S06 - 2 Extremes

Native English speakers answer exam-style questions about extremes.

In this episode you will learn lots of useful vocabulary for talking about doing extreme things, plus some lovely idioms. In terms of grammar, we have inverted conditionals, past perfect tense and we also look at how to use either and neither. There’s input from quite a diverse bunch of speakers today, from snowstorms in Boston, to helping pregnant woman in Ireland to doing a dance marathon in New York, so lots of great listening practice for you.

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Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast. This episode is about extremes. This subject came up in C2 level speaking exams last year and it is also covered in different ways at B2 and C1 levels. So you’re gonna hear lots of useful vocabulary for talking about doing extreme things, plus some lovely idioms. In terms of grammar, we have inverted conditionals and we also look at how to use either and neither. There’s input from quite a diverse bunch of speakers today, from snowstorms in Boston, to helping pregnant woman in Ireland to doing a dance marathon in New York.

As usual if you would like the transcripts for this and all episodes to help you study the language in more detail, then you can find those on the Real Exam English website, realexamenglish.com

What is the most extreme weather you have experienced?

Blizzard of 1978 in the Boston area where it just dumped snow. We were out of school for three weeks. The ability to kind of be on top of a snowbank and then peer down to the top of the car was really, really wild. And so that's, I think, the most extreme weather that I've been in.

Why are some people drawn to extreme experiences even when they're dangerous?

That's a really good question. And that goes into your inherent wiring of your brain. So, people have a certain tolerance of risk aversion or risk attraction. And it is the amount of adrenaline that pumps through your body. And so, someone who is risk attraction, attracting, tends to thrive on that adrenaline and they do not actually feel safe unless they are putting themselves at risk. Whereas someone who's risk aversive feels very vulnerable if they're not in their safety zone.

We have some nice snow vocabulary to start off with here. She mentioned the blizzard of 1978, a blizzard is like a snowstorm, where it snows very heavily, or as she said it just dumped snow, nice verb. She then spoke of being on top of a snowbank and peering down to the top of a car. So a snowbank is a big pile of snow on the side of the road and this verb to peer down we use when we are looking over the edge of something high towards something down below. For instance, you can peer down from the balcony of your hotel towards the swimming pool below. Or you can peer down from the edge of a cliff to see the beach below.

In the second answer, she mentioned adrenaline pumping through your body. This is absolutely essential vocabulary when talking about extremes. Likewise, she said some people thrive on adrenaline, remember thrive on means to enjoy something or be successful at something. Like, other people might thrive on attention, or on stress. 

We then got a little psychology lesson about the wiring of the brain and risk aversion and risk attraction. So if someone is averse to something like risk then they try to avoid that thing. So you can be averse to cold weather for example. You can flip this around too, though, to use this in a positive way. Like I’m not averse to glass of wine with my lunch, meaning I wouldn’t say no to a glass of wine, I enjoy that. Ok you may have heard her saying risk aversive, which is actually not correct. Aversive is an adjective but it is not used to describe a person’s feelings, it’s used to describe the thing that causes you to be averse to something. A good example is aversive treatment, where the objective is to reduce your cravings for something, like smoking or alcohol. But risk averse is where you avoid risky things.

What is the most extreme weather you have experienced?

I'd say probably the most lasting memory is probably the beast from the east that time when, there was a foot of snow outside the door.

I'd never seen that in all my life in Ireland. And it, the whole country ground to a halt and everyone, everyone who would normally be in work was outside shoveling snow and all the dads and, it was, the kids were off school.

It was a, it was a fun time. But I remember like there was a woman on in our estate, and she, was due a baby, so we all came out and we were digging, digging channels in the snow for her car to get out, basically, and so it was a bit of a Meitheal as well, where people are coming together, it was nice.

Sounds cool. We had a lovely collocation at the start here, the most lasting memory. This is super useful vocabulary for exams as very often they ask about personal experiences from the past, like in this case, and also when you have to compare photos, like in Cambridge B2 and C1 exams, they sometimes ask which situation you think would be more memorable. So, the most lasting memory would be in picture 1, really nice. 

He started this answer with I’d say, which of course is a contraction of I would say and then in his second sentence he started with I’d never seen that. I’d in this case is a contraction of I had, for the past perfect. Remember we use the past perfect for something that happened before something else, so before that moment, he had never seen that in his life. And make note that in spoken English it is really common to contract the I would and I had to I’d, so it’s a good thing to practice yourself. I’d highly recommend it!

We also had this fantastic idiom, the whole country ground to a halt. This means it completely stopped functioning. Another example would be, during covid our factory ground to a halt or when I had my baby, my English studies ground to a halt. Speaking of babies, he told this story of a lady who was due a baby. If you are due a baby, then you are expected to give birth soon. In fact, you can also use expecting a baby. 

