📕 Part 1: Car Trips

This episode's vocabulary

Motion sickness (noun) - a feeling of being ill, especially of needing to vomit, that some people get in a moving vehicle.

Room (noun) - the amount of space that someone or something needs.

Precedence (noun) - the condition of being dealt with before other things or of being considered more important than other things.

Decadent (adj.) - a decadent person or group has low moral standards.

Beam (verb) - to send out a line of light.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, do you like traveling by car?

R: Oh, when I'm not the one doing the driving I do, especially by taxi in Moscow. I love looking at the window and enjoying the views of the city as they roll past. I'll really miss them when I have to leave actually.

M: What's the farthest place you've traveled to by car?

R: Oh, we used to travel to a village in England where one of our friends lived and that. Well, it seemed to take forever anyway, at the time. I think it was about 300 miles or something, which isn't much when you think about it, especially if you're living in Russia. But when I was a child, that seemed like a lot.

M: Do you like to sit in the front or back when you're traveling by car?

R: Oh God, even in the front if I can help it. I sometimes get motion sickness, and I like having more room for my feet. But sometimes others with more severe issues sort of take precedence. And I'm quite happy to let them do that.

M: When do you usually travel by car?

R: Oh, whenever I can. Like I said, I really love taking taxis in Moscow. It's really decadent. I know. But I love it. They get me from A to B with minimal effort.

M: When will your next car trip beam?

R: That's a good question. Probably tonight after we leave the studio.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: No problem.

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Discussion

M: So, car trips is one of the recent IELTS speaking topics. So the new topics appeared at the beginning of May. So we're delivering fresh topics to you. Okay, car trips. You said that I like traveling by car. And first of all, we say travel by car, or have a car trip, right? Yeah, that's the language you should know. So. Rory said I like car trips when I'm not doing the driving. So you do the driving.

R: Isn't that some kind of... When I'm the one doing the driving I do. Is that not inversion or something like that?

M: No. This is not inversion. This is not the conditional.

R: It's nice, though.

M: It is, though, yeah.

R: It's like do for emphasis. When I'm not the one doing the driving I do. When I'm not the one doing the cooking I do. So that could be like a nice way of sort of paraphrasing the question. So instead of saying yes, when I'm not the one doing the ... I do.

M: Yeah, because I do, because like do you like traveling by car, blah blah, blah, I do. So I do like traveling by car. And this is really cool. They roll past. Who rolls past? What rolls past?

R: Well, here are the views of the city roll past was like, it doesn't seem like the car is moving. It seems like you're moving. Do you know what else rolls past?

M: What?

R: The time, when you're doing our Podcourse. It's all about phrasal verbs, roll pass is a phrasal verb. I love it.

M: Right, I don't know what to say, dear listener.

R: We move on to our next phrasal verb which is used to.

M: Oh, it's not a phrasal verb.

R: It's like a phrasal verb. There's a verb and a preposition.

M: Oh no.

R: Yes, its it's own special structure. But it was a phrasal verb at the start. And then it became its

own structure. The history of English language women.

M: Have you just made it up?

R: No, that's a fact.

M: Did you go to university to study the English language? Do you have a teaching degree?

R: It started as a phrasal verb and then sort of... What's the word? Not metastasized, maybe fossilized or something like that into this structure.

M: What?

R: Yeah.

M: Used to used to be a phrasal verb used to used to be a phrasal verb. Okay, um, so googling this because I think it's a structure.

R: It shares features of phrasal verbs.

M: How about that, used to is a set structure and also we have -ing and infinity. For example, enjoy doing so the verb pattern is -ing form.

R: Yeah, it's fixed.

M: I pretend to do something. So it's infinitive, verb plus infinitive or verbs plus gerund.

R: Yeah, but like it's, we'll do a grammar for success one day.

M: Dear listener, I'm going to google it, all right? So we'll get it sorted out.

R: However, I said used to.

M: Used to, yeah. So we used to travel to a village in England by car so and now Rory doesn't go to a village by car because he lives in Moscow. For a month.

R: Maybe by the time people are listening to this, I'll be away.

M: You said that sometimes you get motion sickness. You get like, you get sick because the car moves or what?

R: Yeah, so motion sickness is. People call it feeling carsick, sometimes. It's when you're not focusing on the movement in front of you. So you might be reading a book or something while the car is going. So the fluid in your ears registers that the car is moving. But your vision doesn't match up with what your ears are feeling. And this confusion makes you sick.

M: Wow, yeah, people can get seasick.

R: It's the same idea, it's the same thing. But you fix it by looking at the horizon. It restores the equilibrium and your senses. equilibrium. It just means everything works together. It's not really...

M: Yeah, and you can see in the front and in the back or at the back.

R: Yeah, you can sit the back of the car or you can sit at the front of the car.

M: So the preposition is at or in?

R: Well, to be honest, you can say in or at the front, it doesn't matter.

M: Really? But more common they use at... At the back.

R: The most important thing is that you'll say in the front, in the back, not in front of the car. If you sit in front of the car, then you won't be sitting for very long, you'll be dead.

M: Yeah, in front of the car, or you just go out and then you stand in front of the car. If you sit at the front, if you sit at the front, you have more room for your feet.

R: Yes, you have more leg room.

M: Yeah, you have more leg room. Yeah. Same at the, inside the plane, you have more leg room, and you pay extra money.

R: You don't pay extra money for your leg room in the car, I hope.

M: No.

R: Good.

M: It's very decadent. What does it mean decadent?

R: Decadent, it's like you've spent an excessive amount of money on something that you really shouldn't have, just because it's so luxurious. So for example, getting taxis everywhere is quite decadent. Smoking, a cigar is quite decadent, because you just spent a lot of money on it. And it's not really worth it. But it looks nice.

M: So when I talk about traveling by car, I can also mention taking taxi. Taxis, right?

R: Yeah. Why not?

M: Because it's a car trip. So I usually take a taxi.

R: I don't drive. I take taxis. because I'm lazy.

M: Yeah, you just throw money at the people.

R: To make my problems go away.

M: How beautiful is that?

R: Capitalism for the win.

M: One of the questions was about what's the farthest place you've traveled by car. So the farthest place is like this faraway place, like the farthest place you've been to? you've traveled by car, right? Can I say the furthest place?

R: Yeah, there used to mean the same thing. There's probably some small difference in meaning but to be honest with you, it's not that...

M: Yeah, usually further we use about details. For example, I need further details. But about distances we use far so far, the farthest place I've traveled by car. Don't forget to use present perfect. So you can say the farthest place I've traveled by car is Murmansk or Vladivostok?

R: Is it?

M: No.

R: I can only imagine what a car trip to Vladivostok what be like... God.

M: I went to the south of Moscow. Vladivostok is like 14 days by car. Yay. Thank you very much for listening.

R: We hope that our vocabulary and grammar won't drive you mad. Bye!

M: Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and follow us on social media. Bye!

R: Bye!