IELTS Preparation Series 1, Episode 23: Octopuses

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Hello and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

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Today we're going to talk about how to describe the appearance or character of animals and

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people.

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Here's the clip. Listen to some descriptions of a very strange octopus:

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You couldn't get an animal that's sort of more different or more alien to us.

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They've got such a weird shape. They've got eight arms coming off their mouth. When they

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walk around it's like they're running round on super lips. They've got a head in the middle

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of their body. They've got a doughnut shaped brain. They've got three hearts, blue blood

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and jet propulsion, and they've got a bag on the back that they stick all the body bits

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in.

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So octopuses have weird forms, and they have lots of really unusual behaviours as well,

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like high speeds and camouflaging. I think the reason that octopuses have ended up having

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such weird forms, and all these different sorts of behaviours is because they are a

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really good meal. They have no bones, no armour, no poisons and no spines. They're popular

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prey, so they have to be very fast and clever at squeezing through tiny holes, and really

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good at hiding from animals that want to eat them. So having to get away from their predators

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in the sea has made them evolve into amazing creatures.

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So they certainly are very strange creatures. Let's begin today by talking about how we

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order descriptions.

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When you write something down, you will have already thought about what you want to say.

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The next step is to decide how you want to structure your description.

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Today's description of an octopus starts with an interesting statement telling us how strange

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and unusual the octopus is compared to humans. This is to attract the attention of the reader

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or the listener.

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Let's listen:

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You couldn't get an animal that's sort of more different or more alien to us. They've

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got such a weird shape.

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Then the description focuses on the appearance of octopuses, the way they look.

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They have a weird shape.

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Which of the octopuses' characteristics is described next?

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So octopuses have weird forms, and they have lots of really unusual behaviours as well,

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like high speeds and camouflaging.

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He talks about the behaviours of the octopus.

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So he begins by talking about the way an octopus looks and then he talks about its behaviours

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- the way it acts.

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There are many other headings we could use to organise a description of something.

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For example, if you want to describe a person, you might think about their age, height, hair,

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eyes, face, skin or other features.

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For example, how would you describe this person?

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She has brown hair and brown eyes. Her face is long and narrow.

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Her skin is tanned.

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We could also say that she is of average height and has a slim build. You might even want

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to guess how tall she is.

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In Australia, we use centimetres to measure height, but many people still use feet and

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inches to describe height.

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So we might say she is 5 feet 6 inches, or 167 centimetres tall.

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Have a look at these pictures. Which person has brown hair, blue eyes a round face and

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freckles?

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Well, they both do.

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Which person is a teenager with long, straight hair and big eyes?

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Which person is middle aged with frizzy hair and glasses?

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You can see that the same person can be described in different ways, depending on what you want

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to focus on. The more vocabulary you know, the better your descriptions will be.

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Now, listen for another way of describing a person or animal.

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They've got a head in the middle of their body. They've got a doughnut shaped brain.

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They've got three hearts, blue blood and jet propulsion.

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The octopus has a doughnut shaped brain.

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There's not many people you could say that about!

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But when describing things, it can be useful to compare something with a common shape.

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So a person might have an oval shaped face, almond shaped eyes and a pear shaped body,

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like this.

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But what if you don't want to describe the way a person looks? You might want to someone's

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personality or character.

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Let's hear more about the octopus.

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They're popular prey, so they have to be very fast and clever at squeezing through tiny

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holes, and really good at hiding from animals that want to eat them. So having to get away

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from their predators in the sea has made them evolve into amazing creatures.

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He describes the octopus as fast, clever, good at hiding, and amazing.

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When we are describing someone, or something, it's a good idea to make a list of headings

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to help organise the description.

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We can talk about intellect - a person might be clever, wise,

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bright, smart, foolish or even stupid.

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We can also talk about a person's attitudes towards life.

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We could say a person is sensible, introverted, extroverted, optimistic

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or pessimistic.

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Or we might talk about their attitudes to people.

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Are they polite, generous and kind,

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or are they impolite, greedy and mean?

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And we can describe someone's behaviour too. Are they positive, interesting and confident,

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or are they negative, boring and shy?

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When learning to describe people, it's a good idea to be familiar with opposites like these.

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This will help you build your vocabulary very quickly.

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Do you know the opposite of these words?

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cruel, extroverted, courteous, generous,

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bright

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The opposites are:

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kind, introverted, rude, selfish

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and stupid.

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Sometimes, it sounds better to use one of the more positive words to describe someone:

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Mary was really cruel.

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You could say: "Mary was not very kind."

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I think Kylie is rude.

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I think Kylie is not always polite.

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Now let's work on building up your vocabulary about body parts.

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We'll begin by listening to the clip again. Listen for words that describe the body parts

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of the octopus.

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They've got such a weird shape. They've got eight arms coming off their mouth. When they

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walk around it's like they're running round on super lips. They've got a head in the middle

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of their body. They've got a doughnut shaped brain. They've got three hearts, blue blood

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and jet propulsion, and they've got a bag on the back that they stick all the body bits

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in.

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He uses the words mouth, arms, lips, head, body, brain, heart, blood and back.

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These all refer to parts of the body that you might want to describe, so it's important

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to know them.

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The easiest way to remember large families of words like these is to have a system. You

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should organise the words by association.

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For example, you could begin with the face and remember all the words that relate to

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the face - eyes, mouth, nose.

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Then you could work on the body and all the words that go with it - spine, blood, bones.

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You can then do this for the head, the legs, the arms.

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Rhymes can also be helpful when you're trying to remember new words.

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A rhyme that Australian children learn in school is:

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Head and shoulders, knees and toes Eyes, ears, mouth and nose.

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Or, maybe you could try to find words with similar sounds and group them together. Practicing

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them can also help with pronunciation.

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Some good examples are:

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ch-words chest, chin and cheek.

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or:

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k-sounds ankle, skull,

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back and knuckle.

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or words that start with h head, hip,

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heel, hand, heart.

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In this way, you'll be able to practice body parts, and pronunciation at the same time.

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And make sure you learn the more unusual body parts as well!

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And that's all for today. Don't forget to practice all the things we've learned today,

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and I'll see you next time. Bye bye.

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