📘 Part 3: Transport

This episode's vocabulary

Means (plural noun) - a method or way of doing something.

Shortfall (noun) - an amount that is less than the level that was expected or needed.

Track (noun) - the pair of long metal bars fixed on the ground at an equal distance from each other, along which trains travel.

To take leave (phrase) - to say goodbye.

Funding (noun) - money given by a government or organization for an event or activity.

To channel (verb) - to direct something into a particular place or situation.

Disrepair (noun) - the state of being broken or old and needing to be repaired.

To resurface (verb) - to put a new surface on a road.

Intricacies (phrase) - complicated details.

Custom (noun) - a way of behaving or a belief that has been established for a long time.

Interactive (adj.) - involving communication between people.

To reenact (verb) - to repeat the actions of an event that happened in the past as a hobby or as a performance.

Re-enactment (noun) - an occasion on which people re-enact an event.

Put/throw a spanner in the works (idiom) - to do something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding.

Stymie (verb) - to prevent something from happening or someone from achieving a purpose.

Terrain (noun) - an area of land, when considering its natural features.

Questions and Answers

M: What are the main means of transport in your country?

R: Probably the same as in most Western countries, I'd imagine. We have family cars and community bus routes and National Rail services to get people where they want to be.

M: How is travelling now different to how it was in the past?

R: Broadly speaking, there's great variety and the distance that can be covered. And the places you can get to. Well, and the means you can use to get there, actually. It might even be more comfortable depending on how much investment there has been.

M: And has it improved?

R: Oh, God, well, actually, it's probably worse than it was 40 years ago. There's a multibillion-pound shortfall in infrastructure investment in my country alone. The roads are falling apart and train tracks stopped working in the snow. And planes are increasingly reporting faults. It's as if the people responsible have taken leave of their senses or something.

M: What can the government do to improve transport in your country?

R: Well, at the very least, it could do its job by securing the necessary funding and channelling it to the right projects. There was a right kerfuffle over our high-speed rail lines a few months ago because it was completely unnecessary when current rail lines need upgrading. And on top of that, it's the job of the government to enforce safety regulations to prevent things from falling into disrepair. So doing any of these things would be a great start.

M: How can transportation in rural areas be developed?

R: Well, I often wonder if it should, or if we should try to preserve the countryside in some way, but without denying people free access to it. Maybe it's not possible when I think about it. At the very least the roads could be resurfaced and well-maintained to keep things safe for the people who live there, or those passing through.

M: How can tourist attractions help people learn about new cultures?

R: Well, it depends on the nature of the attraction, I suppose. I mean, taking pictures of yourself with pyramids in the background isn't exactly going to help you understand the intricacies of ancient Egyptian customs, is it? But if it's a museum, they could have interactive exhibits and lessons and re-enactments to show how things worked and how they might relate to life nowadays.

M: In what ways could technology make travelling more difficult?

R: Well, if it fails to work or underperforms in certain conditions, then that will definitely throw a spanner in the works, won't it? I mean, people often talk about how mud can stymie efforts to get across relatively flat terrain like the Russian steppe, for example.

Discussion

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your answers! Transport. Yes, dear listener, a typical IELTS topic. So, means of transport. Okay? There are different means of transport.

R: There are.

M: Cars, buses.

R: Planes, camels.

M: Donkeys. Dragons. Helicopters. Private helicopters. Yeah. Oh, where's, where's my horse? Where's my donkey?

R: Well, it's not so far from reality as you might think. I mean, I'm reading Pride and Prejudice with one of my students and I'm reading all about how people travel around on horses and things.

M: Today, there's greater variety in the distance, okay? To be covered. So we cover the distance when we travel. There is greater variety in the means of transport that you can use. Right? In the past, people used horses, but today, you can use a helicopter, a plane, or a private jet.

R: You are obsessed with the helicopters.

M: No, but it's nice. I like helicopters.

R: I know. But it's such a weird choice.

M: Because, you know, like to get to certain places you can get there only by helicopter. You know?

R: Where?

M: You just get there by helicopter. Kamchatka, for example. You either walk for a month, or you have to take a helicopter.

R: Why don't you walk? It might be fun.

M: For a month, Rory. A month.

R: I know, I'm just messing with you now.

M: Yes. So I took a helicopter there. And back. It's nice. It was nice to fly over the volcanoes and see things from above. But in the past, people could not do this, right? They flew dragons, dear listener, right? Obviously.

