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πŸ“™ Part 2: Describe a helpful person you know

Rory shares a touching story about his indispensable best friend, John. Find out how to use powerful idioms and phrasal verbs to describe someone you admire and elevate your speaking score.

Maria & Rory

Β· 8 min read

This episode’s vocabulary

Persevere

verb β€” to try to do or continue doing something in a determined way, despite having problems.

Put up with sth/sb

phrasal verb β€” to accept or continue to accept an unpleasant situation or experience, or someone who behaves unpleasantly.

Indispensable

adj. β€” something or someone that is indispensable is so good or important that you could not manage without it, him, or her.

Modest

adj. β€” not usually talking about or making obvious your own abilities and achievements.

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πŸ“™ Part 2: Describe a helpful person you know
IELTS Speaking for Success
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Questions and answers

Maria

Rory is going to describe a helpful person he knows. He's going to say who this person is, how he knows this person, why he thinks this person is helpful, and he's going to explain how he feels about this person. Rory, are you all ready?

Rory

Yes.

Maria

Yes? Good. Fire away.

Rory

Well, whenever I think of helpful people, an image of my best friend John always forms in my mind's eye. I haven't met many people quite as hard working, or brave, or patient as John. He always seems to put in a lot of effort and has a lot of time for people, who, well, most people might become quite frustrated with, at least initially. We met during the course of our employment at BKC-ih Moscow, which has been previously established as Moscow's worst language school, and certainly a challenger for the worst in the world. Regardless, ever since we started working together, I've seen John helping out loads of people with different projects and problems that they might have. Because he is a manager, and a teacher trainer, like I was. John never seems to run out of steam or the will to persevere with those who really need it. Of course, that's his job to help people as a teacher and teacher trainer. But most people who are in those positions have their limits, but not John. He has put up with quite a lot. Without John in my life, I don't think I'd achieved nearly as much as I well as I have currently. Nor would many other people. And they would do very well to remember that, although many of them often forget. He's truly indispensable. Although he would never admit to that, because he's far too modest. So if you're privileged enough to have someone like that in your life, you really need to thank your lucky stars every day.

Maria

Oh, that's so sweet. What about your friends? Do they know John?

Rory

Everyone that knows John loves John.

Maria

Oh, cute. I know John.

Rory

And do you love John?

Maria

I love John.

Rory

John's never gonna hear this. It's so sad. But John is just great. -

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