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How to Answer Map Questions (Vocabulary List Included)
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Mar 10, 2025
In this tutorial, you’ll learn How an IELTS examiner would look at one of the more usual Task 1 questions - MAPS! I love map questions but many students are unfamiliar with them and so might panic in the exam! How to understand what is needed and what clues to look for before you start writing. Examples of good grammar and key useful vocabulary from our review of 2 students' essays - one Band 6 and one Band 7-7.5 as our examples. How you can practice by looking at another kind of map question. Really important vocabulary needed for talking about geographical location and change. Click here for IELTS essay correction Learn more about the IELTS writing task Full online IELTS course Massive IELTS vocabulary guide Click here to listen to the full tutorial: https://www.ieltspodcast.com/academic-ielts/map-description-vocabulary/ Click here to read the full transcript.
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0:00
hello there I students welcome to I
0:03
podcast you no longer have to worry
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threat or Panic about IELTS because we
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are here to guide you through this test
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finless online course you can visit us
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at ieltspodcast.com
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hello I students thank you for choosing
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to listen to this tutorial from Alp
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podcast.com my name is Daphne and today
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I'm going to focus on task one map
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questions which like the process
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diagrams or flowcharts are a bit more
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unusual but nevertheless it's really
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important to be able to answer them and
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to have had a bit of practice before
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your exam So today we're going to do
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three things we're going to look at a
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task one map question from our greats
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podcast.com doc course using two
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students essays and seeing why one one
1:00
scored a band 7 7.5 and the other scored
1:03
a band six and we'll look at another
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task map question from a course book and
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see how we could answer this one and
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then I want to give you lots of really
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useful and important vocab which is
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crucial that's to say really important
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for successfully answering these
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questions in your
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exam okay so here we go on the website
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or that goes with this you'll be able to
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see all the diagrams so have a look at
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these as this will will help you to
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understand and visualize what I'm
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talking about so to guide you I've
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colorcoded my corrections and
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recommendations to make sure that they
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correspond really easily to the band
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grades we're talking about as you know
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there's four areas of assessment so uh
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top comments I make to do with task
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achievement I'm going to Mark in red
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coherence and cohesion blue letal
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resource green grammatical range and
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accuracy
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purple so if you haven't yet come across
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the ask one map question they usually
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consist of two maps which might be of a
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landscape or island or a town one before
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and one after some kind of change and
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the question rubric asks you to
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summarize the information by selecting
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and Reporting the main features and make
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comparisons when necessary unlike other
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task ones the guide suggests 20 minutes
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of time and to write at least 150 words
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so the one we're going to look at is
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that map question which is part of our
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writing course um and you can find about
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more about that on the Alp podcast.com
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website the writing course is brilliant
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we see our students making great
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improvements uh with all parts of their
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writing task one and task two getting
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lots of practice on these different
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questions so on this uh image there are
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two almost rectangular Islands before
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and after some development work on the
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first one we can see a beach on the
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western side and then only nine trees or
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wooded areas scattered around the island
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some on the Northwestern Corner some on
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the northeastern coast and others
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located to the south in the after
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picture there are some accommodation
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blocks these are labeled accommodation
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blocks on the diagram uh on the western
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side three larger independent buildings
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in the center and next to further
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accommodation blocks in a circular shape
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on the right hand side of the map is a
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map on the right hand side is is a lake
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so foot paths and a vehicle track link
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the new buildings to a newly developed
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Pier so a pier sticks out into the sea
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and there's a few sailing boats in the
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sea so you can hear if you're listening
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carefully I'm already using quite
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specific language to describe directions
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this is really important you are going
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to need this and this kind of task on
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the left hand side or western side in
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the Northwestern corner to the south in
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the center to the east of and so on so
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make sure you're happy about directions
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the north south east west and then the
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more specific northwest southeast and so
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on also note in English we write these
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directions uh without a capital letter
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uh they can work as adjectives so in the
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southwestern corner or as a noun simply
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in the Northeast
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so how do we start with these questions
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so quite simply the same way as I
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recommend you start with a pie chart or
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a line graph you take a pencil and you
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Circle the significant differences
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between the two images look for Clues
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and in this uh map there are two or
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three huge Clues which many students
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miss or don't really think about what
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the clues are kind of saying before they
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start so the Clues here are really
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important to answering the task
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correctly the first clue if there is one
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look at the scale this is the clue to
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how big the island really is now this
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island is actually really small it's
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only about 500 M at half a kilometer
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long and this must give us a clue as to
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what kind of development has taken place
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it is far more likely to be a holiday
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Resort than a large new urban town uh
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now any uh kind of questions I read any
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responses I read that talk to me about
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Urban
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regeneration no it it definitely could
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not be that on such a small
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island also it has no roads that would
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be a problem other Clues are in the
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labels so look carefully if you're given
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any labels look at these really
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carefully too words like accommodation
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and footpath are more likely to be
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associated with a hotel or Resort than a
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big new town uh finally the drawing of
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the two sailing boats in the after after
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picture also add to the idea of this
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being a holiday Resort so let's look at
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these two students essays and see how
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they answered this question so the first
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one which um is graded around about a
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band Six starts the illustration shows a
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piece of land before and after it went
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through a process of
