S01 - 9 Books

Native English speakers answer questions about books. 

This episode also speaks about question tags, pronouncing French-origin words in English and other ways to say important.

For classes or transcripts go to https://realexamenglish.com/

Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Real Exam English, my name is Trevor. Today we are talking about books. It´s another topic that appears regularly in exams and in this episode you will hear native English speakers answering questions about what books they like as well as more general questions about books such as the benefits of reading and the future of books. We also speak about question tags, the English pronunciation of words that originate from French and different ways to say important.

Ok then, let´s go with the questions.

Trevor: What kind of books do you like most?

Lesley(UK): It´s really hard for me to pin down favourites because I am quite eclectic, I like choosing lots of different things. So I´ll read really quite a pacey thriller, I´ll read a historical novel, I will occasionally read something that´s kind of factual, sort of Teaching me about something and it all depends very much on my mood. It very much depends on how much time I´ve got and therefore free time and energy to focus on things so I kind of hop around depending on all of those factors. 

The first thing to pick up on here is the phrasal verb to pin down. OK to pin down means to define clearly, and as the speaker explained, she is quite eclectic and likes choosing lots of different things, and for that reason it's really hard for her to pin down favourites or to clearly define her favourite. And she also uses this excellent piece of vocabulary, a pacy thriller. OK, so you are all probably aware of what a thriller is, but a pacy thriller is one that moves along at a quick pace. So, it's very easy to read and a very similar and another super piece of vocabulary is a pageturner. And pageturner is book that is very engaging and therefore makes you turn the pages very quickly. And that's a fantastic word to have for your speaking test, or perhaps even if you're writing a review in Part 2 of your writing test, it's a really nice word to use.

Trevor: What kind of books do you like to read?

Ofordi(UK): In terms of genre I´d say satirical science fiction. A really good example of an author would be Terry Pratchett, because I think he is absolutely phenomenal. He manages to take a world that is not like our own but somehow is very much like our own and you sort of see these layers upon layer upon layer of sort of wit and social commentary and sarcasm but it´s also really quite fantastical and wonderful as well. 

Trevor: Do you think it´s important for parents to read to their children?

Emma(Ireland): Absolutely, 100%. They’re like sponges. The vocabulary that they are exposed to in books is crucial to their development so yes I think it´s…….And it´s a bonding time as well to have with children and parents together and it benefits both the child and the parent. 

Trevor: It is said that we can't learn much from reading novels. Do you agree?

Emma: No, I don´t agree with that, no I don´t. Fictional novels, I think we can learn about other people’s perspectives. I think we can learn about empathy, about other people’s feelings and emotions that we may not have been aware of and it exposes us to things that we are not exposed to in our day-to-day lives. 

Trevor: Do you think that in the future people won't read books any more?

Emma: No, from what I can see now anyway, I think that people will always continue to read books. People enjoy that break away from society and that break away for their mind to read books. Possibly less people are reading but I don´t think there´ll be a time when people don´t read books.

Trevor: The first question here asked do you think it´s important for parents to read to their children and in the answer the speaker said being exposed to books is crucial for their development. A lot of the time in English exams the question includes the word important and very often students keep on repeating the same word, important, again and again. This especially happens in Cambridge exams where there is a dialogue, for instance in the B2 and C1 exams part 3. For that reason, it is essential to have a few different ways to say important, so you can show the examiner a variety of language. So, other words we can use instead of important are essential, vital, crucial, key, paramount, imperative…..there´s a bunch of them. So, when you are practicing answering any questions which contain the word important try to get into the habit of substituting important with one of these other words.

Trevor: Do you like reading?

Diarmuid(Ireland): I do, but I don´t read as much as I should. I generally read factual historical books and I don’t read too much fiction.

Trevor: Do you agree that if we want to understand something well it's better to watch a documentaryt rather than read a book?

Diarmuid: No, I think that’s definitely not true, you can twist any narrative into a TV documentary, make it look whatever way you want it to.

Trevor: But a book?

Diarmuid: A book you can probably do that too, but it´s less emotional. You can see it more clearly for what it is and you’re also more likely to examine some of the claims in it.

Trevor: Do you think in the future people probably won´t read books any more?

Diarmuid: No, I don´t. I think things probably always go in swings and roundabouts and I think it will come around to reading books a lot more.

We had an excellent idiom here in the last answer, swings and roundabouts.

So we had an excellent idiom in this last answer. If you say that a situation is swings and roundabouts, you mean that there are as many positives as there are negatives. I´ll give you an example relevant to my life! If I live in Ireland the air is nice and fresh but it rains a lot. In Spain it never rains but its too hot and there are lots of mosquitoes. It´s swings and roundabouts.

Trevor: It is said that we don’t need libraries anymore. Do you agree?

Ade(UK): No, we need libraries. I think it’s like music, isn’t it? You can listen to music digitally but it’s always nice to have the real thing and pick it up, it becomes a memory. Also, for some people, especially the elderly, that sort of technology isn´t approachable for them so to have a physical book is a nice thing.

Trevor: Do you agree that if we want to understand something well it's better to watch a documentaryt rather than read a book?

Ade: They’re different things aren’t they, they’ve both got their own value and credit. I think a book can be referenced, it’s got statistics in there and goes into greater depth I think statistically so you can turn to it as an academic, you can reference it, whereas a film, it’s a bit more of a transient experience. Often when you try to describe a film or a documentary to somebody. You don’t remember all those details so you tend to tell people the highlights, the bits……you summarise things and you don’t always get those details across properly.

Trevor: We had a couple of question tags in these answers. The first one was I think it´s like music, isn´t it and the second one was they´re different things aren´t they. So, remember that with question tags if the original statement is positive then the question must be negative and vice versa. So for example, you can speak English, can´t you? Or You don´t have a pen, do you? So, question tags are probably more useful in a dialogue situation and are a nice alternative to saying “what do you think” or “do you agree”, or the typical other questions you use to involve your partner.

Trevor: What do you think about ebooks?

Ofordi: I think they´re rather good actually. I do enjoy the feel of an actual book, so I enjoy the holding the book and turning the pages so I wouldn´t say that an ebook could ever replace an actual book. However, they are incredibly useful for things such as going abroad and having a large number of books stored on a device.

Trevor: I love the adverbs in this answer. Firstly, we have rather good, so rather is a great alternative to very or really. Then we had actually, which means in fact. Be careful with this word if you´re Spanish as it´s a false friend, actualmente means currently in English. Then the last adverb we heard was incredibly, “they are incredibly useful”, so incredibly is another more advanced or fancier way to say really and it´s an incredibly good one to use in your formal writings, for example. 

Ok guys, that´s all the questions for today. Have a think about what kind of books you would tell an examiner you like to read, or what genre I should say. And make sure to practice using some of the alternatives to the word important. And also, why not read a book in English, it´s a great way to pick up new vocabulary and reinforce all of that grammar you´ve been learning!

Alrighty then, as usual I´d love to hear from you on Facebook or Instagram, look up Real Exam English. And make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast if you haven´t already.

All the best,

Trevor