IELTS Speaking for Success - 👩‍🚀 Outer space and stars (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Have you ever learnt about outer space and stars? Do you like movies about space/sci-fi? Do you want to know more about outer space? Do you want to go into outer space in the future? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/s12e20 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we're the hosts of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along with me. We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELD school. Your Band 9 score, which is what makes us the official Band 9 podcast. We're going to be talking about space and stars. today. Yay! Right, the listener. Outer space and stars and more stars and more space is an ongoing IOT speaking part one topic. They can also ask you about a beautiful sky in speaking part

two, but yeah, space and stars. Here we go. Have you ever learned about outer space and stars? Uh, well, I'm sure we must have in school at some point. Uh, well, I'm sure we must have in school at some point. Uh, though the exact details escaped me just now. And of course, like most kids, I had various books on the solar system and other heavenly bodies at home too. Do you like movies about space, sci-fi movies? Yeah, I love them.

I think they must be one of my favorite genres. I'm not sure why, though. Maybe I just have an overactive imagination and like to speculate about how things might be different in the future. Do you want to know more about outer space? I mean, if there were some major development, like interstellar travel or an asteroid impact or alien contact, then absolutely. That would be amazing to learn about. But beyond that, space doesn't really have any direct impact on my life, and there's nothing I really want or need to know about.

At least there doesn't seem to be. Do you want to go into outer space in the future? Not particularly, and certainly not using the current methods. I can't think of anything more dangerous and I like being on the ground where it's relatively safe compared to being in space and exposed to things like cosmic radiation and other potential hazards. If it were or becomes better, then I consider it.

But not now. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Right, dear listener, we've recorded a couple of episodes about stars, so you can just Google, IELD speaking for Success, Space, Stars,

and listen to all our episodes about space and stars. And Rory, what's going on with the article? Like, do we say the space, outer space? Because I actually want to use an article, like, go to the outer space, go to the space, like, what's going on? It's very confusing. If we talk about specific kinds of space, then we can use the. But right now we're just talking about space in general, so there's no article needed here.

So when we talk about space in general, like, I want to learn about space. I want to learn about outer space. I want to study stars. Roy, and could you give us an example where you do use the space? Well, for example, the space around the Earth is quite crowded with satellites. So that's a specific area of space. Yeah. So I want to go into space in the future.

Like, I want to become an astronaut and go to space. To the moon and back, dear listener. But yeah, we say the moon. If you're not sure about studying space and stars at school, you can say, I must have studied stars at school. Probably I studied space at school, but I'm not sure. What do you call this subject, the study of space? Astronomy?

I read books on the solar system and heavenly bodies. Yeah, this is a specific term for different planets, a heavenly body, any object existing in space, especially a planet star or the moon. Heavenly bodies. So at school, I learned some information about heavenly bodies and the solar system. Some questions could be about movies, about space. Again, no article.

Movies about space. Films about space. Like sci-fi films. And Rory loves them. Rory loves sci-fi. Science fiction. And you can say that yes. I love them. They're my favorite films or sci-fi is my favorite genre, genre of films.

I enjoy speculating how things might be different. So to speculate means to guess possible answers to a question when you don't have enough information to be certain. So, well, I don't know what's out there in space. I'm just speculating. So I enjoy speculating how things might be different. in space. And Rory, did you know that Speculate is a C2-level word benign? Is it? It is. Why?

How? Just because it's difficult and perhaps it's hard to use in the correct context. And usually we say like, oh, I enjoy thinking about how things might be different. So we usually use the word think or guess, but not speculate. So it's a rare word. That's crazy. Rory, what's your favorite planet? The one I'm on.

And I would like to keep it that way for as long as possible. Keep it in a good condition, that is. I'd like to learn more about outer space, or I wouldn't like to learn more about stars. You can say like I'm not a fan of space, I dislike it. It's not my topic. So I'm not a big fan of space. Or you can lie and say that you do in terms of space.

do enjoy this topic. I'd like to learn more about outer space. If there were some major development like interstellar travel. Whoa, what's interstellar travel? Traveling between stars. From one star to another star. Interstellar travel. So yeah, if it was possible to travel between different stars, I'd like to learn about it. Or if there was an asteroid. So if an asteroid, if an asteroid, fell to Earth, BAM! I'd like to learn more about this, asteroids, you know. Or if there were aliens, and here we're using the second conditional, because now we don't see aliens every day, so we kind of imagine if there were aliens, and if I could see aliens on Earth, that would be amazing to learn about them more. And here, Roy says that space doesn't really have any. impact on my life and I think that Rory is completely wrong because space does influence your life is just you know like the the movements of the moon you know

like we we consist of water really and all the activities the Sun the moon the planets they directly influence water water in our body like our Help water on a biscuit, water on a cake. It's chocolate on a biscuit. Sorry. I know, I know, I know. So, space does influence our life, our mood, our health, our water in the body. So, yes, Delisena do not believe Rory here.

