Hello, Sunshine.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
And we're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, a podcast that aims to help improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We started this podcast to give you happiness, joy, super vocabulary and grammar for high school.
Or a bad nine score.
Maria, are you snacking during the recording?
So are I. Why?
Are you snacking during the recording?
Um, yeah.
Why?
Why?
It's an interesting coincidence because today, guess what we're going to talk about?
Snacks?
Yes.
Let's talk about snacks.
Let's chew and swallow our food first.
No, no, no, there's no time for this.
So, snacks.
Snacks is the recent super fresh IELTS speaking topic, part one.
Oh, so good, this popcorn.
Dear listener, so this episode is really visual because I'm demonstrating different snacks.
Obviously, we're talking about snacks, right?
And I'm demonstrating different facial expressions.
Rory is reacting.
So go to our YouTube channel.
The link is in the description to watch the episode.
You can listen to it now, but then go and watch.
And your task is to choose three snacks that are going to be your favorite.
Even if you never eat them, we need to impress your examiner.
You need to impress your IELTS speaking examiner with vocabulary for snacks.
And don't worry if you can't, we've got some good grammar to help you along the way as well.
So, Rory, are you ready for snacks?
Yes.
Are you hungry?
We have a few treats in store for you.
Let's talk about snacks.
And we hope that you are hungry.
For knowledge.
What kinds of snacks do you like to eat?
Well, I try and aim for the healthier ones, like protein bars or low sugar treats, but it's not always possible, is it?
When do you usually have snacks?
Well, ideally never after dinner.
And if I'm going to have them, it'll be mid-morning or mid-afternoon.
They're my peak hours, usually.
What kind of snacks do children in your country like to eat?
Well, too many if you ask any adult.
They always seem to have something sugary or sweet.
I don't really know the names of them, to be honest with you.
What was the most popular snack when you were young?
I think it would be easier to talk about the ones that we didn't have, to be honest with you.
The ones I remember the most prominently are sort of the bar-like ones, but they were pretty much available in any shape and form you'd care to mention.
MUSIC
Dear listener, this week, on our super premium, Rory is going to describe an experience of online shopping in Speaking Part 2.
And in Speaking Part 3, we're going to discuss shopping, online shopping, and money.
These are the new IELTS Speaking Topics.
And in our writing episodes yes, we do have our writing podcast we are discussing a horizontal bar chart about income spending in a country in two different years.
And we took this task from Cambridge 17 book.
The links are in the description.
Go and check it out.
Shall we talk about the grammar and vocabulary that our viewers and listeners can snack on?
Yes.
Oh, to snack on something.
That's a good one.
Is that a phrasal verb?
I think so, or it's a verb and a proposition.
Do you know where else that you can find phrasal verbs or similar collocations?
You can find them on our pod course, successwithielts.com forward slash podcourses.
Oh, boy.
Okay.
So, dear listener, a snack.
A snack is what, first of all?
A snack is generally defined as any food eaten between meals.
So, it could be something like that or a popcorn.
Even like a drink.
A drink together with something is a snack.
It could be healthy or not healthy.
I don't think it's... Well, I mean, it could be healthy or unhealthy, to be honest with you.
But I guess it depends who you ask whether it's healthy or not.
So a snack, to have a snack, to eat a snack or to snack.
So I like to snack on something or I usually snack on fruit or Rory usually snacks on what?
Ice cream.
No, not ice cream.
It's usually, like I say, it's usually something healthier.
I'm on a bit of a health kick right now.
So it's like either not doing it at all or, when it is, it's like protein bars or something like that.
So Rory usually snacks on protein bars, but my favorite snack, dear listener...
Yes, you might think that it's very strange that I'm just eating a cucumber like this.
But people eat like apples or peaches like this, you know.
Why not a cucumber?
Why not indeed?
It might even be better for you.
Yeah.
So please make sure that you choose healthy snacks.
However, if you don't snack, then there's a couple of things in my answer that might help you.
For example, saying that you try your best to avoid something or try my best to do something.
Those are quite good structures to use in any circumstance.
It could be talking about snacks, or it could be talking about food, doing something else that's quite unhealthy or that requires a lot of effort.
