the press rather than the media,

30:36

right? Being in the press, I

30:38

guess, if you are a famous person, is

30:41

a form of advertising really, isn't it? Yeah.

30:44

It's true. So, you know, every time

30:46

somebody appears in a newspaper, on a TV

30:48

show, in the internet, They're reminding

30:51

the public that they exist and they're sort of

30:53

keeping their celebrity, I

30:56

guess to be a famous... Yes, like they're

30:58

sort of keeping... What is it? They're...

31:01

What do you call someone? They are remaining

31:03

a household name. That's a really nice...

31:06

So they're keeping in the public

31:08

attention, I guess. And therefore

31:11

people are more like... So people are going to recognize them

31:13

and therefore are more likely to

31:15

watch their films, buy their products,

31:18

you know, listen to their

31:20

music. So it's all sort of about, you know, there

31:22

is that,

31:23

please do not use proverbs

31:25

or idioms in your writing,

31:28

but there is that proverb that says, what is it?

31:32

No, is this something like

31:35

no press coverage is bad coverage

31:37

or? There's no such thing as bad press. There's

31:39

no such thing as bad press, thank you

31:41

Nick. Yeah, so you know, it doesn't

31:43

matter if you are in the news for, I

31:46

don't know, saving a baby

31:47

from a car crash Or because

31:49

you've got a drug addiction. To be honest, if you had

31:51

a drug addiction, you'd probably be more famous than if

31:53

you saved a baby from a car crash. Well, that

31:56

is very true, yeah.

31:57

So my first, but

31:59

basically. be, the media

32:02

is kind of like a way of advertising.

32:04

Now, don't get me wrong, these people are not paying

32:07

to be. They're not paying

32:09

to advertise themselves. Some of them might

32:11

be. Well, they might be. That's a bit different. But the idea

32:14

is having, being

32:16

in the papers or being in the news or

32:19

being in the press

32:21

reminds people that you are there

32:24

and therefore Yes,

32:26

you remain a household name and

32:28

then people are going to be more likely to

32:31

like buy your products or

32:33

watch your film. So it's going to maintain your celebrity

32:35

status. But that's the only idea

32:38

I've got, Nick. Have you got another one? No,

32:42

it's a tricky one, this one. I think maybe what you could

32:45

talk... I mean, it's kind of similar, but

32:47

you could say that people who sort of

32:50

step away from the limelight. Yeah.

32:53

Yeah. That's a nice phrase.

32:55

They

32:55

do become less famous.

32:57

Yeah, people get forgotten easily, don't they?

32:59

Yeah, so that could maybe be the second argument.

33:01

And you could maybe talk about sort of retired

33:04

footballers from the 90s. There's

33:07

going to be a

33:10

part of the population that remembers

33:12

Neil Ruddock and Ian Dowie and

33:15

Julian Dix and all these like

33:17

old English players. But

33:20

the number of people that remember them and

33:22

know who they are, their

33:24

fame, sort

33:26

of dies down with the population as the population

33:28

gets older. Right, I think that's brilliant.

33:31

So I think what you've done there is really clever. So it's about

33:33

time and generations and that,

33:36

and that you need to keep going so that

33:38

the next

33:38

generation- And that comes with the constant part of

33:40

the argument. With the constant part.

33:43

Right. So in the short- so it could even be

33:45

short term and long term, couldn't it? Two different arguments,

33:48

yeah. Yeah, oh wow, we've got there

33:50

then. So the short term, it needs

33:52

you just to keep your level of fame up in the

33:54

short term so that you can sell

33:56

your products essentially, because that's what

33:57

famous people are trying to do. when I say sell products.

34:00

I don't mean celebrity endorsement. I mean sell

34:02

their own concert tickets You

34:05

know get money from being in unions. Well,

34:08

yes, so their opinions Yeah, get

34:10

money from having their photo taken in.

