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 started this super podcast because we want you to use high-level words and super gorgeous grammar in your IELTS speaking and in your English life.
Rory, we are recording in this nice new studio.
I know, it's amazing.
It's a great change in scenery for us.
Scenery.
Hmm.
If my life is a scenery, you are the greenery.
Oh my God.
Can we talk about scenery and forget that joke happened?
Yes, dear listener, in Speaking Part 1, they can ask you questions about scenery.
Rory, are there many places in your hometown with beautiful scenery?
Yes, and I recommend people check them out when they can.
For example, Scotland is, I don't know, littered with castles.
There's one less than two kilometres from my home there, for example.
And then there are the mountain ranges, lochs – that's our word for lake – and different kinds of coastal scenery to enjoy.
Even near my home there's a burn which is like a small river and you can walk by that if you're careful with the gorse bushes.
It's like tamed nature pervades the place.
I love it.
When you travel, do you stay in hotels with good views?
Not really, since I prefer to get out and about.
But it's not usually a problem, because I'm hardly ever in my room, when I'm travelling at least, and there are always sights to see close by, so it's not something I worry about too much.
Do you enjoy visiting places with beautiful views?
For me, it's always more about who I'm with rather than where I am or what I see.
But I don't think I've been anywhere really ugly.
Even the more industrial areas of Russia or Scotland have something about them that makes them an interesting sight to behold.
Although...
There's a beautiful view if anyone's been to Romania from the People's Palace and that looks out over the city and that is absolutely spectacular.
And I would definitely recommend people who enjoy visiting those kinds of places go there.
Would you like to live in a house with beautiful scenery around it?
Oh, I think that's pretty much the law in Scotland.
Even the industrial states, for all the problems that are associated with them, are quite pleasant to look at.
I'd like to live in a town called Arbroath back home.
It's near the sea and there are some good cliffs to look at from the town, and then you can look out at the water from them too.
I think that's quite beautiful.
Why do people like taking pictures of the scenery?
Why do people like taking pictures of anything?
It's because they like what they're looking at and they want to have this memory of whatever it is they're seeing.
So why not?
It's always nice to have a memento.
I think there's an expression.
It's like whenever you go somewhere... take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.
And I think that's quite a good motto for whenever you're travelling anywhere.
What about you?
Do you enjoy taking photos of the scenery?
Sometimes.
That's not something I usually set out to do.
I just take pictures when the urge takes me, really.
Or whenever I'm told to by our producer, who is distance managing our podcast today and telling us to take pictures of whatever it is we're doing.
So we should probably take one now.
Yay!
Hold on a second.
Yeah, we are recording this in a studio and then our producer, Vanya, is somewhere out there.
But he's texting us like, oh, take a picture.
Is everything fine?
Are you organized?
Do you do this? to do that.
Are you organised?
No, we're late.
They're absolutely horrendous.
We're recording an episode and Rory is taking selfies.
I'm taking professional... Professional visuals.
Oh, that's not very professional, is it?
God, I look so haggard and sad.
Anyway, let's move on, shall we?
What are we talking about?
Rory, thank you so much for your answers.
Hopefully they were picture perfect.
Whoa!
Yay!
I finally did a good pun.
I finally made a good pun.
Well done, well done.
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Right, Rory, so scenery.
What does it mean, scenery?
It's such a strange word.
Scenery is the things that you can see, usually in the background.
Yeah, it's usually about nature, beautiful nature, beautiful views.
And we can paraphrase scenery like beautiful views, beautiful nature.
Scenery is or scenery are?
Scenery is because it's uncountable.
Can you say sceneries?
You probably could, but it's not a very common thing to say usually scenery yeah, like you could.
Oh, it would be like really formal, like comparing the sceneries in x, y and z, but that would be really complicated.
So just say scenery people, Yeah.
Can you say I stayed in a hotel with a beautiful scenery?
Do we need an article?
No, just with beautiful scenery.
Yeah.
So a room with beautiful scenery and the scenery is nice.
We use adjectives.
We can say the scenery is beautiful breathtaking, takes your breath away, take my breath away.
That's a.
That's a song from yeah, from top gun.
