‫In this AM speaking task to cue card lesson, we're going to be looking at two cue cards for the very
‫common topic of books.
‫So let's take a look at our first cue card example.
‫Describe a book that had a major influence on you, you should say, who wrote the book, how did you
‫hear about this book, what the main topic is, and explain why it had such a big impact on you?
‫So a book that has influenced you, that has changed your way of thinking.
‫Let's take a look at the model answer.
‫To be honest, it wasn't a very difficult decision to make when thinking about my most cherished book.
‫Also, it would be fair to say this book has had a major impact in who I am today.
‫So, yes, it's a pretty important piece of literature to me.
‫It's a little known travel guide for Southern Europe by a lady called Isabelle Swann.
‫I bet you haven't heard of her.
‫This memory really takes me back to when I was around 11 years old.
‫I found this guidebook upstairs in my parents' loft.
‫I remember seeing it all dusty sort of sat in the back of the room, but honestly, the cover and illustrations
‫inside are truly amazing.
‫As well as writing the book, Isabel also drew all the pictures, too.
‫So basically, it gives a pretty rough idea of great places to visit around southern Europe like Greece
‫and Spain.
‫But the illustrations are really vibrant and full of life.
‫After finding it hidden upstairs, I took it to my room and really read it often up into my mid teens
‫when I finished university, I couldn't wait to finally begin traveling by myself, without a doubt.
‫This book inspired me to travel and seek out new cultures and experiences.
‫In actual fact, I luckily was able to visit a few places from Isabelle's guidebook.
‫They were even more brilliant in real life.
‫So yes, this travel guide book has really shaped the person I am today.
‫So we have a really detailed, possibly almost too long answer for our task to Kukan, and of course,
‫I'm not showing you the plan that goes with it.
‫We're just looking at the model answer.
‫So let's take a look at some of the key language and discussing a book that has inspired us.
‫So up first, we have the opening phrase, to be honest, a great way to begin our speaking.
‫I've seen some teachers talk about beginning their part to speaking with.
‫Thank you for giving me the opportunity I'd like to speak about.
‫I find that quite unnatural.
‫So I prefer to use conversation openers like this.
‫To be honest, I'm really excited because in actual fact, these kind of openers are better.
‫I think it shows a bit more of a natural ability in your language.
‫My most cherished.
‫So if something if there is something important to you, you can use this phrase, my most cherished
‫book, my most cherished memory that is often used together.
‫And next, we have this major impact on who I am today.
‫So instead of saying that has influenced me, we can use this phrase instead.
‫So I could say my parents have influenced me.
‫Or I could also say my parents have had a major impact on who I am today.
‫Here we have little known a common collocation.
‫So if something isn't well understood or known about it, you can say a little known.
‫So a little known music group, travel guidebook, place to visit, little known here we have takes
‫me back.
‫So when you're talking about a memory from a long time before you can use this phrase takes me back.
‫So I can say this memory takes me back to last summer or a time in my childhood my parents loved.
‫So just a bit of vocabulary focus.
‫A loft is an attic.
‫I think this is a very British piece of language here.
‫Truly amazing.
‫Just some exciting, emotive language.
‫So the examiner using phrases like this, the examiner can say that you are confident and able to express
‫your ideas.
‫And I'm sure this will help with your marks for lexical resource.
‫Here's another common collocation.
‫Basically, it gives us a pretty rough idea, a general understanding.
‫So I have a rough idea about where I need to go.
‫A rough idea about the health test.
‫You don't have a complete understanding.
‫You have maybe 60, 70 percent a rough idea.
‫Mid teens, so this is a phrase used to describe pretty much from maybe 13 to sort of 16 mid teens,
‫I was itching to finally begin travelling to an idiomatic expression because we're not actually itching.
‫But when we are really excited about something, we can say I was itching to visit or go or play.
‫I was itching to see the movie.
‫A really nice idiomatic expression.
‫We've got a great opener here, without a doubt, and finally shaped the person I am today.
‫So again, talking about influences, you can say this book, this person, this film, this experience
‫really shaped the person I am today.
‫It made me me.
‫So there's some really good language for discussing our influences and books.
‫Let's take a look at the next cue card.
‫And here is our second cue card, describe a book you read recent.
‫You should say what the book is when you read it, how did you hear about it and explain if you enjoyed
‫it?
‫So quite similar to the first cue card, but instead of talking about the influence of the book, we're
‫quite simply talking about a book we have read recently.
‫It can be one you liked.
‫It could be one that you disliked.
‫Let's take a look at the model answer.
‫Well, it would be fair to say I'm not really much of a bookworm, but I did read a book a few months
‫back.
