Hello, everybody.
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 started this podcast to give you a look at how a native super English speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
We also go over the vocabulary and grammar for high score, band 9 score.
Rory is here to talk about... Oh, no, no, no, Rory, could you crack a joke?
No.
Yes, okay.
Well, I've had this penciled in on my diary for quite some time.
Yes.
Today we're going to talk about pens and pencils, dear listeners, because in IELTS Speaking Questions 2020, they can ask you questions about pens and pencils.
Rory, do you usually use a pen or a pencil?
I like using pens.
It's smoother and less messy than a pencil, especially if I'm using gel pens or rollerballs.
Do you prefer to use a pen or a pencil for writing?
I'm almost always a pen for the reasons that I mentioned before.
I'll sometimes use a pencil if I have like a fear of making mistakes, and then that gives me an excuse to rub things out.
But usually it's pens.
Rory, when was the last time you bought a pen or a pencil?
I can't remember the exact time actually.
It was sometime last year and I remember it.
Well, I remember doing it, not when, because it was online and it was these thin tip gel pens.
They were from China and I had to order them specifically because I found one of them a few years ago and it ran out of ink.
So I went to order some new ones.
So Rory is wearing French jeans, Italian t-shirts, and Chinese pens, right?
Interesting.
The only thing British about me is my voice.
Okay, moving on.
How often do you buy pens and pencils?
Not too often, actually.
I'm quite good at looking after them.
So like I say, the last time I went out and bought one was a year ago.
Did you like to write with a pen or pencil when you were a child?
Um, yeah, actually, I loved it.
You could almost say that writing is in my blood, because my mum and dad are both journalists and I'm an author.
So I really like to write when I was younger and I like doing it now.
Being an author, do you use some special pen?
Your favorite pen?
Yeah, I always have a favorite pen.
I think a lot of people who write are like this.
There's always one pen that you're attached to for quite some time.
How would you feel if someone gave you a pen or a pencil as a gift?
I think it depends.
If I like the kind of pen or pencil that they bought for me, then I would be extremely happy.
But if I don't like it so much, then I would still pretend to be happy, of course, but maybe I would put it away in a file somewhere and not use it, unless I was really desperate.
Would you pay a lot for a pen or pencil?
I think it depends on how much is a lot.
I wouldn't pay more than 20 pounds or I think it's about 2000 rubles for a box of pens.
I certainly wouldn't pay that amount for a single pen.
I think maybe ten pounds or a thousand rubles is the maximum for a single pen or a box of pens.
Anything more than that is just excessive.
So you wouldn't use some fancy Parker pen?
No, I don't believe in that.
I think it's a con, because the pen that I use right now, which costs, oh I don't know, I think it was 50 rubles it writes just as well and it lasts forever.
So I don't see a problem with using it.
What about fountain pens with ink?
I think.
Well, it's like I said before when we were talking about pencils.
I think pencils are quite messy and I find fountain pens quite messy as well.
That's just for me.
I think other people can use them quite effectively, but I can't.
Rory, thank you very much for your answers.
Thank you, Rory.
Shall we look at the words you've just used?
Yeah, why not?
So when we talk about pens or pencils, well, specifically pens, we can say that you use gel pens.
Yes.
Gel?
Like a hair gel?
No, I think it's a special kind of ink that means it dries faster.
So with regular ink it takes a long time to dry and sometimes you can accidentally move it on the paper and it makes a mess.
But with gel pens, I think it's supposed to be smoother and dry faster.
So this helps.
Smoother?
What do you mean by smoother?
Smooth.
It comes out of the pen more smoothly, really.
So if you're using a pen with regular ink, sometimes you can find like little drops of ink coming off or building up in the pen.
But with a gel pen that doesn't happen and it just makes the writing look nicer and cleaner.
You can also write with a fountain pen You can.
Well, you do.
I don't.
Yes.
I have like a German fountain pen.
Or you can use a rollerball.
Exactly.
Rollerball, which has this ball.
It does, yeah.
It's like in the very top of the pen, you have the tip and then inside that there's a ball.
And as the ink comes out of the pen and your pen moves on the paper, the ball will move around and that puts the ink on the paper quite nicely.
Dear listeners, are you following this?
If not, then you just Google a fountain pen like a fountain you know a fountain with water or a rollerball pen or a gel pen like G-E-L-L.
And you'll see some nice diagrams for your IELTS writing as well, maybe.
Yeah, nice pens.
You said that you bought a thin tip pen online?
Yes.
Yeah, tip.
What is a tip?
Tip is another word for the top of the pen.
So a pen can have a broad tip or a thin tip.
I find it easier to write with a thin tip because my hands are smaller and my fingers are quite narrow.
So it makes it easier for me to hold.
So, dear listeners, could you please research what kind of pen you use and make sure that you have a precise name for it, okay?
You've used a nice phrasal verb, rub it out.
Yes.
