IELTS Speaking for Success - ⛆ Rain (S09E04) + Transcript

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Do you prefer rainy or sunny days? What do you do on rainy days? What do you do if you get caught in the rain? Is rain good? Have you ever changed your plans because of rain? How does rain affect life... in your country? 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/s09e04 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 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hello, lovely, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory. We're the host of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listing skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar, fabulous vocabulary. and joy along the way. Rory, look at yourself.
Starting point is 00:00:38 You're all wet. Yeah, sorry, I got caught in the rain on the way here. It's rainy men. Holland and then we are. Let's talk about rain. Rain. Let's talk about rain. I said nobody would rain on my parade.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Do you remember the song this? Rain on my parade. Yeah, it was on glee. Yeah, how does it go? It says nobody could rain on my parade. It's something about don't bring it right. a cloud to rain on my parade, I think. To rain on my parade, de lisne is an idiom, which means that...
Starting point is 00:01:12 It's about ruining your day, right? Yes, if someone rains on your parade, someone upsets you, upsets your plans, or kind of prevents you from enjoying something. So kind of like, I won't let you rain on my parade, so I will not let you upset my plans or upset me. So, yeah. Let's talk about rain. Do you prefer rainy or sunny days? Well, I think it depends where I am, to be honest with you.
Starting point is 00:01:46 Like, if I'm indoors and it's night time, then it's really great to cozy up and drift off to the sound of the rain battering down. If I'm outdoors, however, it's a whole other kettle of fish. Because my skin doesn't do very well when I get soaked. So I would say I definitely prefer sunshine if I'm outdoors. What do you do on rainy days? Look out the window and be thankful that I'm not out there. I think I have no idea, frankly. It will depend entirely on what's on the schedule.
Starting point is 00:02:15 I mean, I won't melt if I go out. I'm not made of sugar. So if I have to go out, then I'll go out. But if I don't have to go out in the rain, then I definitely won't go out in the rain. What do you do if you get caught in the rain? I suppose if it's heavy, then finding a place to take shelter or something to shelter under would be a good idea, although that's rarely the case, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:02:37 I just sort of soldier on and get where I need to be really. Like I said, I'm not really made of sugar. And I rarely catch calls in a downpour, so it's not a big deal for me. Is rain good? Well, for me, personally, not unless you count it as a source of drinking water, to be honest. Otherwise, actually, it's a bit of a pain because my hair goes flat and my skin gets quite oily for some reason, so that's not great. but if we mean in general, then it's a good source of water for places with vegetation or places without erosion issues. Have you ever changed your plans because of rain?
Starting point is 00:03:17 Not recently. I was out on a date a couple of weeks ago and it started to rain and we had to pick up the pace to get to where we needed to be. But that's not really a change of plan to be honest with you because we were already heading there, weren't we? How does rain affect life in your country? Well, it's Scotland, so I think we're kind of used to it by now, to be honest. I think we would probably notice it more of it didn't rain, frankly. Like I say, because we're so accustomed to it, we've got quite good drainage in most areas, although in more exposed areas, if it's particularly nasty, then it can cause mudslides and flooding.
Starting point is 00:03:57 But that's not a regular occurrence, to be honest with you. Speaking and writing in IOTS are really difficult, but the most difficult part in the IELTS exam is writing. In this podcast, we give you everything that you need to succeed in speaking, but what about writing? What about writing indeed? We've put together a course where we take you through some of the most challenging IELTS writing task ones and twos. In each episode, they'll show you how to brainstorm, plan, structure and write the answers you need to get a high score. all while having fun along the way, of course. You can listen to some of the free lessons in any podcast app of your choice
Starting point is 00:04:44 by searching for IOTS writing for success. And if you like what you hear, you can sign up for the full versions of the episodes. To do that, go to www.com slash writing. So, dear listener, rain. It rains. It started to rain or it started raining. Okay? It's rainy.
Starting point is 00:05:14 It was a rainy day, right? And Rory told us that if I'm indoors when it rains, it's great or it's great to cozy up. Yeah. Is that a phrasal verb? It's a phrase above. Yeah. What does it mean, though? Cozy up.
Starting point is 00:05:32 When you kind of like, you at home, you are like, you're cozy or kind of you make yourself comfortable. You have a blanket or you're in bed and you're like... So I enjoy, like, it's great to cozy up at home when it rains and it's a whole other kettle of fish when it rains and you're outside. It's an idiom. It's a whole other kettle, kettle like this with tea of fish, delisina. Okay? Well, actually, I think a kettle also means a big metal thing.
