IELTS Vocabulary: The Future of Public Transportation
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You are now listening to the IELTS Podcast. Learn from tutors and ex-examiners who are masters of IELTS preparation. Your host, Ben Worthington.

Hello there IELTS students in this tutorial we are covering some IELTS vocabulary related to public transportation we're going to be covering a grammar point mainly linking words which are incredibly useful or sometimes commonly called connectors and they're incredibly useful because they tie your essay together

Now, a lot of students will just stick these in their essays and then believe that's going to boost their coherence and cohesion score. This was so common when I started out teaching. I think nowadays it's changed a little bit.

and everyone's getting wiser as to how we use these and basically they tie your essay together but I'll be giving you some model sentences using these we're going to look at the pros and cons of public transportation innovations and initiatives this will be great if you're a student who struggles

with ideas getting ideas for your essay then we're going to look at some topic specific collocations actually probably look at those before it makes more sense to look at them before and we'll stick them into the model sentences and then we're going to look at some speaking part three questions and

very model answers that doesn't make much sense very model answers but what I'm saying is that they're higher level answers practically band 9 I doubt anybody but a transport expert would be able to give answers of this quality so don't worry if you're not even close

These just serve as kind of like a model for you to follow. And throughout the whole tutorial, I will be giving little side notes and advice and just practical knowledge to help you move forward and attain that band seven, eight or nine that most of the listeners, most of you guys will probably be aiming for. My name's Ben Worthington. I'm from the UK.

I came back after 20 years abroad and sometimes people say I don't sound so English it's probably less so nowadays since I'm back in England speaking with native English speakers but it used to happen a lot and I'm mentioning this because I've been abroad

and I've learned a foreign language so I know the struggle and I know how to acquire a foreign language and I'm learning my second foreign language at the moment and yeah I think I mean from my personal experience it's always better if you've you know if you're if you're learning from someone who knows the struggle who who knows what it's like and and

Yeah, after 12 years of teaching IELTS students, I'm pretty confident I can say I know the struggle. Let's jump... Oh, one last thing. This tutorial is completely free. I'm not charging you for it. And all I ask in return is if you found some value from it, if you found it useful, if you found it practical, then if you could share it with your friends, post it on social media, whatever.

I'd be incredibly grateful it just helps us help more people so let's just zoom out to get started with so we're going to be talking about public transportation and specifically innovations and initiatives

So, what is public transportation? Well, it's usually the buses, the trains, the underground, all of these facilities usually provided by the government unless you're in the UK where the government sold practically all of them off and now they are a national embarrassment. Just joking.

I think the UK government sold like 90% of it except for London London's underground is still publicly owned it's a public company but all the rest was just sold off and now it's ridiculously expensive and incredibly terrible

Anyway, let's just jump into it. So why are we talking about public transportation? Well, it's one of those common topics and it's probably one of those topics that you might never have thought about before. And ideally, if you've got the time, you know, if you've got your exam coming up in three months, you can prepare for this topic by just doing some Google searches, reading some articles and getting stuck into it, watching some YouTube videos and whatnot. However,

A lot of students are not in that situation. They don't have that luxury. So this is like a crash course.

in public transportation and it's all geared around IELTS and IELTS writing task two. We're going to give you the vocabulary, we're going to help you with the grammar point and we're going to give you some of the model sentences and then even use this topic in the speaking. It's a very typical topic of "my mind goes blank when students know about this" or "face this" is the better expression.

So, when we're talking about public transportation, we're talking about basically, as I just said, the buses, the trains, the underground, and these are necessary for sustainable and efficient cities.

and this is another reason why I wanted to cover this topic because it overlaps very conveniently into climate change so when you're thinking about solutions for climate change or whatever we could talk about public transportation initiatives and also I will share a very powerful technique

when to come up with ideas and it's like your backup method and if you learn this backup method you learn all the vocabulary around it then it's basically your jolly joker as my wife says it's your jolly joker it can get you out of a lot of sticky situations

so what's the grammar point? well as I said before we're looking at connectors or linking words and these help when you want to add additional points and even when you want to compare some common words would be "moreover" "furthermore" "similarly" "likewise" and these words just help you build up your arguments in your body paragraph

Let's have a look at some of these in the natural environment which is a sentence. Integrated transport networks are essential for modern cities and sustainable transport models further enhance urban life quality. Here we could have even said moreover sustainable transport models or in this case we used they further enhance urban life quality.

Smart transit systems have been developed to reduce delays. Similarly, traffic management solutions help to prevent gridlock during peak hours. There we go. What traffic management solutions come to mind? The first one for me here would be the congestion charge in London.

basically it's a way for the government to get more money but so what they did is typical of the UK government they slap a tax on whatever they want less of

So, they put this tax on vehicles. Now, if you want to travel in London between certain hours, you've got to pay an extra fee if you're going around the city center. And the idea is -- and it actually works -- it keeps cars out of the city center and only those desperate enough to pay the charge will actually go in the center. And obviously, it reduces the amount of traffic.

