Improve your Speaking online Episode 7, Introduction:
This week we bring new current topics in Episode 7 so you can improve your online speaking from home.
Topic 1: APTIS B2 speaking test model📝
This week, Dilo presents an APTIS B2 speaking test model.
Let´s go!
In this part you will answer 3 questions about personal topics (30 seconds for each question)
1. Tell me about where you live.
2. What do you like to do at the weekend?
3. How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Speaking part 2
Describe a photo and answer 2 questions related to the photo (45 seconds for each
answer, including the description of the photo).
2. Tell me about what type of things you like to buy?
3. Do you think newspapers should be free?
Speaking part 3
In this part, you will have to compare 2 pictures and answer 2 questions about them. You will have 45 seconds for each response.
2. Which kind of celebration is more special?
3. Which celebration will the people remember for longer?
Speaking part 4
In this part, you again need to answer three questions related to a picture but this time you answer them all in one response. You have one minute to prepare a structured response and two minutes to talk.
- Tell me about when you last had an argument with someone.
- How did you feel after the argument?
- How can we avoid arguments?
Topic 2: Series and Films 🎬
15 Times The Simpsons Predicted The Future.
The longest-running animated TV show ever, has correctly predicted a bunch of wild events.
We will focus the conversation on the following questions:
- Are you a Simpsons fan? Did you know they have predicted many things?
- Which prediction surprised you the most? Why?
- Do you know any other prediction(s) by The Simpsons? Which one(s)?
- Which episode from The Simpsons do you remember the most?
- Do you know any other tv show or film which predicted anything? Which one(s)?
Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:
- Prophet: somebody who predicts; a spiritual leader.
- Long-running: something that has been in existence, or has been performed, for a long time.
- Gargantuan: enormous; giant.
- Bleak: grim; desolate; depressing.
- Plunge: fast fall; drop; immerse in.
- Wannabe: aspiring or wanting to be a specified type of person; a person who tries to be like someone else or to fit in with a particular group of people.
- Feasible: likely; probable.
- Rabbit hole: a situation in which you become so interested in a subject or an activity that you cannot stop trying to find out about it or doing it.
Topic 3: Music 🎵
Disney+’s The Beatles: Get Back resurrects the glorious fun of John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Even though their fame extended from Birkenhead to Burkina Faso, there was a mundane, homely charm about their day-to-day existence.
Articulo
OK, there’s the bit when George Harrison quits the band, saying to his colleagues “see you round the clubs” as he leaves, and the palpable frustration amid fatigue when songs are recorded and re-recorded until they are in mint condition, but this portrait of The Beatles, taken from 56 hours of previously unseen, fly-on-the-wall footage, reveals a group of people who, even in such an intense, creatively pressurised situation, appear to like each other’s company, and respect what each brings to the collective endeavour.
As you might expect from an eight-hour film that consists mainly of four people sitting in a room, there are periods of longeur that even the diehard Beatles completist might find gruelling. But this was 1969, long before smartphones, and people weren’t so afraid of solitude, or inactivity, or boredom even.
So there are pauses for reflection, moments of complete silence, and many occasions when Paul and John just stared at each other. We didn’t know what they were thinking. Can you imagine a similar scene today? All the action, such as it was, took place in that room, not in another, virtual dimension. Without the cacophony of social media, people lived exclusively in the present back in those days, and you don’t need to be an old fart to believe that life was better for that.
It is easy to luxuriate in the nostalgia of it all, but it is a truly moving experience, watching these people at the zenith of their powers take such pleasure from the great good fortune of being born so talented. And they turn out to be modest with it. One of the remarkable, even quaint, aspects of The Beatles’ alchemy is the total absence of self-congratulation. Not once do they stand back and admire their genius in the way performers far less talented might do today. Instead, they search for ways to make their songs better. Only at the very end of the film, after their final, triumphal take of “Let It Be”, does John allow himself some self-satisfaction. “I think that was rather grand,” he says.
When he set out to make sense of the miles of footage that had been in a vault for 50 years, Jackson confessed to his biggest fear that “one or more of these of these guys is going to turn out to be a prima donna or an arsehole”. He said that he came away “more respectful of who they are than when I started.”
