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Hello, hello, dear listener.
Welcome into IELTS Speaking Part 2.
Describe a great dinner you and your friends or family members enjoyed.
You should say what you had, who you had the dinner with, what you talked during the dinner about and explain why you enjoyed it.
Lori, give us your story.
Well, I had my birthday recently, so that's probably the one that stands out the most in my mind right now.
It was about a month ago, give or take, and we had dinner on the decking at my family home where my parents live.
When it comes to what we had, it was just typical birthday party fare, to be honest.
Obviously, there was a birthday cake too, actually, now that I think about it.
Along with things like sausages, sausage rolls, pizza and other kinds of finger food.
I suppose you'd call it.
I should say there were two cakes, because I share my birthday with my aunt who was joining us this year for that occasion.
And in terms of who else was there, well, my aunt's husband was there, of course.
It would be a bit weird if they traveled separately.
And my parents were there, along with my friends and my partner.
My brother and his girlfriend were also there, now that I think about it.
And she even brought her dog, which was really nice.
You would think that having a pet at an event like that would be complete chaos, but she was actually pretty chilled out.
The dog, that is.
And worryingly so, actually.
She doesn't move much, but apparently that's normal for her, so that was okay.
To tell you more about the topics of conversation and what they were actually.
We focused lots on the cakes, not just because of the taste, although that was also good but also because there was a picture on the icing of one of them that showed my aunt and I, and that was about 34 years ago, or maybe 35 now, when I was just a baby.
And neither of us recalled the photo being taken.
Obviously I wouldn't, but my aunt had no idea where we were or what we were doing at the time, which was quite funny to speculate about.
That was just one reason that I liked the whole thing.
It was nice being with my loved ones after being away for a long time working in Oxford.
So it sort of restored my sense of community as well.
If it hadn't happened, I think it would have been a pretty dull day.
And who wants that on their special day?
And what about your friends?
Did they enjoy it?
Well, I hope so because I invited them so they should have enjoyed it.
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Yes, so the topic is a great dinner.
Dinner is usually late at night, like at six, after six or it could be, you know, like 3 pm, 4 pm.
You can talk about lunch if you wish.
The story is in the past, so we use past simple, past perfect.
And rory told us about his birthday.
Yay, it stands out the most in my mind, so i remember it very clearly and you can start off with i'm going to tell you about a dinner i had for my birthday because it stands out the most in my mind.
Yes, i should say.
Actually, this was an idea i had when i was speaking to one of my students who was looking for an easy idiom or idiomatic expression to include in the beginning of the speaking part two, and so i was thinking you could say just about anything sticks out in your mind, especially recent events.
And if something sticks out, then it's clear to see or clear to remember.
And that's an easy thing that you could use for just about any speaking topic, to be honest.
Exactly.
For example, talk about a book that you've recently read.
Well, I read a lot of books, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is my favorite book which I read a few days ago or which I reread a few days ago.
Or I read a lot of books, or I've read a lot of books recently, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is It was about a month ago, it was two months ago, it was a year ago.
Give or take.
If you don't remember when exactly it happened, you can say it was a month ago, give or take.
I'd say give or take a few days.
Oh yeah, it was like a month ago, give or take a few days.
We had dinner outside, at home.
Rory had dinner on the decking at my home.
Decking like means um, what?
Some space outside.
It's a area covered in planks of wood.
That's outside when it comes to what we had.
So when you change the topic, you can say when it comes to when it comes to who i was with, when it comes to what we had, we had a birthday cake obviously, Along with some sausages, sausage rolls sausage pizza, sausage There was like a sausage dinner.
Sausages everywhere.
So, Rory, that wasn't really healthy, was it?
Well, no, but I don't think people go out of their way to eat healthy food on their birthday.
They might do, but it's not the main thing.
Yeah, and Rory called it finger food.
So, like unhealthy...
Finger food.
Food that you can eat without using knives, forks or spoons or with your fingers.
So you can just grab it.
Bam!
So no lasagnas, no soups.
Finger food.
There were two cakes.
There were two cakes for two birthdays.
It's a good idea to mention three dishes that you had and you can choose something interesting.
Maria is now looking up ideas for her birthday party celebration.
Yeah, or you can just google some interesting dishes with super specific words.
Like lamb chops with spinach.
In terms of who else was there, my family was there, my friends were there.
My brother and his girlfriend.
Their dog.
The dog counts as a person.
Absolutely, yeah.
The dog was pretty chilled out.
So chilled out, like calm.
Not stressed, just chilled.
The dog's name is Clementine, which I think is an amazing name for a dog.
And the dog doesn't move much.
Wow, that's strange.
No, honestly, this dog just lay there the whole time, even though there was food freely available.
Most dogs go crazy for that kind of thing, but she was very well behaved.
And when you change the topic once again, you can say to tell you more about the topics of conversation, because one of the bullet points is what you talked about.
