IELTS Energy 1485: Vocabulary That Lifts a Weight Off Your Shoulders
16:41 Share

This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1485, Vocabulary that Lifts a Weight Off Your Shoulders.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

There are many places on the IELTS exam where you might need to answer a question about stress and relaxation. Today, get three vocabulary terms that will elevate your score immediately.

Are you tired of feeling stuck in meetings, interviews, or presentations? Knowing the words in your head, but struggling to say them out loud? Maybe you understand English, but when it's time to speak, your mind goes blank. Maybe your emails sound too stiff, or you miss jokes and casual conversations at work. Maybe you're ready to lead, to present, to grow your career, but English is holding you back.

The best way to get past being stuck is knowing where you're starting from. Get your English level in our simple and free fluency quiz. Find out if you're B1, B2, or C1 level at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e.

Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hey, Aubrey, I'm doing great. Glad to be over here in IELTS Energy. Thanks for having me. We have amazing vocabulary today and some band nine sample answers. Lindsay, what has happened lately that lifted a weight off your shoulders? Anything?

Well, one thing is today is Friday. That kind of lifts a little bit of a weight off my shoulders. Friday does lift a weight, right? The weekend is here. The weekend is here. But a better example, I recently organized monday.com a little bit better. I was getting a little out of control. If you don't keep up to date with monday.com, you have pages of overdue things, which really evoked a lot of stress for me. Yes, this is like a task management system. And that can happen where you have all of these

past due, then it's just more stressful, right? Yes, it was really. So it was once I got that organized, it was a big weight off my shoulders. Yes. This is really, this is a great idiom for something, a weight to be lifted off your shoulders. We're going to dive into what this means and some examples, but the vocabulary you're learning today is so flexible.

on everywhere on the speaking exam. So many questions you're asked, you're going to be able to fit in today's episode. We were asked in our community about this idiom, a weight lifted off my shoulders. And they were asking, can it be shortened to just a weight lifted? Does it still mean the same thing? So let's talk about that first and then dive into where you can use this on IELTS.

Yeah. I'm glad that our listeners are, our students are asking such specific questions, right? Really important to really fully understand these expressions. Yeah. And this is a lot of idioms. We do this, like the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. We just shorten it and say grass is greener. This one is like that. They mean the exact same, whether you use the whole thing, a weight was lifted off my shoulders, or I felt a weight lifted

They mean the same thing and we just shorten it to have less words. I love that. All right. So where do we go from here, Aubrey?

Yeah, so let's give some examples of questions you could use this on, right? In part one, maybe you're asked, how do you deal with anxiety or what do you do to relax? Today's vocabulary will be perfect to be talking about ways to reduce stress. Yes, that's a part one question or a part two question you might see. Describe a situation where you felt a great sense of relief after a stressful experience. Describe an activity that has helped you relax.

Right? You're all part two questions. Yeah. Part two, and you need a full two minutes to describe something. So these idioms, this the vocabulary you're going to learn today is going to help you provide more details, right? You don't want to just share what was stressful and how you relaxed. You can also share how that made you feel, how that, you know, what effect it had, and add today's vocabulary.

I love it. What about part three? What would a question look like where we could use this vocab for part three? You might be asked, do teenagers experience anxiety more today than in the past? Or is there a stigma around therapy in your country? Questions like this, you'll definitely be able to use today's vocab.

Yeah, all the types of questions are so different across part one, two, and three. And that's such an important part of our preparation, right, Aubrey? Exactly, right. So we'll definitely talk to you about where you can use these. The first one we're sharing is that weight lifted off one's shoulders, or we'll say a weight off my shoulders or his shoulders, or just weight lifted. Yeah.

Yeah. So for example, when I got the job, I felt a weight lifted. Yes. Yeah. And that just means immediate anxiety release. A lot of the stress just went away. That weight of stress that we imagine on our shoulders lifts off.

You guys might say, "When I pass IELTS, I'll feel a weight off my shoulders or I'll feel a weight lifted." This means the stress of needing the scores you need on IELTS. Once you get your scores, you can envision that weight lifting off your shoulders. And I know a lot of our listeners will feel that when they get their target score, 100%. Absolutely.

If you are answering a part two question or even a part one, and you need more ways to say this, you're still talking about how you felt when stress went away. You need multiple ways to say this. So another is just the verb relieved. You could say, I was so stressed before my doctor appointment and then extremely relieved when I got the test results. Yep. Relieved is a great one. Great one. Very clear. Or I let out a big sigh of relief.

This one's a little more descriptive, right? Right, exactly. Imagine yourself, you find out some kind of information and you have that physical response of like, imagining the weight lifted off your shoulder and you have that sigh. We say this, I let out a big sigh of relief when she forgave me. You could also use this for the future. Say, I will let out a big sigh of relief when I pass IELTS, right? We can use this in the future as well.

I love it.

Prep for your next trip with the ANF Vacation Shop. Get their newest arrivals in store, online, and in the app. OK, Aubrey, we are back. So I think we're going to do some questions, some sample answers. Is that right? Exactly. We are going to use today's vocabulary in a couple of part one answers. Remember, you could use this on part two. On part three, there are going to be so many speaking answers on the exam. This vocabulary could also be useful on the writing test.

If you're writing a general task one letter, you could definitely imagine you're asked to complain to an airline because of poor service. You could definitely share what gave you anxiety, what stressed you out and use today's vocabulary or tell them, I would feel a sense of relief. I would be relieved if you could address this issue.