‫I mean, it was a graphic novel, but it's still a book, right?
‫Maybe it's time I started to read some thicker texts.
‫Anyway, I loved reading this graphic novel.
‫It's by a really famous author called Neil Gaiman.
‫I think he's from America or away.
‫Maybe.
‫In fact, he's British.
‫Either way, the book is called Sandman.
‫And I've got to say, it's a pretty odd book, to say the least.
‫In a nutshell, it's about these godlike characters.
‫It's like a fantasy book, really, although it's very dark.
‫When I first started reading it, I really couldn't put it down.
‫I think I stayed up into the morning and just kept reading.
‫You could say it's a real page turner.
‫For the next few weeks, I was working my way through the series and often had it for some bedtime reading.
‫I'm not sure it was good reading for my dreams, though.
‫I heard about it from a close friend.
‫He isn't really a big reader either, but Sandeman came highly recommended from him.
‫So I thought, why not give it a go?
‫It's a real shame.
‫But since finishing it, I haven't picked up another book.
‫I've been very busy with my studies, so maybe when I'm finished I can find another book to flick through.
‫So here's an example of a task model answer for a book we have read recently, and in this example,
‫it's not even a real chapter, thick text book.
‫It's just like a comic, a graphic novel.
‫So really, as long as it is quite on point, on task, you can really talk about a range of different
‫things.
‫Let's take a look at the focused language in this model answer.
‫And highlighted in blue is our focused language, beginning with fair to say so this is really an expression
‫almost like a linking phrase, it would be fair to say, which is almost like saying in all honesty
‫or it's kind of.
‫Yeah, is close to saying.
‫In all honesty, it would be fair to say I'm not really that into reading.
‫So it's kind of like using in all honesty.
‫Well, in all honesty, I'm not really much of a bookworm.
‫Well, it would be fair to say so.
‫A very negative sounding expression.
‫Here we have the phrase book worm, which is an idiomatic expression.
‫It's actually a metaphor.
‫So if we say someone is a bookworm, it means that they read a lot.
‫Obviously, they're not actually a bookworm.
‫But if you say it like in this example, I'm not really much of a bookworm.
‫It means this person doesn't read often.
‫Here we have a graphic novel, which is generally a lot less text, but big illustrations throughout
‫the book, and they can be for a range of books.
‫It's not just comics for Batman and that kind of thing.
‫We can even have graphic novels for Shakespeare.
‫Next up, we have this expression, pretty surreal and surreal really is a synonym for strange or weird.
‫Pretty surreal.
‫So if something is a bit odd, you can use this expression in a nutshell.
‫So an opening phrase for this sentence, which is an idiomatic expression.
‫We are not in a nutshell, but it basically means to summarize something quickly, to describe something
‫quickly without too much detail, which this person is doing here for the plot.
‫So giving an idea what this book is about, in a nutshell, the book is about this and that and a quick
‫description.
‫It also says very dark.
‫Now, this sort of expression isn't to mean there's no light, but if we say something like a film or
‫a book is dark, it kind of means that it can be quite sinister.
‫It can be often scary and definitely something that isn't really for young children.
‫Here we have a really sort of topic, specific phrase, put it down to put the book down.
‫I really couldn't put the book down.
‫It basically means I couldn't stop reading it.
‫And another topic, specific piece of vocabulary, page turner.
‫So if you describe a book as being a page turner, that means that it's really exciting to read and
‫you want to keep reading it.
‫Here we have working my way through so we can use this for books so we can use it for tasks and activities
‫as well.
‫I was working my way through some admin documents or working my way through a series of books, which
‫is the example here.
‫Bedtime reading is a phrase that we use for a book that we read before bed.
‫A close friend is quite self explanatory, a friend who we spend a lot of time with this now and hear
‫this Nantel phrase, which is big reader.
‫If you say someone isn't a big reader, it's not actually about size, it's about how often they read.
‫So if someone is a real big reader, it means they read a lot, highly recommended.
‫Often books do come highly recommended from people.
‫So a collocation here picked up another book so we can often use this verb to describe buying books
‫or reading.
‫So I haven't picked up a book in a while, which means I haven't read for a long time.
‫And finally we have this phrase flick through.
‫It means to read quickly without too much emphasis on reading for detail.
‫Often this could be with a newspaper.
‫So I was flicking through the newspaper flick through.
‫OK, so that really is there's quite a lot of really sort of topic specific vocabulary and great language
‫for books here.
‫Have a go at using these expressions yourself, write them down and practice using them in your own
‫sentences.
‫See you in the next lesson.