So this lady lived on his estate. This estate is the residential area where he lives, where all of the houses are built together and look pretty similar. What you call this varies from country to country, it may also be a housing development, or housing complex, but in Ireland where this speaker is from it is most commonly called an estate. 

Something else that is very common in Ireland is the use of Irish words in English. I’m not sure if you are aware, but in Ireland, our native language is Irish, or Gaelic, which is completely different to English. And from time to time when speaking English people use an Irish word, just because it works better than any English word. When this happens in languages it is known as a loan word. So in this case, he was talking about how the community came together to help out this pregnant lady and he said it was a bit of meitheal. So this word Meitheal is Irish, and it fits perfectly here as meitheal is a tradition where all of the neighbours in the community come together to get some work done, like harvesting the crops or cutting hay.

Alright, I’m not trying to teach your Irish here, English is enough right, but it is worth pointing out that Irish people sometimes use words like this, as I know quite a few of you do go to Ireland, for holidays, work or to study English even. So, it’s good to be aware that sometimes we use cupla focal, which means a few words of Irish.

Do you think society encourages extreme behavior in areas like dieting, working or spending?

I do, I do. I think that we see people…..we see people on social media. I used to think, people are always talking about going on a diet or working… being praised for working overtime or for having expensive things. I think those dieting, working too much and spending too much make you try to fit in, to feel more a part of a community that is kind of a fake, fake community building upon itself.

Very true! Just a little bit of vocabulary for you here, and that is being praised for working overtime. This word praise came up in some classes of mine recently and a few people didn’t know it so I thought it would be worth pointing out. To praise someone means to tell them they are doing something well. Like the mother praised her daughter’s good behaviour. So, you can give praise, receive praise or it is often used in a passive way, to be praised. 

One other thing to pick up on actually, was the phrasal verb to fit in. This means to feel accepted by a group of people. Like, I changed school as I didn’t really fit in in my old one, or I fit in with my new yoga group straight away, they made me feel right at home. 

If you would like to fit in with some like-minded students, then why not sign up for group classes with me. I have small groups, maximum 6 people, usually with a mix of people preparing for exams and others just attending to improve their English. So, if you are not averse to learning with some students with a similar level to yourself, from a variety of countries, then get in contact for details about classes, you’ll fit right in!

Do you enjoy extreme sports or activities?

Yes, massively. I'm super activity friendly. Like whenever I go on holiday with us, I always want to do like the jet skis, like jump out of the plane, bungee jumping. I want to do it all. It's,…I love it. I love it. I'm all about fun in life. Like when I'm in England, in the UK, so I work remotely. So I work from here. I'm actually at my desk now. And like, I don't mind just knuckling down, cracking on with work. But when we go on holiday, I'm like, I want to go on the, I want to go on the quad bikes. I want to go on the, I want to do everything. And lucky enough, my wife is the same. She doesn't mind coming along and doing the things. We took a, we took a scuba diving and like she hated it. She hated it. The instructor had to stay with her the whole time, like underwater. And I loved it, like I'm spinning around. loads of stuff. I love it. I love being out there and doing crazy **** get those endorphins going.

Wow, what a great list of extreme activities. We had jet skis, which are like these motorised vehicles that zoom across the top of the water. We had bungee jumping, which is jumping from bridges, attached with a bouncy rope, we had jumping out of planes, which can also be called sky diving. We had quad bikes, which are those all-terrain vehicles, for driving around bumpy or mucky places. What else, scuba diving, which is diving under the water with an oxygen tank. So much stuff, as he said he loves doing crazy shit, good collocation that, for adventurous, high-risk activities. He said he likes to get those endorphins going. Another really useful expression for talking about exciting activities.  

On the other hand, he said when he was back in the UK, he doesn’t mind knuckling down and cracking on with work. To knuckle down means to start working hard. Like, my exam is next month so I need to knuckle down if I want to pass it. Or we need to knuckle down if we are going to get this project finished on time. To crack on with work has a similar meaning really, to get started or continue doing something. For example, let’s crack on with the homework, we need to finish today.

What is the most extreme weather you have experienced?

I can't believe you asked me that because I'm an extreme weather fan a little bit. So it's a little bit of a pastime of mine. Extreme weather. Wow. There's been a lot of extreme weather. Probably the most recent extreme weather that I have experienced would have been last spring, I was hiking the fisherman trail through Portugal. And we were just plummeted with wind and rain and just torrential downpours and things like that. Had I not been a fan of extreme weather, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much.

Have you ever pushed yourself to an extreme limit?

