Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we're 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 lovely podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and super-duper vocabulary, together with fresh IELTS topics.
Rory, I've got so much work to do.
I'm running all these IELTS courses for IELTS teachers.
I have to check IELTS papers and organize stuff and everybody's writing to me.
Oh, What do I do?
I need more weeks and more hours.
Maria, this is a side effect of being very successful.
You really need to wake up and smell the roses from time to time.
Smell the roses.
Shall we talk about flowers?
It's a coincidence.
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I'm sure it's more than 200 episodes.
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Flowers.
Roy, do you like flowers?
Well, I'm hardly a flower fanatic, but I don't mind having them around.
Unless there are many of them in full bloom.
That can affect my allergies sometimes.
What flowers do you like?
I'm not averse to any kinds of flowers, really.
I like them all, to be honest.
Well unless, like I said, they're ones that make me sneeze, but those times and varieties are few and far in between.
When was the last time you gave flowers to somebody?
I remember it like it was yesterday, actually, because it's quite unusual for me.
I bought my other half flowers in his favorite color about halfway through this year.
I don't do it very often, and I can't remember the occasion.
I just thought it would be a nice idea because I was walking past the florist next to the gym.
Do you like sending flowers to others?
I prefer something more practical over what's aesthetic, since I like helping people and so this tends to be easier to manifest by providing helpful things.
But I think flowers are okay from time to time.
What flowers have special meaning in your country?
Well, the thistle is our national flower, although I'm not really sure why.
There's a story behind it somewhere, but it escapes me.
Heather is also associated with the more isolated and rugged parts of Scotland.
Roses are seen as romantic, but I suppose that's more universal than nationalistic.
Have you ever planted any flowers?
Oh God, not for a very long time.
I think we had potted plants that we grew and planted in the Boy Scouts, but that would have been over two decades ago.
I've definitely not planted anything since then.
Rory, thank you so much for your flowery answers.
Hmm.
So, flowers.
Yes, dear listener, in speaking part one, they can ask you questions about flowers.
We have some episodes about plants, so you might want to listen to this one.
But these questions are about flowers.
So, Rory.
Now, first of all, can we talk about smell the roses?
What does it mean?
It's kind of an idiom.
Smell the roses.
Wake up and smell the roses.
Yes, but it's not literally smelling the roses.
It's just like paying attention and being grateful for what you have and not focusing on small problems.
Smaller problems, I should say.
So kind of when I start complaining about like oh I have so much stuff to do, the weather is horrible.
And you go, come on, Maria, wake up and smell the roses.
Yeah?
Yes.
Okay, cool.
Jory, dear listener, is hardly a flower fanatic or fanatic.
Fanatic.
Fanatic.
A flower fanatic.
It's interesting because it's FF.
Flower fanatic.
So I'm not a flower fanatic.
It basically means, like, I'm not into flowers, right?
Yes.
You don't like flowers, yeah.
And sometimes Rory can get allergic to flowers.
So, you can say, like, oh, I get allergic to flowers.
Or you can say, I have allergies.
And we usually use these words in the plural, right?
So, I say, like, my allergies or I've got allergies.
Yeah?
Mm-hmm.
And when you have allergies, they make you sneeze.
It's always make someone sneeze.
You make me sneeze.
Like this.
This is how you sneeze.
Okay.
What flowers do you like?
I'm not averse to any kinds of flower.
Rory, you should comment on averse thing.
Averse just means I don't... Like, if you're averse to something, it means you don't like it.
But if you're not averse, then it just means you don't care.
Like, I'm not averse to any flowers.
I'm okay with flowers.
And unfortunately, dear listener, if you say that I don't like flowers, I hate flowers.
The examiner will keep on going with questions about flowers.
So here you need a strategy.
Either you say why you hate flowers or you imagine that sometimes you actually do like certain flowers.
Speaking of certain flowers, I mentioned some.
Oh yes, you said something like thistle flowers.
Thistle.
Thistle.
You should google thistle.
