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so hello lovely and welcome into IELTS speaking part two describe a story or novel you have read and you found interesting you should say when you read it what the story or novel was about who wrote it and explain why it was interesting Rory here is the author of many books books.
Rory has written lots of books, dear listener, yeah.
An educated native speaker, Rory reads like 1 ,000 books every year.
No, seriously, like you read a lot, and you read like super smart books, Rory.
Like what? What was the last smart book that I read?
Yeah. Oh, yeah, I enjoyed when you read the book about punctuation.
Oh, that was funny.
Yeah. Tell us your story.
I actually loved reading Children of Time, which is a novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
It's actually the first part in a science fiction trilogy that he wrote over the last decade.
And I always find myself thinking about it when I'm a bit bored.
I suppose in a nutshell, it tells the story of a genetic experiment gone wrong on this planet being terraformed for human life.
So after this act of sabotage in a larger conflict, the monkeys that were originally meant to be used to create a civilization on the planet are supplanted by spiders that grow to these huge sizes and take over the planet.
planet. And after a long time, I think it's maybe a thousand years or so, the survivors of the earlier war show up, and they're trying to find a new home, and they come up against these monstrous intelligent arachnids on this planet, and a whole load of drama unfolds as a result.
When it comes to the guy that wrote it, like I said, his name is Adrian Tchaikovsky, although I think that's just his nom de plume, and he's certainly no relation to the composer.
At least I found that out later on for sure.
I think he just chose it to stand out, which is sort of forgivable since the market for novels is pretty saturated, even with an original story like the one he wrote.
As far as I'm aware, I think he has Polish ancestry, but I'm not 100 % on that.
Regardless, he's obviously a very talented author and has a slew of other works to his name and a few awards under his belt as well, I think.
And that's originally what drew me to the book since I'd seen it, or had seen that it had won several awards, but of course you can't just judge a book based solely on that.
It's a high concept speculative fiction story which makes it very easy to follow and there are engaging characters that I found easy enough to imagine and put myself in their shoes to think about the decisions that I might have made in a similar situation.
And of course it has exciting action scenes and complex moral and ethical problems in it that really make you wonder about how we might go about colonizing planets in the future.
If I hadn't read the book, I think I'd have really missed out.
I bought the sequels as soon as I could, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff in the future.
Yay! And what about your friends?
Do they like this book?
Well, actually, yes.
I gave the books to one of my pals after I finished, and he really liked them too.
So at least one of them loves this guy as well.
I liked the little, yay, and then the serious examiner question.
Could you have imagined if that happened in the real exam?
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See you soon. So, Diosna, you should describe a story or a novel.
Like, what's a novel?
I think people have been talking about that since the beginning of writing but basically a novel is an almost self -contained story in a book form and i think that's as close as we can get to a clear definition of it because essays have been written about what a novel is and is not um for some people it's one self -contained story for others it could be extended over a longer format like three or or four books, for example.
I consider it to be one book with a story.
So here pretty much you can talk about a book, like a story, like a short story or a book.
I suppose another thing about novels is that they have chapters.
They're fictional and they have chapters and they're contained within a book.
So a short story or a novel.
And here you can use the present perfect like I've read it.
You use the present perfect at the beginning of the story of your story and then you can use them the past and also the present like this story is about this novel is about and you can start off with i really loved reading blah blah blah by blah blah blah so i really loved reading the lord of the rings by talking tolkien yeah this is how you pronounce his name yeah well here it's tolkien for the famous author this one i read was called tschaikovsky So all of the names beginning with T.
It's science fiction, or it's fiction, it's a fantasy story, so name the genre.
Or it's a novel by...
In a nutshell, it tells the story of blah blah blah.
So just briefly speaking, to give you a short story, like in a nutshell.
shell this book is about or this novel is about or it tells the story of of what and then in three sentences dear listener three sentences or three or four sentences you just say what the book is about so don't go so don't talk about the book for for an hour you don't have time so just three four sentences the monkeys so is this monkeys oh okay I think the chimpanzees in fact I read this book about two years ago yeah so the book is about monkeys spiders oh well it's not really about monkeys it's about it's more about the spiders so huge -sized spiders take over the planet yes okay it's not a scary
like i i like the spiders i thought the spiders were cool but tells the story of the spiders from their perspective um and of course spiders communicate different things to each other but they do it in different ways so there's this exploration of how communication might work between spiders as well that they became intelligent because they wouldn't be able to communicate in the same way humans can they do it by a variety of means it's a very good idea to write down three sentences what the book is about because this is a very common IELTS question and they can ask you about a story a film a book
so please write down three sentences what the book is about clear three sentences in a very kind of concise clear way the story of the book because this is quite difficult you can google it you can read in your mother tongue what the book is about out and then just have three clear sentences three or four sentences when it comes to the guy who wrote it when it comes to the author of the book the author of the book the writer but as for the writer his name is the data like when it comes to the writer his name is blah blah and then Rory you is a name for writing.
What do you mean the name for writing?
Nom de plume? Some authors don't use their real names for writing.
They use a different name.
Nom de plume. A name chosen by a writer instead of using his real name.
Usually writers use different names when they publish a book.
Pseudonym is another one.
So, she wrote it under a pseudonym.
Or, for example, George Orwell was a pseudonym, his real name was Eric Blair.
So, nom de plume. Look at us, teaching French as well as English.
Magnifique. Yeah, because Tchaikovsky, like, when you hear the name Tchaikovsky, you start thinking of a composer.
So, he chose this name to stand out.
So, to be different from the other writers, to be noticeable.
And if you choose a famous surname, like Kardashian, Rory Kardashian, there we go.
Rory is going to be super famous.
Or Rory Markle. Maria Markle.
Like Meghan Markle.