34:12

Hello magazine I mean cash in on

34:15

their celebrity status and

34:17

in the long term as you said You

34:19

know,

34:19

it doesn't take very long for somebody to become

34:22

unknown to the next generation does it? Yeah. Oh

34:25

Oh, well done. Okay. I mean,

34:28

to disagree, then

34:31

you would have to, as I said, that would

34:33

rely on you

34:34

being able to think about what celebrities

34:37

who don't have constant attention. But I mean, sports,

34:40

I mean, yeah, but I mean, I gave the example of

34:43

these aren't the most famous sports, sports

34:45

does. Yeah. You

34:47

could maybe talk about people from history

34:51

because they don't technically have constant

34:53

media attention. People like

34:56

Shakespeare, like Queen Victoria, like,

35:00

I don't know, Peter the First, you know? Peter

35:04

the Great. That's really true, actually.

35:06

So there are lots of famous people like that. So historical

35:09

famous people

35:11

are not constantly in the press.

35:12

They just sort of

35:15

know and remember by everybody. I

35:17

mean, God, but I mean, can you think of I mean, if you

35:19

can come up with a second one, I don't. I

35:24

mean,

35:25

we could, but the point is, in

35:27

the exam, we've got two minutes, haven't we? Yeah,

35:29

I think so. I think the idea

35:31

is it's much easier to agree with this question, I think.

35:33

Much easier to agree. But even you can

35:36

see here, like how many how

35:39

much went through Nick and I's brain there

35:42

to get to those two arguments. So

35:44

if you're just grabbing the first

35:46

things you think of, if you've answered the

35:49

previous questions, Nick, as you said, that, you know,

35:51

do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages

35:54

for celebrities and you're grabbing those

35:57

old ideas, I don't think

35:59

any of them.

36:00

No, none of them are going to help you

36:02

here. You've got to really get inside the question,

36:04

think about it. Okay, cool. All

36:07

right, so let's... I

36:09

like this next question. Let's have a look at number four.

36:11

Many students find it harder to study at university

36:13

or college than when they were at school. What

36:16

are the reasons for this and what can be done

36:18

to solve the issue?

36:22

I like this question. Really? Yeah,

36:25

because I actually that well, I'll tell you why I

36:27

like it is my personal experience

36:30

Matches this question because I definitely

36:33

did find it harder to study at university than

36:35

at school So

36:37

I like this because I think it actually

36:39

connects to my personal experience and it might

36:42

connect To the personal

36:44

experience of someone who's answering the question.

36:47

Yeah. Now this was an academic question Yeah,

36:49

it doesn't surprise me. Yeah, so

36:51

I guess the key to this I mean what you've got to really

36:54

ask yourself. I mean, I know we need to know what

36:56

are the reasons I think to think of

36:58

the reasons the easiest way to do this is just

37:00

think okay. What is different when you study

37:02

at school?

37:03

To study at university or college

37:05

so

37:06

and and what might make

37:08

it therefore difficult Mm-hmm or more

37:10

difficult to study at university So what

37:13

have you got for that Nick off the top of your

37:15

more independence? 100%. What

37:19

do you mean by that? I understand what you mean.

37:21

So you're responsible for doing everything.

37:24

And if you don't do

37:26

a task like

37:28

an essay or an assignment, you don't get punished, you

37:30

get a low mark and that's it.

37:32

Yes. The university is still getting paid either way, so

37:34

they don't care. They don't care. Exactly.

37:37

So, I mean, I think more independence or even

37:39

maybe because to If

37:42

the problem, maybe it might be less

37:45

supervision, might

37:47

be a better way of saying the same thing. Because

37:49

it's school and again, we wanna

37:51

be making comparisons here between school

37:53

and university. At school, you're

37:55

teachers aren't they? They're on your back. Where's your

37:57

homework? getting punished.

38:00

You get detention, you know, it's

38:02

noticed if you don't do things. But at university...

38:04

Who wrote on the report? No

38:07

one will know that you're not

38:09

at... Well, they will notice. I think I told

38:11

you once before, Nick, I've got a letter at

38:14

home that says...

38:15

From my university tutor

38:17

that just says, Dear Michelle, are you intending

38:19

to attend any classes this semester? Because

38:22

I didn't go to any, right? But you

38:24

couldn't do that at school, could you? Because the teachers

38:26

are there, they're, you know, they're doing

38:28

registration.