However, when I was in London a few months ago, I couldn't see any difference. But that's another story. Next sentence. Furthermore, public mobility services improve the overall accessibility of cities.

while eco-friendly transportation options contribute to environmental preservation. I should have said this a few minutes ago, but to get the full value from this tutorial, scribble down, write down some of these collocations that you're hearing. Doing this makes it far more likely you're going to remember them, which makes it far more likely that you're going to use them.

which makes it more likely that you'll figure out how to use them in the correct context and the correct grammatical structures

Next sentence. Moreover, the expansion of high-capacity transit routes facilitates quicker commutes and urban congestion relief follows as a natural result. That's a great sentence. The reason why I like this sentence is because we've used facilitates as

as a verb and it just moves the sentence along rather than saying the traditional way the standard or

like maybe the band six level way which would be and this then enables quicker commutes or and then quicker commutes can happen or something a little bit more basic but if we use the verb moves the sentence along and it's just easier to read and easier not easier to write but easier to read and easier for the examiner to award you points

Similarly, green urban spaces are integrated into transit planning, enhancing the aesthetic and ecological aspects of urban areas. Great. I would actually hedge that. I'd say similarly, in most cases, green urban spaces are usually integrated into transit planning. Hedging is a key skill. I'll probably release another tutorial about hedging soon.

but basically we're just avoiding making sweeping generalizations by adding more adding phrases like could or most likely most often next sentence despite the benefits the high costs of smart transit systems can be prohibitive however the long-term savings in environmental and health costs are considerable that's a fantastic sentence because

We've looked at both sides. There's actually a semicolon in there as well.

and also it's my favorite sort of like go-to argument which is basically explaining the costs or the cost side so we can use costs for should governments provide education for free higher education for free well there's a huge cost there you know should governments jail people or focus on rehabilitation well there's probably a cost argument there as well which is cheaper jails or rehabilitation so by using the cost arguments

and get into grips with the cost argument then we can reuse that vocabulary for multiple arguments whereas transport vocabulary obviously can only be used for a transport essay or maybe even a climate change essay, pollution essay as well so it is slightly more versatile

Next sentence: Public transit accessibility is prioritized in city planning. Moreover, efforts are made to ensure that these services are affordable to all residents. What's the problem with that sentence? Let me say it again: Public transit accessibility is prioritized in city planning. Moreover,

Efforts are made to ensure that these services are affordable to all residents. Well, we need to hedge it. Let's hedge it. Public transit accessibility is often prioritized in city planning. Moreover, efforts are usually made to ensure that these services are affordable to all residents. There we go.

Can you see what I did there? Transformed it, introduced that element of uncertainty to avoid a sweeping generalization. Next sentence. While integrated transport networks are advantageous, they require extensive coordination and funding, which can be challenging for local governments. Next sentence. Eco-friendly transportation initiatives are often supported by public policy.

Furthermore, these initiatives encourage broader participation in sustainable living practices. There we go. That would definitely need to be further developed because it's not exactly clear. Eco-friendly transportation initiatives encourage broader participation in sustainable living practices because... Why? Why? Why? Develop it further. You could not leave that sentence as it is.

let's have a look at the pros and the cons this will be great for the students who suffer from the lack of ideas so the advantages basically of public transportation is that it can one reduce urban traffic congestion and then I'm going to just develop this one and then this would probably lead to a to lower environmental pollution

Super. Next sentence. The next advantage. Improves accessibility to jobs and services because a wider percentage of the population now would usually have greater

I usually find it easier to get into the city if there is a bus route rather than having to rely on a taxi or a private car, which might be economically prohibitive for a lot of city citizens. It increases safety in transportation through technological advances. This is because...

most modern transport systems have built in safety devices that help reduce accidents

Next sentence: It enhances the quality of life by reducing travel time and possibly even increasing air quality. This is due to the fact that... Can you see what I'm trying to do here? And I'm doing it now. I don't usually develop most of the arguments that I give you, but I'm doing it because the other day I had a private class and the student kept coming up with reasons but really didn't develop them.

so it's like fresh in my mind this skill set of developing and in most cases we can develop the argument by just saying this is because and then completing explaining and also and what I was telling my student was after each sort of like position or argument ask yourself why why does this happen why and then putting it in a sentence of this is because what are the

the drawbacks what are the disadvantages what are the cons of public transportation initiatives well there's a high cost of development and maintenance as I just mentioned

there's usually disruptions during construction phases and if you want to dive into this a little bit further you can just put HS2 UK and you'll get a barrage of articles about how the UK government just keeps on flip-flopping with decisions and making a mess of it let's move on potential for underutilization if not properly planned

For some reason Spain comes to mind here because they were building a lot of infrastructure projects and tiny little towns had trams in them which I thought was a complete waste of money and definitely a candidate for being underutilized.

