Real Exam English Episode Two – Travel

Use Of English Exercises (answers at the end):

1. Choose the correct word to complete the sentence:

I nearly always will try rent a moped and go off and adventure and see the real off the beaten
_____ aspect of a country.

(a) trail (b) track (c) route (d) way

2. What is the missing word?

(a) People who haven't travelled have a very insulated view on things as compared _____
those who may have the opportunity to travel an see things from a different perspective.

(b) There's quite a lot of Chinese people wandering around York. You would never ____ really
seen that a while ago.

(c) Ireland is so beautiful, ____ the sun shines there it is like some of the most beautiful

country anywhere.

3. Fancy Vocab: Match the definition

a. the process by which businesses or other organizations operating

1. sheltered on an international scale.
2. Globalisation b. protected from difficulties or unpleasant realities
3. pristine c. having or involving very modern technology or design.
d. division into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or
4. futuristic beliefs.
5. polarisation e. clean and fresh as if new

Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Real Exam English. My name is Trevor.

Today´s topic is travel. Holidays, sunshine, adventure, culture, cocktails by the swimming pool,
what´s not to love about travel!

This is a very common topic in English exams, it can come up in any part of the test, speaking,
listening, reading or writing so it’s something you need to prepare for beforehand and listening
to this podcast will help a lot as will reading about tourism in general in newspapers,
magazines, Instagram or wherever. You will need to get yourself some nice expressions,
vocabulary and phrasal verbs that you will be able to use in the exam. And basically there are
two types of questions relating to travel. Firstly there are personal experience questions such
as where you have been and where you would like to go in the future and then there are
general travel and tourism questions, regarding the positive and negative effects that travel
and tourism have on various people and on things like the environment.

So, in today´s episode we have a few speakers from the UK, we have somebody from South
Africa and we have 2 speakers from The United States, so you´ve a good mix of accents to
listen to.

And remember in case you can´t understand everything the speakers say then you can get the
transcripts and worksheets to this and every episode on the Real Exam English pages on
Facebook or Instagram.

Also, it´s a good idea to replay each episode twice as in many English exams you get to hear
the audio two times, and it´s amazing how much more you pick up the second time around.

Alright then, let’s go with the questions.

Trevor: What is the best region you have visited?

Keith(USA): Where?

Trevor: In the world?

Keith: In the world, gosh, I dunno. Y´know so many different places, so many different places
for so many different reasons. Not for nothing, but y´know Ireland is so beautiful, like, when
the sun shines there it is like some of the most beautiful country anywhere. I really like the
coastline in the west and it´s really stunning to see the ocean and the ……y´know I didn´t know
the Atlantic Ocean was blue until I saw the beaches there and I was like woah…look at that.

Trevor: Some people say tourism does more harm than good, do you agree?

Keith: I mean certainly there’s a lot of harm that can come from tourism, but I think travel is
great and frankly if people were to travel. I can say that for examples here in Montana where
people have not travelled very far they can be very sheltered in their perspectives of the world
and therefore have a very insulated view on things as compared to those who may have the
opportunity to travel an see things from a different perspective. So tourism and travel they
kinda have to go together so I don´t totally agree that tourism is destructive. I think if it´s done
right it can be a good thing.

Trevor: Some people say that because of tourism countries all over the world are becoming
similar to each other, do you agree?

Keith: I mean I dunno I entirely agree. Globalisation and commerce is something that makes
places more similar. As far as tourism making places the same, I don´t think so, I don´t know
how that would be the case really.

Trevor: In the first answer we heard some nice adjectives to describe Ireland, beautiful and
stunning. And I TOTALLY agree by the way, go to Ireland, it´s amazing! It´s really essential have
a few different words to describe how beautiful something is, because you very often need
those types of words in the speaking parts of the exam, as well as in the writing paper, in a
review or a letter for example. So other alternatives are spectacular, marvellous, magnificent,
breath-taking, jaw-dropping, there´s loads of them, so make sure you learn and practice a few
of them for the exam.

In the second answer we heard some great vocabulary such as people being sheltered in the
perspectives which means they haven’t been exposed to other perspectives and we also heard
they have an insulated view which is basically the same meaning, to be protected from outside
influences. So an example would be, As a member of a rich and powerful family, she was
insulated from ordinary life.

Trevor: Have you been to many other countries?

Mary(South Africa): Yes, yea I´ve been to many countries in Southern Africa, around South
Africa. I´ve been to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and
then obviously I´ve travelled quite a bit in South Africa. I´ve travelled in Asia, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Burma, or Myanmar. I´ve been to Australia and New
Zealand and I´ve been kind of all over Europe I guess. I´ve never been to Russia or South
America, I´d love to go. We were in Cuba a couple of years back which was brilliant and I´ve
been to America once to California. That´s about it really.

Trevor: What place in the world would you most like to visit?

Karen(USA): Uhm…Dubai actually. That was on my bucket list.

Trevor: What activities do you like to do when you are on holiday?

Paul(UK): Activities? If you could call it an activity I just like to wander around, basically. So,
wherever I am I try and just wander Street to Street if I´m in a town, or from village to village
or something like that and basically I would say walking is the greatest part of my activity. I´m
not a big one any more for cultural activities exactly. I mean, I don´t really go to museums or
any of that stuff. I have done in the past but I think I´ve seen enough museums.

Trevor: What activities do you like to do when you are on holiday?

Ade(UK): When I´m on holiday I always want to know what´s around the next corner. I like to
climb mountains and go to the ocean and see a bit of all the country that I´m in. I don´t just
want to sit in one place. I´m not one of these people that can sit on a beach and read a book
for 2 weeks. So yea…I nearly always will try rent a moped and go off and adventure and see the
real off the beaten track aspect of a country, go and see the villages and the places where the
real people live.

Trevor: Where would you go if you had a month´s holiday and a lot of money?

Ade: I´d probably go to Japan at the moment. Yea…I´ve never been to Japan, I don´t think it´s
as expensive as it used to be but I believe it´s still not the cheapest country in the world. I´ve
never been and yea it looks beautiful in the north. There´s some real pristine islands that are
not really touched that much by civilizations and I´d like to go those regions but also, y´know,
to go to Tokyo and the sort of cyberworld, y´know, the real, sort of, futuristic part of Japan and
see that as well. Y´know people are sleeping in these little bubbles and shooting around on
bullet trains and stuff. I think it´d be interesting to see that polarisation of culture in the same
country.

Trevor: Do many overseas visitors come to your country?

Lesley(UK): In normal circumstances and in normal life, yes, lots of overseas visitors come to
this country and in fact lots of overseas visitors come to this part of the country. So, we`re in a
part of the UK called Yorkshire and it´s the most popular tourist area of the whole country. In
fact, I read an article yesterday in a newspaper that told me tourism is worth 9 billion pounds
to the Yorkshire economy. So you get tourists from all over the world coming to this part and it
´s becoming quite famous. And so a sight you would see nowadays that you may never have
seen, even…I don´t know, 8 or 10 years ago, there´s quite a lot of Chinese people wandering
around York. You would never have really seen that a while ago, but it´s much more on the
map now for international tourists.

Fancy Language
Ways to say beautiful: stunning, spectacular, marvellous, magnificent, breath-taking, jaw-
dropping, gorgeous

Modal verbs in the past: may/might/could/should/would HAVE

Use of English Answers:

1. Track

2. (a) to (b) have (c) when

3. 1 (b) 2 (a) 3(e) 4 (c) 5 (d)