38:30

Definitely that is the first

38:32

one. What

38:34

would a second reason be? Should

38:38

I give you mine? Go on, go for it. I think, well

38:40

if I'm thinking about what you're doing at university and what

38:42

you're doing at school, it

38:44

might just simply be that

38:47

the content of the course,

38:49

like the course material is much more

38:52

difficult at university or more advanced.

38:55

I would offer that as an easier, you

38:57

know, that's a relatively easy idea

39:00

isn't it for maybe a lower-level student.

39:03

Can you think of anything else? Oh

39:05

I've

39:10

got one. Maybe

39:12

it could be as well that at school, like

39:14

most people who are at school are sort of like living in the

39:16

family home, so the only

39:18

thing they have to focus on is you know doing

39:21

their homework.

39:22

But when you go to university or college, at least...

39:24

Yeah, you need to cook, you

39:27

need to clean, you need to spend 10

39:30

hours a day with your friends drinking. On

39:33

personal experience, that is very true. You have to manage

39:35

your finances, which is difficult

39:38

if you're spending 10 hours a day with your friends drinking.

39:40

Yeah. So, I mean,

39:42

I do think there's sort of like other things

39:44

you have to sort of, well, yeah, do

39:47

more life things as well. Can

39:49

you figure anything else? No,

39:53

I think there are three pretty good ideas.

39:56

I think, I mean you only need two, right? You

39:59

do, yeah. I mean I d-

40:00

I definitely think the independence, like nobody's watching

40:02

you is different, that should definitely be there. And

40:05

then maybe also I quite like the

40:07

one about, you know, you're away from home or you've

40:09

got... That's kind of... Because

40:12

it's different. I guess it's not about the academic thing. Also, if

40:14

you do, you know, if you're in this situation in the exam

40:17

and your brain comes up with three reasons,

40:20

one way to help you to decide which reasons

40:22

you're going to keep is that the second question

40:24

is what can be done to solve the issue.

40:27

The issue. So you want to think, well, which of the problems

40:30

could I offer a quick and easy solution for?

40:32

So the

40:33

less supervision, Nick, or more

40:36

independence, what could be a solution to that problem?

40:39

That's quite a tricky one. I mean, the only thing I think of

40:41

is that people need to take more responsibility for

40:43

themselves. Yeah.

40:46

Maybe sort of like creating a study plan. Yeah,

40:49

individuals need to take more responsibility. And

40:51

when you do the solutions essay, individuals

40:53

taking more responsibility is often a

40:55

very good solution to pretty much any problem.

40:58

That's true actually,

40:59

yeah. And then just outlining

41:01

what that would look like. I mean

41:03

maybe sort of like

41:06

joining together with other students,

41:09

do you know what I mean, in order to have like a study

41:11

group to keep keeping yourself

41:13

accountable I think would be. I like

41:15

it. Quite good. So more personal

41:17

accountability, maybe

41:19

having a study plan, working with

41:22

a group of you together so

41:24

that there are people watching you that group's

41:26

actually quite a good solution for

41:28

that problem. What

41:31

about the second one about the sort of the level

41:33

of the actual content the academic

41:35

content is there anything we could do to solve

41:37

that?

41:39

I mean not really I guess you could ask you

41:42

could suggest that students ask

41:44

for help when they need it.

41:45

Yeah. Yeah right not be

41:47

afraid basically to go

41:50

and speak to the tutors and the lecturers and ask for

41:52

guidance if they're struggling with something.

41:56

I think that's great And again, that's a really good example

41:58

of how you can't always... solve

42:00

difficult problems in an IELTS essay. Literally

42:03

saying ask for help is a solution to that

42:05

problem, right? I think that's true. And

42:08

then what about the sort of, you know, people living away from

42:10

home,

42:12

not near their parents having to do, you know,

42:14

not just academic stuff. I

42:17

guess one thing could be that parents

42:19

could help their children prepare

42:21

for university and make, and

42:23

like give them more independence

42:26

when they're 16, like make them start paying

42:28

bills for example or doing

42:31

jobs around the house. Brilliant.

42:33

I have nothing else to add. I think that's an incredible

42:35

solution. Yeah, fantastic.

