IELTS Energy 1448: Band 9 Part 2 Cinematic Speaking Answers
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1448, Band 9, Part 2, Cinematic Speaking Answers.

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

Do you love talking about movies? We hope so because there's a good chance you'll be asked about movies on IELTS Speaking. Today, you'll hear two band 9 answers about movies we love. There is nothing more annoying than slow internet, especially in your home.

That's why you should switch to fast and reliable Fios home internet. Experience what it's like to be on the 100% fiber optic network and get internet that keeps up with you. Call 1-800-VERIZON to switch to Fios internet today. Availability varies. Aubrey, how much do you love talking about movies? I love talking about movies. It's so fun. I know you and I talk about movies a lot. All the time. So this is going to be fun today. We have a lot to say.

We are going to give you $2.

different part two sample answers today. I'm gonna do one and Aubrey's gonna do one. And the thing is, both of these questions are about movies because this comes up a lot in Speaking Part One and Part Two. And I could see them being indirectly brought up in Part Three if you're asked about entertainment and media and celebrities. So today guys you're gonna get some amazing ideas for talking about movies and of course some awesome vocabulary.

Yes, I'm excited for this. Part two is tricky because you have to talk for two minutes, right? You have heard us talk before about telling a story. This is always, especially for something like this, you can only describe a movie for so long. You might have difficulty sharing. You don't remember the actors' names, maybe, or you don't want to give the whole plot. Who knows? But if you can tell a story about when you watched it and give some details, you're going to fill two minutes in no time.

Totally, totally. So you're going to get a lot of great ideas for how to fill out part two in an interesting way, providing lots of context. So the two minutes seems easy breezy. So both of these part two questions, like I said, are about movies, but they are slightly different. So the one that I am going to talk about is talk about a movie that you enjoyed watching in the cinema.

All right. So Aubrey's gonna time me. She's gonna be the examiner. Aubrey, are you ready? Yes, let me get my timer here and go. So I love that I got this question because I actually just joined movie club for Cinemark. There's this and I will get to the movie, I promise. But there's this theater near where I live.

And they have reclining seats and they're like these huge, these enormous spacious leather seats and they recline and you slide back with your feet up. And anyway, I joined movie club because I get a free ticket every month and I save money on popcorn.

Anyway, that was a long side tangent. Sorry about that. Let's get to the movie. The movie that came to mind was the most recent we saw, which was Gladiator 2. My son and I have been seeing previews for this movie for months because, again, we go to the movies a lot. And I was really excited about this movie to come out because this means that I got to watch the first Gladiator with my son. And I hadn't seen that yet.

since i was a teenager i think like since it came out and what a classic i was honestly kind of afraid that it would be a bit slow for james because it's it's a movie from the 90s it's not all like action-packed pow pow pow like all the movies today uh but he loved it and of course that famous scene are you not entertained

Like being able to watch that with James and now he sees it all over pop culture because it is referenced. So anyway, a couple of weeks ago when the movie came out, I was super excited. And so I told James that I would take him and his friend August to the theater. And it was really funny on the way to the theater. I was like, hey, August, like what was the last movie you saw, you know, in the theater? He's like, the last time I went with you guys.

And he said, I think the only time I get to go to the movies is when you guys take me. I'm like, well, fantastic. I'm glad we can be your movie friends. So anyway, we go to the theater and we watch Gladiator 2. It was incredible. I was so stoked to actually see Denzel Washington in a new movie. He used to be in

everything in the 90s. And my son and I just watched the Manchurian Candidate, the remake that Denzel was in a few months ago. We watched that. And

And you forget how incredible, how incredibly talented this man is because you don't get to see him act anymore. Thank you. I was so interested in your answer that I forgot and you went like 20 minutes over. I apologize. 20 minutes? Oh, 20 minutes. I was talking for 22 minutes just now? Imagine. Imagine. 20 minutes. I probably could. 20 seconds. So that probably felt long to you guys. That was like two minutes and 23 seconds because I was very interested. This is...

the best case scenario if the examiner is so interested in your answer they forgot to pay attention to the timer. It did not feel like two minutes. There was so much else I wanted to say about the movie. And that's such a good point that when you're telling a story and you're sharing details from your actual life,

the time will fly by. You'll have so many interesting things to say. You could fill three minutes, four minutes, right? Totally. So I'm excited to dive into all of the things you did really well that made this high scoring. I loved how you started it to say, I love that I got this question and share why, right? If it's a good question you're excited about answering, definitely say that this is such a better start. Yes. Than like, I am going to talk about Gladiator. No. No.

