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I. TOPIC VOCABULARY A. Employment vocabulary and exercises One of the key topics in IELTS is work and employment. To help you out, here is a selection of useful words and phrases to discuss the topic. To help you understand and practise these words, you will also find examples of how the words are used and a series of exercises. Employ – an exercise in word formation If you want to learn words well, it is important to learn different forms of them. Employ is one of the key words and it has several different forms – you need to able to use them all if you want to write flexibly.

Vocabulary 1 - Topic Vocabulary

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I. A.

TOPIC VOCABULARY Employment vocabulary and exercises

One of the key topics in IELTS is work and employment. To help you out, here is a selection of useful words and phrases to discuss the topic. To help you understand and practise these words, you will also find examples of how the words are used and a series of exercises.

Employ an exercise in word formationIf you want to learn words well, it is important to learn different forms of them. Employ is one of the key words and it has several different forms you need to able to use them all if you want to write flexibly.

Job and workSometimes the trickiest words are very common words. You definitely need to be able to use both these words. One way to how to use them correctly is to learn phrases.

Career wordsThese words should come in useful when describing career paths.

Companies

Money wordsThere are a variety of different words we use to describe money and work.

Adjectives to describe jobs

Read more: Employment vocabulary and exercises | Dominic Cole's IELTS Blog http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-vocabulary/employment-vocabulary-and-exercises/#ixzz21iAqD93f Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

B. Advertising vocabulary and exercisesThis lesson helps you with vocabulary and ideas for one of the more tricky topics advertising. In addition to providing you with a guide to some useful words and phrases, I also give you a series of exercises to show you how you might use the words.

Advert, advertisement or ad?All these forms of the words are correct but adis mostly used in spoken English only. You should also be aware of a common pronunciation problem: advert advertise advertisement This means that you make an iss sound when say advertisement.This is a very common mistake and one way to avoid it is to say and write advert.

Different forms of advertising

Adjectives to describe advertising

Other related words

Read more: Advertising vocabulary and exercises | Dominic Cole's IELTS Blog http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-vocabulary/advertising-vocabulary-and-exercises/#ixzz21iDBegTq Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

C. Technology vocabulary and exercisesThis lesson provides you with some useful vocabulary for technology one of the key topics in IELTS. I have tried to do more than give you a list of words, so you will find notes, phrases and examples: to show you which other words these words are used with to give you ideas for speaking and writing essays to help you use the words correctly There is also a download of this vocabulary at the bottom of the page and exercises to see how well you know these words.

Test yourself firstWant to know how good your technology vocab is? Try this quick quiz.

Progress wordsWhen you write and speak about computers and technology, very often you will be asked to say how technology has changed or progressed.

notesProgress is an uncountable word, while advance is countable. So you say that digital technology is an advance but you cannot say that digital technology is a progress

Impact wordsAnother common topic is to talk about what effect computer technology has had on our lives

notesBe careful with the difference between affect (generally a verb) and effect (generally a noun). Just to confuse you, in English they sound exactly the same. impact and influence are often used with the preposition on

Technology and computer wordsIt is very easy to keep on repeating the same word without knowing it. One way not to do this is to change the form of the word or to use it in a different phrase.

notesBe careful with the spelling of technology. A technophile loves technology and a technophobe hates it. In speaking, you could use the less formal word geek for technophile, but I would avoid it writing. There is no great difference between ICT and IT. However, as my example shows ICT is most frequently used as the name of an academic subject.

Adjectives

notesIt is normal to use hyphens (-) in adjective phrases such as state-of-the-art when they are used before nouns (state-of-the-art technology), but you do not always need them when they are used without a noun (this technology is state of the art). obsolete is similar in meaning to outdated, but is a stronger word to show that the technology is so old that it cannot be used any longer. It is normal to write high tech rather than high technology.

Device wordsThis is a rather confusing set of words to describe different kinds of objects.

notesA device is often something fairly small that allows you to complete a task. There is a strong collocation (very common phrase): labour-saving device. Equipment is an uncountable word so you need to say a piece of equipment. It is a very general use word that can be used to describe almost anything mechanical. Gadget is a word often used to describe objects that are either small or have a less serious purpose. Appliance is typically used in the phrase electrical appliances (eg irons and kettles) that are less advanced technology.

Other useful wordsThis is a selection of other words that may come in useful when discussing technology

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D. Crime vocabulary and exercisesOne of the core topics for IELTS is crime and justice. It is a tricky area as there are a number of quite technical words that need to be learnt. So what you will find here is not so much as a list of words, but more useful phrases that you can use in context. You will also find language notes and exercises to help you use this language.

Types of crimeRather than learn lists of very specific words for names of individual crimes, it is almost certainly more useful to learn phrases that describe different categories of crime:

Key wordsAnother key word here is offence which is a close synonym for crime. It is a slightly broader word as it includes behaviour that is not necessarily criminal. You can also use the phrase criminal behaviour.

