📙 Part 2: Describe an invention that is useful in your daily life

This episode's vocabulary

The easy way out (idiom) - what is easiest in a difficult situation.

Embedded (adj.) - existing or firmly attached within something or under a surface.

Bog-standard (adj.) - completely ordinary, without anything special added.

Convenient (adj.) - suitable for your purposes and needs and causing the least difficulty.

Indispensable (adj.) - something or someone that is indispensable is so good or important that you could not manage without it, him, or her.

To enable (verb) - to make someone able to do something, or to make something possible.

Dumbphone (noun) - a very basic mobile phone that cannot connect to the internet.

Intuitive (adj.) - (knowledge from) an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts.

User interface (noun) - the way in which the information on a computer, phone, etc. and instructions on how to use it are arranged on the screen and shown to the user.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, off you go. Rory story.

R: I'm going to take the easy way out and talk about my phone, I'm afraid. I imagine most people would talk about this since they're so embedded in our lives these days. But really, smartphones are amazing. To talk about mine specifically, I would say it's pretty bog-standard, to be honest with you. You can take photos, make notes, run various programs on it and applications. I usually use it for video recording, and messaging on various apps and watching videos. I could use a laptop for all of these. But to be honest, even the smallest ones aren't as convenient as a smartphone, frankly, because you can't fit a laptop in your pocket. You can fit most phones in your pockets, even though they're getting progressively larger all the time it seems. In more detail about its popularity, I'd have to say that it's pretty indispensable for the vast majority of people in this day and age, people seem to constantly need to be connected to each other and their online content. And smartphones both enable and feed into that because you can make posts using your smartphone as well as watch them, watch other people's too. Despite the initial learning curve involved in switching from a dumbphone to a smartphone, once you get used to it, it's pretty intuitive as to how the whole thing works, and how a new feature should be operated. Although sometimes the app updates are hard to cope with. But that's more about the software and the user interface than the phone itself, which, you know, once you get used to where your thumb should be and where your fingers should hold everything, then, you know, off you go and you're absolutely fine. If I didn't have it, I think I'd really struggle in terms of work, to be honest. I'd certainly never leave home without it, that's for sure. Because, well, I just needed to get around and access all the information I need for the day.

M: And would you buy a new one anytime soon?

R: Yes, Maria. I will buy a new phone soon, I promise.