So what's the coincidence?
It's very dark.
Yeah, you could just say it's very dark rory, and i'll just say well, it's evening here, and then you would say i see, shall we talk about evenings?
Job done hello, lovely.
I'm maria And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for a high score.
You know which score, don't you?
Ben 9 score.
Oh, Rory, it's getting very dark there.
Yeah, it's evening here.
Evening.
Shall we talk about evenings?
Oh, it's a coincidence.
Evening time.
Evening time.
Yeah, it just happens, you know, these coincidences just happen, you know, dear listener.
Yes, evening time is a new IELTS Speaking Part 1 topic.
We talked about staying up late before, so do check it out.
And we're gonna discuss evening time now.
Rory, do you like the morning or evening?
Well, I suppose that'll depend entirely on how I'm feeling or what I'm doing.
But generally speaking, I think I prefer the feeling of being more productive in the morning and then having the whole day to do everything.
So I definitely say that I'm a morning person.
What do you usually do in the evening?
I think I'm very boring.
So I work until about 8.30 in the evening, that is, before getting ready for bed.
And then I'll read until about half nine so that I can fall asleep early and wake up early.
That's on the weekday evenings, at least.
What did you do in the evening when you were a child?
I think I used to stay up ridiculously late when I was much younger.
Even when I was a child, I'd be up until 10 or 11 in the evening.
I think what exactly I was doing changed over the years, from watching cartoons to reading, to staying out late with friends.
It's all coming back to bite me now, though.
I think I definitely prefer my early bedtimes.
Are there any differences between what you do in the evening now and what you did in the past, other than the ones I just described?
I suppose it's a little more fixed now, since I've become something of a creature of habit.
The sort of wild teenage and student days of staying up late, getting into mischief and falling asleep in class are long over now.
And do you think your evening activities will change in the future?
I imagine they will, but how they will change, I have absolutely no idea.
I'm hoping that they'll remain calm because I like calm evening time now.
Thank you, Rory, for your answers.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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This week, Rory is gonna describe an important river or lake in his country.
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So, evening.
I'm definitely an evening person.
And that's a nice thing to say.
Like, I'm a morning person, I'm an evening person.
What's if I'm a night person?
Can I say I'm a night person?
Well, there's that cliche, I'm a night owl.
Yeah.
Do you ever use it?
Do you ever say like, oh, I'm an eight owl.
Oh, my friend is an eight owl.
I've probably used it, but not in like a very serious conversation.
Maybe just I prefer to stay up late or I prefer staying up late.
Yeah, so to stay up late is a phrasal verb, and if you don't go to bed early, for example, you stay up.
So up, right up.
And you don't go to sleep, so you can say I stay up late or just I stay up.
What could be a nice synonym, Rory, like band nine phrase, idiomatic phrase?
As a synonym to stay up.
Would that be something like to stay up all hours or something like that?
No, no, it sounds like to pull.
Oh, are we talking about pulling all nighter?
Yes.
We've talked about that before, haven't we?
We did yes because we do have an episode about I think oh, there was this topic of staying up late.
Yeah, yeah.
And so to pull an all-nighter.
Rory, could you give us an example with this phrase, pull an all-nighter?
Uh, no, because I haven't pulled an all-nighter in forever because I just don't do it anymore.
So maybe I haven't pulled an all-nighter since I was a student.
There we go.
Negative sentence.
Yeah, so to pull an all-nighter.
You don't sleep all night, you stay up.
You stay awake because you are preparing for the exams, you are listening to our podcast, you are liking all our videos, buying our premium and phrase, of course, so.
You don't go to bed, you pull an all-nighter.
Yeah, I used to pull an all-nighter.
Oh, can you say I used to pull all-nighters?
Can you change that? the phrase in the plural.
So if you stayed up late regularly, can you say, I pulled all-nighters?
Yes, why not?
Yeah.
So, you can say I'm a morning person, I'm an evening person, I'm a night owl.
And a nice phrasal verb to stay up late or just to stay up or pull an all-nighter.
And the question is like, do you like the morning or evening?
And Rory says, well, that will depend entirely on how I'm feeling.
So that depends entirely on how I'm feeling.
Rory entirely.
Is it an adjective or an adverb?
Well, here it's an adverb because well, it's like describing how much you depend, I suppose, on something happening or on something being the case, And you can say I feel more productive in the morning than in the evening.
And then the examiner goes, okay, okay, but tell me about your evening times.
Okay, I see you are more productive in the morning, but what about the evening, you know?
Why do you like evenings?
What do you usually do?
And Rory just admits it.
He says, I'm very boring.
Dear listener, do you think that Rory is boring?
Hmm?
Rory, do you?
Was it a joke?
No, I'm being entirely serious when I say that.
I'm like the most boring person in the universe or at least I try to be when it comes to going to bed and getting up early.
So sorry about that, if anyone's disappointed.
But you like the evenings, right, Rory?
I like all kinds of the day.
It just depends on what's happening to me.
Hmm.
OK, so you can say, OK, I'm very boring.
I go to bed early and I read in bed.
Then I fall asleep.
I wake up.
Right.
I usually I don't usually stay up or I don't I never pull all nighters.
And that's on the weekday evenings.
So, on weekday evenings.
I can also say like in the evening or in the evenings.
Yeah.
Although it's probably a good thing to point out that, even though the vocabulary in there is like sort of run of the mill, if you're able to make a joke out of it like I'm very boring and I don't do much, then there's a certain level of skill involved in that as well, because that can make the examiner well have an emotional reaction, and so it shows some skill with being able to use language too.
So it's not always a lost cause if you say something like, I'm very boring.
When you talk about things you did when you were a child.