Starting point is 00:06:08 that you keep things in as well. Oh. But that's like a really, really old meaning for it. So if you say that it's another kettle of fish or it's a whole other kettle of fish, it means it's something completely different. Yes. From what I've been talking about, right?
Starting point is 00:06:27 You could just say it's something completely different, but idiomatic language for a high score. So it's a different story. It's another kettle of fish. I get soaked. So in the rain, when you go out, it starts raining, you can get soaked. So like a rain and everything is wet, so to get soaked in the rain. Okay?
Starting point is 00:06:50 Yeah. Rory, you said like, it's battering down. Yes. That just means that the rain is coming down so heavily that you can hear it like hitting the roof where you live. And it makes that drumming sound. So you can say it's pouring down or it's battering down. it rains heavily and the collocation is
Starting point is 00:07:10 heavy rain or it rains heavily like heavy you know or it's battering down pooh poe what does rory do on rainy days on rainy days okay it depends on my schedule or it depends what's on
Starting point is 00:07:27 the schedule right you kind of have to deal with it though because it's raining yes it's terrible but you just have to put up an umbrella and hope that everything stays reasonably calm. I wish I had an umbrella right now but I don't actually own one.
Starting point is 00:07:43 So put up an umbrella and face the music, face the rain. So I'll go out if I have to. Right. So even if it rains, I'll go out if I have to do it. I just put up my umbrella and... Oh, I'm wearing a hoodie. I could wear my hood.
Starting point is 00:08:00 Yeah, it's a good look. I really enjoyed how you told us that I'm not made of shirt. sugar. Rory isn't made of sugar. It's a joke de list, yeah? So you can say like, I'm not made of sugar, I won't melt. Melt is
Starting point is 00:08:17 what ice cream does. It becomes, you know, like this sticky, sweet thing. Although, I won't melt, but that's usually a way of saying, oh, it's not, it's like, it's just a small problem.
Starting point is 00:08:33 Although I realized in some of my answers, I was being extremely precious about being out in the rain because my hair goes crazy and my skin doesn't do so well with all of the excess moisture. So maybe I will melt. If I'm out in the rain, dear listener, so it's in the rain. So if I go out, I'm out in the rain, right, and I won't melt. So it's not a big deal, okay?
Starting point is 00:08:57 Now, what do you call this little thing is of water? So after the rain, we have them on the street. Oh, the puddles. Yeah. So for example, you can say, oh, I enjoy rain. When it rains, I'm all out and about. Playing with puddles. Oh, playing in puddles.
Starting point is 00:09:15 Playing in puddles. Well, maybe your children enjoy playing in puddles. The expression is to get caught in the rain. So you're just like walking, tot to to, and then I, faw. It starts battering down, pouring down, so you get caught in the rain. And if it's heavy, yeah, if it rains heavily, like pouring down. down, you should find or take a shelter from the rain. Rory doesn't own an umbrella. He lives in Scotland and he doesn't have an umbrella. Yes, I'm not a big fan of umbrellas. Are you Scottish,
Starting point is 00:09:51 Rory? No, I'm, well, no, I am Scottish, but I just, I'm just really lazy and don't like carrying things around and an umbrella is just another thing to carry around and I cannot be bothered. Yeah, do you remember that Rory doesn't enjoy carrying things around. He just tattoos, he has things tattooed on himself. Right? I will,
Starting point is 00:10:14 with good cause. Maybe you will have a tattoo on umbrella. Umbrella tattoo. Well, yeah, I might. Although, I don't think it would do any better of a job than a real umbrella in my case. But yeah, I wore my ring the other day and I realized that it was just such a fath having it
Starting point is 00:10:30 on. So, yes, maybe I should just get things tattooed on me from now on. Another phrase of verb is a good one. Soldier on. So when you keep doing things, when it's difficult, but you just continue doing it, continue working. Keep going.
Starting point is 00:10:46 You keep going, right. So it's raining heavily, but you continue your way to work, so you soldier on. I just sort of soldier on through it. So I'll soldier on through the rain. Yeah? So I kind of continue.
Starting point is 00:11:02 It's difficult. I'm all wet, soaked through, so I soldier on. And you should soldier on with your aisles preparation. If sometimes it's difficult to listen to our voices, especially if Rory speaks fast, yeah, soldier on. Okay. There's the settings and you can just slow it down. On YouTube, go there in the settings things, just slow it down.
