Hi everyone, it's Rory with a quick message to say my schedule for classes has re -opened.
So if you need help to prepare for your exams or just want to improve your general English, check out successwithiels .com .com forward slash Rory or click the link in the description.
See you soon! Hello lovely, I'm Maria and my name is Rory and we're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast today is to help 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 your high IELTS score.
Your band 9th score!
Rory are you alright?
Is everything okay?
Yeah, I'm fine, just the traffic was awful today.
Traffic on the roads?
Yes. What a coincidence!
Because we're gonna talk about roads today!
Hey, yo, it's roads, you know?
Traffic cars. This is how the traffic goes.
You know this? Yes, what a nice topic to talk about.
And Rory, what was the song that you were singing?
The Road to Hell! This is the road to hell.
I don't know. I don't even know what it's about, to be honest with you.
I've never heard the full version.
Are the roads in the area where you live busy?
Well, not in the immediate area, I wouldn't say so.
It's quite a narrow set of roads, or at least a narrow set of streets.
So not many cars can use them at any one time, anyway.
Even the main roads up and down the roads.
My house are usually reasonably clear.
How do people cross the roads in the city where you live?
Oh wow, well in as many ways as there are people, frankly.
Usually we have traffic lights that can be operated by pedestrians.
But sometimes people just cross the road where they please.
And you can only hope they do that after looking both ways.
Like heaven's, the traffic isn't that bad, otherwise there could be a lot of accidents.
What's the condition of the roads in your city?
It's not that bad where I live now.
I think the worst things are people parking on pavements or the occasional pothole.
But I live near the centre, so that's to be expected.
Further afield it's a different story.
There are numerous potholes and cracks in the asphalt, despite the endless roadworks.
And some roads are so narrow that only one car can move on them at any one time.
Do you think the roads in your city need improvement?
I wouldn't say it's so bad in the city proper.
But the infrastructure in the suburbs and the outskirts could definitely use some work.
It's so obvious they haven't been built to last and repair efforts seem so poorly planned out.
It's ridiculous. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free.
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See you soon. Eeeey, roads, dear listener.
And traffic. We say that the roads are busy.
You know, you are busy with work and also the roads are busy with their work.
Which is traffic. They are packed.
The roads are packed, they are busy.
This means that there are a lot of cars.
I usually have heavy traffic.
Or there is heavy traffic on the road.
We have the main road and little streets, like narrow streets.
The main road is the most important road.
Usually it's the biggest, the widest road.
So you can say that the main road is very busy all the time or not so busy.
Or you can say that the main roads are usually reasonably clear.
Rory lives in a city in Scotland.
But if you live in a big place, like the capital of your country, you can say that the roads are super busy every day and we have very heavy traffic.
We have a lot of traffic jams and the traffic is really intense.
What else can we say?
What other synonyms do we have for the roads are busy, heavy traffic?
Oh, they are jammed, they are gridlocked.
There are a lot of traffic jams.
The roads are packed, the roads are gridlocked.
So I say that the roads are gridlocked, right?
Or the city is gridlocked?
Well, it could be both really.
The fact is that nothing is moving.
Gridlock – there is a situation where roads in your town become blocked.
So everything becomes so blocked by cars that it is impossible for any traffic to move.
People cross the road.
How do they usually do it?
If there are traffic lights.
Yes. And pedestrians – so people who cross the road – are called pedestrians.
And pedestrians just push the button and traffic lights regulate this movement.
And there are buttons, right?
But you may not have buttons.
But very often in some places we have.
If you are about to cross the road and then you push a button and then… And then off you go – green light.
And what do you call this crossing?
Is it like a zebra crossing?
Is it… crossing? Oh god, they all have different names.
You have pelican crossings and all kinds of things like that.
I would just call them traffic lights that can be operated by pedestrians.
I used to know the differences, but now it's lost on me.
The most common crossing is zebra crossing.
Or you can call it pedestrian crossing, where you have a road and these white lines, like zebra.
Okay? So zebra crossing, pedestrian crossing, where you cross the road.
And what do you call this when it's not on the road but you have to go down to cross the road?
It could be an underpass, I suppose.
Oh yeah, underground passage.
Yeah, but you know, it's funny, we don't really have those in this country so much.
I've only ever seen one in my local area.
And it goes underneath the railway lines.
Okay, so an underpass, do you listen?
A road or path that goes under something, such as a busy road.
Allowing vehicles or people to go from one side to the other.
So yeah, an underpass is another way to cross the road when you go down.
So there are underpasses and there are zebra crossings.
Okay? Yeah, but what about London?
London is full of underpasses, no?
Is it? I don't know.
It's got underground stations for sure.
Yeah, underground stations, yeah, like the tube.
But how do people cross the road?
I think they just use the normal ways that we were talking about, really.
Zebra crossing. Yeah.
Okay, okay. Yeah, and there are also underpasses, so you go underground.
But what if there is a kind of bridge above the road and you cross it, you go up and there's a bridge and you cross the road and you go down, especially if it's a highway.
