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hello hello dear listener and welcome into ielts speaking part three we are talking about plants and farming yeah a subject that is so close to maria and i because we look after plants so well yeah so roy and i we don't plant anything so let's talk about plants let's talk about them anyway way.
Do you think it's good to let children learn how to plant?
I can't see the harm in it.
It's probably a good introduction to things like biology and similar things.
Not to mention a good way to teach things like how to be responsible and look after living things.
That could be useful in the future for things like pets and children after the children learning about it grow up.
Are there many people growing their own vegetables now?
Well, in absolute numbers, probably yes, since there are more people.
That's just very simple maths.
If we think about the proportion of the population doing it, though, I'm not sure.
I'm tempted to say no, since the majority of people now live in cities and aren't involved in any agricultural work these days, but I don't know much about the subject.
How do people grow plants in cities?
Good question. Apart from in pots in their houses, I have no idea.
Allotments of land are popular in my country for people without garden, but I'm not sure how common those are in other countries.
I can imagine people could also have window boxes or rooftop gardens, but again, I don't know how widespread or practical those are.
What happened to the farmer's income during the pandemic?
pandemic? You'd have to ask them.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Could you rephrase the question, please?
Like, during the pandemic, what do you think happened to the farmers?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, I imagine that farmers' income would either have, well, a couple of things could have happened.
It could have stayed the same because we still had people and they still needed to be fed.
So, I suppose the farmers would still make money selling their food.
However, it could have gone down since people were earning less money, so they would be buying less food and so there would be a surplus.
Or the opposite might have happened and the prices of food might have gone up because there were more people at home and all they were doing was eating, so that could have placed a greater demand on the food supply.
So there we are, three possibilities and I don't know which one is the most likely because I didn't monitor the prices of food during the pandemic.
What are the differences between traditional and modern agriculture?
Surely that depends on where you draw the line between traditional and modern, doesn't it?
Well, broadly speaking, I suppose traditional farming lies on older, less mechanized or computerized methods, just because tradition makes this connection to the past and previous methods, and those didn't involve those things.
while the more modern variant focuses more on things like using machinery and technology to get things done.
What do you think of the job of a farmer?
Well, I imagine it must be quite difficult.
You likely have to spend the day maintaining and repairing things when you're not tending fields of crops or livestock.
And then there's all the administration and everything you probably have to deal with, like the accounting and managing deals with different companies.
So none of this seems particularly easy.
Is farming important?
Well, if you want to live and have food, then yes, I think it's extremely important.
I don't know how else we're supposed to have a stable food supply.
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See you soon. So dear listener, this is quite a topic.
So if you have nothing to say about farming, agriculture please go to Google and read some articles in your own language, in your mother tongue or in English about farming, agriculture in your country all over the world because this could be the topic in speaking and in essays as well so at least have some kind of ideas about traditional agriculture modern agriculture farming like what's going on and uh write out maybe like five six words about farming agriculture okay children should learn how to plant or how to grow plants maybe and a good introduction to plants is given in biology lessons and it's
a good idea to teach children to look after living things look after to care for something so children should look after plants so they don't become plant murderers like maria and i nobody taught me how to care how to look after plants at school you know you don't have like basic plant biology no no like we studied some plants but i was never taught how to grow plants it was all like theory you know today many people are growing their own vegetables they are also growing their own herbs like rosemary mint basil Brazil, and we use the present continuous.
So, people are growing their own vegetables.
So, is it a trend in your country, dear listener?
But is it like a trend in Scotland?
Well, is it a trend in Scotland?
Who knows? I have no idea.
I don't check these kinds of things.
Just based on my experience and understanding of how human agriculture has evolved and developed over the years, I can give two answers.
Maria's checking it for me now.
Yeah, I'm just checking.
So according to Google, yes, in 2025, many people are growing their own vegetables.
So they're interested in gardening.
And people grow their own food because of prices.
They want fresh food and they want to save up money.
So kind of people prefer homegrown vegetables, the vegetables that they grow.
It is a trend, dear listener, all over the world.
And you can say that the majority of people who live in cities are not involved in growing their own vegetables because they live in a flat, you know, there's no space.
But overall, generally, people are growing their vegetables if they have a country cottage or even at home, some people grow their own herbs.
And here Rory doesn't know much about the subject, so he just gives very empty answers.
Because I don't know anything about this.
Yeah, to avoid a direct answer.
