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Every week, Maria and Rory get together to discuss the latest IELTS Speaking topics, providing model answers and vocabulary to help you improve your general spoken English and achieve a higher band in your IELTS exam.
Rory admits he's become a bit of a couch potato! Listen as he and Maria share Band 9 vocabulary for daily routines and explore grammar for discussing past habits and hypothetical situations.
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Is a blockbuster with a big-name star guaranteed to succeed? Rory discusses why casting "non-entities" can still lead to a box office hit and shares powerful vocabulary for writing movie reviews.
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Rory shares why a recent trip to the cinema was a 'real letdown.' Listen to find out which blockbuster film he thought took 'absolutely ages' and learn how to describe your own disappointing experiences.
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Rory explains why he avoids high-rises but would visit a royal residence. Listen as he and Maria share stunning vocabulary for architecture and Rory cracks a dad joke about the world's tallest building!
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Should parents reward their kids for everything? Rory weighs in on when praise becomes a problem and shares some C2-level grammar that Maria says is essential for a Band 9. Listen for tips on avoiding selfish kids!
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Listen as Rory shares a personal story about his high-flying cousin! He reveals the idioms and transitions you need to talk about achievements and navigate tricky interview-style questions with confidence.
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Has Rory ever locked himself out of the house? Listen as he and Maria share tales of misplaced keys, momentary panic, and the one accessory everyone should have on their keychain. Don't get left in the cold!
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Are electric cars really the future? Rory shares a surprisingly pessimistic view on saving the planet, revealing a powerful idiom and a clever trick for when you need a moment to think in your exam.
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Rory plans a wild road trip to the rugged north of his country! Discover the advanced idioms, phrasal verbs, and transition phrases he uses to describe his dream journey and impress the examiner.
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Find out why Rory's favourite flavour is surprisingly 'vanilla' and hear Maria challenge him with some truly bizarre options, including one that actually glows in the dark. A delicious episode awaits!
To cater to sb/sth (phrasal verb) - to provide what someone or something wants or needs.
Lactose (noun) - a type of sugar that is found in milk.
Sugar-free(adj.) - sugar-free foods do not contain sugar and usually contain an artificial sweetener instead.
To be vanilla - to be uninteresting, unexciting, or unadventurous.
Sharp (adj.) - sour in taste.
Cone (noun) - a container made of very light thin biscuit, or one of these containing ice cream.
Flake (noun) - a small, thin piece of something, especially if it has come from a surface covered with a layer of something.
Fare (noun) - the type of food that is served in a restaurant.
Intriguing (adj.) - very interesting because of being unusual or mysterious.
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M: Do you like ice cream?
R: Doesn't everyone? I think they have types that cater to just about every taste these days. Especially if you're like me, and you have a sensitive stomach, so you need stuff that's lactose or sugar-free.
M: What's your favourite flavour?
R: I'm going to be very vanilla here and just say vanilla. It's simple and straightforward. It always gets the job done. I suppose a close second place would be mint chocolate chips. I quite like that one. It's got quite a sharp flavour.
M: Did you eat ice cream when you were a child?
R: Oh, absolutely. Like, didn't everyone? We used to get them with cones and a flake in them. Whenever we went to the beach, and there was an ice cream van nearby. That was quite nice.
M: Are there any shops selling ice cream near your home?
R: I think so. There was a Tesco store at the garage just along the road from where I lived. It must have some. Not that I've ever looked for it. It's a pretty small place though. So I imagine it would be just sort of standard fare. Nothing terribly complex or intriguing in terms of flavour.
M: Can you make ice cream yourself?
R: I mean, I could if I had the time, and the ingredients and a recipe book. And patience. But I don't have any of those things. So not right now, sadly. Sorry.
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M: Hey, thank you Rory for your delicious answers! Ice cream. Do you like ice cream? Doesn't everyone? So the answer to this question could be a question like doesn't everyone like ice cream? Come on, like...
R: Everybody likes ice cream.
M: Yeah, like who doesn't like pizza? Come on.
R: Where are these people?
M: Yeah, but some people dislike ice cream. Okay. And we can say that different types of ice cream cater to almost every taste. So different ice cream producers cater to different tastes.
R: Shall we talk about cater to?
M: Yeah.