Right, i have no idea, i think it's from top gun.
Yeah, how does it go?
Come on, i don't know, i just remember like it's really bad, Bravo.
Bravo, Rory.
Wow.
Standing ovation.
Rory has used spectacular about the scenery.
And it is.
Spectacular just means it's extremely cool.
It's like a spectacle.
It's like, wow.
Something that takes your breath away.
Breathtaking scenery.
Yes, spectacular.
You can also say coastal scenery.
Yes.
So scenery that's connected to the coast, rural scenery in the countryside.
Rural.
Urban scenery.
Although you don't really have that because what urban scenery is there?
Buildings.
City scenery.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, but like the countryside, so rural scenery.
And you guys, if you want a tongue twister, you can say rural Rory.
Rural Rory, rural Rory.
Yeah, just to warm up, you know, before your exam.
For pronunciation.
For pronunciation.
We can also say scenic views, which is a nice one.
You could say a place is scenic as well, which just means it looks nice.
Yeah, beautiful with beautiful views.
Scenic.
S-C-E-N-I-C.
Scenic views.
I've mentioned greenery.
So I said like, oh, Rory, if my life is a scenery.
And actually I said a scenery.
Yes, but we are cool, so we can make mistakes and still get a band 9 score.
That's how this works.
You should look in the criteria for the exam and it says like if you're cool, then you get an automatic band 9 score, which is why I'll never get a band 9.
Yeah, Rory gets a 10 score.
I get an 8.5.
So greenery.
Greenery, pretty much parks, trees, forests, everything is green.
And we can mention lakes and lochs.
Rory, you said lochs?
Yes.
Because in Scotland, lakes are lochs.
And Loch Ness Monster.
Have you ever seen a Loch Ness Monster?
Loch Ness Monster.
Loch Ness?
Yeah.
I've been calling it that the whole time.
No, I don't know.
I'm sorry.
Loch Ness.
Okay, Loch Ness.
Yes.
Where were we?
You were telling me more about my culture.
Yes, so in Scotland they have lakes, parks, and Rory said mountain ranges.
Yes, and we talked about this before.
I should have said mountain ranges before in a previous podcast, and I'm saying it now in context.
You're welcome.
A mountain range is just a series of...
Sorry.
It's like, be condescending first and then explain.
Yeah, so a mountain range is like a collection of mountains together.
They are all part of the same...
Scenery.
Yes.
We can take in scenery, admire beautiful scenery.
We can look at spectacular scenery.
Again, it depends on your country.
If you have mountain ranges lakes ponds, a pond is not kind of a lake, but a pond somewhere in between a lake and a puddle, a pond.
We've got ponds near where we live in a place called the Rock Gardens, which is quite nice.
Look up, honestly, look up Broughty Ferry Rock Gardens if you can, when you get the time.
It's a really nice part of my hometown.
And it will give you ideas for describing beautiful scenery.
Sorry, I've just interrupted you, Maria.
You were going to say something.
No, it's okay, go ahead.
Talk about yourself, please.
Yeah, yeah, shoot.
You've said something like, it's like tamed nature pervades the place.
God, what does it all mean?
So let's take this apart tamed nature.
Usually nature is quite wild, but if you can tame nature, it means like you have, you've fenced it off, it's in fields, it's very contained, it's calm, it's pacified, which means it's peaceful.
You've made it peaceful Pervades.
Pervades just means it's in every part of something.
So, for example...
Outside the buildings in Moscow, the cold pervades the air.
It fills every part of it.
It's very poetic, isn't it?
And if you want to use an adjective to describe it, you could say it's pervasive.
Not persuasive, pervasive, to mean something is everywhere.
It's usually quite a negative thing, but, you know, you can also use it in a positive way.
Rory the Shakespeare.
Yeah, and also, Rory, you've used another one which is quite poetic.
An interesting sight to behold.
Behold is just like to see something.
But it's not just seeing with your eyes.
It's like you experience everything.
You behold something.
An interesting sight to behold.
A beautiful sight to behold.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
So, again, the beholder isn't just the person who sees, it's the person with the idea.
Ha!
For a band's ninth score.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is a good one.
The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, right?
But that's a cliche.