Yeah, I really love the idea of learning some essential vocabulary like this and thinking about all the places it could be used on IELTS, right? Absolutely. Because we don't know what we're going to get. Yeah, you don't know what you're going to get. And when you are creating an IELTS vocabulary notebook,

you're studying this vocabulary you need to know should I be trying to answer speaking questions should I be trying to include this in essays and a lot of vocabulary is versatile enough flexible enough that you'll be able to use it in both essays and speaking answers I love it so shall we go ahead and dive right into the first speaking part one sample answer yeah Lindsay want to give me a question yeah so here's your question Aubrey do you easily get stressed out

In the past, I was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, and I didn't. I didn't feel a lot of anxiety. Then I had children, and now I have a whole long to-do list. And often, when I accomplish a task, I'll feel a weight lifted off my shoulders. I'll just feel extremely relieved to be able to check off one thing that I had to do. It's a huge difference from when I was a young, carefree kid.

Yes, you really painted a picture there, right? A huge relief.

what this used to be. And then as you're talking, you sort of think about how is it for me now? Because this is a common human trait. Yeah, we don't always stop to ponder how have I changed? How is this for me now? We're sort of more aware of what it was in the past.

So you can kind of share that first and then think about as you're talking and share what it is now. - Yeah, I love that. That is so smart because that creates a framework, creates space for content to be filled in. It's almost like you create a little template for yourself. I'm gonna talk about what it used, how I used to be, and then I'll go into how I am now, right? It's amazing.

I love that. And keep in mind, if the examiner asks you like this question, do you easily get stressed out? This is clearly specifically about me now. As long as I answer that question, I can then talk about the past, the future, anything related at all. Absolutely. And then you're actually giving a chance to show the examiner that you can use these different tenses. And in fact, you likely are going to get questions where you're going to have to talk about the past.

But don't avoid that, right? Don't feel like I have to stick to the present. You can absolutely share what this was like for you in the past as well. Yes, I love that idea. I love it. All right. All right. Are you ready to answer a question for us, Lindsay? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. Your part one question is, what do you do to relax?

Oh my gosh. For me, my number one go-to way to relax is to get outdoors. So I like to go outdoors. It makes me feel so relieved. What I do on the weekends, I like to drive up to the mountains, get in the car and feel that altitude going up. It's immediately a weight lifted off my shoulders as I climb the altitude into the mountains. I like to go hiking.

Usually as soon as I get into the forest, I can let out a big sigh of relief and just relax. There's something that nature does that just massages the brain. I don't know what it is, but it's amazing. Oh, amazing answer. So good. I love that. I want to highlight how you started your answer by using go-to. Like my go-to way to relax

This is kind of, you know, slang. It's informal. Instead of just saying my favorite or the ultimate, to say my go-to way. And this can be your go-to restaurant would be like your favorite, the restaurant you always choose. Your go-to vocabulary, your go-to answer, it means the one you would choose above all else. And that's really slang that gives you that variety of vocabulary the examiner is looking for. Yeah, and perfect for part one, right, Aubrey, for speaking part one? Yeah.

Yes, absolutely. And then you used all of this great vocab we shared today, right? And you may be thinking like, oh, I feel like the verb relieved is more formal, for example. Not necessarily, right? All of this vocabulary fit really well in this part one. A lot of vocabulary is more flexible than that. We'll use it casually in a conversation. And then it could also be used in part three when we're talking about issues that affect society. A lot of vocabulary works for both.

all right i love it i like these sample speaking you know speaking sample answers here for our listeners to learn from our use of the vocabulary so good absolutely and practice answering these yourselves use this vocabulary to practice these questions and others where you could talk about whether you feel stressed out or how you relax

I'm excited to share a recent poll, Lindsay. We had some really interesting results that I want to chat about for a second. Yeah, this is fun. So this came from episode 1458, "Is conversational English enough for IELTS speaking?" And we asked you the question, "Do you speak English every day?"

Aubrey, drum roll. What are the results? These results are surprising. Yes was only 33%. No was 66%. So we want to highlight something. We talked about this recently on the podcast that a lot of students will do a mock IELTS speaking test with us and be really surprised at their low scores. And then we ask them, well, what are you doing to practice speaking? And they'll say, well, I listen to a lot of English, right? I read a lot of English. I watch

TV in English and we find out that they're not speaking out loud every day in English. This is really vital for your IELTS speaking score. So those of you who marked no, we challenge you to speak in English every day. You don't have to have a speaking partner. You can speak out loud to yourself, right, Lindsay?

Yeah, you can what I like to do with that. I have a hard time just kind of standing and speaking. So what I like to do is narrate what I'm doing. And I feel like I do that anyways, in my head anyway. So it's normal. It's natural. So going around the house, I'm going to make some coffee, right? I'm making a coffee. I'm gonna I think I'll have oatmeal for breakfast.

It's a dialogue. We already have these dialogues, right? So just put that in English. Yes, that's a great idea. And you don't have to always practice answering IELTS speaking questions. You can just speak aloud. Another good thing to do is those podcasts you're listening to, everything you read, summarize them out loud after immediately. And whether you're on a walk or just by yourself out loud, say a summary of what you just read or listened to.

Yeah, I mean, it's a very common conversation topic between native speakers to talk about a podcast they just listened to. Oh, I was listening to a podcast and I, you hear it a lot, right? So open up a conversation like that. Why not share it with someone? Ask what they think. Okay. Perfect.

For sure. And then come back and answer today's Spotify poll question. Does IELTS feel like a weight on your shoulders? We know this is the case for a lot of students. I have felt this way when studying for a high stakes exam. We are so excited for you to get the scores you need and feel that weight lifted off your shoulders. Yes. So excited. Don't forget to hit follow right here on IELTS Energy.

And Aubrey, thanks for having me on today. Yes. Awesome. I'll see you next time. All right. You take care. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash my score.