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civilization okay well the second one
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which is more like a band 77.5 Begins
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the two maps represent a plan of
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construction for a new resort on a
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previous undeveloped
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Island so immediately you can see which
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one gives me more information and the
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second one is making some things very
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clear the students looked at the scale
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assumed the changes a part of a resort
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development and told me the island was
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previously underdeveloped so these
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observations will help score highly for
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task achievement the first one talks
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about a process of civilization which is
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not wrong but it doesn't sound very
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natural the overall sentence look like
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this the first one says overall there
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are significant changes uh can be found
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so we should correct that significant
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changes can be found in the island
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particularly the new accommodation
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facilities public buildings at the
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center and SE Transportation at the
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southern
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part so let's look at this in more
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detail uh significant we like that word
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uh so they talk about significant
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changes can be found so nice passive
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voice that's great new accommodation yes
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fine that's labeled so we know what that
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is public buildings I'm not sure about
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this so for me a public building is like
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a library or a museum something big sea
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transportation again not sure there's a
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picture of two small sailing boats
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whereas seed transportation is
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suggesting to me a big cargo ship so I
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don't think the students really
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understood the scale of the map and
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because of this their understanding of
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the change isn't right this would impact
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on task
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achievement uh there's some language
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used for directions at the center and at
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the southern part but the wrong
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preposition so we would say in the
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center and in the south of the island so
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the second essay reads overall the
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resort uh the resort will be built all
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over the island and will include a hotel
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a reception houses an artificial lake
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and a pier now you may notice here that
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there is the future passive voice this
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is quite unusual it runs throughout this
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essay it's been done very well it's it's
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correct all the way through personally
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however I'm not sure about the use of
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the
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future here but in the first sentence
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the students already suggested that the
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maps were a plan of
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construction which would suggest a
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future idea imagine that there were two
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architects looking at Maps uh so that's
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why they're using the future voice here
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here um I think it would have been
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better to use the present perfect
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passive followed by the present tense so
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my sentence would read overall the
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island has been transformed into a new
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resort which includes and then you could
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say your hotel your reception
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whatever uh okay so let's look at the
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first essay again uh this is the next
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paragraph the piece of land presented
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has a wide Seashore with only about a
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fifth of its borders tied to land during
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the process of civilization the area
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went went through the vegetation there
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was reduced extraordinarily and both
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residences and buildings of social use
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were built one of them being a in order
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to make use of the territory Shore
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another noticeable change was the
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appearance of a
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lake right so there's some good stuff
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here nice passive verbs vegetation was
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reduced residences were built and some
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good lexical phrases so a fifth of its
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borders tie to land during the process
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of civilization
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one of them being a peer in order to
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make blah blah blah okay so there's some
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nice some nice stuff going on there
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however my biggest problem is how this
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relates to the actual picture so because
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this is an island none of it is
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connected to land an island is not
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connected to land uh so in terms of
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coherence and Lexus we wouldn't talk
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about buildings of social use but we'd
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probably say residential buildings and
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I'm not sure about for me the process of
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civilization sounds more like Evolution
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like how man came into being so I would
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prefer to say the development F phase
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something like that or the development
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stage um so there there's problems there
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relating to the the coherence uh and
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also obviously to the task achievement
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although there is some good stuff there
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too so the second essay for me is much
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more concise and precise and I think
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from this you could probably draw the
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map which is always a test if you can
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draw the map then that's good without
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even looking at it so the island is
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about 200 M long and 800 M wide it is
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surrounded by the Sea and with a beach
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on the west side there are also some
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trees at various places close to the
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coast according to the new plan there
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will be a hotel with a reception and one
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more facility building in the center of
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the island while on both sides of the
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hotel there will be placed houses as
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accommodation for guests so there's
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confident use here of the present
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passive voice it is surrounded by the
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Sea a hotel will be placed and I like
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the fact that students giv me a size of
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the island and use vocabulary relating
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to Resorts so nice lexical range here
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Hotel reception facility building
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accommodation for guests that this all
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works well with the assumption that the
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changes are part of a new resort and
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showing me the size of the island
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immediately uh reassures me the student
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aha they they've looked at the
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information they've been given they're
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using that information to make some
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realistic
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assumptions uh the first essay back to
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the first essay then the final paragraph
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reads like this the town as it presents
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itself after all the modifications
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displays three main buildings at its
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Center and two formations of the house
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accommodations one on each side there
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are two different kinds of path in the
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land disposition a footpath and a
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vehicle track that connect all main
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areas and enable the citizens
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Mobility okay so although there are no