42:38

So, you know, so if you've

42:40

got more, if you can think of more than two reasons

42:42

for any trend, you know, chuck

42:44

down all the, you know, the ones that you can think of,

42:46

but then to help you select, think

42:49

of the solutions. What, you know, what

42:51

are the best combination of causes and

42:53

solutions? Because, you know, it's not just the first

42:55

paragraph that's important, the second one as well.

42:58

Yeah, I mean I think Nick's solution there is

43:00

brilliant so I might go for that argument

43:02

purely because I love your solution. Okay,

43:06

how difficult do you think that one is Nick then compared to

43:08

the other one today? That's pretty hard. I think particularly the solutions

43:10

are quite hard and I think if you don't click

43:13

on to how

43:15

school and university is different

43:18

it might be hard to come up with the causes.

43:21

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think,

43:23

again, you know, lots of students look for really

43:26

big solutions to problems, don't they?

43:28

The government must do this. Yes,

43:30

government change. The government's not going

43:32

to help you write your essay at 2am on

43:36

a Thursday evening when it's due Friday morning.

43:38

So these solutions need to just be things

43:41

which are actionable by students, by

43:43

parents. What can you actually do to

43:46

help you? These are small things like, and I think

43:48

asking for help is a great one.

43:50

Okay, brilliant. So let's

43:52

move on then to our fifth question

43:55

today day. Nick, would

43:57

you like to read question number five for us?

44:00

natural beauty like mountains lakes

44:02

and beaches are spoiled by

44:04

the rubbish that people leave there why

44:07

do people do this what

44:09

can be done about this problem it's

44:13

our topic

44:15

of rubbish it seems to be at

44:17

the moment they are they

44:20

sponsored by some sort of like green

44:22

Australia is that you know or green

44:24

Cambridge um

44:26

Lots of the

44:29

questions are about, you know, what damage

44:31

does the rubbish do, that kind of thing. This

44:34

question is a bit different though, isn't it?

44:35

Yeah. Why do people do this as

44:38

quite a... Yes. And also not just general

44:40

rubbish, but places

44:43

of natural beauty, like mountains, lakes

44:45

and beaches. And I do think, you know,

44:47

like most... You're giving me

44:48

a big clue with this, I think, aren't they? Well, they are.

44:51

So I would say to get inside

44:53

these questions, we're not just thinking about people

44:55

throwing way rubbish which you might have ideas

44:57

about from previous essays.

45:00

Don't do that. Don't grab the first thing that

45:02

comes into your head. Focus on

45:05

places of natural beauty.

45:08

So Nick if we think about that, my

45:11

place would be well, why are

45:13

people, what are people doing at these places

45:15

of natural beauty? Having a good time. They're

45:18

having a good time. They're probably having a picnic aren't

45:20

they? Or they're having know drinks

45:23

or eat. I guess the waste tends

45:25

to be food wrappers, drinks,

45:28

containers. So why

45:30

do people leave those things in these places

45:33

of natural beauty?

45:34

Well my first solution is lack of infrastructure.

45:38

Exactly. Not solution,

45:40

first reason sorry. Yeah and

45:42

in this case what would that infrastructure be? Bins.

45:45

There's just not enough bins is there? Yeah

45:48

I mean that is I think often

45:50

a problem and And even if there are bins, there usually

45:53

aren't enough. And so

45:55

people place rubbish at the

45:57

top of bins. which I've already full. Yeah,

46:01

or next to bins and that gets blown away

46:04

back into nature. So I would say definitely.

46:06

I mean,

46:08

I wanted to use a very bad word, which we're not

46:10

allowed to use on the podcast. But you know, why do

46:12

people do this? Some people are just idiots,

46:15

aren't they? They're just lazy and they don't care.

46:18

But that is... Could you have that as

46:20

an argument?

46:20

I mean, you could, I suppose,

46:22

have that as

46:25

an argument. But

46:27

I mean, I think it would be quite difficult in an academic essay

46:29

to kind of extend that. Yeah.

46:32

I mean, the solution is obviously to... The

46:35

solution for that could be better education,

46:38

more signposting, more

46:41

signage basically reminding

46:43

people that they need to recycle and not throw

46:45

rubbish away.

