Real Exam English Episode One – Introductions

Use Of English Exercises(answers at the end):

1. Choose the correct word to complete the sentence:

There are a lot of outdoor activities to ____ advantage of, it's just a nice place to live.

(a) give (b) take (c) make (d) have

2. What is the missing word?

(a) I like the colours of autumn but I don't like the feeling because I know what's coming
_______ in spring the colours are so beautiful and vibrant and you also know that the
summer's coming.

(b) A typical day for me usual consists ____ getting up, stumbling around the house, looking for
some coffee, drinking it.

3. Word Formation – Form a word to fit the gap, using the word in brackets.

I would say that London can be a little bit _____ in that there are so many people and you are
always rushing. (RELENT)

4. Dependent prepositions: Match the verb to the preposition

consist for
arrive of
plan of
care at
take
advantage on

Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Real Exam English, my name is Trevor and I´m from Ireland.

Who and what is this podcast for?

It´s primarily aimed at Upper intermediate or advanced English speakers, particularly at

students preparing for B2, C1, C2 or IELTS exams but really anyone with high level English will
take something from this podcast.
I´ve helped literally 100s of students pass their exams and I want to share some of that
knowledge with you. In nearly every English exams you have to listen to speakers from all over
the English speaking world so here on Real Exam English we ask questions from previous exam
papers to native English speakers and then analyse their answers to take out the best bits that
you can use to get your English to the next level. Not only will listening to this podcast improve
your listening, but also your vocabulary on topics such as the environment, travel, technology
and all of the usual subjects that come up in the exam. In addition, you will pick some useful
grammar such as conditionals, inversion, phrasal verbs and much more. And you get some
great ideas for your own answers!

Ok let’s go with the questions, this first episode is about introductions and the first question is
where are you from?

Mary: I´m from Cape Town, South Africa.

Trevor: What do you do?

Mary: I´m a stay at home mum.

Trevor: Where are you from?

Karen: Detroit, Michigan

Trevor: What do you do?

Karen: I´m a nurse, I´m a school nurse.

Trevor: What do you most enjoy about your job?

Karen: I enjoy working with different people, collaborating with other disciplines and I just…
yea that´s the main thing, just being able to talk with people every day and try to help them
solve whatever is going on with them and just caring for people.

Trevor: Where are you from?

Ofordi: I´m from London

Trevor: What´s the best thing about living in London?

Ofordi: For me, the best thing about living in London, ooo actually there isn´t one good thing,
there´s quite a few. But if I put it all in one sentence then I´d say it´s the fact that London is
very multicultural and there is so much to do, the city never sleeps.

Trevor: What´s the worst thing about living in London?

Ofordi: I suppose I would say that London can be a little bit relentless in that there are so many
people and y´know you are always rushing because there are so many people and so when you
are travelling on the Tube, for me it´s tube journeys really because they are just ram-packed,
there´s never enough space and it can get uncomfortable.
Trevor: Awe London, I absolutely love London and for me I love the tube, seeing all of the
different cultures in one place, it´s amazing but I understand if you do it every day the novelty
wears off. So, these are very typical questions, the good and the bad points about living where
you do, so make sure to have a think how you would answer these in the exam.

Trevor: Where are you from?

George: I´m from Leeds.

Trevor: What do you do?

George: Well, I´m a chef by trade I guess, but not trained. I´ve worked as a chef for 15 years
and in between that taught some English. But I would say I´m a chef if somebody asked me.

Trevor: Where are you from?

Paul: I´m from Hull, in England

Trevor: Tell me about your journey here today.

Paul: My journey here today, well….I´m actually in my sister´s house and we live in the same
town so I just walked down. It took me about half an hour.

Trevor: Where are you from?

Adrian: I´m from Bolton, which is just north of Manchester, in England.

Trevor: What is your favourite season?