Now, dear listener, it's spelled like T-H-I-S-T-L-E.
Thistle, which is a very interesting flower characterized by leaves with sharp prickles.
So it's kind of like a rose has these sharp thingies.
So a thistle also is quite sharp.
And a thistle is, what, a typical Scottish flower.
Sharp and pink.
He also talked about Heather.
No, no, no.
You should say something about Scottish flowers and this being a Scottish thing.
I have nothing to say apart from it's a Scottish flower.
That's all.
A thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland.
Oh my god.
Okay, well, floral emblem actually might be quite important because that's a C2 level word.
It's a floral emblem.
Floral like flowers.
A flower is a noun.
Floral is an adjective.
So, for example, we can say like floral arrangements.
Yeah, can we say that?
Probably.
Hmm.
Why?
Tell us.
You know, like when you want a bouquet of flowers, but you want some, gosh, what do you call it?
Arrangements.
Well, kind of a bouquet, but a very nice bouquet.
Floral arrangement.
Yeah yeah, yeah and um, you can go to a special shop, and rory mentioned this shop.
Uh, the florist florist.
You go to the florists, a shop with flowers, basically.
So, a florist, you go to the florist and you can order fresh flower arrangements actually flower arrangements also, or floral arrangements.
Yeah, How to arrange flowers.
There we go.
You see?
So you kind of arrange your flowers and ta-da!
You have your floral arrangement.
Again, Google.
Dear listener, please Google to look at the pictures.
Rory, could you tell us another flower that you've mentioned in connection to Scotland?
We talked about heather.
Yeah, heather.
It's a plant in Scotland.
It grows in the highlands, which are rugged and isolated.
Yeah, it's very nice, actually.
It's pinky.
Small, close leaves, some spikes.
Very nice.
Google it.
Heather.
Right, dear listener, if you have some other flowers which are important in your country...
You can talk about them, but make sure that you Google and you know some names of the flowers.
Don't say just roses or I say something like pansies.
Okay.
Pansy.
You should Google it.
P-A-N-S-Y.
Pansies.
Beautiful flowers.
Hopefully, they grow in your country.
Also, you can talk about daylilies.
Daylily.
Do you have any daylilies in Scotland?
I don't know what that is.
Rovi, you should Google it.
Come on.
Just go to Google Images and type in day lily.
Day like day and lily like L-I-L-Y.
Lily.
Lilies.
Lilies.
I will.
So, it's good for you to say something else rather than roses and, I don't know, daffodils.
So, pansies and daylilies.
Why not?
Where do you go to buy flowers?
You go to the florists, right?
And we can give flowers.
We don't present flowers.
We give flowers on different occasions.
And Rory has used this word on different occasions.
Occasions like events, right times when things happen.
Yes, for example, we can give flowers on valentine's day or on mother's day.
On weddings also, we usually give flowers on bridal showers And baby showers.
Could you comment on these ones?
On these occasions?
Well, what's bridal shower?
It's the celebration before a wedding, right?
Baby shower.
Not a shower with babies.
It's when your baby is born and you want to celebrate.
Yeah, for example, like I have a newborn baby and I'm inviting everybody to give me flowers and gifts and I throw a baby shower, just like a baby party, to celebrate my newborn.
Okay, listen, I don't have any babies yet.
And you can give a bouquet of flowers, right?
And we've talked about flower arrangements.
Arrangements.
How to arrange my flowers?
Rory, do you love to decorate your house with fresh flowers?
No, it's a lot of work and I don't have the time.
But you're supposed to have a garden.
You go to your garden, you pick these flowers and you decorate your home with fresh flowers.
What?
No, you don't do that.
Okay.
No.
No, dear listener, Roy is not a flower person.
You can say, I prefer something more practical over what's... How do you pronounce this word?
Aesthetic.
And aesthetic is just something that looks good.
And beautiful.
And we talk about flowers, and we know that flowers... beautify ourselves and our homes.
Women wear flowers as accessories to beautify themselves.
Men also could wear fresh flowers.