R: So cater to means to make the effort, to help or to support something. And different tastes. Oh, every taste. It's a pub. Because you taste ice cream, but taste can also mean your preference.
M: And you can say that some ice creams are lactose-free. So this lactose, this ingredient. Or sugar-free. You can also say that I prefer non-dairy ice cream. Like, without any milk, it's like a dairy product, a milk product. So no milk, non-dairy ice cream, or I prefer vegan options. Right? Or low-calorie ice creams with high protein, for example. And these days, did you know that they have plant-based ice cream?
R: Oh, like, so no animal products in them at all?
M: No. They use brown rice, they use organic cocoa powder. So pretty much everything is green, plants, and organic. No, you know, these chemicals in there. So yeah, plant-based ice cream.
R: I hope there are no chemicals. Hold on, wait, if it's in the universe, then it's a chemical. What you mean is like harmful chemicals, right?
M: Yeah, no harmful chemicals. And also you can say like, oh, if I have a sensitive stomach. A sensitive stomach. The stomach is this organ, yeah?
R: It's where your food goes.
M: Yeah. It's like, you eat some of these. Yeah? Like ice cream. And then your stomach feels funny. So I have a sensitive stomach. So I prefer plant-based ice cream. Sugar-free ice cream. And also here you can talk about different types of ice creams. Can I say ice creams?
R: I don't see why not, to be honest. Because there are different kinds of ice... Well, I would say different kinds of ice cream. I consider it uncountable. But if we talk about the individual flavours, then yeah, but that's like super specific.
M: Different ice creams, different flavours, tastes, yeah? And also different types. For example, sorbet. Gelato is Italian ice cream. Gelato. Ooh, gelato, banana gelato. Mamma Mia. Also, we can have some frozen yoghurt as a type of ice cream. Ice popsicle. Rory, what is an ice popsicle?
R: Oh, you call them ice popsicles. Where I'm from, we just call them Ice Pops. But at least where I'm from an ice pop is... It's like a plastic tube that's filled with flavoured water basically and it gets frozen. And that's an ice pop. But you also have ice lollies. I don't know if they can be counted as ice cream though. I feel like the cream part of ice cream means it's got to have some kind of milk in it.
M: No, no. Yeah, we go crazy with this like plant-based ice creams, and non-dairy ice cream. So everything is ice cream.
R: Yeah, like, well, it's a milk substitute though. It's stuff that's used instead of milk. But it's still, there's the milk element is still there. The idea of it.
M: Flavor. Different flavours, Rory went vanilla.
R: I went vanilla because I'm boring.
M: Yeah, you're boring. Vanilla. And actually vanilla is one of... I think it's on top. Maybe the first most favourite vanilla... The flavour of ice cream is vanilla. But also you mentioned chocolate chip. So chocolate chip ice cream or ice cream with mint chocolate chips. Right? So what's this mint chocolate chips?
R: It's like mint-flavoured ice cream with chocolate chips in it. It's quite nice.
M: And you said that it has this sharp flavour. What did you mean by that mint?
R: Just you taste the mint and it's like, oh...
M: It's fresh, right?
R: I think sharp is usually used to describe citrus flavours, though. Like orange or lemon flavour, but also mint can be quite sharp, I think. Although I'm quite sensitive. So that might be why it's sharp for me.
M: For example, some cheeses have a sharp flavour, right? It's kind of like... It's sharp. So I enjoy the minty flavour. I enjoy this minty ice cream. It's refreshing. It's sharp. It's like... It's not too rich. Ice cream could be rich in flavour, like a lot of creamy, rich flavour.
R: Lots of sugar, lots of milk. It's probably very bad for you.
M: Another topic-specific vocabulary item... The word is cones. So what are they? Cones. Ice cream cones.
R: An ice cream cone... How best to describe it? Well, it's a cone shape. It's like a hardened pastry that you scoop the ice cream out of the tub and you put that inside. And then you can hold the cone while you wander around and then you can eat the cone too. That's the advantage of it over a cup.
M: Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the cone is this thingy. Yeah. Usually, it's like brown and then kind of you yum, yum, yum, you eat it. And then what do you call this actual ball? This ball of ice cream that they put on top. So you have the cone...
R: The scoop.
M: The scoop, right? So not an ice cream ball. A scoop, you know, like one scoop. How many scoops? Like three scoops.
