IELTS Speaking for Success - 💐 Flowers (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

What flowers do you like? What's your favourite flower? Are there any flowers that have special meaning in your country? Have you planted any flowers? Have you sent flowers to others? Tune in and have a great day! - Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s10e27 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2024 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the host of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast that 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 and super vocabulary for your high island score. Your band nine score. Rory, you sound terrible. Do you have a cold? No, I have allergies because the flowers are in bloom here.

Oh, flowers. Allergies to flowers. You're allergic to flowers. Ooh. Let's talk about flowers. Flower power. Oh. Flower power, move your feet.

This is the song for you for today. Flower power in my nose in my immune system. Flower power. Are you allergic to flowers to pollen? We call it pollen. You know, flowers have this little thingy that goes up your nose. and you go, like this. So, pollen.

I'm allergic to pollen. And also Rory said that flowers are in bloom. Flowers bloom. So we see flowers everywhere. They're happy. And everybody is allergic. My nose is not happy. Let's talk about flowers.

What flowers do you like? The ones I'm not allergic to? I mean, from a safe distance. I like all flowers, especially if they're in the wild, I think it really brightens things up. What's your favourite flower? I'm not sure I have a favourite one, to be honest. I like tulips just because of the shape, of the petals, and the simple stem. They have different colours, but I'm not crazy about them or anything.

Are there any flowers that have special meaning in your country? We have a thistle is the national flower of Scotland, so that appears on a lot of emblems and Herald tree. Aside from that, I'm not really sure. Perhaps Heather, there's a sort of shrub that grows in the highlands, but I couldn't tell you anything in depth about it. Have you planted any flowers? Well, I'm growing a bonsai tree from the seeds I got. Does that count? It took ages to get them to grow, and needs constant care and maintenance. Have you sent flowers to other people? Well, not for a long time. I think the last time was the flowers I sent to my cousin Hilda on her 90th birthday. That's not something I make a habit out of since flowers are dying and I doubt many people

really like having dying things in their houses. Dear listener, we discussed the topic of flowers back in 2021. So could you please listen to our first episode about flowers? We also give you good grammar and vocabulary there. And listen to this episode. Yes, you'll also hear Maria calling me a plant killer. It's very unkind. Power, power, flower, power, move your feet. So, I'm allergic to flowers or I'm not allergic to flowers. If you have allergies, we say allergies. Arrapsha, allergies.

You say, I have allergies. I'm allergic to lots of flowers. And if you have allergies, you can say, I like flowers from a safe distance. So not close to me. If flowers are far away, I like them. But if they are too close, and I have allergies, and I'm not very happy with them. I like flowers if they are in the wild.

So animals are in the wild, flowers are in the wild. They are not in a shop, but in a forest, on a field. And Rory tells us that flowers brighten things up. They make our life more. more bright, okay, brighter. So, like, they brighten things up. You should be ready to answer what your favorite flower is. So Rory told us about tulips.

You can Google tulips, but you can also say something like daffodils, roses. Deffodils, lilies, lavender. Mmm, this, you know, like this beautiful flower that has this smell. you can say daisies. So just go to Google images and type in flower kinds and choose maybe three

interesting names of flowers. I would go for daisies, lilies and lavender. Defadils are also nice. But don't say like roses are my favorite flowers because a rose is like a... No, because it's a usual word. Everybody knows a rose,

but kind of, for example, a daffodil is already an interesting what or carnations, dear listener. Pink carnations. You should Google it. So just remember two, three interesting names of flowers, okay, to impress the examiner with your vocabulary. Tulips have nice petals. So a petal is a part of a flower. So this is a petal. And a flower also has a stem. This like stick. Stick is called a stem. So the petals open to attract the insects

and the stem supports the flower. Yeah. And where are tulips popular in which country? Well, I think they're popular everywhere but you hear about them in Holland. Yeah, the Netherlands, dear listener. Ooh, like fields and fields of tulips. There's a very interesting story about that, I think.

A long time ago, about 300 years or something. Chulip bulbs were really popular and they were traded as stock on the Dutch stock exchange. And they crashed the entire economy because people became over-invested in it and flooded the market. It's amazing. They almost destroyed their economy. Oh, wow. And in all the Netherlands have the oldest botanical garden where the first tulips were planted. back in 1593, dear listener, okay, they have black tulips, like white tulips, tulips of all colors. Black tulips are quite cool. Yeah, they are quite cool. Dear listener, you should also know what flowers have special meaning in your country.

So Rory told us about the national flower of Scotland, which is a thistle, Thistle, national flower of Scotland. Yeah, so this is their, emblem so the flower appears on different emblems. Okay, and then, Rory, you said something, Hera. Heraldry, these are the symbols associated with different clans and noble houses in my country, and in any country that has these things. Okay, so this is not only about Scotland.