46:46

Right. And brilliant. And what I like about that

46:48

is you haven't just said, educate the people,

46:50

which is, you know, that seems to be the solution to every

46:52

problem going. It's not just education,

46:55

you know, educating them, but maybe reminding

46:58

them at the points where the rubbish

47:00

is happening. Right? That's the key thing. Having

47:03

signs

47:03

there. Yeah. Find 300 pounds

47:05

littering. Don't be a litter bug. Yeah.

47:08

Don't kill that seal. Don't kill

47:10

the birds with your rubbish. So

47:13

I guess lack of interest. I agree. I think

47:15

most of the time this happens is because people

47:18

just, there's not enough bins there, is there?

47:21

What would a second reason be though? Maybe

47:22

you could, you

47:24

mentioned picnics. Yeah. Yeah.

47:27

So maybe a solution could be to

47:29

restrict food and drink. Oh,

47:32

wow. What? In those places. Non-piknic

47:35

area. Please do

47:37

not eat on the beach. I

47:41

enjoy the beauty, but I

47:44

mean, it could be, but it is an idea

47:47

and a solution, I guess. Yeah. But

47:49

I'm guessing like why do people do it? It's

47:52

because there's not enough bins. Are

47:55

you saying because people are eating there? Yeah,

47:57

because people... but then why do they throw the

47:59

rubbish away? Why don't they take it with them?

48:01

Yeah, that's not the reason why they do that, isn't

48:03

it? No. You're

48:06

right. Maybe we

48:08

can do, so I mean, I think you could definitely do there's

48:10

a lack of infrastructure and also you

48:13

could do the people don't, maybe it's not that they

48:15

don't care or that they're idiots,

48:17

which is what I want to say, but maybe it's more

48:19

that just people don't realise

48:20

how devastating

48:23

the effect of their rubbish is. Okay,

48:26

yes, yeah. The natural

48:28

environment and then we could have the signs

48:30

which show them You

48:32

know so because you know the obvious solution to less bins

48:34

is to provide more bins Not

48:36

just more not to provide them, but also you

48:38

know clean them or empty in them more regularly

48:42

I'm kind of shocked because I live opposite a really

48:44

nice huge area like not even a

48:46

park but like a common and There's

48:49

a lot of benches on the edge with bins and

48:51

those bins are emptied

48:52

every week Which is why

48:55

they don't overflow. So I do think

48:57

sort of like not just having more but emptying

48:59

them and then educating

49:01

people or having a fine.

49:05

My head's thinking, I don't know why because

49:07

of mountains. I know that there is a lot

49:10

a lot of rubbish. I've been

49:12

watching a lot of, have you ever seen any

49:15

YouTube videos Nick or documentaries about climbing

49:17

large mountains like Everest? Not

49:19

really, no. I don't know why I seem

49:21

to go in lockdown. I've tended to watch a lot of

49:23

videos and I know that on those huge mountains,

49:27

there is an incredible amount of waste.

49:29

I mean, and also human waste actually. Purely

49:32

because it's just impossible to

49:34

carry it all back down.

49:35

Yeah. You know, so you know, like

49:38

they're going up and they're just not able

49:40

to carry everything with them. But I don't think you can

49:42

have that as

49:45

an argument in the essay. So maybe it's as simple

49:47

as that then. You're not enough infrastructure people

49:49

don't understand the damage. Mm-hmm.

49:52

That's done by... Yeah.

49:54

Why else would there be rubbish in place of natural beauty?

49:57

All I can think of is food and drink wrappers. Mm-hmm.

50:01

Yeah, but I guess that's going to be it, isn't it? Yeah,

50:04

so I think that's it. I mean, that's kind of interesting because it's

50:07

almost like a limited, you know, number

50:09

of arguments for that one. In

50:11

terms of difficulty then, what do we think of this?

50:14

It's pretty hard. I mean, to think of two good

50:17

ideas and two good solutions to

50:19

those ideas is... I

50:22

think it's easy to fall back on simple ideas on

50:24

that one.