R: Oh, I love it. I just love it when you speak factually about things that are complete nonsense.

M: Anyway, now transport is more comfortable. So it's much more comfortable and it's much faster.

R: Well, if it works.

M: Transport has improved over the years. Or it has gotten worse. Okay? Over the years.

R: And indeed to draw attention to that fact I said, if anything, it's worse, which is used to draw attention to the contrast.

M: And Rory told us that in Scotland, the transport system has gotten worse. Okay? So the roads in Scotland are falling apart. The roads are falling apart, train tracks stop working in the snow. Okay? So there's like no train service in the snow. Planes are increasingly reporting faults. So Present Continuous because kind of it's happening over a certain period of time. So we can use Present Continuous here. Planes are reporting faults. So you want to travel by plane, you are about to board the plane. And they say like, no, no, no, we can't fly. There is a mistake. There's an error.

R: The wing has fallen off.

M: Yeah. So our plane isn't functioning properly. Okay? So this means that planes are reporting faults. The government can do certain things to improve transport.

R: Like its job.

M: At the very least, the government could... So kind of like the bare minimum what the government could do is to do something. Yeah? So you can start, at the very least the government could do its job. The government could secure the necessary funding. Funding? The money that is allocated to transport systems. Secure the necessary funding, and channel the funding to the right projects. So when you channel the funding, you kind of allocate the money to different projects. Allocate the money to building roads, and allocate the money to constructing new trains, for example.

R: Anything really other than not spending the money.

M: The word kerfuffle is a very nice word.

R: Yes, but the other thing I said before it, it was right. A right kerfuffle. Here it doesn't mean it's correct, but it just means that it's a very serious thing. So a right kerfuffle. And a kerfuffle is just when there's a big conflict over different views about something. So here we had a kerfuffle about the transport in my country, but you can have a kerfuffle about something else.

M: Yeah, a kerfuffle means noise, excitement or argument.

R: And there was lots of argument over this train system.

M: Lik,e oh, do you remember all this kerfuffle about something? Yeah? There was a right. Like, kind of, correct. There was a right kerfuffle over high-speed rail lines. You know, high-speed trains. And trains travel on rail lines. Yeah, rail, like the rail system. Yeah? The system of trains. So high-speed rail lines. So there were some arguments over high-speed rail lines in Scotland, right?

R: No, no, not in Scotland, this was in England, but because this was a UK... Well, It was a UK government-funded project. It affected everything really, because they'd spent all this money that could have been sent to my region or someone else's to help build up their infrastructure. But instead, it was just wasted. Oh, God, so annoying.

M: So the government could spend money on building the infrastructure, meaning like transport systems. Yeah? Rail lines, like new rail lines. And Rory said that the current rail lines need upgrading. So maybe in your country, you have old rail lines, and there are problems with them. So current rail lines need upgrading, they need to be, well, improved.

R: Yes.

M: So it is the job of the government to do something. It is the job of the government to prevent things from falling into disrepair.

R: It just means that they were not maintained like they should have been. And so, they collapse or begin to degrade over time.

M: Things begin to degrade, they begin to collapse, they kind of stop working, stop functioning well. So, things fall into disrepair. And also, a good verb is maintained, the government should maintain... What? Like rail lines, maintain transport infrastructure, maintain roads. Like, take care of roads. Also, enforce safety regulations. So the government should make sure that the roads are safe. Transport is safe for people. So you can say it is the job of the government to enforce safety regulations. Yeah, to make sure that everything functions well. Transportation or transport infrastructure in rural areas. Rural? Not city areas. Not urban areas. Okay? So like rural areas in the villages, like outside cities. And transportation should be developed, improved or upgraded. And Rory kind of asks a question, maybe we should preserve the countryside, not kind of like build high-speed rail lines, yeah? And fly helicopters. Yeah, but the helicopters are fine. You know, like you kind of you, just don't destroy any countryside when you fly a helicopter.

R: Well, you might if you have a helicopter landing pad, you need to land the helicopter.

M: Yeah, you need to land the helicopter. But kind of, a helicopter can land on the field. No problem. You know?

R: I don't know about that. I feel like they need certain things in order to land.

M: No, no, no, like we landed on a volcano in Kamchatka. So like, there was nothing there, just like a flat space.

