📙 Part 2: Describe an important river or lake in your country

This episode's vocabulary

Estuary (noun) - the wide part of a river at the place where it joins the sea.

Bank (noun) - sloping raised land, especially along the sides of a river.

Mouth (noun) - the opening of a narrow container, the opening of a hole or cave, or the place where a river flows into the sea.

Steep (adj.) - (of a slope) rising or falling at a sharp angle.

Narrow (adj.) - having a small distance from one side to the other, especially in comparison with the length.

Decommission (noun) - the act of officially taking a factory or other industrial building out of use.

Rig (noun) - a large structure that is used for removing oil or gas from the ground or the bottom of the sea.

Dock (noun) - an area of water in a port that can be closed off and that is used for putting goods onto and taking them off ships or repairing ships.

Dock (verb) - if a ship docks, it arrives at a dock and if someone docks a ship, they bring it into a dock.

Rafting (noun) - the use of a rubber raft to travel with the current of a river, especially as a sport.

Waterway (noun) - a narrow area of water, such as a river or canal, that ships or boats can sail along.

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Questions and Answers

M: Hello our premium listener and welcome into the world of IELTS speaking part two. Rory now is going to describe an important river or lake in his country. I know it's a dreadful topic. Well, it might be dreadful, but it is a new IELTS speaking topic part 2. "Describe an important river or lake in your country". Rory is going to say where it's located, how big or long it is, what it looks like, and he's going to explain why it's important. Rory, the scene is yours. Off you go.

R: I suppose as a Scottish person, I'm expected to talk about Loch Ness and the myths around that particular place. But actually, I thought I'd pick somewhere more local and less well known. The river Tay runs from Loch Tay down to the estuary, which is actually near my home. It's called a river, which makes it sound quite small or short. But actually, it's quite long. And it runs past quite a few times in different counties in the northeast of Scotland. Because it covers such a large area, it varies in appearance based on where you are looking at it. Where I live, it meets the sea. So there are quite sandy banks, and it's got a wide mouth. So it's actually hard to distinguish between the two at some times. Especially if the tide is high, because it just looks like one large body of water. Further up towards Loch Tay, and that's our word for lake by the way, it's probably closer to a traditional conception of a river with steep banks and more trees, and it's narrower. It's used for lots of different things. For a start, it gives my hometown access to the sea, which is important as we service in decommission a lot of old oil rigs in the ports which we have in the city. Cruise ships can also dock via the river. So that gives the local economy a helpful boost from time to time, which we definitely need since we're in the post pandemic era. And we've got to make that recovery as fast as we possibly can. If you're in the water sports, like parasailing or even just plain old sailing, then you can use it for that in relatively calmer waters. Further up towards Loch Tay, it's used by several businesses, which specialize in rafting and other extreme sports like that. So without the river, none of these things would really exist. We're quite lucky to live so close to a major waterway. And I struggled to imagine what my town would be like if we didn't have this. I think we'd probably be a lot more exposed to the ups and downs of the economy. And nobody really wants that.

M: And will it be as important as it is now in the future?

R: I would imagine so.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: No problem. Hopefully there was a reservoir of language. Sorry.

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Discussion

M: Oh, such a pity you didn't talk about Loch Ness.

R: I know. But like people have heard about Loch Ness. And also, it's important to talk about what's local, so that people have an idea of how to talk about what's close to them.

M: Right. So, dear listener, here you have a choice, either a river or a lake. Rory talked about a river. But you can choose a lake. So if I were, if I were to give such an answer, I would talk about Lake Baikal, you say Baikal, Rory, in English? Baikal.

R: Yes. Don't you say that?

M: Yeah. Well, Baikal Lake. So it's the oldest existing freshwater lake on Earth. It's in Russia in the Eastern Siberia. So I would talk about this lake. You can talk about a river. But just make sure that you do know how to describe it. Or you just go now and Google, Google this river, Google this lake and write down maybe three, five, from three to five phrases, adjectives, nouns, some nice expressions and some nice facts about this water body. Okay? Because this is something very specific to your country. And this should be something like important, not just a lake, but an important lake or river. Lake Baikal, for example, is important because it's the oldest and the biggest freshwater lake in the world on Earth. Right? So just, just, just, yeah. It's also important for tourism. And Rory told us about the river. And he explained why it's important, right? So please make this choice now and Google it. Write out some facts. So Rory started off with, I suppose is a Scottish person, I'm expected to talk about Loch Ness, but no, I'm going to talk about the river.

R: You could say that for just about any country in the world, though, couldn't you? Like you could say I suppose as a Russian person, I'm expect to talk about Lake Baikal. But actually, I'm going to talk about the river Moskva.

M: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely correct.

R: Oh, let's think about a different country. Germany. I'm expected to talk about the Rhine, but instead I'm going to talk about the Danube. Does that run through Germany?

M: The Nile.

R: The Nile. I'm going to talk about the Nile. It's very important to Germany.

M: Actually, you can do that.

R: Hold on. Let me check. Rivers in Germany. Oh, my God, yes. The Danube does run through Germany.

M: Danube? Oh, but is it important for Germany, though?

R: Ah, yeah. It's, it's important for access to I guess most of eastern Europe.

M: Ah, okay, cool.

R: And it's the second longest river in Europe after the Volga in Russia. And if you're from Russia, then you can talk about the Volga too.

M: Oh, nice. The Danube.

R: No, no, the Volga in Russia is a cool river. I imagine the Danube is cool in Germany.