Adrian: Favourite season? Is that what you said? Gosh…that´s a strange question. I don´t know
if I could say I´ve got a….well I suppose spring, yea it´s gotta be spring, hasn´t it. I like spring
and I like autumn but with the autumn I think you always have the sense that the winter´s
coming and the winters in England are long and cold. So, I like the colours of autumn but I don
´t like the feeling because I know what´s coming whereas spring the colours are so beautiful
and vibrant and you also know that the summers coming

Trevor: So, the first thing comment on here is the answer to the question where are you from?
He says I´m from Bolton, which is just north of Manchester, in England, which is a totally fine
and acceptable answer. However, just bear in mind that if you´re from a town and you´re
doing your exam in that town then it’s not a great idea to give a geographical location to the
examiner. And the main reason is that most of the students doing the exam probably live in
that town too and half of them are going to give that answer and the examiner probably lives
in that town too and has heard that answer lots of times before so they kind of get sick and
tired of hearing the geographical location answer. It´s much better to say I was born and bred
here in Bolton or I live in a suburb on the outskirts of Bolton or maybe I´m from London
originally but I moved here to Bolton a few years ago and I love it here.

In the second answer we hear a good technique to buy a little bit of extra time, so the speaker
said Gosh that’s a strange question. You can Also say that´s an interesting question, or that´s a
great question, but it´s handy to have one of these options to be able to buy yourself some
time to think.

What I also liked about this answer was the connecting words, so we heard but, because, so
and whereas which was used to contrast the seasons and examiners love connectors as they
give the answer some structure, so if you can get some of those into your answer in part on
then that´s great.

Trevor: Where do you live?

Keith (New York, USA): In Bozeman, Montana, in the United States of America.

Trevor: Ok, and how long have you been living there?

Keith: I´ve been living here 14 years.

Trevor: What do you like about the area where you live?

Keith: The area where I live has many different mountain ranges around it. It´s very beautiful
country, which is…one of the reasons why I moved here was to go skiing in the mountains and
to ride mountain bikes so y´know it´s a great place for skiing and a great place for mountain
biking and it has rivers around here also so lots of people like to go fishing and the hiking in the
mountains as well. Then there´s the Yellowstone National Park which is not too far from here.
So, it´s just really beautiful country, there are lots of outdoor activities to take advantage of….it
´s just a nice place to live, although the winters are very long

Trevor: Good answer there from the United States, of America, as he says. He gets some nice
vocabulary in there such as skiing, mountain biking, fishing and hiking and he structures his
answer well with words like so, then and although. He uses this really useful expression to take
advantage of which means to make the most of a situation, so for example We took advantage
of the nice weather by having a picnic in the park.

Trevor: How does a typical day for you start?

Ofordi (London, England): A typical day for me usual consists of getting up, stumbling around
the house, looking for some coffee, drinking it..am….and getting ready to go to work if I
happen to be going in to work that day, which involves getting on the London Underground,
which by no means is any kind of mean feat, navigating through that and arriving at my
required work destination. That´s pretty much how it starts.

Trevor: Wow! What an amazing answer, it was packed full of super vocabulary. I´d just like to
focus on the phrasal verbs because she used quite a few of them. First of all she used getting
up, which is quite a common phrasal verb, you probably already know this one and you use
that to say when you get out of bed so I got up this morning at 7am for example. The next
phrasal verb was stumbling around which means to move in an unstable or awkward way. It if
very often used to describe how you move in the dark for example or maybe after a few too
many drinks perhaps. So, an example would be “the electricity went last night and I stumbled
around looking for a torch”. The next phrasal verb was looking for and we use this when you
are searching for something. For instance, I´m looking for a pen to make a note of Trevor´s
great tips”. And the last one she used was getting on and she used that one to say getting on
the London underground and that is exactly where you use this phrasal verb, to get on a type
of transport like a bus, or airplane or a train, but remember for a car its get into.

Additionally I would like to mention this really nice conditional that was used, she said “if I
happen to be going to work that day” and we use this expression If I happen to be when
something is not that probable or not that likely. For example, someone may say to me, hey
trevor will you tell john to call me if you see him, and I would respond with something like, well
I´m not planning on meeting him but if I happen to see him later I´ll tell him to call you.

Fancy Language
Phrasal verbs: walked down, getting up, stumbling around, looking for, getting on.

Conditionals: If I happen to be going in to work

Dependent prepositions: consists of, arriving at, take advantage of, care for

Expressions to buy time before you answer:

“Well…………………..”

Repeating the question – “My journey here today”; “the area where I live”; “a typical day for
me”.

“Gosh that´s a strange question”

Use of English Answers:

1. Take

2. (a) whereas/while (b) of

3. Relentless

4. Consists of, arrive at, plan on, care for, take advantage of.