50:25

Difficult to to get inside the question as you like

50:27

to say. Yes. I think you've got to think, why

50:30

are people at the places of natural beauty?

50:33

So it's not, you know, people aren't throwing

50:35

away, you know, they're

50:38

not throwing away old mobile phones, are they?

50:41

Or cars, or big pieces of rubbish.

50:43

It's purely going to be litter.

50:46

Yeah. OK.

50:49

I don't know. Yeah, I agree. I think it's easier than

50:51

some of the others, but I think there are a limited

50:53

number of relevant arguments.

50:55

So there's not much to choose from. And

50:58

I do worry that people are just gonna start talking

51:00

about rubbish in general and not

51:02

about rubbish at natural places of beauty. Okay,

51:06

Nick, let's move on then to the final question

51:08

number six. In many cities

51:10

and towns today, only a few people

51:13

know their neighbors. What are the effects

51:15

of this trend and what can be done

51:17

to resolve the issue? So another problem

51:20

cause solution essay.

51:21

Yeah. We've got problems and solutions this time.

51:25

Exactly. And this

51:27

is the carbon copy.

51:29

I mean, it's almost identical

51:32

to a previous Cambridge question, which

51:35

is exactly the same trend.

51:37

Many people today do not know their neighbours.

51:39

But it was why it is this, wasn't it? Yes.

51:42

In the Cambridge book, it's asking for the cause

51:45

of the trend. And in this one,

51:47

it's asking for the effects of the trend. How many

51:49

students who sat that exam do you think probably

51:52

wrote about the causes. Probably quite a

51:54

few to be honest. I'd say about 25%. they

51:57

probably, because they just expect for

51:59

these. essays cause

52:01

solution and not affect

52:04

solution. So this is a great example of where

52:06

you've got to read the question carefully.

52:09

I actually think though, if you do read the question

52:12

carefully, I think giving the effects

52:14

of not knowing your neighbours

52:16

is easier than giving the

52:19

reasons for not knowing your neighbours, I

52:22

would say. So what would you say

52:24

if you don't know the people in

52:26

your street, what effect could

52:28

that have or in your building? So

52:32

a less sort of connected community?

52:35

Yeah. I think something about isolation.

52:38

More isolation. Less community.

52:40

Yeah. Low community spirit. Yes.

52:44

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which means that people

52:46

don't want to help when something goes wrong. Right.

52:51

So you've got, for example, if a burglar

52:53

alarm's going off in a tight-knit community, everybody

52:55

rushes out to see what the problem is.

52:59

In a disaffected neighbourhood,

53:02

people are going to be like, oh God, it's going off

53:04

again. What are they doing? Right.

53:07

Yeah,

53:07

it just becomes the background noise, doesn't

53:09

it? I think that's definitely

53:11

true. Definitely

53:14

true. So we could actually have, I mean, to simplify

53:16

your argument, which is less

53:18

immunity, it could just be sort of like, you know, for

53:20

a lower level student just increasing crime is

53:23

kind of what we're saying there, isn't there? Or sort

53:26

of...

53:27

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean,

53:29

I think that's it. I think people feel less isolated.

53:32

Funny enough, Nick, coming

53:34

to London this weekend, called a

53:36

taxi, was supposed to come at three

53:38

o'clock. My train was at 327. At 10

53:41

past three, there was still no taxi. Oh, dear. And

53:44

I was really panicking. How did I get to

53:46

the train station? Neighbour. my neighbor's

53:48

door, she gave me a lift in her car. Excellent.

53:51

Well done. So yeah. So I do think that. I

53:53

mean, I think sort of like people feel isolated,

53:55

more lonely,

53:56

sort of like the personal effects and

53:58

also there's less community. spirit. Which

54:01

leads to sort of more breakdown and stuff

54:03

like that. Yeah, sort of more antisocial

54:06

behavior. So maybe more graffiti,

54:08

people don't take care of things in the local area

54:10

as much, because they don't feel part of it.

54:13

Less likely to report a crime or look out for

54:15

your neighbour's stuff. Brilliant.

54:17

Yeah.