I try my best to avoid unhealthy snacks.
I try my best to avoid hard work.
Good for you.
What does it mean if I say I have snacks when I feel peckish?
Oh, when you feel peckish, it just means that you want to eat something, but you don't want to eat a lot.
You want to eat a little bit.
So if you think about peck, like hens pecking the ground, pecking, like that.
And they don't eat a lot when they're doing that.
They're just taking small bites of things well, or attempting to find something to take a small bite from.
For example, oh, I feel a bit peckish, so I'm going to have a cucumber.
Then, what kinds of snacks do you usually have, even if you don't?
Dear listener, please make sure that you have a list of your favorite snacks.
For example, Rory, you mentioned what?
I just was very general when I was talking.
So I just said protein bars or I used different adjectives to describe the kinds of treats.
So low sugar treats or something that doesn't have lots of sugar in it.
What is a treat?
You didn't say a snack, you said a treat.
Yes, but it's like a reward, something nice that you can eat.
Although a snack is usually something nice that you can eat as well, usually.
Some people eat really healthy and dry and tasteless things like yourself, and that's not so great.
But most people consider it a reward for something or something nice to happen to them.
And treats are usually like cookies or something sweet or chocolate, something which is high in sugar, usually treats.
Oh, I have a treat.
I'll have something like chocolate.
So, for example, dear listener, if you say, oh, I feel a bit peckish, I want to have a treat.
So, I would go for Turkish delight.
So, something like, you know, really sweet and yummy.
Yum, yum, yum.
Some Turkish delight.
Also, what kinds of snacks?
You can say, I prefer savory snacks or sweet snacks.
What other snacks can we have?
Like, for example, savory.
What would be a savory snack?
To be honest with you, most things at bakeries that break up when you pull them apart they're savory.
So they're drier than average.
So things like I'm trying to think of a concrete example crisps crisps, yeah.
Cheese roasted nuts, for example, yeah.
You can say like oh, i prefer some nuts.
What's the best way to describe savory?
It's to do with like not sweet, the drying sensation that you get.
So you can say I prefer sweet snacks or savory snacks, or sweet and savory.
Also, you can say I prefer crunchy snacks.
So, for example, crunchy is something that's crunchy.
It's like crunchy, you see.
So this one is not really crunchy, it's like soft, this choco pie thing.
So it's not really crunchy right, but crunchy like apples, like again crackers.
When do you usually have snacks?
So Rory, you said that never after dinner.
So you have your dinner and then no snacks.
Well, ideally never after dinner.
I mean, actually that's a good adverb to have or to start off with, because you could say anything afterwards, but you're talking about what you would really want to happen.
So ideally never after dinner, although sometimes that's just not possible because...
Maybe dinner wasn't enough or wasn't filling enough in this case.
And then an if structure.
If I'm going to have a snack or if I want to have a snack, it will probably be the mid-morning.
I usually have snacks in the middle of the morning or afternoon.
The mid-morning, the mid-afternoon.
Because they're my peak hours.
Because I'm a primary school teacher now.
So I have to work lots and lots in the middle of the morning and in the middle of the afternoon.
But also, dear listener, you can have a bedtime snack before you go to bed.
Yeah, if you hate yourself.
Well, I can't imagine anything worse than eating before bed.
Do you do this?
Sometimes, yeah.
Yeah, I'll have some cheese or some, for example, something savory or sweet.
What about children, Roy?
What did you say about children?
What?
I had a little bit of fun with that one.
So it's like, really the question is about the specific kinds of snacks that children like to eat in your country.
But instead I took that to mean how much or how often they have them.
So I said too many or too much.
And so that's like a joke.
And then you go into more details about what they have.
But to be honest with you and I'm not I wonder if this is just true in my country or if it's true everywhere.
I think there's no limit to the different kinds of snacks that kids can have.
So you can just say like they come in different shapes and sizes, different forms.
They cater to a variety of tastes.
And actually that's a good use of taste here, because we're talking about snacks and eating, and taste is what people prefer.
So...
It all fits together quite nicely.
And you haven't even given a very specific answer, because really I mean, children enjoy different things, don't they?
Yes, they do.
And usually they seem to enjoy sugary snacks.