I know. Today, I would like to describe the cinematic motion picture, Gladiator 2. Like, that would be so terrible and boring and awkward and weird. Oh, exactly, right? Start like this. Share how you feel about the question is a great way to start your answer.

And then I loved there. So there's one grammar form, one chunk here that you use that will be so helpful for everyone out there preparing for part two that I want to share. Jessica said, I was honestly kind of afraid that it would be boring. This is so smart to add this extra detail of this.

Put yourself in the past and what did you think would be different? Or what were you worried about to use that interesting grammar form of I was afraid that it would be blank. You could say this about anything you're telling a story about. Totally. You could even use it in part one and part three, right? To describe like any previous context to an experience you're describing, right? And it's such a high level grammar structure, right?

Yes, absolutely. And then I also want to point out, Jessica used some interesting ways to come back to the topic because yes, you can talk about whatever, anything you want. You can go off tangents, but it's smart to name it, right? A couple of things. You were like, I promise I will get to, you know, describing the actual movie. And then you said,

And so anyway, side tangent, sorry about that. And you came back. This is great native natural vocabulary that you're using to recognize that you are going on tangents. You don't have to, you can just go on a tangent and then just come back. But you can also add this really interesting vocabulary to, because we do that, right? We talk about it. We point it out when we go on a tangent.

And being able to narrate the connections between your ideas, that is band eight, band nine fluency and coherence skills right there, right? So speaking is not linear. Speaking is not

perfectly organized. It can't be. It's spontaneous. It's unplanned. But you do need the phrases that glue these ideas together. This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. I've got good news and bad news. Here's the bad news. Most protein bars are packed with sugar and unpronounceable ingredients. The good news, there's a better option. I'm Will and I created IQ Bar plant protein bars.

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Aubrey, I would like you to describe a movie that you like. Can you start speaking now, please? My favorite film of all time is a film called "About Time."

It is so heartwarming. I watch it every year, sometimes multiple times a year. I recommend it to everyone I know. And surprisingly, a lot of people haven't heard about it. It was not exactly a blockbuster, but the script is so amazing, really funny, a lot of clever dialogue, but also just so touching.

I the the overall theme of the movie is that we should make every moment count. And I love that. But it is shown in such a clever way. So in the film, there is a man and his son that both can time travel, they can go back in time and change things.

And it's a really interesting thought process that they go through to determine should they, should they change things? So you see what's affected them.

And I don't want to, you know, no spoilers here because you should absolutely see the movie. But often they decide I shouldn't have changed that. Something went wrong. Something, you know, would have been better if I left it the way it was. But sometimes they realize it's worth it.

whatever consequences might happen for them to make this change, to affect someone's life in a positive way. So the best part about the film at the end, he decides instead of trying to change anything, I'm going to live each day with all of the stresses and frustrations that come with the average, boring, dull, mundane day. And then I'm going to live it a second time. And

knowing what's going to happen, I can just appreciate every moment and appreciate the people in my life and take advantage of every conversation and really live in the moment instead of sort of being nervous about what happens next. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Way to watch the time better than I did. Well, hey, you know, it's my 14 years of examiner experience is cemented in my brain. What can I say? Okay. That was amazing. So,

I love that listeners, you guys are getting two different approaches to describing the movie, right? Different strategies here. Now, mine, I barely even touched on the plot of Gladiator 2, to be honest, because it made me think of so much interesting context and experience that I wanted to share around that movie.