Punishments

Key words/ideasThere is a common saying that the punishment should fit the crime. If you wish to practise this vocabulary, a standard exercise is to look at the crimes and decide what punishment you think they should receive. In some countries, there is still capital punishment/the death penalty, while this is banned in other countries. An occasional IELTS essay topic is to discuss the merits of capital punishment. What are the arguments for and against it? Another topic you need to consider is crime prevention. Is it more effective to send someone to prison or to prevent the crime in the first place? Linked into this idea is whether prison sentences act as a deterrent to criminals.

The justice processThe details of this will vary from the country to country, but here are some of the main ideas:

Useful phrases

Read more: Crime vocabulary and exercises | Dominic Cole's IELTS Blog http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-vocabulary/crime-vocabulary-and-exercises/#ixzz21iFSsdbb Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

E. Vocabulary and ideas to discuss the environmentThis lesson helps you out with some vocabulary and ideas to discuss one of the key IELTS topics: the environment. The best way to learn vocabulary is in context, so in addition to useful lists of words I have recorded 4 sample part 3 speaking answers using some of this vocabulary. This way you can understand how to use it in practice. You will also find the vocabulary to download and some exercises to practise it at the bottom of the page.

The vocabularyEnvironmental problems

The natural world

Pollution

Energy

Useful verbs

The ideasIn this section, you will find 4 sample part 3 speakings (slightly long) to listen and read. I have highlighted the environmental vocabulary.

Our effect on the natural worldWhen were the discussing the environment, its important not to forget that our actions have an impact not only on us but on the natural world and other species. So, for example, certain species are now endangered because of our actions. its not just because of hunting, but because we have destroyed their natural habitats: they do not enough food or anywhere to live. If we carry on in this way, the biodiversity of the planet is under threat.

PollutionI would have said that one of the most serious environmental problems today is of course pollution. Its a very pressing green issue and if you travel to any of the large cities in China, for example, youll find that there is very bad air pollution and there is a layer of smog hanging over the cities. Its just air pollution, there is also water pollution. in many parts of the world, the quality of the water is not good because rivers have been contaminated by all sorts of industrial waste, by chemicals and fertilisers. And what we need to do is to recycle our waste and take care of the planet and try use renewable resources where we possibly can.

EnergyAnother extremely important green issue is of course energy. There are two points to be made here. The first point is that the way we use energy is causing harm to the environment. Most of us get energy in the form of electricity. This electricity is produced by power stations. These power stations emit all sorts of dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide up into the atmosphere. And these gases cause acid rain which does harm to our ecosystem and environment. the second point to make about energy is we need to make sure that we are using energy in a sustainable way. There is a limit to the Earths natural resources and there is a danger that we use so much energy the Earth is no longer going to be able to provide us with sufficient coal and fossil fuels. What we need to do is look for more renewable sources of energy such as wind or perhaps solar energy from the sun.

Global warmingWhats the greatest threat to the Earth today? Id have to say its probably a combination of global warming and the greenhouse effect. I dont understand all the science behind it, but I understand its to do with the build up of gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which means that the planet is slowly but steadily getting warmer. and one of the results of this is that the polar icecap is melting and the levels of the oceans are rising. And its caused I understand by deforestation, particularly of rainforests and particularly in the Amazonian Basin. And what this means is that we may be doing irreparable harm to the planet and the future of the planet for our children and our childrens children looks really rather bleak.

Read more: Environment vocabulary and ideas for IELTS speaking and writing http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-vocabulary/vocabulary-and-ideas-to-discuss-theenvironment/#ixzz21iGFkRDo Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

F. Hometown vocabulary and ideastest yourselfatmosphere catchy strong chorus composersconcertinstrumentliverhythmscene symphonytraditional venue

For me, Beethoven was one of the greatest classical whole .

. Though, I do find it difficult to sit through a

It's been some time since Ive gone to a One of my favourite songs is Back it Up - it's got a really There's an extremely lively music and clubs. My mother always wanted me to learn to play an keep to the beat. The largest musical Sad to say, a lot of

. I find I just don't have the time nowadays. tune and a great . music in local pubs

in my home town and you can often see some

, but sadly I had no sense of

and so couldn't

in my country is probably the O2 Arena. There's a great

there.

and folk music is dying out in my country. It's probably the influence of MTV. tune and interesting lyrics.

What makes for a great song? Well, I guess that you need a

SCORE:

G. Hometown vocabulary and ideasOne of the topics you are most likely to be asked about in part 1 speaking is your hometown. This lesson gives you some vocabulary and ideas to help you along. You will also find a download version of this vocabulary and a quiz to test yourself. You can find some speaking practice questions to talk abut your hometown here.

Talking about quality of lifeThese ideas should help you discuss what you enjoy/dislike about your home town. Remember to try and give examples/reasons to extend your answers.

notesthe rat race is a nice idiom for the fast pace of modern city life where no one has the time to sit back and enjoy life

Areas of a cityIf you are asked where you live, you should try and be precise.

notesthe inner city is normally (in English) associated with poverty although this will obviously vary from city to city the outskirts are the outer parts of a city/town

Means of transport

AdjectivesYou will of course need some adjectives too. You should note how I use fairly really and quite to qualify these adjectives