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hello hello dear listener and welcome into IELTS speaking part two hey describe a place in a village that you visited you should say where it is when you're visiting this place what you did there and how you feel about this place Rory here lives in the middle of nowhere in Scotland which is surrounded
by all kinds of villages.
Rory, give us your story.
Rory's story! When I lived up north in a place called Murray, I used to love going to the village square in Aberlour.
It's quite charming, and it felt like a world away from the city that I'd left behind at that point.
I used to live in Dundee which is the fourth largest city and Aberlour is a small village and to be honest life really does seem to move at its own pace there I think the last time I was there was about two years ago it was in the spring so the flower beds were coming so the flower beds were coming
to life and all the stone benches had been cleared and it all looked rather cheerful and with very minimal effort which is great there's a clock tower right in the middle which just added to the atmosphere and probably continues to add to the atmosphere along with all the stone buildings that have things
like quaint shops and bakeries and things like that in them I don't honestly I don't think they've changed in hundreds of years that's it's pretty cool one particular thing that stands out in my memory was getting a coffee from the cafe there and just sitting on one of those benches and watching the locals just
going about their business and greeting each other as they passed by.
That kind of thing really makes me feel at ease, especially after coming from like, well, the hectic urban environment of Dundee.
And I found it quite refreshing to be in a place where the community spirit was so visible.
You don't really get that in cities.
In smaller communities, it's better.
They're the kinds of place where you can really feel connected, even as a newcomer.
And that left quite a lasting impression on me, obviously, since I'm able to talk about it in such detail now.
It really feels like the heart of the village.
And I'd really like to go back one day.
If I hadn't gone there, I think I would have still enjoyed the countryside.
But this really added to my experience and made it great.
And would you like to come back then?
Like I say, I would love to in the future.
I just don't know when.
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See you soon. Abur -laur, Abur -laur.
Why are you laughing?
Because, Abur -laur.
Abur -laur. What word is this?
What was this place?
Abur -laur? Abur -laur?
No, I'm going to tell you about Abur -laur.
I'm going to tell you about Abur -laur.
Abur -laur. Do you listen?
It's crazy. Abba is quite a common prefix for place names in the Gaelic language.
For those of you who are listening, Gaelic is the native language of Scotland in some places.
So dear listener, describe a place in a village.
Ideally while your examiner is not laughing at the words you use, Maria.
No, it's a very good idea to make the examiner laugh with some strange funny name.
so the examiner laughs and you have a good score dear listener no but it's cool it's fun can you imagine like oh i'm gonna tell you about the abelululu village that's my city and then that's it and then you are saying it with a straight face dear listener with a serious face so i'm gonna tell you about a place
which is called abelululu village but the point is not to love you you shouldn't love the examiner should love but you should stay serious very funny so a place in a village so you you went to a village to a small place to a town and then there is a place maybe a square a street I don't know a fountain a monument
a museum a cafe a restaurant some place in a village or maybe just a forest or a lake a park I don't know somewhere but it should be in a small town, a village, somewhere in the countryside.
I feel like village squares are pretty good, though.
They all have unique features that are quite easy to remember.
Like every village, I think, has a central square, which is called the obon.
Oh, I don't know. It's so funny.
Rory, could you read out your first sentence, please?
Why is it so funny?
When I lived up north in a place called Moray, I used to love going to the village square in Aberlour.
So, when, for the relative clause, and used to love, used to love going is also good.
Yeah, but not anymore.
I used to live or I used to go there very often, but not anymore.
Charming. It's a charming place.
It's like a nice, quiet, very beautiful.
And it felt like a world away from the city.
So, this is a world away from the city.
A place far away from the city.
And it's a small village, this...
Upper Lower. Upper Lower.
It is not hard to say.
It is a famous village in Scotland.
Everyone manages to say this without laughing.
Well, you know, if you Google a blabla square, you just see whiskey.
So, yeah, you... Only two pictures of the actual village and the square.
Because you are drunk.
Well, no, I don't drink alcohol.
I just don't drink alcohol anymore.
And I see whiskey. I only actually one picture of the square, which is actually really beautiful and nice and calm.
What do you mean? There's like, you type in on Google here, there's like a million pictures of what it looks like.
No, no, no. You just go to Google Images and type in the square.
This is whiskey. It's A -B -E -R L -O -U -R It's a very famous village It's lovely I used to live there Right, dear listener So, like, some place in Scotland Which, you know You know what's going to happen now?
All of these people are going to show up To Aberlour and they'll be like Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Talking about the name And the local people will be like Amazing, amazing Dear listener What?
We should all go and create a holiday When you pronounce the To each other's faces and the task is not to love and you know like we will create different ways of pronouncing this name oh yeah oh gosh so funny so this place has its own pace pace like speed speed of life i was there about two years ago
or i was there last week or i was there i don't know about three years ago, or I'm there every winter or every spring.
And then Rory gets all romantic.
Rory tells us about the flowerbeds.
The flowerbeds, they are, you know, these places where flowers grow.
So when it's spring, it's so lovely because the flowerbeds come to life.
Yeah. And the stone benches.
Stoned benches are nice.
So everything is in stone in this little place.
And it looks rather cheerful.
Cheerful like, you know, like very nice.
So it's charming and it's cheerful.
There's a clock tower, like a small big band in the middle of the square, because it's a square, you know, like a central square.
So, there should be some monument or something in the middle of it.
