IELTS Speaking for Success - 🚲 Bicycles (S09E21) + Transcript

Episode Date: October 1, 2023

Do you like cycling? How often do you ride a bicycle? Did you have a bike when you were a child? When was the last time you used your bicycle? Is it difficult to learn to ride a bike? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s09e21 Our IELTS Writing course: https://linktr.ee/wfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2023 Success with IELTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello Sunshine, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory and we are the hosts of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast that names is to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar, fabulous vocabulary and good mood. I, Rory, we've had a break. Are you ready to restart and work and record? Yeah, it'll be like riding a bike. Oh, riding a bike. Let's talk about riding bicycles and cycling, dear listener. Yes, and speaking

but one, they can ask you questions about riding a bike and cycling. Do you like cycling? I certainly used to, and I probably would if I did it again. It's difficult to do in a city, though. There's lots of traffic on the road, so it makes it very difficult. How often do you ride a bicycle? Hardly ever these days, to be honest. I live in the middle of a city, so there's not much need to hop on a bike. If I ever live in the countryside again, though, it'll be a completely different story. Like I said, there's just not much need now. Did you have a bike when you were a child?

Yeah, I remember. It was like a status symbol to have a bike with the highest number of gears, although unfortunately my poultry six didn't quite cut it. We used to go out on them all the time, all the way up until, oh, until a little. high school, I think. When was the last time you used your bicycle? Well, I got shot of my old one in April, April 2023 just before I moved, so probably way before that, maybe in September 2022, so a long time ago. It was a pretty sorry sight, to be honest with you. The chain was coming off and I think, I don't think the gears worked very well, and the handlebars were quite loose. So, whoever I sold it to, I.

I think they got a pretty raw deal. Is it difficult to learn to ride a bike? Well, if you start off sensibly enough with like a tricycle and then on to stabilizers and then moving further or down the road to being able to balance it by yourself, then I don't think it's that difficult. Admittedly, though, I had a little bit of difficulty working my hands and legs simultaneously, but I got the hang of it in the end. We have our premium.

episodes for you where Rory and I are discussing speaking part two and three. We use only fresh current speaking topics. This week on our premium, we are talking about someone you know who loves cooking. I know. And in speaking part three, we discuss cooking in general. The link is in the description to check it out. Okay? So do you listen at cycling and people who cycle cyclists.

So you can say, oh, I enjoy cycling. I enjoy riding a bicycle or a bike. Okay. And I'm an amateur cyclist. Can I say that, Roy? If I enjoy cycling, I'm an amateur cyclist. I don't think I'd say I'm an amateur cyclist, maybe an avid cyclist if you really enjoy it and you do it all the time.

You do get professional cyclists, though, but I don't think you really get amateur cyclists because so many people ride bikes, it's such a common thing that you wouldn't really get people trying to do it semi-professionally? Avid cyclist. So if you are inter-cycling, if you ride your bike every day,

or if you just enjoy it, you can say I'm an avid cyclist. Like I'm an enthusiastic cyclist. Also, if you don't, just say it. Even if you don't. Lie. It will be fine. Do you like cycling? Oh yes, I'm an avid cyclist. Oh yes, I'm a very avid cyclist.

All the time. Me, cycling. This was a difficult one for me, actually, because I hardly cycle at all or, well, I hardly ever cycle at all these days. There's, like I say, there was no need. If this is true about you, you can say, I used to cycle. So in my childhood, I used to cycle. And then the second conditional, dear listener. So I would enjoy it if I lived in the countryside, for example.

Or I would enjoy cycling if I lived in Amsterdam. Or I would enjoy it if I did it again. But I don't plan to. The second conditional. Is it the second conditional? Oh, amazing. Look at me using the conditionals. Yeah, there's traffic on the road.

The proposition, there's too much traffic on the road. That's why I prefer cycling. Although, can we linger with on the road for a moment? Because I discovered something the other day. One of my students was getting confused between the difference of in the road and on the road. So if they're in the road, it's like they occupy the closed space of the road. But if they're on the road, if the traffic, is on the road, then it's in contact with the surface. Both of them are correct, but it's a small difference in meaning.