Our favorite.
So, check the pronunciation.
I used to get up early.
Rory, how do you say it?
I used to.
I used to stay up.
Yeah, I used to stay up, right?
But not anymore, right?
So when Rory was a child, he used to pull an all-nighter.
Yeah, all-nighters.
And now not anymore, right?
And then you can say in the evening, I usually stay out late with friends.
So you see, you stay up, you don't go to bed or you can stay out late with friends.
So if you stay out, you just go out and hang out with your friends.
Yeah, I think that's the big difference.
Like, if you stay out, then you're outside the house.
But if you stay in or stay up, then you're, well, inside.
And what would be typical activities, like evening activities, that our listeners could talk about?
For example, going out with friends.
For teenagers!
Yeah.
Like things you don't do, Rory, but other people do.
I never said I did anything.
I did or didn't do anything.
So, well, what would that be?
Oh well, I mean most teenagers.
It's funny because people often think that just happens in Russia but, like most teenagers do just go out walking with their friends, for example.
Or they'll do stuff with their friends, play video games, chat online, this kind of thing.
But what about adults in Scotland?
Kind of like your friends, what do they usually do in the evening?
Do they play computer games?
Do they, I don't know.
That's a really good question.
I have absolutely no idea.
I haven't asked them.
Be honest, unless we were going out on a night out.
Ask your friends i what you want me to ask them right now.
Yes well, you should have.
You should have prepared for this episode.
Like, call your friends, ask them.
Okay hello, what do you?
What do you usually do in the evenings?
Let's talk about mirrors.
Yeah, exactly.
Lots of people said this, actually.
They were like oh yeah, I've started asking my questions what they do when they're sitting down or what they're doing in their evenings.
And I was like...
Just be yourself.
Not everything has to be exciting.
Yeah, do listen.
So you can say just, I don't do anything much.
You know, I go to bed, I watch the telly, I call my friends, I go out for a walk.
So, you know, things like that.
I read in the evening and...
Rory has become a creature of habit.
Not hobbit.
Habit.
Ah, yes, okay.
Well, that's just to do with liking routines if you're a creature of habit.
So we know that Rory gets up at 530, he has his tuna for breakfast and then he kind of follows the routine right.
So Rory is a creature of habit.
Rory, would you like to comment on anything else here?
Well, just based on what I can remember, probably talking, ever comparing now and the past and emphasizing the extent of the difference, saying something is long over now is probably a good way to draw attention to that.
And in the same way to describe how late you were, I said ridiculously late.
So ridiculously late, not normal, or just very extreme, extremely late, ridiculously late.
Yeah, if we say ridiculously early, you remember we say at an ungodly hour.
So Rory gets up at 5.30, so this is an ungodly hour.
Is 5.30 an ungodly hour?
Like, really?
Yes!
Yes!
Why?
For kind of the majority of normal people, Rory.
I don't understand that.
What time does everyone else get up at?
At 10.
At 9.
Okay, 8.
Who wakes up at 10 o'clock in the morning?
How do you afford this luxury of waking up at 10 o'clock in the morning?
What time do you go to bed?
1.
Midnight.
Really?
Yes.
Oh, God, I couldn't imagine doing that.
A person, especially a woman who does a lot of intellectual work.
Actually, any person who is involved in some intellectual activities on a daily basis needs eight hours, eight hours of sleep every day.
I will have to take your word for that.
So I sometimes do need 10.
Okay.
Yes, I've researched this.
Yeah, dear listener, you can also talk about sunsets, right?
So for example, I enjoy evenings because I enjoy sunsets.
Rory, what's your take on sunsets?
Beautiful.
Well, I never see them now because I always go to bed at half past eight.
And when we were recording this, this is in the summer.
So even in Scotland, the sun in summer doesn't set until about 10 o'clock at night.
So I haven't actually seen the sunset for months.
Ah, poor you.
No, it's fine.
I don't mind.
Right, dear listener.
I've got a quote for you that I found on the internet.
May the sun in your life never set.
May it always rise high and above.
Good evening.
Can the sun please set on this video?
The sun definitely has to set on our video.
Thank you very much for listening.
You can go and check out our episodes about staying up late.
And stay in touch.
Write in the comments how boring Rory is and how lovely my dress is, my evening dress.
And I'm going out today because it's evening.
It's evening time.
Nice.
I know it's all kind of light, but it's getting dark now.
I'm going out.
So I'm going to go off and party.
Bye.
Bye.
Rory, do you like the morning or evening?
Well, I suppose that'll depend entirely on how I'm feeling or what I'm doing.
But generally speaking, I think I prefer the feeling of being more productive in the morning and then having the whole day to do everything.
So I definitely say that I'm a morning person.
What do you usually do in the evening?
Oh, I think I'm very boring.
So I work until about 8.30 in the evening, that is, before getting ready for bed.
And then I'll read until about half nine so that I can fall asleep early and wake up early.
That's on the weekday evenings, at least.
What did you do in the evening when you were a child?
I think I used to stay up ridiculously late when I was much younger.
Even when I was a child, I'd be up until 10 or 11 in the evening.
I think what exactly I was doing changed over the years, from watching cartoons to reading, to staying out late with friends.
It's all coming back to bite me now, though.
I think I definitely prefer my early bedtimes.
Are there any differences between what you do in the evening now and what you did in the past, other than the ones I just described?
I suppose it's a little more fixed now, since I've become something of a creature of habit.
The sort of wild teenage and student days of staying up late, getting into mischief and falling asleep in class are long over now.
And do you think your evening activities will change in the future?
I imagine they will, but how they will change, I have absolutely no idea.
I'm hoping that they'll remain calm because I like calm evening time now.