I still fulfilled the requirements of the task, right? But I think that way is it can be more difficult

perhaps right trying to glue all these side tangents together. So I love that Aubrey you were able to more stick to what the plot was and to use the movie itself as a way to organize your answer, right? And I think guys, that is the better strategy to go with. Because it's easier to take notes on right and it's easier to divert from while you're speaking and come back to. And I also love guys,

This is a great thing to use if maybe you don't remember some of the plot or you're like, I can't describe everything that happens in this movie. Something that Aubrey did said was so great. You're like, no spoilers here because you should totally watch the movie. So you guys could just say that if you don't want to say the whole plot. You know what I mean? That was so good. And I want to just draw attention to one more great sort of linguistic device that students might doubt. So Aubrey, you said

average boring dull mundane day so some students might look at that and think you know but you're just giving synonyms here that's not okay that's redundant uh uh this is showing vocabulary this is something that I do all the time because I love words right being able to string together interesting adjectives that

are synonyms, but it emphasizes what you wanted to say, right? You want to highlight the fact that

Days, just boring days. It's just drudgery, right? And so using all of these amazing adjectives together demonstrates such great linguistic, sorry, lexical ability. So average, boring, dull, mundane day. I had to write that phrase down because it was so good. That's such a good point. We do this in natural speech, right? To emphasize. Yes.

that we will. And sometimes they'll sort of build like mundane's the worst of all of those. You're sort of building like, oh, average and dull. It didn't give enough of what I want to say. I have to add these more extreme to be clear about how I feel, right? Yeah. It escalates, right? Yes, exactly. And I had told Jessica I was going to talk about Wicked because- I know, I was surprised. I was like, why did you talk about Wicked?

Because I loved that film and I felt like I had a ton to say, but my answer would have been more similar to Jessica's. So then I thought, what's a film that I've seen so many times that I could really more describe the plot and what I love about it? So I switched last minute to talk about one of my favorite films. Wow. It's something you want to think about. Wow.

You want to make sure you can fill the two minutes. So maybe you don't want to say the most recent, even if the question is, what's the most recent movie you saw? The examiner doesn't know. I could have watched About Time yesterday, right? You want to talk about a film that you would have a lot to say about, a lot of detail, maybe that you feel that you're passionate about. You'll have more to say. And it's easier to have interesting intonation when you care more about it.

Totally, totally. Yeah, if I were given the most recent film and I couldn't think of a movie I saw recently I wanted to talk about, I would talk about The Shining because I have seen that like at least 20 times. And actually, James and I decided that The Shining is a Christmas movie because it has snow in it. And so that is now one of our traditional Christmas movies we watch every year. We watch it at Christmas. That's so funny. And I didn't even suggest it. I was like, James, like...

Let's just think of any movies with snow. They could be Christmas movies. What do you want to watch? And he's like, The Shining. I was like, we just watched that a couple of months ago, but okay. I love that so much. I love all of the strategies and vocabulary that you guys are getting today. You definitely want to practice answering questions like this. You might think, oh, I could describe my favorite movie. I don't need to practice that one. But you might be surprised that on test day, you get there and you're like, if I haven't ever spoken about this out loud, it might still be difficult to access, act

vocabulary about it, right? So definitely practice talking about favorite movies and songs and TV shows. Even if you feel like I would have tons to say about this, still practice these answers. Yeah, 100% guys. Especially if this is something that, you know, if it's a movie in your first language and you've only talked about it in your first language, you need to practice in English, right guys?

All right. So the takeaway today is that we love movies. We hope you do too. It's a fantastic way to prepare for IELTS watching movies. But guys, here's just some homework as a takeaway. The next time you watch any movie or TV show, after you finish watching it,

try to describe what you just watched in English for two minutes, right? If you add that to just your like weekly routine, that is such great IELTS practice. All right, guys, if you have an IELTS question, send it to us and we'll mention you in a future episode. Support at allearsenglish.com. Awesome. We will see you guys next week. Thanks, Jessica. Thanks, Aubrey. Bye. 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 myscore.