So, flowers are... Say it again.
Are...
Aesthetic.
Right.
You can say, I prefer something more practical over what's aesthetic.
You can talk about your national flower.
Also, you can talk about romantic flowers.
Roses are seen as romantic.
A nice structure.
Roses are seen as romantic.
Is it passive voice?
It is voice, which is passive.
Excellent.
Then the question, have you ever planted any flowers?
So, present perfect is them.
I've never planted any flowers.
Or, yeah, I've planted some flowers, but they died a long time ago.
End of the story.
You've used the words, we had potted plants.
Potted plants.
What are they?
Plants that are in pots.
Genius.
Yeah, we've talked about plants before and we talk about these pots. that plants usually live in.
Rory, did you know that there are more than 100 types of flowers which are edible?
Edible meaning you can eat them.
Yum, yum, yum.
Oh, yeah.
So, you see, now, dear listener, you know that you can eat certain types of flowers.
So, imagine in the exam, the examiner tells you, let's talk about flowers.
Do you like flowers?
Oh, yes, I love eating them.
Yum, yum, yum.
That's funny.
Isn't it?
It's not funny?
You're not laughing.
Why are you not laughing?
It's hilarious.
Oh, you're a liar.
Yeah.
Some flowers are put in salads or even cakes, you know, like a sprinkle of colorful flowers or flower petals.
So you can tell if you hate flowers.
You can tell the examiner how you eat flowers when you go to some fancy restaurants and you enjoy having some colorful petals.
Petals are these thingies from flowers on your cake, for example.
Rory, could you tell me, can we eat roses?
Can we eat roses?
Are they edible?
I have no idea.
What do you think?
Is it possible to eat roses?
I don't think so.
Yes, we can.
I think it's possible to eat anything.
So, minus one point for you.
Can we eat lavenders?
Lavender.
I don't know.
What do you think?
It's a quiz.
It's a quiz, Rory.
Flower quiz.
Why is there a quiz?
I don't know the answer.
So, lavender.
What do you think?
Lavender.
No idea.
Yes, we can.
We can eat lavenders.
Dear listener, you should Google it.
Lavender.
It's this smelly flower.
Also, dandelions.
We can eat dandelions.
I've mentioned pansies.
Pansies are usually used for decoration.
They're beautiful.
Take a look and remember this word and use it in your exam when the examiner asks you about flowers.
Oh, yes, I like flowers.
I like my salads with pansies, you know.
Yum, yum, yum.
They're delicious.
Or daylilies. supposed to be used in some food.
Interesting.
Gosh, could we please stop?
Thank you very much for listening.
Hopefully, we've added some flowery vocabulary into your life.
Bye.
Bye.
Rory, do you like flowers?
Well, I'm hardly a flower fanatic, but I don't mind having them around, unless there are many of them in full bloom.
That can affect my allergies sometimes.
What flowers do you like?
I'm not averse to any kinds of flowers, really.
I like them all, to be honest.
Well unless, like I said, they're ones that make me sneeze, but those times and varieties are few and far in between.
When was the last time you gave flowers to somebody?
I remember it like it was yesterday, actually, because it's quite unusual for me.
I bought my other half flowers in his favorite color about halfway through this year.
I don't do it very often, and I can't remember the occasion.
I just thought it would be a nice idea because I was walking past the florist next to the gym.
Do you like sending flowers to others?
I prefer something more practical over what's aesthetic, since I like helping people and so this tends to be easier to manifest by providing helpful things.
But I think flowers are okay from time to time.
What flowers have special meaning in your country?
Well, the thistle is our national flower, although I'm not really sure why.
There's a story behind it somewhere, but it escapes me.
Heather is also associated with the more isolated and rugged parts of Scotland.
Roses are seen as romantic, but I suppose that's more universal than nationalistic.
Have you ever planted any flowers?
Oh God, not for a very long time.
I think we had potted plants that we grew and planted in the Boy Scouts, but that would have been over two decades ago.
I've definitely not planted anything since then.