What do you call it?
Oh, isn't that also an underpass?
No, but under you go down, but here you go up and it's kind of a bridge.
Oh, an overpass. No, actually like an overpass or a flyover is a bridge that carries a road or railway.
Oh, flyover, oh, yeah.
But it's not for people, no?
Yeah, so for people.
I couldn't tell you.
Is it obvious that I can't drive?
You should. You have driver license, what you're talking about.
I know, but other people drive me.
So you should just stick to a zebra crossing and underpasses, all right?
You say pedestrians usually use zebra crossings or underpasses.
Or in my area, people cross the road whenever they want.
Or in my country, people cross the road wherever they want.
So in any place they want, they just go there, you know?
There are no rules.
Well, there are, but I don't think they're enforced, really.
No, you can be fined if you cross the street in the wrong place.
Oh, no, I was meaning in my country.
Fine like you pay a fine.
Yeah. You pay some sum of money, they can arrest you for this.
Roads in your city might be in poor condition, which means you can say roads in my city are dilapidated.
Dilapidated means in poor condition, Delishina.
Falling to pieces. And here you can talk about pavements.
Pavements, you know, this thing.
We have a road, we have pavements for pedestrians.
And there might be some potholes on the roads.
What are these, like a pothole?
It's just a place where the material has come loose or has worn away over time.
So it creates an uneven surface in the road and can damage wheels or they make travelling uncomfortable.
Yeah, so a hole in a road surface that results from gradual damage caused by traffic.
So pretty much if you see a horrible hole or something dreadful on the road with the material that the road is made of, you can say that it's a pothole.
So in my city some roads are in poor condition, some roads are dilapidated, there are many potholes.
There are numerous potholes, there are many potholes.
Or there is the occasional pothole.
There are cracks in the asphalt.
Asphalt? I think that's just the material the road is made from, to be honest.
Yeah, well if it's not of good quality you can say that there are cracks in the asphalt.
We have lots of roadwork or we don't have much roadwork.
People renew the roads or they don't, they improve the roads or they don't.
Or they look like they are trying to improve the roads but they don't.
Some roads are very narrow with lots of potholes for example.
Or some roads do need improvement.
They are very dilapidated or for example in the center the roads are of good quality, but in the suburbs far away from the center many roads are dilapidated.
So in poor condition.
Many roads in my city need improvement.
Like their condition is very bad, they are dilapidated, especially in the suburbs.
So not in the center but far away from the center, in the suburbs or on the outskirts.
Also very far from the center.
And you can say that the roads haven't been built to last.
So they built the roads for one year and then the roads get destroyed.
Or in my country they are just constantly falling to pieces, they don't even last the year.
Yeah, roads are constantly falling to pieces, do you listen?
Also you can say that roads in my city are poorly planned out.
And also the roads could be made from bad materials, so the roads haven't been built to last.
The roads don't usually last a year and then they have to renew them.
Yeah, but in general, Rory, in Scotland, when you go from your town to another town, are the roads good?
They're fine. It's just that it could always be better, I think.
And of course you have to remember there are some places in the world that do not have roads, but I just feel like whenever they're trying to repair the roads it's always so disorganized and inconvenient.
But maybe this is not just true of my country, maybe that's true everywhere.
Yeah, but you don't have severe colds, for example, in winter, and you don't have super hot weather that could affect the road quality.
As far as I'm aware, not any more than it has in previous times, at least not yet.
Thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
Hopefully you have good roads, okay?
And if you don't, we've put you on the road to good vocabulary.
Just saying, just saying.
Rory, could you sing this song again?
What was it like? I don't know, all I remember is part of it is like, this is the road to hell.
But I don't know the rest of the lyrics at all.
We'll get back to you in our next episode, okay?
Bye. Bye. Are the roads in the area where you live busy?
Well, not in the immediate area, I wouldn't say so.
It's quite a narrow set of roads, or at least a narrow set of streets.
So not many cars can use them at any one time, anyway.
Even the main roads up and down the road, my house are usually reasonably clear.
How do people cross the road in the city where you live?
Oh, wow. Well, in as many ways as there are people, frankly.
Usually we have traffic lights that can be operated by pedestrians.
But sometimes people just cross the road where they please.
And you can only hope they do that after looking both ways.
I think heaven's the traffic isn't that bad, otherwise there could be a lot of accidents.
What's the condition of the roads in your city?
It's not that bad where I live now.
I think the worst things are people parking on pavements or the occasional pothole.
But I live near the centre, so that's to be expected.
Further afield it's a different story.
There are numerous potholes and cracks in the asphalt despite the endless roadworks.
And some roads are so narrow that only one car can move on them at any one time.
Do you think the roads in your city need improvement?
I wouldn't say it's so bad in the city proper.
But the infrastructure in the suburbs and the outskirts could definitely use some work.
It's so obvious they haven't been built to last and repair efforts seem so poorly planned out.
It's ridiculous.