Yeah, she's the only one, so that's the trick.
I do have a writer's name as well because I couldn't fit the whole name on the front of the book, so I just shortened it to RF Duncan Goodwillie.
Really? Yeah. And that makes sense because I can't fit the whole name on the book.
Like, there's no way.
Yeah, you have like seven different names, of course.
I don't have seven different names.
I have one name, but...
Yeah, one name plus Fergus, Duncan, that's already three.
And Good Willie. Yeah, and like two more.
No, that's it. That's what I said.
I said seven. Seven, five, what's the difference?
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You should say something about the writer, okay?
So he wrote under a pseudonym or he published many novels.
If the writer is dead, then you use the past symbol.
So he published many novels.
He was popular. He was poor.
And that's it. He had like Polish ancestry.
He was born, like where was he born, right?
He was very talented.
and Adrian Tchaikovsky is alive, right?
Oh yes. He's older.
I think he's in his 40s or his 50s but he's very much alive.
Oh, 52 years old. Okay, alright.
Yeah, that's why Rory used the present simple like he has Polish ancestry.
He's a very talented author and he has a slew of other works to his name.
What do you mean? Like a slew of other works a slew of other works a lot of other works and he has a few awards under his belt so he has won lots of awards and if the writer is alive you use the present perfect okay so he's won many awards or he won many awards if the the writer is dead.
What drew me to the book was the fact, was the plot.
So, something draws you to the book, something attracts you to the book, makes you interested in the book.
Yes. And what drew me to this book was an original plot or what drew me to the book was an unusual story.
story and the fact that the book has won different awards this was originally what drew me to the novel and then dear listener you say that you can't judge a book based solely on the awards and actually the idiom is well you can't judge a book by its cover but um i thought that might be a bit too cliche so i just changed it yeah and it's okay it's ben nine way we take this is a cliche and we change it so you can't judge book only by awards you i mean you could say that to your examiner to see if some people say you can't judge a book based on its cover but i did because i picked it up due to the nice
cover and then i was surprised to find that it's got an interesting story as well as a nice cover it's a high concept speculative fiction story rui how why why is it a high concept like spiders invade the world huge size spiders invade the world like how is it executed you're speculative well a high concept is just to do it's not to do with a complex idea it just means it's a and one that's very easy to communicate to people so the high the high concept in this book was what if spiders were genetically engineered and became intelligent on a different planet and that's it and then from there the plot
develops and speculative fiction is just a new term to describe science fiction because speculative fiction just asks what if these kinds of things happened and you can say that the book is easy to follow so it's easy to follow the story the book has engaging characters so the people who are described in the book are have engaging characters and it's easy to imagine this situation when the world is taken over by huge size spiders yeah it's very easy to imagine this situation uh -huh right giant spiders invade the world and you can put yourself in the shoes Shoes of spiders.
Uh -huh. So if you put yourself in someone's shoes, you kind of...
You experience the situation through these people or creatures.
The book has exciting action scenes.
Like in a film, we have action scenes, moments.
And the book has complex moral problems or ethical problems. like ethical problems concerning ethics ethical relating to beliefs about what is morally right or wrong actually a C to level band 9 ethical dilemmas genetic research for example yeah ethicals c2 well wow okay cool so yeah the book has some ethical problems and the moral dilemmas make you wonder make you wonder about how we live about our life about colonizing planets in the future so the book makes you wonder it's like it's good food for thought like after while you're reading the book you are like thinking you're speculating and the book
could be a sequel a sequel like one two three four books on the same story and you can say that i'm looking forward to reading more in the future or I'm looking forward to rereading the book I'd like to reread the book or if I had more time, I'd reread the book.
Sweet. Thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our speaking part three about novels, reading preferences and storytelling.
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Describe a story or novel you have read and you found interesting.
You should say when you read it, what the story or novel was about, who wrote it and explain why it was interesting.
I actually loved reading Children of Time, which is a novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
It's actually the first part in a science fiction trilogy that he wrote over the last decade.
And I always find myself thinking about it when I'm a bit bored.
I suppose in a nutshell it tells the story of a genetic experiment gone wrong on this planet being terraformed for human life.
So after this act of sabotage in a larger conflict, the monkeys that were originally meant to be used to create a civilization on the planet are supplanted by spiders that grow to these huge sizes and take over the planet.
it. And after a long time, I think it's maybe a thousand years or so, the survivors of the earlier war show up and they're trying to find a new home.
And they come up against these monstrous, intelligent arachnids on this planet.
And a whole load of drama unfolds as a result.
When it comes to the guy that wrote it, like I said, his name is Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Although I think that's just his nom de plume.
And he's certainly no relation to the composer.
At least I found that out later on, for sure.
I think he just chose it to stand out, which is sort of forgivable, since the market for novels is pretty saturated, even with an original story like the one he wrote.
As far as I'm aware, I think he has Polish ancestry, but I'm not 100 % on that.
Regardless, he's obviously a very talented author, and has a slew of other works to his name, and a few awards under his belt as well, I think.
And that's originally what drew drew me to the book since I'd seen that it had won several awards.
But, of course, you can't just judge a book based solely on that.
It's a high -concept speculative fiction story which makes it very easy to follow.
There are engaging characters that I found easy enough to imagine and put myself in their shoes to think about the decisions that I might have made in a similar situation.
And, of course, it has exciting action scenes and complex moral and ethical problems in it that really make you wonder about how we might go about colonizing planets in the future.
If I hadn't read the book, I think I'd have really missed out.
I bought the sequels as soon as I could, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff in the future.
Yay! And what about your friends?
Do they like this book?
Well, actually, yes.
I gave the books to one of my pals after I finished, and he really liked them too.
So at least one of them loves this guy as well.
We'll be right back.