Rory, what about Scotland and the way you live? Do people cycle there? People do, yeah. It's ironic, actually. We were walking the dog the other day, and there was somebody cycling on a path that said, please do not cycle on this path. So yes, people are very keen on it. So keen that they will break the rules completely. And do people cycle to work? I used to know someone that did that, but I think These days, it's not a very common thing. Mostly because people live so far away from their workplaces, it's not, well, it's impractical. It's not practical. It's not feasible to do. How often do you do it is a very common question. So hardly ever, like almost never.

Or you can say rarely, if you can pronounce it rarely, like also almost never. Or frequently often, once a week, twice a week. So Rory hardly ever cycles. You can lie about this, okay? Maybe you cycle every day as an avid cyclist. Like, hey, cycling, uphill, don't you? And then the second conditional again, dear listener, if I lived in the countryside. So if I lived in the countryside, but Rory doesn't, it would be, or I would cycle every day.

Okay? But I don't. I'm in a city now. Or you can say it's easy to get around using a bicycle. So it's easier to get around your area on a bike. So it's on a bike, right? Or buy bike. And how do you get on a bike? You hop on a bike.

So it's easier to hop on a bike and get to work. So hop on a bike. But I say travel by bike or travel on a bike. I mean, I would say I go by bike, but some people can say they travel on a bike and it's just as valid. It's just not very common, that's all. Yeah, usually we say travel by bicycle or. I use a bicycle to get to work. Or I go to work, buy-bye.

Like buy car, buy taxi, by metro, by bike. A bicycle can be a status symbol. Status, like your status, you know, symbol. Yeah, like a Gucci bag or what? Oh, anything expensive. Maybe an expensive phone is a status symbol, for example. Although, at least amongst a lot of people these days. Bikes are pretty expensive these days.

and if you have this, you know, like, whoa, an amazing bicycle, which costs, I don't know, like a car. So, oh, yes, like, for me, it's like a status symbol. A bicycle has gears. Yes. You know, like, the things, like, you change gears. I change gears. Now, what kind of gears do you have? This is amazing because it occurred to me.

Even when I was younger, people used to talk about the number of gears their bike had as if it was this amazing thing. But to this day, I still don't actually understand what a gear is and what it does. My guess would be it increases your ability to move as the incline of the road gets steeper. But I don't know much about gears, to be honest with you. It was the same with cars. We talked about it with cars, and I still don't know what it does. I know you have to change them. But what does that mean? No idea.

Rory is not an avid cyclist. So you can say, my bicycle has six gears or the more the better. Yeah, with a bike with the most gears. So you mean that a bicycle with many gears. Yeah, some kids used to have bikes with 16 gears or 32. And I now reflecting on it, think, what was the point in that?

We all lived in the suburbs. We weren't going up any mountains or anything like that. So it was all just to see who could have the biggest number. It doesn't make sense. It's just something people say to look good. My poultry. Paltry? On the subject of the number of gears,

poultry just means not that much compared to other people. So my paltry six gears means I didn't have that many gears compared to other people, which was sad at the time, but looking back on it, I'm so glad my parents didn't waste money on something so completely frivolous. Could you give us another example with poultry? Well, if you have very low wages, then maybe, Maybe you make a poultry $5 an hour. That's quite low, I think.

At least it's definitely low for this country. It might even be illegal. And poultry is an adjective. It is. So poultry about the amount of money, for example, very small, very little. For example, student grants these days are poultry. So, like, very little. Or a poultry sum, some of money.