Could you give us a sentence?
If I make a mistake when I write with a pencil, I use a rubber to rub it out.
Excellent.
Yeah.
Or you can have, for example, a fear, a fear of making a mistake.
Yes.
Right.
When you talk about your favorite pen, you said you are attached. to it.
What does it mean to be attached to something?
Well, you can be physically attached to something, so it's almost like it's part of you.
But in another way, to be attached to something is to To find something that's your favorite thing.
And so you don't want to give it to anyone else.
You don't really want to share it so much.
You're emotionally attached.
Yeah.
I'm emotionally attached to my Parker pen.
I'm quite emotionally attached to my biro.
Right.
When we spoke about gifts and the question was like, how would you feel if someone gave you a pen?
So the question already has the second conditional.
So you gave an answer.
If I liked this pen.
Mm-hmm.
I'd be very happy.
Yeah, but if I didn't like it, then I would pretend to be happy and then hide the pen.
Yeah, like pretend to be happy or hide the pen or put it away, which is another phrasal verb.
What else can you put away?
Put away pens, put away paper.
So anything that you want to tidy or anything that you want to remove from your site, you put away.
Yeah, like you want to forget about these things, like put them away.
We can say extremely happy.
What else can you use in the meaning of I was extremely happy or I'd be extremely happy?
Oh, ecstatic, I think.
That's quite a good one.
I'd be ecstatic, like ecstasy.
Yeah.
Can you say I'd be over the moon?
You can say that.
I think it's not so common for native speakers to say, but it's still quite a good expression.
But it's an idiom.
We want idioms.
It is an idiom, so use it.
I don't think anyone will be too upset if you do this.
Yeah, but if I say, like, I'd be over the moon, should I, like, mean it?
Should I use some special intonation?
Like, I'd be over the moon.
Or I can, like, say, like, I'd be over the moon.
I think it depends on the situation you're in.
If you're talking about yourself being over the moon, then yeah, you want to use the special, like higher intonation.
But if you're talking about someone else, just to describe them, you could just say oh, she's over the moon, that's okay.
Yeah, over the moon, or ecstatic, super happy.
Dear listeners, now you can listen to Rory's answers again, and this time notice all the good grammar and vocabulary he's used for high score.
Rory, do you usually use a pen or a pencil?
I like using pens.
It's smoother and less messy than a pencil, especially if I'm using gel pens or rollerballs.
Do you prefer to use a pen or a pencil for writing?
Almost always a pen for the reasons that I mentioned before.
I'll sometimes use a pencil if I have like a fear of making mistakes, and then that gives me an excuse to rub things out.
But usually it's pens.
Rory, when was the last time you bought a pen or a pencil?
I can't remember the exact time, actually.
It was sometime last year and I remember it...
Well, I remember doing it, not when, because it was online and it was these thin tip gel pens.
They were from China and I had to order them specifically because I found one of them a few years ago and it ran out of ink.
So I went to order some new ones.
So, Rory is wearing French jeans, Italian t-shirts and Chinese pens.
Right?
Interesting.
The only thing British about me is my voice.
Okay.
Moving on.
How often do you buy pens and pencils?
Not too often, actually.
I'm quite good at looking after them.
So like I say, the last time I went out and bought one was a year ago.
Did you like to write with a pen or pencil when you were a child?
Yeah, actually, I loved it.
You could almost say that writing is in my blood, because my mum and dad are both journalists and I'm an author.
So I really like to write when I was younger and I like doing it now.
Being an author, do you use some special pen?
Your favorite pen?
Yeah, I always have a favorite pen.
I think a lot of people who write are like this.
There's always one pen that you're attached to for quite some time.
How would you feel if someone gave you a pen or a pencil as a gift?
I think it depends.
If I like the kind of pen or pencil that they bought for me, then I would be extremely happy.
But if I don't like it so much, then I would still pretend to be happy, of course, but maybe I would put it away in a file somewhere and not use it, unless I was really desperate.
Would you pay a lot for a pen or pencil?
I think it depends on how much is a lot.
I wouldn't pay more than 20 pounds or I think it's about 2000 rubles for a box of pens.
I certainly wouldn't pay that amount for a single pen.
I think maybe £10 or 1000 rubles is the maximum for a single pen or a box of pens.
Anything more than that is just excessive.
So you wouldn't use some fancy Parker pen?
No, I don't believe in that.
I think it's a con, because the pen that I use right now which costs?
Oh, I don't know, I think it was 50 rubles.
It writes just as well and it lasts forever.
So I don't see a problem with using it.
What about fountain pens with ink?
I think.
Well, it's like I said before when we were talking about pencils.
I think pencils are quite messy and I find fountain pens quite messy as well.
That's just for me.
I think other people can use them quite effectively, but I can't.
Thank you very much for listening.
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We really appreciate it.
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So have great pens and pencils in your life.
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
And have a good day.
Bye.