R: You can have like huge ones. But probably one scoop is enough.
M: And when I was a child, I used to get cones, ice cream cones. At the beach, for example. And there were ice cream vans. So usually... What are these ice cream vans? Vans, like vehicles, cars.
R: Yeah, they just go around. They're big vans that have ice cream inside and they sell them. I think they're pretty common everywhere. You have them in Russia, right?
M: They're not vans, though. They're kind of like kiosks. They don't have an engine.
R: Oh...
M: Yeah. But sometimes we have vans. But maybe for burgers, or some fast food.
R: This was such a bad episode to film in the morning when I've not eaten. Really, I'm going hungry now.
M: Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. What did you mean, when you said that I think it will be pretty standard fare? Fare like the price?
R: No. Standard, like fare is just, well, sort of foodstuffs. It's a very old word meaning foodstuffs. It's just like saying it's pretty standard food, basically. It's an old word meaning food.
M: Oh, okay. Could you give us an example then?
R: Oh, yeah. The local stores aren't very big, so they just sell like standard fare, to be honest with you. I should say, it's quite an old word.
M: Like standard food.
R: Yeah, just like normal food that you wouldn't find anywhere. It's usually standard fare. It's another way of describing things which are quite boring as well because it's standard. It's just what you expect. It's nothing very exciting. Like I went to the restaurant and it was just pretty standard fare, to be honest with you.
M: And you can say that yeah, there are some ice cream vans near my house or along the road. And there are some stores, which sell like usual ice cream or maybe there's an ice cream shop. We can make ice cream ourselves.
R: If you're brave, I'm not brave. And Rory used the second conditional. So if I could.
R: Did I?
M: Yeah, so you're imagining things if I could. Oh, sorry, I could make ice cream if I had the right ingredients. So we're talking about the present and future. Kind of kinda real. So I could make ice cream if I had the right ingredients but Rory doesn't have them. Maybe he'll get them in the future. And a recipe book. So a recipe book.
R: A recipe book. Like a big book with instructions and a list of things that you need to make something.
M: Yeah, a recipe book, a recipe book, you follow the instructions and you make your ice cream. And then you need patience. Patience for it. So patience for cooking, patience for making ice cream. What ingredients do you usually need? Like milk, sugar, and some flavourings.
R: I think you need more than milk. I think you need cream, no?
M: Cream. Yeah, cream.
R: And that's like very rich milk.
M: And also, for example, you can mention that, oh, I prefer to use coconut milk or oat milk. Like replacements for dairy products, for usual milk. Or almond milk. Do you see? So really nice words.
R: Oh, fancy.
M: And Rory, I'm gonna give you three options for weird ice cream. Like strange ice cream. Okay? Could you choose one option? Yeah. Number one, ice cream which glows in the dark. Actually, an English ice cream maker added some proteins, which make jellyfish. Jellyfish glow. So he added something from jellyfish into ice cream and the ice cream glows in the dark. So it just lights up in the dark. So number two, is pizza-flavoured ice cream. Hey! Pizza-flavoured ice cream. Tomato, oregano.
R: Wait, what kind of pizza flavour though? Is it like Margarita Pizza?
M: Yeah, it's Margarita. Yeah, like tomato basil, salt, and garlic. Number three, pear and blue cheese. Pear is this kind of fruit and blue cheese is this cheese.
R: Why are they together? Do people eat their pears and blue cheese together?
M: Yeah, very often. Yeah. We have pizza with pears and blue cheese. So it's just... And pear and blue cheese, they go very well together.
R: I'll take your word for it.
M: Ice cream, which glows in the dark. Pizza-flavoured ice cream or pear and blue cheese?
R: I'm not eating pear and blue cheese. That's gross. But... Okay, so we've got pizza flavour. I like pizza.
M: Pizza-flavoured ice cream?
R: But also the novelty of glow-in-the-dark ice cream.
M: It's interesting. Yeah?
R: Yeah.
M: And you can have ice cream all over you and just glow.
R: Because I'm a creature of habit, I will say I will have the pizza-flavoured ice cream, please. See? That wasn't too difficult. It wasn't like a whole lot of disgusting options.
M: You know, Rory, life is like ice cream. We should enjoy it before it melts. Bye!
R: Bye!
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