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Hello,lovely, I'mMaria.
I'm my name isRory. I'm here at the host of the IELTS Speaking for SuccessPodcast.
The podcast today is to help you improve your speakingskills, as well as your listing skills along theway.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous vocabulary and super grammar for your high-IELTSschool.
Your Band-Titescore. So where areyou, Rorynow?
I'm in my newhouse.Oh, in your newhouse!
Shall we talk about accommodationperhaps?
Yes, let's talk about myaccommodation.
So in Speaking Part1, the examiner asks you questions about accommodation or work orstudies.
These are the firsttopics,well, the examiner chooses one topic and it could beaccommodation.
Accommodation, meaning yourflat, yourhouse, I don'tknow, a treehouse, acave, you livein, aboat.
And the usual questionis, do you live in a house or aflat?
In thisepisode, Rory is going to tell us about hisapartment.
Do you live in a house or aflat?
I live in an apartment on the second floor of myblock.
And what do you like about yourflat?
Well, it's actuallybrilliant.
The street it's on is near the citycenter, so everything I need is nearby in terms of transport andfood.
But on top ofthat, the tenement itself is halfway down the street from one of the mainroads, so it's also quiet enough that no one bothers to peoplethere.
Would you change anything about yourhome?
I've actually made most of the changes I wanted to make recently since I just movedin.
But the last big renovations and repairs are having a lighting system installed and getting the floorsleveled.
It's nothing terribly drasticthough, at least in myopinion.
Would you like to move to a different home in thefuture?
Gotta hopenot, not in the near futureanyway.
I just bought this place and moving into getting the place done up was a mission in and ofitself.
I might move to the capital oneday, but fornow, this is where I want tobe.
Where would you like to live in thefuture?
Like Isaid, if I'm going to moveanywhere, it's probably going to be the capitalcity.
Just for the convenience of being at the heart ofthings.
But that's at least three here's down theline.
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Employee well-being benefits to help you and your peoplegrow.
And amazing discounts ontravel,insurance, and IKEApurchases,deliveries, andmore.
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So, dolisten. Theexaminers' first questionis, do you live at a house or aflat?
So, a house is like ahouse, like a properhouse, acottage.
A flat is aflat, anapartment, and you can live in aflat, in a block offlats.
What's a block offlats?
It's just a building with lots of apartments init.
Exactly.So, if you live in ahouse, you cansay, I live in ahouse.
If you live in an apartment or aflat,well, I live in aflat.
Also, we call it myhome.
That's why the examiners can ask you questions about what about yourhouse, what about yourhome, meaning yourapartment.
Because my apartment is myhome,right?
Well, if you saymy, thenyes.
Or you can say it's myplace.
So, myhome, myhouse, or myplace.
But I live in anapartment,okay?
And you cansay, I live in aflat, on the secondfloor.
Or on the fifthfloor, on the tenthfloor, in a block offlats.
Rory, can you use present-buffet continuoushere?
Like, howlong? It couldbe.
Imean, forme, I would belike, I've been living in my apartment for how long have I been living in my apartment for eightmonths, Ithink.
Yeah.Yeah, yousay, I've been living in my flat for fiveyears, sevenyears, oneyear.
It's actuallybrilliant.
So, Rory describes his apartment asbrilliant.
He's likeamazing,awesome,brilliant.
And then moredetails. About why it isbrilliant?
It's on a busystreet. Or it's on a street near the citycenter.
Or the street it'son.So, my apartment is on the street near the citycenter.
I toldyou, Rory'srich.
He lives right in the citycenter,Dillis.
I live near the citycenter, not right in themiddle.
Yeah, but you dosay,like, I live in thecenter.
I live in thecenter,right?
I live near thecenter. It'll live in thecenter.
It's toobusy. Tooloud.
I have everything I neednearby.
So,nearby,like, near myhouse, near myflat.
On top ofthat, kind oflike, what'smore?
Yeah.So, he'slike, I have everything Ineed.
On top ofthat, the transport system isgood.
And what'sthis, thetenement?
The tenement is just another name for the block or the apartmentblock.
Tenement's a Britishthing.
Whereas a block is general or more AmericanEnglish.
Although Americans might use block to refer to the localareas, usually like the square of apartments where they live aswell.
Like, tenement is a large building divided intoapartments.
Usually in a poor area of acity,Rory.
Do you live in a poorarea?
Youthink?No, it's like according to the Cambridge OnlineDictionary, a tenement is a large building usually in a poor area of acity.
Don't know aboutthat. You can have an apartment blockanywhere.
Yeah.So, he'slike, on top ofthat, my building or the building where Ilive, my or the block of flats is close to the mainroad, forexample.
Yeah. Where it's close to a shoppingcenter, it's got to be close tosomething,surely.
It'squiet, so it's notnoisy.
And no one bothers the peoplethere.
So the neighbors areokay.
So nobody bothersyou. So people don't bother eachother, youknow.
So when you gooutside, people just don't come up to you sayinglike,hello,like, do you have anymoney?
Okay, so buy mystuff. So people don't botheryou.
A typical question is about a change you'd like to have in yourhouse.
AndDylissina, even if you don't want to changeanything, it's a good idea to say somethinghere,okay?
Rory said that I've actually made most of thechanges.
So we makechanges. I've made all thechanges.
You don't dochanges, you makechanges.
So I've made all thechanges.
I want itrecently. I've just movedin,okay?
So Rory has just started living in thisapartment.
You cansay, I moved in a long timeago.
And now I want to change pretty mucheverything.