So, like, a small sum of money. So like a small sum of money Or for example She made some poultry excuse Like, no low quality Like lame excuse What else can we use poultry with Like a strange word

Poultry It's not that strange It just means not much Yeah like for example So about money I would say it's got a very negative connotation It's not used to mean something positive You wouldn't say for example

A writing or speaking check with success with Iald is a poultry 999 if you check out the link in the description no it's a very well-priced 999 yes a little bit of advertising there or I paid a paltry sum for your premium episodes so just like a small sum of money for the premium episodes the link is in the description yeah but it sounds it makes it sound like it's not worth much whereas it is worth a lot ah okay okay Okay. That's where the negativity comes in. Ah, no, no, no.

So we can't use poetry about our premium because our premium is pretty much quality, the best quality ever. So, ah, you see the listener, negative. It's competitively priced. Oh, yes. I got shot of my old bicycle before I moved out. I think that might be a little bit colloquial for Ayat's, to be honest with you. Most people would say, I got rid of. If you get shot of something, it means the same thing.

It's like to remove it from your life. Yeah. Very informal, but again, it's possible, right? So I got rid of my bicycle and I sold it or I threw it away. Or I got shot of my old bicycle and Rory doesn't use bicycle. He said I got shot of my old one. One bicycle. And what do we call that when we replace one word with another like that?

Referencing. Yes, and if you want to learn about referencing, sign up for my classes. The link is in the description. So way before that, like long ago and Rory stressed way before. How did you do it? So way before that. So like a long time ago. Way, way, way.

So, yeah, a very long time ago. I owe that to one of my students, actually. We were looking at idioms for emphasis and ways to emphasize things. And this was one of the examples, or it's close to one of the examples that came up. So it reminded me that I should probably try to use this a little bit more. So we should probably do an episode on that idioms for emphasis, just thinking about it. And they were banned nine-level idioms, so there you go. So you can say, I used to ride a bicycle way before I went to school.

Way. My old bicycle was a pretty sorry site. Yeah, so if it's a sorry site, it's a mess, basically. My garden was a sorry site before I had it tidied up. My bike was a sorry site before I sold it. That's kind of why I sold it, because it was just, just a mess. Or maybe the bicycle you have today is a sorry site, so you can say, oh yeah, I have an old bicycle,

more it's a pretty sorry site, to be honest with you. To be honest with you. And then specific band nine vocabulary, the bars are loose. The handlebars, that's the things that you hold on to. The bars, not the bar like a pub. The bars, the handle bars were loose, loose like they were not tight. Speaking of drinking and cycling, do you know if you rode a bike and you're drunk and you kill somebody in the UK? Do you know what the maximum penalty is or was? Maybe it's changed now.

Oh, what? It used to be just like a £1,000 fine. And that was all. A fine. Yeah, you could kill someone riding a bike and it would be totally fine. Well, I mean, no pun intended. But yeah, you wouldn't have to pay that much. I'm pretty sure they changed the law now, though, because there were some really famous cases.

and now it's much the harsher, the punishment is much harsher. And we are continuing with specific vocabulary about bicycles. Rory mentioned a tricycle. It's like when there are three people. No, no, a tricycle has three wheels. So there's like one at the front and then two at the back to stabilize it to keep it balanced. Some people prefer a tandem bicycle. So a tandem bicycle, there are like two people and one bicycle, right?

tandem, yes? Yes, a tandem. Have you written a tandem before? No, never. So, how do you use it? Like, I prefer riding a tandem bicycle or I prefer tandem bicycles? Well, I mean, one is about the activity and one is about the physical object, the bike. But they're both used for the same thing, unless you're collecting them for some reason.

What are stabilizers? Ah, okay, so a tricycle is disdiscule. designed to have three wheels, but a bicycle only has two. However, if you're learning to ride one and you're very young and you don't have a good sense of balance, stabilizers are extra wheels that you add on the back and they keep the bike level and you, well, work with them until you're ready to not work with them anymore and then you remove them and you're free to go. Yes, so you can say that for people who don't have a sense of balance, it could be difficult to what, to be balanced on a bicycle?

