IELTS Speaking Part 1: 'public transport' answers

Here are my answers to the questions that I showed you last Friday:

1) Do you use public transport? Why / why not?

These days I mostly drive, and the main reason is that my usual journeys are much faster by car. For example, the half-hour drive that I do twice a week would take me three times as long by train and bus.

2) Which type of public transport do you prefer? Why?

I definitely prefer the train. I like being able to stroll up and down, and on some trains I can book a seat with a table and a socket, so that I can do some work.

3) How good is the public transport where you live?

It's quite good. There's a train station not far from my house, and it's a direct line straight into the city centre. There are lots of bus routes too, and there's even a tram network in the centre of Manchester.

4) Do you think people should use public transport more? Why / why not?

Yes, as long as it's convenient for them. Public transport is obviously more environmentally friendly than private cars, so we could reduce air pollution by using it more.

Comments

[Syd]

Dear Simon,
I was wondering which one is the proper form:
This is what we need most.
This is what we most need.
This is what we need the most.
I'm more inclined into using the second one, but I have a feeling that the first one is also correct. Meanwhile, I have no idea aboit the 3rd one!

[DaNang]

@Syd
In books they are all used:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=what+we+need+most%2C+what+we+most+need%2Cwhat+we+need+the+most&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cwhat%20we%20need%20most%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cwhat%20we%20most%20need%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cwhat%20we%20need%20the%20most%3B%2Cc0

[shokhrukh]

i'm not really sure what Simon meant by 'scroll up and down' . i'm just guessing/suspecting

can someone clear this up for me.

[DaNang]

@shokrukh
On some keyboards there are "page up", "page down" keys which do roughly the same job.

"To change one's view of data on a computer's display", either using the wheel on the mouse, or clicking on the sidebar on the right to move the page up and down.

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/scroll

[Simon]

'Stroll' not 'scroll'

Stroll = walk

[shokhrukh]

apparently it is s't'roll , not s'c'roll

[Simon]

'scroll' also exists, but the meaning wouldn't fit in the context of my answer above.

[Sandy]

Hi Simon what do you estimate the score would be for this type of answer?

[Sasha]

environmentally* friendly? or environment friendly?

[Syd]

@Sasha

Friendly = Adjective

Environmentally = Adverb

Adverb+Adjective = Environmentally Friendly
Adverbs modify the meaning of an adjective, verb, or sometimes, another adverb.

Don't let that 'ly' trick you! Friendly is adjective. However, if you want to use it as an adverb I advise you to use this:
......in a friendly way.

[Syd]

......three times as long by train and bus.
......three times as long AS ...

[Sunita]

@Syd

"..times as long by ..." is much more common in books than "...times as long as by...".

The alternative would be to include the implied verb (no second "as" needed):

"...times as long as it does by train and bus".

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=times+as+long+as+by%2Ctimes+as+long+by%2Cas+long+as+*_NOUN&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctimes%20as%20long%20as%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ctimes%20as%20long%20by%3B%2Cc0

In a phrase such as "...times as long as the USA", there is an implied verb "is" at the end of the sentence.

[Simon]

Sandy,

Examiners don't score each part separately. Part 1 answers always look "too easy" because part 1 questions are so simple.

Just think of part 1 as a "warm-up". If you want a high score, it's in parts 2 and 3 that you need to impress the examiner.

[dicle]

hi, Can I use as a public transport word "tubes" or "subways"? Thanks

[Oleg]

@ dicle

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/subway

"The Tube" (meaning a rapid transit system) is marked as informal in some dictionaries.