IELTS Speaking A Polluted Place You Visited: Below is the sample monologue talking about a place you once visited that is polluted. This talks about a certain landfill in a particular town which the speaker visited during his university days. Study how the story is developed and learn the topic vocabulary words and collocations that are used that helped him develop his monologue better.
Also, pay attention to how the answers in Part 3 are discussed. The answers focus on the Chernobyl accident, greenhouse gas emissions, and some thoughts on whether the environmental issues would be addressed properly by world leaders .
PART 2
A PLACE YOU VISITED THAT
IS POLLUTED
Describe a place you visited that is polluted
You should say:
What the place is
Where it is
What type of pollution it has
And explain the cause and effect of pollution
A N S W E R
In the first place, nobody really wants to pay a visit to a place that is polluted because it’s simply disgusting! But let me share an interesting and awakening story of mine when I visited a village that’s located close to a landfill during my university days.
I had this subject called Community Development, in which I needed to study some social issues in a particular community for my research paper. I decided to visit the neighboring town because I knew it was the perfect place since it’s a poverty-stricken town, meaning to say, I could study major social issues that the locals were experiencing. So, I coordinated with some local officials and they took me to a small village but very populous which was situated a few meters away from a landfill.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
In the first place [phrase] – to begin with
Disgusting [adj.] – extremely unpleasant
Awakening [adj.] – coming into awareness
Landfill [noun] – a site for the disposal of waste materials
Poverty-stricken [adj.] – extremely poor
Coordinate [verb] – to work together
Populous [adj.] – densely populated
TIPS
i.) FIRST PARAGRAPH: The speaker developed his introduction by stating his generalization of a polluted place. Then dived in to talking about his experience of visiting a polluted place which was awakening to him. That alone helped him showcase his language skills to the examiner which is extremely helpful in achieving better marks in both Fluency & Coherence and Lexical Resource.
ii.) SECOND PARAGRAPH: In this part, the speaker started to develop a background story of his monologue. He talked about the reason as to why he needed to visit that polluted place. This part helped his examiner understand his intention of visiting that place. That served as a support to his introduction.
When I got there, I was appalled by the condition of the area not because it’s a slum, but because of the inexplicable smell of the place caused by the landfill. There were excavated areas with lots of garbage that weren’t filled with earth yet and I did believe that, that was the reason why the place smelt fusty and overpowering. I was at a loss for words seeing the situation of the people living in that area. I knew how unsanitary the place was for the residents and how it affected their overall health and I learned that some of them had some respiratory illnesses because of the condition of their place.
Anyway, after I conducted some interviews to some locals in that place, I realized how unfair life was and how privileged I was for living a life that’s a complete opposite to the residents there. Since then, I reminded myself that I had no right to complain about some petty things since there were more people who wanted a life like mine, that’s healthy and free from pollution.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
Appalled [adj.] – dismayed; horrified
Slum [noun] – a densely-populated area that is untidy
Inexplicable [adj.] – unable to be explained
Excavate [verb] – to remove earth from an area; to dig a hole
Earth [noun] – soil; the substance of a land surface
Fusty [adj.] – not fresh; smells of decayed things
Overpowering [adj.] – having a strong smell
Petty [adj.] – of little importance
TIPS
iii.) THIRD PARAGRAPH: In this part, the speaker described how polluted the place was which now helped the examiner understand the situation of that place better. He used some good descriptive words to describe the place and provided some important details that would make the examiner picture out the place. Also, he talked about the impact of the pollution to the health of the residents.
iv.) FOURTH PARAGRAPH: This part served as his ending to his monologue in which he shared his reflection or the life lesson he learned from visiting that polluted place. This also supported his introduction, when he said that the story was awakening for him. This surely achieved the Coherence of his story. You have to make sure that your story achieved that criterion so your ideas would not be all over the place. Coherence is necessary!
PART 3
What do you think are the common environmental problems that are affecting many countries these days?
Well, the primary environmental problem that is greatly affecting the world is the excessive greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, from the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, and the heat generated from using some products like appliances that contain greenhouse gases in businesses and homes. These greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere and make our planet Earth warmer. As a result, sea level rises due to the melting of ice in both north and south poles.