So, here there's a clock tower right in the middle of the square.
This clock tower adds to the atmosphere.
So, it contributes to the atmosphere of, you know, this cheerful joy.
And there are stone buildings.
Like, pretty much everything in Scotland is made of stone, you know the castles with ghosts is no ghosts I think this is like the one place in the country that doesn't actually have a castle to be honest with you.
Really? No castles?
Not near Upper Lowra no not that I'm aware of Where do the ghosts live?
In the clock tower?
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Rory, tell us, how did you describe the shops?
A very good adjective.
They are quaint. But that just means that they're, like, old -fashioned.
Which makes sense because they're, well, hundreds of years old.
Or the buildings are hundreds of years old.
Yeah, dear listener.
And you should use this adjective, quaint C2 vocabulary, band 9.
Proficiency level, yes.
Attractive because of being unusual, especially old -fashioned.
So, if something is old, old -fashioned, and attractive, you can say, a quaint old cottage.
So the place has a lot of quaint shops.
This place has a lot of quaint cottages.
This is it. Another thing is one particular thing that stands out in my memory is a coffee shop.
Or one particular building that stands out in my memory that I do remember vividly, I remember it well, is a coffee shop or a cafe.
so I was sitting on one of the benches drinking this delicious coffee or Abolulu whiskey so you didn't drink Abolulu whiskey in Abolulu Square no I don't drink whiskey I only drink bourbon ah okay are you Scottish like what's your problem I don't like whiskey you don't like whiskey you like being Scottish
what's the matter Being Scottish is not just drinking whiskey.
No? No, it's a whole culture and various cultural mores.
But no, you don't have to drink whiskey in order to be Scottish.
But you have to go to Aberlew Square.
You have to be able to pronounce the names properly.
So I was sitting on one of the benches drinking whiskey with coffee, coffee with whiskey, and just watching the locals greet each other.
So, I was watching the locals and when they greet each other, they say, hi, hello, how do you do, how are you?
So, I was watching the locals passing by.
So, they were passing by or I was watching the locals as they passed by.
They passed by me, they were passing by me, you know, going la la la la la.
it made me feel at ease so when you feel at ease you are kind of you're relaxed you're like oh so good you know i was relaxed i felt completely at ease i came from a hectic urban environment hectic like full of stress noises so i came from a hectic city and i found it refreshing to be in a place like
this i could feel the spirit of the community usually in small places we have local people and they create a community you know it's kind of like this unit full of people so and this spirit this feeling of everybody who knows each other they are friendly with each other so this spirit of community is so visible
you can see it from the bench so you can feel connected and you can feel connected to what to the place to the locals To reality?
No, I mean to the local place.
Yeah, even if you are a newcomer, so I'm not a local there, I'm a newcomer, I felt connected to the community.
Oh, so nice. Rory's vocabulary show.
My first question is, Maria, what was the name of the town or the village that I talked about?
The name of the village is called Abolololub place.
It is called Abolololub.
You have already failed.
Abolololub. Question number two.
What idiom did I use to emphasize the fact that life in this village is very different to life in the city?
It felt like a world away from the city.
Well done. Much in the same way as Maria's pronunciation of this place Is a world away from what it actually is My next question is What was the word I used to describe the place where the flowers grow?
It's not a word, actually, it's a collocation A flower bed Yes, many flower beds And another idiom What was the idiom I used to say that something is Particularly noticeable in my memory of something It stands out in my memory And lastly, what was the collocation or the idiom that described the impact
it made on my memory or in my memory?
It made me feel at ease.
No, that's how I felt.
We need to talk about the memory.
No, oh, Maria, no, you fell.
It left a lasting impression on me.
Of course. oh, it's this maria's brain has been burnt out by the pronunciation of the of the name of the city it left a lasting impression on me, did you say that?
really? yeah where is it?
it's right at the end oh my days let's move on from maria's failures and move on to part three, where we talk about places in the countryside in general Thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
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Describe a place in a village that you visited.
you should say where it is when you're visiting this place what you did there and how you feel about this place when i lived up north in a place called murray i used to love going to the village square in aber lower um it's quite charming and it felt like a world away from the city that i'd left behind
at that point um i used to live in dundee which is the fourth largest city and aber lower is a small village um and to be honest life really does seem to move at its own pace there i think the last time i was there was about two years ago uh it was in the spring so the flower beds were coming to life
and all the stone benches had been cleared and it all looked rather cheerful and and with very minimal effort which is great um there's a clock tower right in the middle which just added to the atmosphere and probably continues to add to the atmosphere along with all the stone buildings that have things
like quaint shops and bakeries and things like that in them.
Honestly, I don't think they've changed it in hundreds of years.
It's pretty cool. One particular thing that stands out in my memory was getting a coffee from the cafe there and just sitting on one of those benches and watching the locals just going about their business and greeting each other as they passed by that kind of thing really makes me feel at ease especially
after coming from like a well the hectic urban environment of Dundee I found it quite refreshing to be in a place where the community spirit was so visible you don't really get that in cities in smaller communities it's better they're the kinds of place where you can really feel connected even as a newcomer
and that left quite a lasting impression on me obviously since I'm able to talk about it in such detail now, it really feels like the heart of the village and I'd really like to go back one day.
If I hadn't gone there, I think I would have still enjoyed the countryside, but this really added to my experience and made it great.
And would you like to come back then?
Like I say, I would love to in the future, I just don't know when.