Extreme limit. I wouldn't say extreme, extreme. I mean, I don't you know, I'm not…I'm not hiking, you know, a trail in, you know, to the top of the Himalayas or something like that. But I would say probably the thing that was probably the most extreme that I ever did. I was in dance marathon in college.

Wow.

And it was a 48 hour dance marathon. And I did it. And that, does that count as something? 

Totally. Yea.

And you really, you couldn't, obviously you couldn't sleep, you couldn't sit. You, and there were people who would walk around the dance floor. And if your legs, if you weren't like shuffling, they'd say, you gotta shuffle. So, and it was very, you had timed bathroom breaks. And if you had extra time on the back end of your bathroom break, you would fly onto the floor and they would give you a quick little massage. 

So yeah, that's totally extreme, that’s pushing the limits.

It sure is. Loving the grammar in these answers. In the first one she said Had I not been a fan of extreme weather, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much. So, we have a 3rd conditional here and the first part of it has been inverted. So that means that instead of saying if I had not been a fan of extreme weather, she changes it to had I not been. Ok we invert the subject and the verb, instead of I had, it’s now had I. This inverted conditional is great for higher level exams, like C1 or C2 exams, and you can use when you are talking about a situation in the past. With regard to writings, this is perfect for a review, a report or an article. Like, had the facilities been newer, it would have been better. Had there been better special fx the movie would have been more enjoyable. You get the idea.

In the second answer she had a cleft sentence, the thing that was probably the most extreme was a dance marathon. Ok starting with “the thing” creates some emphasis here. Instead of saying the most extreme thing was a dance marathon, it sounds more emphatic to say the thing that was most extreme was a dance marathon. Really easy to use that one. 

In terms of vocabulary she said they were plummeted with rain and wind and that they had torrential downpours. So this verb plummeted implies something falling very quickly, like the rain here. Another example of how to use it is, after the scandal, the company’s share price plummeted. Ok, it dropped very quickly.

So when the rain is plummeting down you can call it a torrential downpour, useful language these days as extreme weather becomes ever more common. 

Do you enjoy extreme sports or activities?

Not so much anymore. I'm older. I don't want to break nothing. I'm pretty active, as in like, I'll hike, I'll dance, I'll, you know, rock climb, I'll do that kind of stuff, you know. I'm gonna think twice before I repel, but I have repelled. I probably would have been skydiving in my 20s or 30s. Now it's like I got too much to live for. I'm not taking that chance. 

Why do some people enjoy watching extreme challenges or competitions?

I think it's two reasons. I think one reason is 'cause they like it when they fail, 'cause it's funny. And it's like, it's not that you are being mean, but it's like, they're not perfect and neither am I, you know? So like, it's okay that I'm not perfect because like they couldn't do it either and they were chosen on this television show and it's okay. You also wanna see someone like succeed beyond all measurable doubt. Like there was something, oh, I don't watch them very often, I don't watch television, but it was, one of these extreme sports where there's a wall that they have to run up and a lot of women couldn't do it. And this one woman was trying, and I was in it for her. I'm screaming at the television set, Come on, come on, you can do it. And then she did do it, and I was elated for her.

I love this accent, she is a Puerto Rican who grew up in the Bronx in New York. And she had some pretty American grammar, she said, I don’t want to break nothing. Of course, it is correct to say I didn’t break anything but as any of you know who watch TV or any content from the US they often use incorrect English, like this. 

I liked the way she used as in to give an example, she said I’m pretty active, as in I hike and dance, etc. Ok so as in can be used for examples or to clarify or specify what you mean. For example, I love American food, as in hamburgers and hotdogs. Or I hate apple, as in the flavour, not the company. 

In the second answer we had some examples of neither and either. One was they are not perfect and neither am I. Remember we use neither to agree with a negative statement and the format is neither plus auxiliary verb plus the subject. Another example is, I can’t sing and neither can she. Ok so we repeat the auxiliary verb from the first part of the sentence, can in this case, neither can she. Or I wouldn’t swim with sharks and neither would you. 

Either is quite similar, right, the difference being we use it with a negative verb. As in he doesn’t like extreme weather, and I don’t like it either. I can’t swim and she can’t swim either. 

One final word to highlight is elated, she said she was elated for the woman who climbed the wall. In my classes we are always looking for better ways to say happy, and elated means really happy. For instance, the person in the photo looks like they have just won a race so I imagine they are feeling elated. And if you are happy that someone else did something positive, you can use preposition for, as in, oh you passed your exams, I’m elated for you. 

Fantastic. Ok guys that’s the end of today’s episode, hopefully you are elated with all of the great language we had. I’m elated that you listened the whole way to the end, thank you very much for listening. I guess I’d better knuckle down and get cracking on the next episode. 

Until then, take care,

Trevor