So, to tell you more about the topics of our conversations, or in terms of what we talked about, we discussed everything and everybody.
We gossiped about other people.
All the gossip.
Yeah.
So you can say that our conversations were about the cake, or we talked about the cake, or I know the weather politics, religion And other things.
And Roy talked about the photo on the cake.
Because the cake has some icing.
And there was a photo there.
And they speculated about it.
So they remembered certain things.
They thought where the picture was taken.
So they speculated about it.
And in the end you can say that we speculated about our childhood.
There's another word.
Like reminisce, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Reminisce is a good one.
Surely that's a C2 level word.
Yeah, could you give us an example with it?
Oh, at the party we were reminiscing about things we did before, because we hadn't seen each other in a long time.
Which is true, actually.
That was also something we talked about.
Yeah, reminisce to talk or write about part experiences that you remember with pleasure.
You think about something good, dear listener, okay?
Not just something bad like, oh, I reminisce about all the disasters in my life.
Oh, but what is the antonym of reminisce?
I wonder.
Reminisce is about positive things.
But if you want to talk about negative things, then the word is ruminate.
Oh, yes.
For example, could you give us a sentence?
Well, I don't do that often, but...
If we talked about this particular party, we ruminated on things that had gone wrong.
So ruminate to think carefully for a long period about something.
Usually a negative thing.
And then Rory used our favorite, the third conditional.
Surely to show a range of grammar structures.
Yes, you did, Rory, you're a band nine, you're a band niner.
Do you know, when I got my band nine for speaking, I remember trying to use this in the actual test and I only got halfway through the sentence before the examiner went.
No, that's enough.
And I was like, oh, okay, so there you go.
You only need to make sure that you can get to the end of the two minutes and maybe start using the more advanced structure before anything else.
Yeah, it was more like, okay, okay, I see that you're cool, okay, okay, enough.
No, I think it was because the time was up.
The examiner controls the time deal, isn't it?
And if you are stopped by the examiner, it's absolutely okay, it's normal.
Because we usually don't feel these, you know, two minutes.
That's why you can keep going, but the examiner will stop you.
Or your story might be too short.
For example, one minute and a half.
And then the examiner will ask you more questions.
That's also okay.
So, if it hadn't happened.
So, imagine that it didn't happen.
If it hadn't happened, this dinner, I think it would have been a pretty dull day.
It would have been.
But it wasn't.
It happened.
And it was a nice day.
So an imaginary situation in the bar.
Rory, could you please say it naturally, what we connect?
Like connected speech, how do you naturally say it?
If it hadn't happened, I think it would have been a pretty dull day.
Would have been, you see?
Would have been.
And hadn't happened.
So we don't say hadn't happened.
Hadn't happened.
I think it would have been a pretty dull day.
Yeah, nice, nice.
So, dear listener, what dinner you can talk about, okay?
The easiest option is to talk about your birthday dinner, but you can also talk about your family dinner, any dinner that you enjoyed in a restaurant, for example.
You can steal Rory's story.
Thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our new episode.
Bye!
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They know the rules, but behave as if they do not exist.
Mutine.
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Defined by you. describe a great dinner you and your friends or family members enjoyed.
You should say what you had, who you had the dinner with, what you talked during the dinner about and explain why you enjoyed it.
Well, I had my birthday recently, so that's probably the one that stands out the most in my mind right now.
It was about a month ago, give or take, and we had dinner on the decking at my family home where my parents live.
When it comes to what we had, it was just typical birthday party fare, to be honest.
Obviously, there was a birthday cake too, actually, now that I think about it.
Along with things like sausages, sausage rolls, pizza and other kinds of finger food.
I suppose you'd call it.
I should say there were two cakes, because I share my birthday with my aunt who was joining us this year for that occasion.
And in terms of who else was there, well, my aunt's husband was there, of course.
It would be a bit weird if they traveled separately.
And my parents were there, along with my friends and my partner.
My brother and his girlfriend were also there, now that I think about it.
And she even brought her dog, which was really nice.
You would think that having a pet at an event like that would be complete chaos, but she was actually pretty chilled out.
The dog, that is.
And worryingly so, actually.
She doesn't move much, but apparently that's normal for her, so that was okay.
To tell you more about the topics of conversation and what they were actually.
We focused lots on the cakes, not just because of the taste, although that was also good but also because there was a picture on the icing of one of them that showed my aunt and I, and that was about 34 years ago, or maybe 35 now, when I was just a baby.
And neither of us recalled the photo being taken.
Obviously I wouldn't, but my aunt had no idea where we were or what we were doing at the time, which was quite funny to speculate about.
That was just one reason that I liked the whole thing.
It was nice being with my loved ones after being away for a long time working in Oxford.
So it sort of restored my sense of community as well.
If it hadn't happened, I think it would have been a pretty dull day.
And who wants that on their special day?
And what about your friends?
Did they enjoy it?
Well, I hope so because I invited them so they should have enjoyed it.