He doesn't know what he's talking about. Well, actually, what I said was, at least there doesn't seem to be any cause for me to worry about it or think about it. Well, well, still. I think this sentence is wrong. You're still wrong. Yeah, you're still wrong. You just don't know what you're talking about. DeLisner, what do you think?

Does space have an influence on our life? Does it? Well, it does. Surely it does. We may not know what exactly happens, but it's like, it does have an influence. According to Maria. No, according to just how it is. It's a fact.

Well, if you don't have any connection to the moon or the sun, Rory, well, that's your problem. To feel, you know, connected to the universe. You are the universe. That sounds like an awful lot of work. So, do you listener, the next question is crazy. So the examiner will ask you, like, do you actually want to go into outer space in the future? Like, do you want to just go there? Just, like, closer to the sun, closer to the moon.

Do you want to be out there? So you can say no or yes Rory says not particularly Not really Not while it's so unsafe If it becomes safer then we'll talk about it But for the moment Yeah I like being on the ground

So kind of like standing on the ground It's quite nice, it's quite safe And here all Rory told us about being exposed To cosmic radiation Yeah this is harmful That's a real problem. Yeah, this cosmic light radiation is harmful. And all other potential hazards, including death.

I love it. Possible side effects of space travel include death. Yeah, but yeah, it's space. If you go to space, like, we've seen films about space, right? So we know what can happen. Well, some people survive, some people don't. So, yeah, death happens on the ground, but, like, if you go out there, like... But you can say, again, the second conditional, if it were safer to go to space, I'd consider it.

I'd consider it. I'd think about it. Yeah, I'll think about it. But to say, I think about it, it's very, like, it's silly, it's very easy. You just say, I'd consider it. I'll just think about it. And, Rory, I've got a stucle. stupid joke for you.

Oh, really? Dear listener, are you ready for the joke? Oh, actually two jokes. Oh. Well, they're quite dreadful, Dillison. They're horrible, so just bear with me. So, the first joke, what kind of stars wear sunglasses? Movie stars.

Ha! I saw stupid. Oh, should we explain it? No, movie stars, you know. Famous people. A star is a famous person. Yeah, wear sunglasses and he'll have movie stars. Famous people. Joke number two. Why did the star get arrested? Because it was a shooting star.

And Rory, you explain the joke. Rory, you explain the second joke. Well, a shooting star is the name for a meteorite that you can see traveling through the atmosphere. So it's shooting across the atmosphere. and of course shooting someone without authorization with a crime. Thank you for your jokes, Maria. Those were truly out of this world. Oh, hohoho, look at me.

Even I can make a joke. So, oh, you can crack a joke, de lestan. If you are tired of talking about stars or if you don't care about stars, you just can say, oh, you know, the examiner, I have a joke for you. Why did the star get arrested? Because it was a shooting star, and then you laugh. No, no, you can't do this. Why not? Why not? No, come on. Because that's crazy.

Yeah, exactly. You want to be different. You want to be interesting, you know? Yeah, you want to be different, not throwing at a mental institution. No, it's just an exam. Come on. And the examiner kind of asks you like, oh, do you kind of, are you interested in the stars? And you go like, No, but I like jokes about stars. Here's one for you. Why did the star get arrested? Maria has been abducted by aliens and replaced by someone who is just giving crazed advice. Bye, bye. Maria, let's get you back to the spaceship.

Have you ever learned about outer space and stars? Well, I'm sure we must have in school at some point, though the exact details escaped me just now. And, of course, like most kids, I had various books on the solar system and, other heavenly bodies at home too. Do you like movies about space, sci-fi movies? Yeah, I love them. I think they must be one of my favorite genres. I'm not sure why, though.

Maybe I just have an overactive imagination and like to speculate about how things might be different in the future. Do you want to know more about outer space? I mean, if there were some major development, like interstellar travel or an asteroid impact or alien contact, then absolutely. That would be amazing to learn about. But beyond that, space doesn't really have any direct impact on my life,

and there's nothing I really want or need to know about. At least there doesn't seem to be. Do you want to go into outer space in the future? Not particularly, and certainly not using the current methods. I can't think of anything more dangerous, and I like being on the ground where it's relatively safe compared to being in space and exposed to things like, I don't know, cosmic radiation and other potential high.

hazards. If it were or becomes better, then I consider it. But not now.