In this instance, the camera could not lie. The footage captures every off-guard moment, every inconsequential exchange, every piece of minutiae. And even though their fame extended from Birkenhead to Burkina Faso, there was a mundane, homely charm about their day-to-day existence: the endless supplies of tea and toast, Ringo lying on the floor reading the personal finance pages of the Daily Mail, George asking if someone could get him a pair of black leather, slip-on shoes in size 8 “because I’m never in shoe shops”.
John may turn up to work in a chauffeur-driven white Rolls-Royce, but there is an almost total absence of what we have come to recognise as celebrity entitlement. They are men at work. The women present are striking only because they play such a peripheral role – Yoko constantly by John’s side but silent, and Linda McCartney an occasional supportive presence – and the quotidinal labour is some way short of glamorous
Even new songs are introduced in a casual, matter-of-fact way. When Paul, before our very eyes, writes “Get Back”, starting with that familiar bass riff, it is like watching a rainbow being made. But to George and Ringo, on chairs, listening, it’s just another day at the office. George yawns as Paul sings.
It’s a period piece, all right, but what a period that was. I don’t know about living in the present, but, for eight wonderful hours, we could live in the past. And it was hard not to enjoy every minute of it.
We will focus the conversation on the following questions:
- Are you a Beatles fan? Have you watched the documentary?
- What do you like the most about The Beatles?
- What difference(s) do you see between The Beatles and any other artist(s) from the present time?
- In your opinion, how did The Beatles influenced society?
- In your opinion, apart from The Beatles, what artists are the greatest ones of all time?
Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:
- Amid: surrounded by; in the middle of.
- In mint condition: perfect; looking as good as new.
- Fly on the wall: an unnoticed observer of a particular situation.
- Pressurised: involving increased pressure.
- Diehard: someone who is very strongly opposed to change and new ideas.
- Zenith: the time at which something is most powerful or successful; highest point.
- Quaint: old-fashioned but charming.
- Face the music: someone receiving a punishment or accepting the unpleasant results of their actions.
Topic 4: Christmas🎄
Top 10 Cities in Europe With Amazing Christmas Traditions.
Ten European cities that know how to get into the holiday spirit.
We will focus the conversation on the following questions:
- How do you usually celebrate Christmas?
- Of all the traditions mentioned in the video, which one is your favourite? Why?
- What did you do during Christmas holidays in 2020?
- Is there any Christmas tradition you don´t like?
- What was your best Christmas holidays?
Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:
- Carol: Christmas song.
- Shortbread: Crumbly sweet made from flour, butter and sugar.
- Créche: A representation of Mary, Joseph, and others around the crib of Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem.
- Mistletoe: A parasitic plant with white berries, traditionally used as a Christmas decoration.
- Ornament: Decoration.
- Headband: A decorative band.
- Turkey: a bird like a large chicken, traditionally eaten at Christmas.
- To deck the halls: To decorate one’s home with Christmas decorations.
Topic 5: Electricity 💡
Spain announces plan to reduce electricity in 2022.
The price of electricity in Spain breaks records.
We will focus the conversation on the following questions:
- Did you expect such a high increase on the price of electricity?
- Will the price of electricity see any positive change next year?
- When Pedro Sánchez said the price of electricity would go down, what did you think?
- Can you compare the price of electricity in Spain to other countries’?
- What do you think would have happened if the light had costed this expensive during the quarantine?
Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:
- Bulb: The part of an incandescent lamp made of glass, through which electricity passes, producing light.
- To switch on: To turn on
- Bill: A statement of money owed for goods or services supplied
- Unfair: Disproportionate.
- Staggering: causing shock, disbelief, or astonishment.
- Forecast: a guess or prediction as to something in the future.
- Fuel: Matter that can be burned to create heat or power, such as coal, wood, oil, or gas.
- It costs an arm and a leg: It is very expensive
Topic 6: Free topic
Do you find these topics boring or uninteresting? Don’t worry. Dilo gives you the opportunity to choose your own topic for a conversation class.
Think of some vocabulary you would like to learn related to your topic and send us some information about it with the subject «Free topic». We are sure your ideas will be very good 😁