And it's okay, dear listener, you see?
It can happen that you have nothing to say about a topic, right?
And Rory uses a strategy.
He kind of says like, me, me, me, statistics, numbers, I don't know how many people.
so pretty much like throwing water at the examiner oh you could do that in absolute terms is like the absolute number of people in proportional terms that's the percentage of the population yeah yeah boring uh and that's a perfectly exceptional way to talk it's not boring this is how numbers are manipulated to represent things and then Then a more specific question, how do people grow plants in cities?
And Rory, seriously, nothing.
Oh, my God. How do people grow plants?
Seriously, I have no idea.
And here you do say, dear listener, I have no idea.
Seriously, I just don't like plants.
I have no information about this.
But then, because Rory reads the news, he talks to people, he reads books, he has some idea about rooftops and still he kind of he says something about rooftops for example rooftop gardens so you see kind of you say that you have no idea and then you use the common sense people have window boxes they might have window boxes or they could have people who live in cities live in a flat so they might have window boxes for growing plants it's you know like these boxes outside your window and there people grow flowers and vegetables and they look quite nice it's kind of like huge boxes boxes or baskets
window baskets or window boxes for flowers or people might grow grow vegetables and flowers on rooftops so pretty much um on a roof of a building people have a garden so they are known as rooftop gardens or green roofs or roof gardens so you kind of grow your vegetables on the roof of a building where you live and it's kind of like it it it's a a green space in an urban environment, in a city environment, we have this green oasis, a green area.
Have you ever seen a rooftop garden?
I have one time, but it wasn't for growing vegetables.
It was just a lawn on the roof.
So you can say that more people develop rooftop gardens these days.
Or they have them. yeah yeah yeah I'm checking yeah it's a trend like people do it right in different cities absolutely correct look at Maria checking my guesses are correct because I totally guessed that I have no idea about anything to do about gardening yeah yeah yeah I'm busy reading about ancient history and human psychology I don't have time to read about agriculture as well that's crazy and you can say that's like urban gardening is increasingly popular so urban Urban gardening, gardening in cities.
Okay. So people just grow their stuff, their plants, vegetables in cities.
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People grow plants in pots on balconies or windowsills, having window boxes.
And also they use rooftops to grow plants, rooftop gardens.
They can also grow their plants inside their flats, just simply in usual pots.
Then a strange question about farming and pandemic.
Like, what happened to farmers during the pandemic?
And again, Rory has no idea.
Why would I know that?
Who was the answer to the question?
What did happen to their income?
I imagine, probably...
Like, seriously, we have no idea.
Yeah, Rory speculated.
it okay i did speculate but maria is going to tell me a clear answer now okay okay let's let's check so food prices rose that that's like for sure okay so after the pandemic food prices rose so we know that but did the farmers see an increase in their money as a result i wonder because i don't think it's that straightforward okay okay so according to one article they say that there there was a decline in um farmers income in some farmers income so okay yeah we can say that so the prices on food rose after the pandemic and the farmers income declined but why why does it decline understand i i don't
know i i imagine the price is inflated and then as a result of the inflation that compromised the economy that would be my guess but i don't again i'm not an expert in agricultural economics so i don't know there are some things that even the internet cannot answer the questions to no there are lots of articles you just have to read everything and it just kind of takes so much time to understand so dear listen sorry we we failed all of this we tried moving on to the differences between traditional and modern agriculture no wait it's not good actually Rory we just don't give an answer and like
we should say something at least it's just like not nice well it's unclear and we knew that to begin with and so it's fine to say I'm not sure what you mean could you rephrase the question please and then afterwards attempt a series of answers it could have been this or it could have been that I don't know because I'm not an expert in this field.
And I think that that would be quite acceptable for this kind of question because that's a crazy question to ask.
You do use good grammar. So prices might have gone up.
So prices might have increased.
Most likely prices increased, okay?
Or like farmers might have lost a lot of money.
So maybe farmers lost a lot of money after the pandemic.
but i don't know the examiner also doesn't know no one knows and then a better question the differences between traditional and modern agriculture oh wow yeah this we do know we do know all the differences no we don't how do you define the difference between modern and traditional for most people it's the use of computers but the word modern has been used for hundreds of years So we didn't have computers a hundred years ago.
What's the difference there?
Arguably, we did have computers a hundred years ago, but still.
Yeah, you can say that traditional farming relies on older methods.
So less computerized methods.