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major grammatical errors here there is
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still the problem that the construction
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work is clearly not a town and I think
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the students therefore miss the
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opportunity to use some key vocab for
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adding geographical positioning so uh we
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could have had to the Southwest
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accommodation blocks have been built on
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the Far Eastern Shore a lake has been
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created uh also the tense running
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through this they've just used the
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simple present and I think this tasks so
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like the process diagrams as well shouts
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at you use the passive tense it's a
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passive voice it is the the best
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opportunity to show off your passive uh
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which is really really important and
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that gets you good points for um
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grammatical range and accuracy so the
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second ESS the band 7 final paragraph is
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as follows the hotel the reception and
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the facility building will be connected
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by a vehicle track while between the
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houses there will be foot paaths on the
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southern coast a pier will be placed to
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provide a safe port for sailing boats
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there is also a plan to create an
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artificial Lake on the East End of the
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island comparing to the initial so
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compared to should be the initial look
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of the island only the beach and some
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trees will be the same in the same place
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while while the general prospects of the
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island will change significantly okay so
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I'm sure you agree this is much more
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coherent and all in all a very good
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response there's some great vocab which
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is just what we need we're talking about
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useful vocab for this kind of task
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connected by placed positioned create
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change significantly I love the word
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significantly so for me that's a great
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word and grammatically the student
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continues with the future passive that's
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that's how they've started so at least
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they're consistent going all the way
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through and use some good connecting
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words while really useful connecting
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word you've heard us say that before um
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and also compared to obviously because
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they're comparing the first picture
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before the development and then the
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second picture Okay so hopefully that's
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given you an idea there for that kind of
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map question what to do and what to
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watch out for uh let's have a look now
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at a different kind of map question this
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image is taken from the coursebook
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called ready for IELTS published by
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melan exams and here there two maps uh
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dated 2002 2009 representing changes in
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a
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town and it clearly gives the name of
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the town which is Lakeside so let me
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read you a few sentences from the sample
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answer which is given to this question
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just to illustrate some useful vocab for
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this kind of task so firstly the
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residential a uh neighborhood in the
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southwest of the town was transformed
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into a shopping center and the
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industrial complex expanded to replace
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the wooded area in the
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Southeast okay that's a pretty intense
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sentence uh so the response is using
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some of the labels given so it's quite
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clearly labeled this map and it's okay
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the labels are there to help you uh you
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can do that uh but it also uses some
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really good vocabulary for describing
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change and some very good passive verbs
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and geographical Lexus as well so uh you
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can see that the southwest of the time
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was transformed so nice geographical and
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nice passive and again industrial
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complex expanded to replace the wooded
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area in the Southeast so every single
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word there is doing a really good job uh
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another sentence let me give you an
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example the Oldtown and derel Warehouse
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in the north were knocked down and
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replaced by a car park and the
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construction of some offices so the old
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town and derel warehous house really
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useful um adjective there derel means
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not used anymore abandoned in the north
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were knocked down and replaced by so
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you've got nice phrasal verb there
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knocked down in the passive and replaced
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by watch out for these prepositions
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replaced by really important expanded to
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um always look learn the preposition
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with the verb um and construction of
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some offices okay so there's some good
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stuff in that one um see have a look at
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the picture maybe you can have uh see if
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you can write your own response to that
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using some of the words that we're using
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here we're mentioning and I want to just
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sum up this tutorial here by giving you
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some really useful words and some vocab
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which you could use for these questions
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so if you're not happy with this vocab
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uh make a note of it because it is
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really really important uh I would
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suggest verbs such as transformed into
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so watch out for the prepositions here
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replaced by developed expanded so we can
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have expand into something like that
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construct demolish extend and become
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these are all really really good verbs
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here um now if you like playing with
17:49
words a transformation you'll know that
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as an extra bonus these can all be
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transformed into nans so you can have
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development constr destruction
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demolition extension
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expansion and so on so that makes these
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words super flexible and will show a
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great lexical range you're showing the
18:09
examiner you can manipulate these words
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from a verb to a noun um even as an
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adjective some of them so that's really
18:17
really helpful uh you can also use some
18:19
Expressions so built in place of turned
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into built on the site of reconstructed
18:27
to become and other really useful
18:30
Expressions so these are nice
18:31
collocations here Urban
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transformation urban renewal or Urban
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regeneration and not only is this quite
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good vocab for the task one Maps uh it's
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also really useful for your task 2 s as
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well especially if you're writing about
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towns or anything to do with that so
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there we have it we have looked at a
18:52
band Six type task one map essay and
18:57
compared this to a band seven map essay
19:00
we've also looked at another type of map
19:02
question the one about towns and
19:05
reviewed some core vocabulary which I
19:07
think is needed for this kind of
19:08
question so I hope you found this useful
19:11
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good I mentioned that before that can
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help you with your task two your task
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one give you lots of feedback
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personalized to you lots of essay
19:39
Corrections and examples of different
19:41
types of question uh if you have a
19:43
friend who's also working working
19:44
towards a and finding it hard do share
19:47
this podcast with them good luck to all
19:49
of you with your preparation and talk to
19:52
you soon thanks for listening
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20:11
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