Starting point is 00:11:29 And then again, Rory told us, I'm not made of sugar sugar, sugar, honey, honey. Oh, what's a downpour? A downpour is just a time when there's lots of, lots of rain. It's like when there's heavy rain, very heavy rain. Oh, another one would be a cloudburst. I never talked about that.
Starting point is 00:11:49 Like a downpour is a very long rain shower. But a cloud burst, if you imagine, there's all the water in the air and then it all comes down. It's not over time. It's all at one time. That's amazing when it happens. So a shower. A shower, like not a shower like a bath,
Starting point is 00:12:07 but a shower like a heavy rain when it, you know, like it rains on and off. So we have showers like stops, stops. Like a shower or a downpour. Yeah. If it rains, you know, in small drops, like fine small drops, like, you could have these things in the air.
Starting point is 00:12:28 What do you call this kind of rain? Oh, a drizzle. Drizzle. Yeah. And how do you say? It drizzles. It's drizzling now. It's drizzling, probably.
Starting point is 00:12:39 What about if hard balls of ice fall from the sky, this, you know, ice? But that's not rain, that's hail. Hail, yeah, but it's kind of rain, right? So you can say, dear listener, in my country, it hails. Sometimes it hails when this snow, balls of ice just hail. is a nice C2 word. It's C2, its proficiency. If you're a scientist, you could say it's a form of precipitation.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Oh, precipitation. Which is a fancy way of saying water falling from the sky. So all water which falls from the sky, one word, what do you call it? Precipitation. Very good for your IOT's essays. Precipitation. Could you use it in a sentence? Like, in Scotland?
Starting point is 00:13:26 What? In Scotland, there's lots of precipitation. because it's far north and cold. We don't have any precipitation in summer, usually. Interestingly, that is how people work out what a desert is. It's not by how hot it is, it's by how much precipitation there is. So, the largest desert in the world is actually not the Sahara. It is, in fact, Antarctica, because rain never falls there.
Starting point is 00:13:52 Okay. Well, hey, I learned a fun fact. I don't know about the rest of you. Maria was busy sleeping. Fine. Thank you, Rory. Thank you, Rory, for your science classes. Oh, exciting. Is rain good? What a strange question is this? Is rain good? No, it's bad, bad rain, bad.
Starting point is 00:14:15 It's like, well, for who? I don't know. And like, you know, then Rory told us, rain is good as a source of drinking water. We remember that rain is a source of drinking water, of fresh water, or it could be a kind of a pain. It's a kind of a pain if you are out and about. And my hair goes flat. So if your hair goes flat, it's kind of like, it rains and then, you know, flat.
Starting point is 00:14:45 Can you imagine? It's annoying if I'm out in the rain without an umbrella, my hair goes flat. My skin gets oily, you know, like too oily. Yeah, or dry, I don't know, too wet. and then you say something like rain is great for vegetation. Yes, the plants. It helps the plants to grow.
Starting point is 00:15:07 And then erosion issues. We add a little bit of science there, biology. Erosion issues erosion with the soil, yeah? Yeah, so there's too much rain that will wash the soil away and that's not good because then it means things can't grow and also the ground is totally unstable.
Starting point is 00:15:25 Maybe once you changed your plants because of rain. Have you, dear listener? Could you write in the comments? How did you change your plans because of rain? Maybe I was out on a date, or I was out, and then it started battering down. It started raining heavily. It started raining or it started to rain.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Yeah, both are fine. And then what? A change of plans! Okay! Disaster! No, maybe you were getting married, dear listener. Maybe you had to call off a wedding due to rain. Because of the rain.
Starting point is 00:16:02 Is it possible? I don't know. Oh, it's raining. No, no. We're not getting married. Yeah, maybe if you're bridezilla. Sorry. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:13 In Scotland, we're used to rain. She can say in my country, I'm used to rain or our people, I used to rain. So it's our habit. It rains every day. And we are used to it. Yep. In Moscow, we are not used to it. It's just like, well, what, it snows?
Starting point is 00:16:30 It rains. Like, what? Disaster. Why? Yeah, it's kind of like, it's the first time. On the other hand, when it snows in Moscow, they're very prepared. Sometimes, no. It's like, like, what?
