📙 Part 2: Describe a time you had to learn the words of something and then say or sing it from memory

This episode's vocabulary

Assess#nbsp;(verb) -#nbsp;to decide the quality or importance of something.

Recall#nbsp;(verb) -#nbsp;to bring the memory of a past event into your mind, and often to give a description of what you remember.

Prompt#nbsp;(noun) - words that are spoken to an actor who has forgotten what he or she is going to say during the performance of a play.

Cue card#nbsp;(noun) - a card, unseen by the audience, carrying dialogue, lyrics, etc. as an aid to a television performer.

Stammer#nbsp;(noun) -#nbsp;to speak or say something with unusual pauses or repeated sounds, either because of speech problems or because of fear or nervousness.

Stutter#nbsp;(noun) -#nbsp;to speak or say something, especially the first part of a word, with difficulty, for example pausing before it or repeating it several times.

Extraordinarily#nbsp;(adj.) -#nbsp;very; more than usual.

Nerve-wracking#nbsp;(adj.) -#nbsp;something that is nerve-racking is difficult to do and causes a lot of worry for the person involved in it.

-

Questions and Answers

M:#nbsp; Rory will describe a time when he had to learn the words of something, like a poem or a song and then he had to sing it or say it from memory. He will say where he was, who was listening to him, what he had to say or sing,#nbsp; and explain how he felt about saying or singing something he has learned. Rory, how are you?

R: I'm fine.

M: Are you ready?

R: Yes.

M: Yes, fire away.

R: Well, this is actually quite the coincidence because I found some certificates for this the other day when I was going through some papers. I usually organize my documents fairly regularly. So I was at this manor house outside of my hometown for what's called a Trinity drama exam. This is something that you can do if you study drama at this particular school. And part of the exam involved memorizing a section of a performance. And this was done for a pair of examiners who came to the school. It was based in this manner to assess us. And I had to recall an act out part of a play for them with no prompts or cue cards. And while I was doing that, their job was to take notes about how well I did, and that formed the basis of part of my certification. There were two other parts, I think one of them involved... I think I had to speak and have a discussion about a topic. Anyway, this was back in the day before I did public speaking regularly. I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. So I was actually really nervous and I spoke with stammers and stutters back then. So it was actually extraordinarily difficult for me. But I practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and I pulled through. I actually think I got a pretty high mark for it. If memory serves, even though it was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. I'm still really glad I did it. It sort of helped lay the foundations for me becoming a better speaker. And well, you can see the end results of that now because I'm doing this sort of two minute task here. Um, but yeah, I can't actually remember what the name of the performance was, but I remember I had to do it and I remember it was successful. So I'm really pleased about that.

M: Yay. Well done you. I'm so proud of you.

R: Follow up question. Follow up question.

M: Do you often have to remember things?

R: Yes, I keep track of them in my diary.

-