So snacks with sugar, high in sugar, sugary snacks.
What about the most popular snack when you were young, Rory?
A long time ago, Rory was young.
So?
So like Mars bars and Snickers bars and things like that.
Again, you don't... Let's be realistic.
How many people remember these kinds of details about their childhood, when they're like ooh, what was I eating?
Other than the fact that I was enjoying it.
Maybe you did have a favorite kind of sweet, but if you didn't, then you could just say like...
It was.
There were bars, bars of chocolate or bar type sweets, you know, and the examiner will get the idea.
And really, like realistically, how many people remember these specific products from?
Well, in my case, it was 20 years ago.
So what we were eating back then will be different tonight.
You can also say that my snacking behavior is what?
Well, you could make a comparison between now and the past of what my snacking behavior hasn't changed much over the years.
So it's the same thing.
I still eat chocolate bars and I ate chocolate bars back then.
Also make sure that you avoid, you do your best or you try your best to avoid emotional eating and also emotional snacking.
So, snacking out of boredom.
No, don't do it, okay?
This is not a good idea.
Right, Rory, I have kind of a quiz for you.
Not a quiz, but you're gonna now choose your favorite snack.
And, dear listener, write in the comments which snack out of the ones that I'm gonna give you now, would you prefer?
So, which snack would you prefer?
Is this the list that starts with guacamole?
Wait, wait, you are not supposed to read that.
Oh, okay, sorry.
Look at me, Mari.
This is the problem.
Okay.
Right, tell me.
Dear listener, listen, watch, and write in the comments which snack is your favorite.
Rory, you listen to me very attentively, okay?
Okay.
And choose the snack of the day, the snack of the week for you.
So, first of all, bliss balls.
I don't know what that is.
You should Google.
Wait, you just told me to listen to you very attentively, and now you're asking me to pay attention.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right.
Bliss balls.
If you don't know what it means, go to Google and put bliss, like B-L-I-S-S, balls.
So, bliss balls.
All right, that's number one.
Oh, I know what those are.
Right, okay.
I just didn't realize that's what they were called.
Bliss balls.
Then, apple with peanut butter.
Okay, that's the second one.
Popcorn.
Watermelon.
Okay.
Guacamole.
How do you pronounce that?
Guacamole.
Guacamole?
Guacamole is the thing from avocado.
Yeah, it's avocados and I think peppers in it as well.
Hummus.
Hummus.
And the last one, Greek yogurt with fresh berries.
Okay.
And I have to choose these ones that are my favorite?
Yes, one.
So one that you would like to have and your favorite, yeah.
Which one?
Probably the bliss balls, even though I didn't know what those were until I googled them there.
I've had them before, they're nice, but I didn't realize that's what they were called.
Yeah, so bliss balls, you can Google them.
So they could be very creative, could be savory or sweet.
And this is kind of like we have this healthy trends or trends of 2022.
So bliss balls are on the list, dear listener.
So now you do know what snacks you should have.
Or for example, dark chocolate covered almonds.
You see, this is a different level of vocabulary.
This is a different level of snacks.
Just in the exam, say something fancy.
All right, so for what band, Rory?
For a band nine score.
Band nine score.
However, if you're like me and you're not a big fan of snacking, then you can always just give very broad answers using the structures that we talked about, because you're assessed on your grammar as well as your vocabulary.
Thank you very much for listening.
The link to the transcript is in the description.
So thank you very much.
And we'll see you next week.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
What kinds of snacks do you like to eat?
Well, I try and aim for the healthier ones, like protein bars or low sugar treats, but it's not always possible, is it?
When do you usually have snacks?
Well, ideally never after dinner.
And if I'm going to have them, it'll be mid-morning or mid-afternoon.
They're my peak hours, usually.
What kind of snacks do children in your country like to eat?
Well, too many if you ask any adult.
They always seem to have something sugary or sweet.
I don't really know the names of them, to be honest with you.
What was the most popular snack when you were young?
I think it would be easier to talk about the ones that we didn't have, to be honest with you.
The ones I remember the most prominently are sort of the bar-like ones, but they were pretty much available in any shape and form you'd care to mention.
Thank you.