M: Yes. And they have these cruise ships, which are really nice.

R: What other countries? Oh, if you're from Brazil, I suppose as someone from Brazil, I'm expected to talk about the Amazon.

M: The Nile.

R: But actually, I'm going...The Nile? In Brazil?

M: The Nile.

R: I think you're in denial about where the Nile is.

M: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

R: Sorry. I'm having too much fun with this. But yes, that's why I picked it because it's a good way to just extend the introduction to your answer.

M: Nice. Yeah. Yeah. And then we do need specific vocabulary to describe rivers and lakes. Right? So topic specific vocabulary. First of all, we say that this river runs in different countries, the river doesn't go, it runs, right? So the lake is in this country. There is a lake in my country. The Lake Baikal is in the south eastern part of Eastern Siberia. What? Okay, so it's in Siberia, close to Irkutsk. And you can say this river runs in different countries. Run, like you run a marathon, so the river runs. And you say it's quite long. It's a long river. Also, can you say that this river is narrow?

R: You can say it's narrow in places. Well, in my case, it's narrow in places.

M: We know that the Nile River is wide, is really wide in places. It could be narrow too. Also the river covers a large area. Okay? So for example, Lake Baikal in Russia, if you don't know about Lake Baikal, go and Google it, Baikal Lake, the biggest freshwater reservoir on Earth. So it covers a very large area, which is true about Lake Baikal, it could be true about your river or lake. And then Rory used gorgeous topic specific vocabulary. For example, sandy banks.

R: That's just the sides of the river.

M: Sandy banks.

R: Well, banks are the sides of the river. Sandy describes the fact that there's sand on them.

M: It doesn't mean that sandy banks where you get the money and the banks are full of sand, no. Sandy banks - sandy sides of the river. And then Rory goes like, the river has a wide mouth. What? A mouth?

R: That's just is the end of the river.

M: The river mouth, it's the end of the river, it's a specific word, you have a mouth as a person, rivers also have a mouth. And also you can say the river meets the sea in such and such place. Plus we can talk about steep banks. So sandy banks and steep banks. Steep? What, what is it?

R: It means it's easy to fall down if you stood at the edge. Whereas if you're on sandy banks, usually, you wouldn't fall down so easily.

M: Yeah. So please, just Google now steep. Steep banks. Just put it in Google and look at the images, Google Images, steep banks and you'll see some pictures to have a clearer idea. So you see, very super duper topic specific vocabulary. What about a lake? Is it true about a lake? Can a lake have sandy banks? Beaches? Can a lake meet the sea? The lake doesn't have a mouth.

R: I don't think a lake can meet the sea because then it's not really separate from the sea. But it could definitely meet the land and where it meets the land it's very muddy, you could say, or it's very sandy depending on what kind of lake it is.

M: Or for example, a lake could be deep or shallow. We can also talk about like steep banks or steep slopes, kind of like the shore is quite steep. So kind of high. So you can like fall over. You can talk about islands, for example, are there any islands on that lake?

R: Can you have islands in a river?

M: I think so. Small islands. Yeah, why not? And then Rory talked about why it's important for his country. So what did you say? First you said gives my hometown access to the sea.

R: Yes. And I went into more detail, which is important, because we do lots of things with oil rigs, we service them and we decommission them which means we make sure they're working or we take them out of service.

M: Very specific words, oil rigs. Could you please google image it? So take a look, oil rigs, this thing is like...which give us oil. And then cruise ships. Cruise ships can also dock via the river. So when a cruise ship docks, what does it do?

R: It comes to the port.

M: Yeah. So there is a port area and different ships, yachts. Boats can dock there. Yeah, Baikal is 1642 meters deep. In some places, it goes as deep as, well, it's pretty much 1600 meters. It's really deep, yeah?Okay. Also, we can talk about rivers and lakes and we can talk about water sports, right? So it's important because of watersports, parasailing or just sailing rafting on rivers, right? Also lakes are used for paragliding, parasailing, swimming, I don't know. Rowing, for example, rowing, canoeing. Also for tourism, right? So different people prefer to go on cruise ships, or for example, to Baikal. It's a common tourist destination. So people from all over the world, go to this, Baikal in winter, because in winter, there is this beautiful water, the lake freezes, then you can see this crystal like pure water with beautiful patterns. It's amazing. What helped you to organize your answer?

R: Well, once again, I went in the order that the card described things. So actually, when I talked about where it was located, I even included that in my first line. So as a Scottish person, well, it's obviously located in Scotland then. And then I went into more detail. It covers places in the northeast of Scotland. To be honest, I could have just said the East northeast is more complicated. And then when I covered the size, I didn't actually say it is big, it is long. I just said it covers a large area. And then I described what it looks like in the same part as well. So I said where it meets the sea. However, I also talked about where it starts, the source. And then explaining why it's important. I didn't actually say it's important because but I just mentioned lots of things that it's used for. So the implication is, if something's used for lots of things, it's very important for the local economy. And if it didn't exist, which I said, I couldn't imagine what life would be like. So it's used to sustain things the way they are. And if it wasn't there, things would be so radically different. It would, the place would be unrecognizable.

M: Thank you, Rory! Yeah, dear listener, so, could you please make your choice and choose a river or a lake? Make sure you use some of these words, right? Topic specific vocabulary, right? So bank slopes and it's a good idea to read some articles on the internet about river and lake.

R: Talk about the source.

M: To get some facts. Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in speaking part three, where we talk about rivers and lakes.

R: Again!

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

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