Well, not cliche.
It's an idiomatic.
It's a commonly used idiomatic expression.
But, you know, use the word behold for sure.
When we talk about beautiful scenery, you can say that I'm out and about or get out and about.
I do get out and about, which just means you get out of your hotel room and you go places rather than enjoying the scenery from the hotel room.
Who does that?
I do that.
You go to a hotel.
You go on holiday to a hotel to just sit in the hotel.
Sometimes.
Really?
Isn't that boring?
Well, if I'm tired, you know, and half a day, and if you have a nice hotel with a view.
And there's a mini bar.
There's a mini bar and this beautiful king size, super king size, queen size bed.
And you have a nice view over the sea or over the mountains.
Rory, what about this one?
Set out to do something.
Yes.
So if you set out to do something, it's like it's your primary objective and you're focused on completing that particular task.
So...
For example, I set out from my house today to come to this podcast recording and I was 15 minutes late because I'm just too awesome to be on time for anything.
25, 25 minutes late.
Yeah, okay, 25 minutes late, but still.
Rory takes pictures when the urge takes him.
The urge.
So what is it that takes you, Rory?
The urge is something.
An urge is just like a desire to do something, and then the urge takes you is just like when you have an urge, but of course you don't want to say I have or I have a want to do something.
When the urge takes me, I do this thing.
Yeah, and Rory used this expression to talk about pictures, taking photos.
And please, dear listener, remember to enjoy the views, not selfies.
Or both.
I really enjoyed this one.
You said that it's pretty much the law in Scotland to have beautiful scenery around your house.
Yeah.
So everything in Scotland is like cozy, beautiful.
It is.
Although possibly I'm looking at this with rose tinted glasses because I haven't been there in a year.
Oh man.
But it'll be good to be back.
It's a great country.
Yeah, and we have this expression, a change of scenery, or we can say a change of scene.
So you can go to Scotland for a change of scenery.
Thank you very much for listening.
If you enjoy what we are doing, could you please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts?
It will really help us to move forward.
And you can use your scenic vocabulary in your exam to paint a picture for your examiner in the exam.
With the scenic vocabulary we just talked about.
Bye.
Bye.
Roy, are there many places in your hometown with beautiful scenery?
Yes, and I recommend people check them out when they can.
For example, Scotland is, I don't know, littered with castles.
There's one less than two kilometres from my home there, for example.
And then there are the mountain ranges, lochs that's our word for lake and different kinds of coastal scenery to enjoy.
Even near my home, there's a burn, which is like a small river.
And you can walk by that if you're careful with the gorse bushes.
It's like tamed nature pervades the place.
I love it.
When you travel, do you stay in hotels with good views?
Not really, since I prefer to get out and about.
But it's not usually a problem, because I'm hardly ever in my room, when I'm travelling at least, and there are always sights to see close by, so it's not something I worry about too much.
Do you enjoy visiting places with beautiful views?
For me, it's always more about who I'm with rather than where I am or what I see.
But I don't think I've been anywhere really ugly.
Even the more industrial areas of Russia or Scotland have something about them that makes them an interesting sight to behold.
Although there's a beautiful view if anyone's been to Romania from the People's Palace and that looks out over the city and that is absolutely spectacular.
And I would definitely recommend people who enjoy visiting those kinds of places go there.
Would you like to live in a house with beautiful scenery around it?
Oh, I think that's pretty much the law in Scotland.
Even the industrial states, for all the problems that are associated with them, are quite pleasant to look at.
I'd like to live in a town called Arbroath back home.
It's near the sea and there are some good cliffs to look at well from the town, and then you can look out at the water from them too.
I think that's quite beautiful.
Why do people like taking pictures of the scenery?
Why do people like taking pictures of anything?
It's because they like what they're looking at and they want to have this memory of whatever it is they're seeing.
So why not?
It's always nice to have a memento.
I think there's an expression.
It's like whenever you go somewhere... take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.
And I think that's quite a good motto for whenever you're travelling anywhere.
What about you?
Do you enjoy taking photos of the scenery?
Sometimes.
That's not something I usually set out to do.
I just take pictures when the urge takes me, really.