Or to stabilize the bicycle by yourself, yes? Yeah, to stabilize, stabilize, stabilize the bicycle by yourself. They can use stabilizes. So the bicycle stays level, level, like no to like wobbly wobbly, but like level. And it could be difficult to work my legs and hands simultaneously. Well, in my case, it was difficult to work the brakes. and the brakes are the things that you press when on the handlebars

and they slowed the bike down but it was difficult for me to do this and also do everything else at the same time so it took me some time to learn how to do that and lots of crashes in the meantime work the brakes you can also pump the brakes but that just means to squeeze them like with your hand

yeah because you usually what do you just like turn the handlebar and then you break right I don't think you even turn the handlebar. I think you just squeeze the brakes and bring it to a stop and balance on your legs. That's what I would do. Oh, yeah, you squeeze it. Ah, yeah, these are the little handles. Yeah, you're just...

Pump the brakes can also mean to squeeze them rapidly several times. And what else can we say? We push the brake. You push the brake on a... In a car, yeah. But that's because there's the pushing action. Pumping is like both parts of the hand. But on a bicycle?

You could, but it's not the first one. You squeeze the brake. you pump them on a bike. Squeeze the brakes or pump the brakes, the listener. So it was difficult for me to work the brakes, like to work with the brakes on a bicycle. Or you have to squeeze the brakes, pump the brakes at the right moment. I got the hang of it really quickly. To get the hang of something to start being good at it.

So it was difficult for me to learn how to ride a bicycle, but then I got the hang of it. What else can we use it with? Like, I got the hang of cooking. I got the hang of writing an essay. Rory, what about you? I didn't get the hang of cooking. I'm going to tell you that right now. I got the hang of, well, teaching English after a few years.

Dear listener, do you know what's the hardest part of learning how to ride the bicycle? The pavement. It's a joke. The pavement, dear listener, when you learn how to ride a bicycle, you might fall over, you just start again, and the payment is pretty hard. It's this hard surface, the pavement, the road, so it's just a pace pavement, it's the hardest part. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Can I give them something that's less hard to do?

Okay, right. So our reflection task for this episode is remembering. So I need you to remember three phrases or three bits of vocabulary that we discussed. I want you to write them in sentences in the comments if you're watching us on YouTube, or you can send them to be on Instagram if you're listening to us on any of the podcast outlets, and I'll give you a little bit of feedback on them when you do. Let us know what you think about bicycles. I reckon bicycles are great because you, you de listener, are the engine of your bicycle.

Huh? You just control everything. So, do you like bicycles? do you like cycling? Me personally, I traveled by bicycle for about four months in Europe and different countries. Like, lo, blah, blah. That was an interesting experience.

Would you like to do that? Maybe you traveled by bicycle before. Do you have an expensive bicycle ride in the comments and use some of the vocabulary we've just told you about? Okay. But it's time for us to ride off now. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Do you like cycling? I certainly used to, and I probably would if I did it again. It's difficult to do in a city, though. There's lots of traffic on the road, so it makes it very difficult. How often do you ride a bicycle? Hardly ever these days, to be honest. I live in the middle of a city, so there's not much need to hop on a bike. If I ever live in the countryside again, though, it'll be a completely different story.

Like I said, there's just not much need now. Did you have a bike when you were a child? Yeah, I remember. It was like a status symbol to have a bike with the highest number of gears, although unfortunately my poultry six didn't quite cut it. We used to go out on them all the time, all the way up until high school, I think. When was the last time you used your bicycle? Well, I got shot of my old one in April, April 2023 just before I moved. So probably way before that, maybe in September. 2022, so a long time ago. It was a pretty sorry sight, to be honest with you. The chain was coming off and I think, I don't think the gears worked very well. And the handlebars were quite loose. So whoever I sold it to, I think they got a pretty raw deal. Is it difficult to learn to ride a bike?

Well, if you start off sensibly enough with like a tricycle and then on to stabilizers and then moving further or down the road to being able to balance it by yourself, then I don't think it's that difficult. Admittedly, though, I had a little bit of difficulty working my hands and legs simultaneously, but I got the hang of it in the end.