Another problem is the intemperate use of plastic which contributes to tons of garbage around the world that kills many living organisms like the marine lives. These two major environmental problems have not been properly addressed by world leaders and sadly we are already paying the price for our actions such as experiencing the high increase of temperature and the irregular weather conditions.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
Excessive [adj.] – uncontrolled; too much
Greenhouse gas [noun] – carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbon, methane, water vapor are examples of greenhouse gases that trapped in the atmosphere which cause heat
Intemperate [adj.] – excessive
Pay the price [idiom] – to experience the bad result of something you’ve done
TIPS
i.) The speaker gave his answer right away by explaining about greenhouse gas emissions and how it affected the atmosphere and the sea level. He did use some very helpful topic vocabulary words to his answer that helped him express his ideas even better.
ii.) Then he transitioned to giving another important problem which was about the tons of garbage and how it impacted on marine living organisms. And simply ended by giving his conclusive statement emphasizing the fact this generation was already suffering from the maltreatment of the environment.
What do you think is the world’s worst environmental disaster caused by humans?
I consider the nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine as the world’s worst environmental disaster caused by humans. If my memory serves me right, the explosion happened in 1986, well, I was not born at that time yet, but I read several articles of that nuclear disaster and what I learned was that, one of the reactors of that power plant was defectively designed and some inadequately trained plant operators made a mistake during their safety test operation in the plant.
That disaster displaced many people and many were killed due to Acute Radiation Syndrome, not only that, the site and the neighboring places were incredibly contaminated with radioactive materials that made people abandon their homes. The Chernobyl accident is the world’s dangerously unique environmental disaster.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
If my memory serves me right [phrase] – another way to say ‘If I remember it correctly’
Defectively [adv.] – with fault
Inadequately [adv.] – in a way that it lacks quality
Contaminated [adj.] – being exposed to pollutant
Acute Radiation Syndrome [noun] – also called as ‘radiation sickness’ or ‘radiation poisoning’
TIP
i.) The speaker was very straight-to-the-point when he answered this question. He talked about one nuclear power plant disaster that’s widely popular in the world. He just simply gave the examiner an idea about that disaster and then emphasized the effects of that disaster to people and the environment. If you notice, he used some very good topic vocabulary that aided him to express his answer better and that surely helped him achieve a very good mark in Lexical Resource. And that’s how you answer this IELTS polluted place you visited recent topic. Isn’t it easy?
Do you believe that the problems of pollution will be better in the future?
I really want to believe that, however, day by day, I am getting skeptical because world leaders are not really serious about improving the condition of the environment. World conferences about addressing the environmental issues are just a facade. If they take action very seriously to improve the condition of the environment, many businesses will be affected. For instance, if electric cars are heavily promoted and supported by governments, for the purpose of massively reducing air pollution, oil companies will suffer and that imperil the world economy – that is something we cannot afford to bear.
If we also use electric cars, we will be burning more fossil fuels to make those cars work and that too is harmful to the environment. So we do not have any better choice and that makes me believe that the condition will not be better in the future, especially on the issue of air pollution. Well, I am just being realistic.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
Skeptical [adj.] – doubtful
Facade [noun] – false appearance
Imperil [verb] – put at risk or being destroyed
TIP
i.) The speaker simply expressed his skepticism about the issue and provided his realistic reason. Then, he gave an example that would surely support his argument and that helped him explain his stance to the examiner better. Part 3 is your opportunity to express your opinion, which is a very good chance for you to showcase your language skills. So make sure not to give a half-baked answer.
Learn the RECENT IELTS SPEAKING PART 1 Topic about Fish and Fishing on this link https://www.ieltsdragon.com/ielts-speaking-part-1-fish-fishing/ielts-recent-topic-with-answers/
And that’s all for the IELTS A Polluted Place You Visited recent topic! It’s necessary that you know some topic vocabulary words in order for you to express your ideas better. So make sure to prepare some of those and learn how to use them better to communicate your ideas better. Good luck!
Best of luck to your exam! Be Natural! Breathe Confidence!
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