R: Right. Well, that is because crazy Russian people with their helicopters in Kamchatka doing whatever they want. And that does not sound safe.

M: Oh, my God.

R: No. I mean, I guess the land around a volcano is probably different to the land that's used to grow crops, for example, or fields.

M: Right. Yeah, yeah. True, true.

R: So maybe it's more solid. I don't know. But I'm not... I'm not flying a helicopter and landing it on a field, is something I never thought I would be saying today. But there we go.

M: Roads could be resurfaced. Okay? This is the structure, the verb we should use about roads. So roads should be built, new roads should be constructed. Roads could be resurfaced. Surface? Like we change the surface on the roads.

R: Yeah.

M: And roads should be well maintained. So taken care of. Tourist attractions, sites, like monuments. Yeah? Like in England, we have the Stonehenge.

R: Stonehenge.

M: Stonehenge.

R: Stonehenge.

M: Like a bunch of stones thrown by the devil himself, obviously, according to the legend. So tourist attractions. Yeah? In Rome, we have, what, the Colosseum, the Louvre in Paris. So tourist attraction. Or you can call them like landmarks.

R: But regardless, what we do there will be important, hopefully, for learning about cultures.

M: Tourist attractions can help you understand the intricacies of different cultures. Okay? Intricacy - complicated detail. Usually, like intricacies, many, intricacies, complicated details about something. For example, you watch a movie and you say, oh, like I couldn't follow all the intricacies of the plot. Okay? Like difficult details about the plot.

R: But culture is also intricate.

M: Yes, intricate culture. Visiting tourist attractions helps us understand the intricacies of different cultures customs and traditions. For example, if it's a museum, yeah? Like a famous museum, you could have interactive exhibits. Exhibits? What you see in a museum. Interactive? Like you learn things. And by enjoying these exhibits, you learn the intricacies of different cultures. What are re-enactments?

R: Re-enactments is like when you have a performance that shows what things were like, so you could have a re-enactment of a battle, for example, where actors pretend to be the people at this battle in the past. So a historical re-enactment, basically.

M: Yeah. And sometimes in museums, they have these, like shows, or it's like a separate show. And people reenact a certain event. For example, the Battle of Waterloo, yeah? And a re-enactment... Re-enactment, dear listener, okay? A re-enactment of this battle. So you watch it, and then you learn different things about history. The technology could make travelling more difficult because it could fail. The technology could fail. So if it fails. Okay? If technology fails to work, or if technology underperforms. If technology doesn't perform well.

R: Yeah. Then it stops working. Well, that's what it means. So...

M: If technology stops working, it will throw a spanner in the works.

R: We've used this idiom before, I'm sure. But it basically means... To throw a spanner in the works means to stop things from functioning or being completed properly.

M: So put/throw a spanner in the works is an idiom, dear listener. Okay? In American English, they say throw a monkey wrench in the works. But we don't need American English. So the British would do. Throw a spanner in the works - to do something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding. So kind of like, they didn't give us enough money, which threw a spanner in the works. Okay? So it stopped our project. And here, in the same fashion here, you can say like, if technology fails to work, it will definitely throw a spanner in the works. Okay? So it will ruin everything. And the technology could underperform in certain conditions. So it could not function well in certain conditions. For example, it could get too cold. And that's it. Everything's frozen, and technology does not work. Your car will not start if it is minus 80, which is very, super freezing cold. And then Rory said a very strange sentence, which I don't understand. So maybe just we don't need it. About mud and some terrain. So it's too difficult for us, dear listeners.

R: Why is that difficult?

M: Because what do you mean, like terrain, mud? What mud?

R: Well, for example, mud can stop technology from working, like transport systems from working.

M: Oh, okay.

R: And that's what I mean to stymie efforts, efforts to travel. And stymie efforts to get across is ruin efforts to travel over something. And the flat terrain of the Russian steppe should be easy to travel across. Why do you think it's unnecessary? I think it's a great sentence.

M: Okay. Like a good example. Yeah.

R: And in fact, people often talk about how is another way, a more advanced way of saying for example. This is an amazing sentence. How dare you? I have the best sentences. I have the best words.

M: Yes, Rory does have the best words ever. The best words, Rory words. Thank you so much for listening! We'll get back to you in our next episode! Okay? Bye!

R: Bye! That was fun!

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi