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‫In this AM speaking task to cue card lesson, we're going to be looking at two cue cards for the very

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‫common topic of books.

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‫So let's take a look at our first cue card example.

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‫Describe a book that had a major influence on you, you should say, who wrote the book, how did you

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‫hear about this book, what the main topic is, and explain why it had such a big impact on you?

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‫So a book that has influenced you, that has changed your way of thinking.

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‫Let's take a look at the model answer.

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‫To be honest, it wasn't a very difficult decision to make when thinking about my most cherished book.

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‫Also, it would be fair to say this book has had a major impact in who I am today.

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‫So, yes, it's a pretty important piece of literature to me.

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‫It's a little known travel guide for Southern Europe by a lady called Isabelle Swann.

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‫I bet you haven't heard of her.

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‫This memory really takes me back to when I was around 11 years old.

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‫I found this guidebook upstairs in my parents' loft.

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‫I remember seeing it all dusty sort of sat in the back of the room, but honestly, the cover and illustrations

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‫inside are truly amazing.

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‫As well as writing the book, Isabel also drew all the pictures, too.

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‫So basically, it gives a pretty rough idea of great places to visit around southern Europe like Greece

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‫and Spain.

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‫But the illustrations are really vibrant and full of life.

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‫After finding it hidden upstairs, I took it to my room and really read it often up into my mid teens

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‫when I finished university, I couldn't wait to finally begin traveling by myself, without a doubt.

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‫This book inspired me to travel and seek out new cultures and experiences.

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‫In actual fact, I luckily was able to visit a few places from Isabelle's guidebook.

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‫They were even more brilliant in real life.

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‫So yes, this travel guide book has really shaped the person I am today.

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‫So we have a really detailed, possibly almost too long answer for our task to Kukan, and of course,

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‫I'm not showing you the plan that goes with it.

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‫We're just looking at the model answer.

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‫So let's take a look at some of the key language and discussing a book that has inspired us.

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‫So up first, we have the opening phrase, to be honest, a great way to begin our speaking.

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‫I've seen some teachers talk about beginning their part to speaking with.

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‫Thank you for giving me the opportunity I'd like to speak about.

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‫I find that quite unnatural.

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‫So I prefer to use conversation openers like this.

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‫To be honest, I'm really excited because in actual fact, these kind of openers are better.

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‫I think it shows a bit more of a natural ability in your language.

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‫My most cherished.

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‫So if something if there is something important to you, you can use this phrase, my most cherished

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‫book, my most cherished memory that is often used together.

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‫And next, we have this major impact on who I am today.

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‫So instead of saying that has influenced me, we can use this phrase instead.

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‫So I could say my parents have influenced me.

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‫Or I could also say my parents have had a major impact on who I am today.

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‫Here we have little known a common collocation.

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‫So if something isn't well understood or known about it, you can say a little known.

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‫So a little known music group, travel guidebook, place to visit, little known here we have takes

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‫me back.

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‫So when you're talking about a memory from a long time before you can use this phrase takes me back.

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‫So I can say this memory takes me back to last summer or a time in my childhood my parents loved.

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‫So just a bit of vocabulary focus.

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‫A loft is an attic.

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‫I think this is a very British piece of language here.

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‫Truly amazing.

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‫Just some exciting, emotive language.

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‫So the examiner using phrases like this, the examiner can say that you are confident and able to express

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‫your ideas.

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‫And I'm sure this will help with your marks for lexical resource.

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‫Here's another common collocation.

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‫Basically, it gives us a pretty rough idea, a general understanding.

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‫So I have a rough idea about where I need to go.

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‫A rough idea about the health test.

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‫You don't have a complete understanding.

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‫You have maybe 60, 70 percent a rough idea.

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‫Mid teens, so this is a phrase used to describe pretty much from maybe 13 to sort of 16 mid teens,

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‫I was itching to finally begin travelling to an idiomatic expression because we're not actually itching.

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‫But when we are really excited about something, we can say I was itching to visit or go or play.

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‫I was itching to see the movie.

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‫A really nice idiomatic expression.

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‫We've got a great opener here, without a doubt, and finally shaped the person I am today.

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‫So again, talking about influences, you can say this book, this person, this film, this experience

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‫really shaped the person I am today.

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‫It made me me.

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‫So there's some really good language for discussing our influences and books.

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‫Let's take a look at the next cue card.

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‫And here is our second cue card, describe a book you read recent.

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‫You should say what the book is when you read it, how did you hear about it and explain if you enjoyed

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‫it?

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‫So quite similar to the first cue card, but instead of talking about the influence of the book, we're

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‫quite simply talking about a book we have read recently.

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‫It can be one you liked.

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‫It could be one that you disliked.

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‫Let's take a look at the model answer.

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‫Well, it would be fair to say I'm not really much of a bookworm, but I did read a book a few months

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‫back.

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‫I mean, it was a graphic novel, but it's still a book, right?

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‫Maybe it's time I started to read some thicker texts.

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‫Anyway, I loved reading this graphic novel.

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‫It's by a really famous author called Neil Gaiman.

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‫I think he's from America or away.

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‫Maybe.

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‫In fact, he's British.

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‫Either way, the book is called Sandman.

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‫And I've got to say, it's a pretty odd book, to say the least.

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‫In a nutshell, it's about these godlike characters.

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‫It's like a fantasy book, really, although it's very dark.

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‫When I first started reading it, I really couldn't put it down.

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‫I think I stayed up into the morning and just kept reading.

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‫You could say it's a real page turner.

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‫For the next few weeks, I was working my way through the series and often had it for some bedtime reading.

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‫I'm not sure it was good reading for my dreams, though.

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‫I heard about it from a close friend.

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‫He isn't really a big reader either, but Sandeman came highly recommended from him.

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‫So I thought, why not give it a go?

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‫It's a real shame.

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‫But since finishing it, I haven't picked up another book.

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‫I've been very busy with my studies, so maybe when I'm finished I can find another book to flick through.

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‫So here's an example of a task model answer for a book we have read recently, and in this example,

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‫it's not even a real chapter, thick text book.

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‫It's just like a comic, a graphic novel.

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‫So really, as long as it is quite on point, on task, you can really talk about a range of different

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‫things.

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‫Let's take a look at the focused language in this model answer.

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‫And highlighted in blue is our focused language, beginning with fair to say so this is really an expression

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‫almost like a linking phrase, it would be fair to say, which is almost like saying in all honesty

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‫or it's kind of.

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‫Yeah, is close to saying.

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‫In all honesty, it would be fair to say I'm not really that into reading.

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‫So it's kind of like using in all honesty.

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‫Well, in all honesty, I'm not really much of a bookworm.

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‫Well, it would be fair to say so.

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‫A very negative sounding expression.

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‫Here we have the phrase book worm, which is an idiomatic expression.

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‫It's actually a metaphor.

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‫So if we say someone is a bookworm, it means that they read a lot.

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‫Obviously, they're not actually a bookworm.

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‫But if you say it like in this example, I'm not really much of a bookworm.

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‫It means this person doesn't read often.

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‫Here we have a graphic novel, which is generally a lot less text, but big illustrations throughout

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‫the book, and they can be for a range of books.

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‫It's not just comics for Batman and that kind of thing.

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‫We can even have graphic novels for Shakespeare.

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‫Next up, we have this expression, pretty surreal and surreal really is a synonym for strange or weird.

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‫Pretty surreal.

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‫So if something is a bit odd, you can use this expression in a nutshell.

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‫So an opening phrase for this sentence, which is an idiomatic expression.

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‫We are not in a nutshell, but it basically means to summarize something quickly, to describe something

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‫quickly without too much detail, which this person is doing here for the plot.

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‫So giving an idea what this book is about, in a nutshell, the book is about this and that and a quick

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‫description.

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‫It also says very dark.

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‫Now, this sort of expression isn't to mean there's no light, but if we say something like a film or

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‫a book is dark, it kind of means that it can be quite sinister.

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‫It can be often scary and definitely something that isn't really for young children.

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‫Here we have a really sort of topic, specific phrase, put it down to put the book down.

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‫I really couldn't put the book down.

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‫It basically means I couldn't stop reading it.

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‫And another topic, specific piece of vocabulary, page turner.

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‫So if you describe a book as being a page turner, that means that it's really exciting to read and

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‫you want to keep reading it.

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‫Here we have working my way through so we can use this for books so we can use it for tasks and activities

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‫as well.

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‫I was working my way through some admin documents or working my way through a series of books, which

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‫is the example here.

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‫Bedtime reading is a phrase that we use for a book that we read before bed.

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‫A close friend is quite self explanatory, a friend who we spend a lot of time with this now and hear

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‫this Nantel phrase, which is big reader.

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‫If you say someone isn't a big reader, it's not actually about size, it's about how often they read.

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‫So if someone is a real big reader, it means they read a lot, highly recommended.

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‫Often books do come highly recommended from people.

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‫So a collocation here picked up another book so we can often use this verb to describe buying books

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‫or reading.

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‫So I haven't picked up a book in a while, which means I haven't read for a long time.

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‫And finally we have this phrase flick through.

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‫It means to read quickly without too much emphasis on reading for detail.

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‫Often this could be with a newspaper.

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‫So I was flicking through the newspaper flick through.

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‫OK, so that really is there's quite a lot of really sort of topic specific vocabulary and great language

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‫for books here.

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‫Have a go at using these expressions yourself, write them down and practice using them in your own

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‫sentences.

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‫See you in the next lesson.