But modern agriculture relies more on machinery.
So machines and technology.
To get things done, to do things, modern agriculture relies on machinery.
And you can say that the major, the main differences are in tools that they use, so kind of like manual labor.
People did the work by hand in traditional agriculture, while in modern agriculture, people rely on advanced machinery like tractors, for example.
example they also use chemical fertilizers dear listener rory what are chemical fertilizers this we do know well i suppose the most obvious example is the use of nitrogen or ammonia to enrich the soil yeah so all these are harmful or not harmful well they're they're only harmful if they're used in excess and then the runoff from that goes into various water sources and causes eutrophication, which is when there's an algal bloom that, well, annihilates the ecosystem in the water, which isn't great.
And traditional agriculture used organic fertilizers.
Farmers. The job of a farmer could be quite difficult, right?
So, a farmer maintains their fields and repairs tools so a farmer maintains livestock livestock like animals tends fields so if we tend fields what do you do we look after them fields of crops crops are plants that are grown for consumption and livestock that is animals that are also grown for some sort of consumption it does not have to be for eating it could be for their well for their wool in the case of sheep and you can say that there are different opinions on a job of a farmer farmers are respected or they have a lot of challenges in their life it's not easy being a farmer that's for sure
yeah they manage the land they grow crops they harvest crops they help them to grow like with machinery or manually like Like livestock, again, like all this are cattle, pigs, sheep, different animals.
So they fix the equipment, like farm machinery.
They make records of different things, like how many animals they have. They deal with financial affairs.
They transport their livestock between locations.
So yeah, daily life for farmers is not easy.
so kind of they wake up early they feed animals they milk cows oh i'm exhausted just hearing about it yeah now rory and i are gonna read articles on agriculture and farming and we'll get back to you okay bye bye growing your e -commerce business comes with plenty of hurdles but shipping shouldn't be one of them well here's some good news powerful e -commerce shipping software called ShipXcel from Pitney Bowes with ShipXcel you can generate discounted shipping labels for both online and offline orders that saves time and money with everything right at your fingertips.
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Do you think it's good to let children learn how to plant?
I can't see the harm in it.
It's probably a good introduction to things like biology and similar things.
Not to mention a good way to teach things like how to be responsible and look after living things.
That could be useful in the future for things like pets and children after the children learning about it grow up.
Are there many people growing their own vegetables now?
Well, in absolute numbers, probably yes, since there are more people, lest it's very simple maths.
If we think about the proportion of the population doing it, though, I'm not sure.
I'm tempted to say no, since the majority of people now live in cities and aren't involved in any agricultural work these days, but I don't know much about the subject.
How do people grow plants in cities?
A good question. Apart from in pots in their houses, I have no idea.
Allotments of land are popular in my country for people without gardens, but I'm not sure how common those are in other countries.
I can imagine people could also have window boxes or rooftop gardens, but again, I don't know how widespread or practical those are.
What happened to the farmer's income during the pandemic?
pandemic? You'd have to ask them.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Could you rephrase the question, please?
Like during the pandemic, what do you think happened to the farmers?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, I imagine that farmers' income would either have...
Well, a couple of things could have happened.
It could have stayed the same because we still had people and they still needed to be fed.
So I suppose the farmers would still make money selling their food.
food. However, it could have gone down since people were earning less money, so they would be buying less food, and so there would be a surplus.
Or the opposite might have happened, and the prices of food might have gone up because there were more people at home and all they were doing was eating, so that could have placed a greater demand on the food supply.
So there we are, three possibilities, and I don't know which one is the most likely because I didn't monitor which are the prices of food during a pandemic.
What are the differences between traditional and modern agriculture?
Surely that depends on where you draw the line between traditional and modern, doesn't it?
Well, broadly speaking, I suppose traditional farming lies on older, less mechanized or computerized methods, just because tradition makes this connection to the past and previous methods, and those didn't involve those things.
while the traditional, sorry, the more modern variant focuses more on things like using machinery and technology to get things done.
What do you think of the job of a farmer?
Well, I imagine it must be quite difficult.
You likely have to spend the day maintaining and repairing things when you're not tending fields of crops or livestock.
And then there's all the administration and everything you probably have to deal with, like the accounting and managing deals with different companies.
So none of this seems particularly easy.
Is farming important?
Well, if you want to live and have food, then yes, I think it's extremely important.
I don't know how else we're supposed to have a stable food supply.