another disadvantage they can be inefficient in low density areas that's exactly what I just said but in a more academic fashion a risk of technological obsolescence with rapid advances that's interesting no

example comes to mind so if I did think of this idea this is what we do with students on the course on the writing course we have the sentence guide is like you might have an idea but if it's difficult to explain if it's difficult to develop ditch that idea move on to one that's easier to explain

now let me just explain why the risk of technological obsolescence with rapid advances in technology might be a drawback from investing in a train or a bus service we could say that self-driving cars are around the corner and with it self-driving taxis we could even say that private air travel could make train or high-speed long-distance train infrastructure redundant in the future

And the reason why I don't like the argument is because it's a stretch. It's a stretch. We've got to sort of like put these conditions in place, these hypothetical conditions to justify our argument. And the chances that long distance trains, for example, become redundant because of technological advances in air travel are quite slim. At least I believe until for the next 20 years. We'll see.

Message me in 20 years if I'm wrong. Next one. It may lead to gentrification near transit hubs. Again, that's quite a complicated one to explain. What does gentrification mean? Well, it means when a downturn

downscale area you know like a part of town that's been neglected and it's all derelict and then they put a transport hub there now everybody wants to live there and the price of living goes up the price of housing goes up and everything becomes more expensive okay and again I'm not so keen on that argument it takes a lot to explain but it is worthwhile knowing and it's a useful verb as well to gentrify

next drawback it requires significant governmental planning and coordination it can be a long-term financial burden on public funds I love that argument you instantly get it you know the government sets up this train system and now it has to carry on funding it year after year after year and this is a long-term financial burden

Now I've covered the topic specific vocabulary collocations in those sentences let me just blast through them again to help you remember them: smart transit systems, integrated transport networks, green urban spaces, traffic management solutions, public mobility services, sustainable transport models, urban congestion relief, eco-friendly transportation and high capacity transit routes.

Let's go to the speaking. Why is it important to integrate green spaces into urban planning? Integrating green spaces into urban planning not only enhances the city's beauty, but also improves residents' health. Moreover, such spaces provide necessary ecological benefits like air purification and even temperature regulation. And with the speaking,

If you struggle for long answers, try the technique that I mentioned before. This is because or for example. And this will just extend your answer a little bit more.

What I like about this answer is, let's just go back to the question, why is it important to integrate green spaces into urban planning? Here, the student, by starting with integrating green spaces into urban planning, they just directly reflected the question. So we start off and the first five or six words more or less come from the question.

and this is a useful technique to employ in your exam because it makes sure that you're staying on topic and moreover this student did it by slightly modifying and they started with the gerund integrating green spaces another way to start off would be well I believe it's crucial to integrate green spaces into urban planning because xyz

Next question: Should cities invest more in high-capacity transit routes? Oh yes, absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt. Cities should definitely invest in high-capacity transit routes as they efficiently manage large volumes of passengers and this reduces traffic congestion. Furthermore, these investments support sustainable urban development.

wow if you can speak at this level in the exam you're getting a band nine okay you this level so don't worry okay if you're a bit um worried by the quality of these answers these were pre-prepared in advance by a native speaker and it's um you don't have to worry about these okay but it's a good sort of like north star to aim for

and moreover you're hearing some of the linking words that I mentioned earlier and the collocations all together in a natural environment and spoken in a natural way what are the challenges of implementing smart transit systems? hopefully your mind goes straight now to the cost argument I talk about a lot the challenges here is that it's

very expensive to build a train and get trains running. That's the answer but this is how it should be delivered. Implementing smart transit systems involves high costs and complex technology integration. Moreover, ensuring these systems remain up to date with technological advancements is continually challenging and probably rather expensive. Next question. Final question. How

Have public transportation innovations changed in the last decade? Now if you are getting a question like this, the examiner is inviting you to use your language of comparison because it says how have they changed in the last decade? Well, we want to talk about the beginning a few decades ago, a decade ago sorry, and then talk about the present day.

and we can use different tenses we can use the present perfect for this which is perfect for this let's go in the last decade public transportation has seen significant advancements particularly in the adoption of smart transit systems these innovations have made public transport more efficient and user-friendly another way probably a more natural way would be to say well in the last decade I think the trains were

quite polluting because a lot of them used diesel whereas nowadays most of the trains especially in my city are all electrically powered so I guess the change has been that they're more environmentally better for the climate and a little bit cleaner which reduces probably noise pollution and air pollution at the same time

There we go. That's kind of like a more natural answer. We haven't had the luxury to prepare.

Now, if you want the full tutorial, which I recommend you do and just put into Google IELTS podcast dot com public transportation, you'll be able to see all the vocabulary, all the model sentences. And if you combine that with your notes again, we're going back to this repetition, this idea of repetition, reusing the vocabulary, making it your own so that when you do use it, it sounds more natural.

That's it from me today. I'm wishing you a beautiful day. And if you want these tutorials in your inbox, go to ieltspodcast.com, sign up for our newsletter. You'll be invited to join our course there, which gives you a lot of material and information and tools.

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