And then thesynonym, the last bigrenovation, should be this andthat.
So we cansay,renovation.
The renovation is just like a change or animprovement.
But we can renovate a house or we can repairit.
And so repairing is like repairing something damaged orbroken.
So in mycase, because the building is soold, the floors are somewhat uneven inplaces.
So I need themleveled, which just means madeequal.
And what's the difference between renovations andrepairs?
There's not really a big difference to behonest.
People use theminterchangeably.
I would say renovations are about making changes to the house to make itbetter.
Whereas repairs are just about fixing something that isbroken.
You can say that I want to get my flatrenovated.
So you pay otherpeople, they do it foryou.
Or I want to get my kitchenrepaired.
Forexample, or I want to have a new lighting systeminstalled.
I want to install a new lightingsystem.
So we installthings. And I want to get the floorsleveled.
So the floor is the samelevel.
But the key thing will not be getting the floorsleveled.
I don't think most people will be talking aboutthis.
But you get somethingdone.
Is it passivevoice?Well, it's astructure.
It's a specialstructure,Rory, to get somethingdone.
Andhere, not byyou. So I want to get my floorleveled.
I want to get my flatrepaired.
If your changes are notbig, you cansay,well, these changes are not drasticchanges, like dramaticchanges, bigchanges.
Like I don't want any drasticchanges.
Or forexample, I do want drasticchanges.
I want to changeeverything.
Or I want to get my flatchanged.
Renovated. Note in the nearfuture.
I'm not planning to move in the nearfuture.
I personally am not planning to move in the nearfuture.
But you couldsay,yeah, I'm planning to move in the nearfuture.
And another example ofour, get thingsdone, phraseis, get this place doneup.
So if you do up yourflat, you redecorateit, you make itbeautiful, you make itcomfortable.
SoRory, got his place doneup.
So you cansay, I've just got my flat doneup.
You can say that I might move to a newcity, I might move to thecapital, I might move to thecountryside, so I'm going tolike, maybe I'll move in thefuture.
One day I might live in ahouse, one day I might move to a cave or a housetree.
Acave?Yeah,people, some people live incaves.
Or I might live on aboat, youknow, inAmsterdam, I'm going to move to Amsterdam and live on aboat.
A boathouse, there yougo, do youlisten?
A houseboat. Houseboat, a boathouse.
Or canalboat. I don'tknow.
Like inLondon, forexample, they have this boat and they live inthere.
Yeah, they have canalboats.
Canalboats?Well, they can convert to canal boats to be ahouse.
But inAmsterdam, what do they have inAmsterdam?
I have noidea. I ask a Dutchperson.
Well, they like cute boats and then just livethere.
Are you sure it's a bit more complicated thanthat?
But it's better than living in a cave forsure.
Okay, deal withit. Maybe you'll want to live in acave, I don'tknow.
Like ahobbit.Yeah, but hobbit kind oflike, they had littlehouses.
Yeah. A hobbithouse. When you speak about thefuture, you cansay, I'm going tomove.
Or I'm not going tomove.
You will say itlike, I'm going tomove.
I don't think I'm going tomove.
I'm going tomove. I'm going to move to ahouse.
I'm going to move to a biggerhouse.
Okay,oh, I'm going to stay in aflat.
And you can say that I might move to the capital city to be at the heart ofthings.
So if you are at the heart ofthings, whathappens?
You're in the middle ofthem.
Yeah. If you live inLondon, forexample, you are at the heart ofthings.
But I'm not going to do it anytimesoon.
This is at least three years down theline.
So if something is down theline, what isit?
It's in thefuture.Well, when we're talking about thefuture, it's in thefuture.
Down the line could be referring to a railwaytrack.
Buthere, we're talking about thefuture.
And it's anidiom. You can say down theroad, down theline, or down the track in thefuture.
Forexample, a car will beautomated, so we'll not have adriver, so we'll be controlled by artificialintelligence.
So cars will bedriverless, and long way down theline.
So sometime in thefuture.
Hey,Dylissna, now you have some beautiful structures to describe yourflat,house,apartment, yourcave, your boathouse.
We're asking peoplelive.
Anattempt, acaravan. Anattempt,oh, acaravan.
Wow. What about this house onwheels?
Like it's a truck and it's ahouse.
What do you callit? A caravan or a mobilehome, if you'reAmerican.
A mobilehome,Dylissna.
Would you like to live inthere?
Just drive yourtruck,t-t-t-down, and then you have ahouse.
Wow.Yes. Thank you very much forlistening, and we'll get back to you in our nextepisode.
Okay?Bye!Bye! Do you live in a house or aflat?
I live in an apartment on the second floor of myblock.
And what do you like about yourflat?
Well, it's actuallybrilliant.
The straight it's on is near the citycenter, so everything I need is nearby in terms of transport andfood.
But on top ofthat, the tenement itself is halfway down the street from one of the mainroads, so it's also quiet enough that no one bothers to peoplethere.
Would you change anything about yourhome?
I've actually made most of the changes I wanted to makerecently, since I just movedin.
But the last big renovations and repairs are having a lighting system installed and getting the floorsleveled.
It's nothing terriblydrastic,though, at least in myopinion.
Would you like to move to a different home in thefuture?
Gotta hopenot, not in the near futureanyway.
I just bought this place and moving in and getting the place done up was a mission in and ofitself.
I might move to the capital oneday, but fornow, this is where I want tobe.
Where would you like to live in thefuture?
Well, like Isaid, if I'm going to moveanywhere, it's probably going to be the capitalcity, just for the convenience of being at the heart ofthings.
