PART 2
A.#FOCUS#ON#FUNCTIONAL#LANGUAGE
Suggested methods for preparing for Part 2 Talk
1. Put a clock, a stopwatch or some other timing device on your desk. If you can, set it so that it can
tell you when 1 minute has passed.
2. Have a piece of paper and a pencil ready for making notes.
3. If possible, have a tape recorder ready to record what you say. A recording of your 'little story' will
help you analyze how well you spoke and help you to fix some of your weaknesses in speaking.
However, if you don't use a tape recorder, don't worry too much because you will still get the practice you need.
4. Now go to the new Part 2 topic (= a Part 2 topic that you have not read before) and strictly give
yourself only 1 minute to read it and prepare to answer it. Don't give yourself 2 minutes to think
about the topic and certainly don't give yourself 5 or 10 minutes to think about the topic. Make
notes if you want to. If I have a link to notes for this topic, don't read them now – wait until you
do your in-depth preparation after this first attempt at answering the question.
5. After you have thought about the topic for 1 minute, set the timer at 2 minutes, turn on the tape
recorder and speak your answer for more than 1 minute but no more than 2 minutes. Close to 2
minutes is much better than just a little more than 1 minute.
6. After you have spoken your little story, listen to yourself on the tape and think about ways you could have spoken better. B.#FOCUS#ON#SPEAKING# 131
Describe a newspaper or magazine that you have read You should say:
¥ What type of newspaper or magazine it is ¥ How often you read it ¥ What you like about it
And say whether it is popular in your country Suggestions
It is probably easier to describe a magazine for this topic because magazines usually have more features
than newspaper. Choose a general lifestyle and interest magazine such as Forbes, Time, National
Geographic. However, if you want to describe a newspaper, you can talk about The Economist, VnExpress or Tuổi Trẻ Newspaper.
Focus on Uncommon Vocabulary
Nouns: feature, editorial, comment, photojournalism, film and book reviews, headline
Verbs: publish, comment, edit
Adjectives: attention-grabbing, eye-catching, in-depth Idioms:
Hot off the press (= freshly printed, as of a periodical.)
¥ The latest edition of the student newspaper is hot off the press, and my class is going to distribute it at lunch.
Break the news (= to reveal information, often that which is bad or upsetting)
¥ Who is going to break the news of her husband's accident?
Take out a subscription (= pay for a subscription)
¥ I decided to take out a subscription to a gardening magazine. 132 Focus on Grammar
Try to use some past tenses as well as present tenses:
¥ I first came across this magazine when I was in university.
¥ I have been reading it for about 2 years now.
¥ I used to have a subscription (It was delivered to my address by post). Sample Response
I’d like to talk about The Economist, which is one of some newspapers that I have read.
It’s an international weekly newspaper printed in magazine-format and published digitally that focuses on
current affairs, international business, politics, and technology.
Although I get news from The Economy every two weeks, I usually read an issue almost every day, because
there are a lot of in-depth articles to read. For me, news items in this newspaper are written coherently
and professionally. Besides, there has also been a complete audio edition of the paper available on every
Thursday, recording the full text of the newspaper in MP3 format. Audio files for each newspaper issue
are free for subscribers and available for a fee for non-subscribers.
There are many things I like about this newspaper. It’s a liberal magazine generally in favor of free markets
and global trade, which means I can gain a lot of knowledge about many different topics as well as current
affairs around the world, and it’s very concise and also structured in a way which allows me to ignore
sections which aren't relevant to my interests. Besides, although I admit that The Economist is denser and
a more far more demanding read than others like The New York Times or BBC News, the way I see it, it
provides more insight and more analysis regarding economics and current affairs.
That’s all I want to talk about this newspaper.
Suggested Response
I’d like to talk about ……………………………………, which is one of some Your own keywords
newspapers/magazines that I have read.
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It’s …………….………………………………………….………………………………………….…… ………………….………………………
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There are many things I like about this newspaper/magazine…………………………………………………………………..
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That’s all I want to talk about this newspaper/magazine. 134