No, no, it could be about England or any other country that's like this, possibly France, maybe Switzerland. Norway, Sweden, other countries with a royal family or some kind of royal connection? Yeah, dear listen, you need to have a king or queens, kings. So, heraldry, it's very difficult to pronounce. Haroldry is about the history of the families. So this emblem with this flower belonged to this king. Okay.

This flower appears on emblems and heraldry. And then Rory mentions another one, which is heather. Heather. Like, I'm googling this flower because I don't remember what it looks like, and you should also Google, Heather. I think it's a kind of small bush or a shrub that's quite common in hills in my country. I think it's purple. Nice.

So it's a sort of a shrub, a shrub like a bush. Yeah, grows in the highlands, in the mountains, in Scotland. Hey. Yadya listen to, so you should know what's the meaning of this special flower in your country. We plant flowers, we grow flowers, and Rory told us about this bonsai tree he has. So he got seeds from somewhere, and now he is growing a bonsai tree. Beautiful. And this bonsai tree is in a pot, right?

It is, yes, or in a bowl, to be more precise. But there are, I've just discovered, the bonsai tree is not just one thing. I was given many seats, so now there are many tiny bonsai trees growing in my pot or bowl. But I don't think a bonsai tree is a flower. I just wanted to talk about how the bonsai tree, but how I have one. It's okay, you can talk about like plants, okay, there may not be flowers, but plants. But it's a good time to ask this rhetor. question, does that count?

Meaning, does that mean the same thing as a flower? And it gave me a chance to use words connected to plants like grow and general words like care and maintenance for plants. And it took me ages because bonsai trees take forever to grow.

Yeah, because now I'm googling what flowers can be grown at home in pots and the names of the flowers are just crazy. Like one of them is chrysanthemums How do you say this? Chrysanthemums

They're quite popular in Japan, I think Say it again? Chrysanthemums Chrysanthemums You see the listener They are just difficult to pronounce So yeah You can say like

Roses Yeah, deffodils I grow defadiles Okay, I grow daisies All right Because like And other pot flowers And you can

that, well, it takes ages to get them to grow, to get my flowers to grow, and they need constant care. So I have to care about them all the time, and they need maintenance. So our flowers need maintenance. We need to take care of them. We need to maintain them. And water them. We water flowers. We sometimes send flowers to other people, or we give flowers. Or kind of like we send flowers as a gift, so we give flowers on different occasions. And Rory said that the last time I sent flowers to people was a long time ago. Or not for a long time. It's not something I make a habit out of. So I don't make a habit out of sending people flowers. And then the idea that, well, flowers are kind of dead

and it's not a nice thing to have some dying things in your house. No, I disagree. Flowers are cool. They are alive. Flowers are dying. Unless they are connected to the plant. I mean, you mean, to the ground, to soil?

Well, yes, you've got to put the plant in soil too. So, no. flowers, if you have them just in a vase with water and nothing connected to them, they will die. And that will not be very pretty. You want a plant to live and thrive and grow and not die. Yeah, do listen to. So you can say that, no, I'm against growing flowers. But if you grow flowers, you grow them so they are kind of connected to earth, to the soil.

So it's okay. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, okay. Yeah, you can listen to our episode about plants. Yeah, we also talk about growing plants, Rory being a plant killer, murderer. My bonsai trees are thriving, thank you very much. In fact, I have three plants.

All of them are doing very well. Ooh, how long have you had them? A week? That is not important. I have had them alive. I've kept them alive. Oh, you see, the listener, he says that he has three plants, but he has just had them for a week.

So we'll wait and see you, okay? I don't know. I could have had them for much longer. Three months later. Rory, how many plants do you have? Zero. My life are dead? I have one dead.

Two alive. Okay. Yeah, we need to see pictures of your bonsai tree. That seems interesting. Okay. So, DeLessonam, thank you very much for listening. Have you chosen the two or three interesting words about flowers? Have you? Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you in our next episode. Bye.

What flowers do you like? The ones I'm not allergic to? I mean, from a safe distance, I like all flowers, especially if they're in the wild. I think it really brightens things up. What's your favorite flower? I'm not sure I have a favorite one, to be honest. I like tulips just because of the shape, of the petals and the simple stem. They have different colors. But I'm not crazy. about them or anything. Are there any flowers that have special meaning in your country? We have a thistle is the national flower of Scotland, so that appears on a lot of emblems and heraldry.

Aside from that, I'm not really sure. Perhaps Heather, this is a sort of shrub that grows in the highlands, but I couldn't tell you anything in depth about it. Have you planted any flowers? Well, I'm growing a bonsai tree from the seeds I got. Does that count? It took ages to get them to grow and needs constant care and maintenance. Have you sent flowers to other people? Well, not for a long time. I think the last time was the flowers I sent to my cousin Hilda on her 90th birthday. That's not something I make a habit out of since flowers are dying,

and I doubt many people really like having dying things in their houses.