Starting point is 00:16:43 We have so much snow in the winter? Really? Friday night? It's definitely like that outside of Moscow. I remember I have a friend in Tver, and she was saying they decided they were going to build a road in winter and I don't know why. Rory uses the second conditional. We would notice if it didn't rain.
Starting point is 00:17:07 So we are imagining things in the present, right? So we would definitely notice if it didn't rain for a long time. So rain is good for Scotland. And then we have good drainage. Yes. But drainage just means the water, it comes down and it doesn't stay. can flow somewhere that will not cause damage, probably back into rivers or lakes or the sea. You can say we don't have good drainage or drainage systems in most areas
Starting point is 00:17:39 and sometimes if it rains heavily it could get flooded. So the city could get flooded or a lot of areas could get flooded when there's too much water like a flood. Yeah, so some effects of rain. So rain can cause flooding. the listener, you know, flooding. Or what did you say mudslides? Yeah, that was connected to soil erosion.
Starting point is 00:18:05 When there's too much mud, mud is what happens when soil and water mix together. And if there's too much of it in one area, then it can all run down the side of a mountain at once. And people have died in mudslides. It's quite serious. It's not a serious problem in Scotland, but it does happen. Okay. Yeah, dear listener, so here you can show off your knowledge of biology
Starting point is 00:18:25 or different fancy vocabulary like mudslides, flooding can happen. It can cause flooding in exposed areas, right, in kind of open areas. Are you ready for a wrap-up joke? Is this joke going to finish me off? In what sense. In the sense of I'll die.
Starting point is 00:18:45 Yes, some of you will die in the inside. Some of you will die, but it is a sacrifice that Maria is willing to make. So, do you listen. Embrace yourself. Why do mother kangaroos hate rainy days? Why? Because their kids have to play inside. Did you get it, deal with snow?
Starting point is 00:19:13 Kangaroos, they have these pouches. Yeah, on their bellies, pouches, and the baby kangaroo is there. So mother kangaroos hate rainy days, why? Because the babies have to play inside in the pouches. Thank you very much for listening. Could you please check out our premium episodes Speaking Part 2 and 3 for some quality aisles preparation?
Starting point is 00:19:40 The links are in the description. Do check our phrase of verb course. It's amazing. All the phrase of verbs are there. Roy, did you like our phrase of verbs course? I do like our phrasel verbs course. They're over 180, I think, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:19:54 The link is in the description. Thank you so much. Let's have sunny days, or rainy days, so let's enjoy all the days. Bye. Do you prefer rainy or sunny days? Well, I think it depends where I am, to be honest with you. Like, if I'm indoors and it's night time,
Starting point is 00:20:18 then it's really great to cozy up and drift off to the sound of the rain battering down. If I'm outdoors, however, it's a whole other kettle of fish because my skin doesn't do very well when I get soaked. So I would say I'd definitely prefer sunshine if I'm outdoors. What do you do on rainy days? Look out the window and be thankful that I'm not out there.
Starting point is 00:20:39 I think I have no idea, frankly. It will depend entirely on what's on the schedule. I mean, I won't melt if I go out. I'm not made of sugar. So if I have to go out, then I'll go out. But if I don't have to go out in the rain, then I definitely won't go out in the rain. What do you do if you get caught in the rain?
Starting point is 00:20:59 I suppose if it's heavy, then finding a place to take shelter, or something to shelter under would be a good idea, although that's rarely the case, to be honest. I just sort of soldier on and get where I need to be, really. Like I said, I'm not really made of sugar, and I rarely catch coals in a downpour, so it's not a big deal for me. Is rain good? Well, for me, personally, not unless you count it as a source of drinking water, to be honest. Otherwise, actually, it's a bit of a pain, because my hair goes flat and my skin gets quite oily for some reason. So that's not great.
Starting point is 00:21:33 But if we mean in general, then it's a good source of water for places with vegetation or places without erosion issues. Have you ever changed your plans because of rain? Not recently. I was out on a date a couple of weeks ago and it started to rain. And we had to pick up the pace to get to where we needed to be. But that's not really a change of plan, to be honest with you, because we were already heading there, weren't we? How does rain affect life in your country? Well, it's Scotland, so I think we're kind of used to it by now, to be honest. I think we would probably notice it more of it didn't rain, frankly.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Like I say, because we're so accustomed to it, we've got quite good drainage in most areas, although in more exposed areas, if it's particularly nasty, then it can cause mudslides and flooding, but that's not a regular occurrence, to be honest with you. I'm going to be a little bit more

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