54:19

I mean, some people who live in, you know, we're

54:21

talking from an English perspective. Some

54:23

people might be like, oh, imagine

54:25

it'd be lovely if your neighbours didn't talk

54:27

to you all the time it'd be more relaxing so

54:30

I don't know but for me it's

54:33

all negative effects really.

54:36

Now the next question is the same as the old Cambridge

54:39

question and I've always struggled with this. So

54:42

what can be done to resolve the issue? How

54:44

can we help people get to know their neighbours

54:47

better?

54:47

Well you got the old classic set

54:51

up a neighbourhood watch or something like that. Yeah,

54:53

so like, yes, sort of like set up

54:56

community groups. Once a week or something

54:58

like that. We can

55:00

discuss issues. On

55:03

my street there is a what and I know

55:05

this is quite common I don't think that there tend to be sort

55:07

of areas that have WhatsApp

55:08

groups. Yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah.

55:11

Yeah, so sort of like in your area if you move

55:13

in you get added and then you know it might say

55:15

things like at Christmas. No bins

55:18

being taken this week because

55:20

of Christmas not until next week or things

55:22

that are happening. So something

55:25

which could create a sense of community in terms

55:27

of a group, right? So whether or not that's a Facebook

55:29

group or a WhatsApp group or

55:31

something like that. Yeah.

55:34

What else could be the event?

55:37

Events. Yeah.

55:40

Right. So sort of what sort of events like?

55:42

Street parties. A street party.

55:45

Which we had during the Jubilee, didn't we? We

55:47

did actually. In some places. Yeah. I

55:50

like the idea of having community spaces.

55:53

So I always like it when there's a community garden,

55:55

for example, where people can

55:57

sort of go, like everyone can share the same space.

56:00

Yeah. And by choice. Force

56:02

everybody to get a dog so that they meet each

56:04

other walking the dog. Dogs

56:06

for all.

56:08

Yeah, exactly. Also,

56:11

you know, again, a bit like your solution

56:13

to the University College

56:15

one, just ask for help. I quite

56:17

like it if a student just says, you know, people, you

56:19

know, when people move to a new area, they

56:22

should introduce themselves. Yeah, introduce themselves.

56:24

Yeah, knock on the neighbour's door, you know,

56:27

do small things. I always put out, and

56:29

you know, if the bins have been collected

56:32

and they're outside the front door, I'll put my

56:34

neighbours' bins away for them. Just

56:36

small acts of sort of generosity, really, maybe.

56:39

So you don't have to have big solutions

56:41

sometimes

56:42

to problems. Like you said, just introducing yourself when

56:44

you move to a new neighbourhood.

56:48

I still think that is a difficult question.

56:50

I don't know why. It is. It's not an easy one.

56:52

I agree with you there. I think the solutions

56:54

to that problem are always a

56:57

bit difficult because they're a bit woolly.

56:59

They're not clear and easy to write.

57:01

That's true. But

57:02

of all the questions today, I mean, how does that compare?

57:05

Easier? I do think that's on the harder side, but

57:07

definitely the first question is the hardest. Yes,

57:10

the natural resources. Yeah. Yeah.

57:13

I totally agree. I'd even say actually the

57:15

second most difficult would be the famous people require

57:17

constant attention. Yeah, I would agree with that. The celebrity one is also

57:20

pretty hard, to be honest. Yes. So

57:22

there, unusually, the two most difficult

57:25

questions were both general training questions. There

57:29

you go. Did you have the same ideas

57:32

as us? Were your ideas different?

57:34

Did you misunderstand any of the questions,

57:36

right? That is the biggest thing that,

57:40

that's the worst mistake you can make it exactly. That's the

57:42

thing that's gonna hold you back the most, isn't it?

57:44

Yeah. So

57:45

getting inside the questions, noticing

57:47

how much attention Nick and I pay to all

57:50

the words, coming up with things that really

57:52

focus on this specific question

57:54

and not just the general ideas

57:56

which appear for these

57:58

topics. Thank you. Brilliant.

58:00

So Nick, it's Easter

58:02

next weekend. Are we going to have an episode over

58:04

Easter or are

58:04

we going to have a week off? I'm not sure. I guess

58:06

that's up to you. That's your decision. I

58:09

guess that's up to you.