IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 11: Mangroves
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Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.
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On Study English today, we'll talk about the language of speculation and take a look at
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identifying the future tense. Speculating about the future is a very important language
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skill for the IELTS speaking test.
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But first, let's watch today's story. We'll visit a mangrove forest where we'll meet one
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of the more interesting animals that calls the forest home - the goanna, and a new animal
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- the cane toad - that might be threatening the mangrove goanna.
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Possibly because it's very hard to get into the mangroves all year round, especially in
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the wet season when there's a lot of water. This site's one of the only spots where you
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can get in without a boat all year round so that's why we chose it.
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Are cane toads likely to come into mangrove mud flats like this?
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It's probable that they'll come in small numbers, but from radio tracking these goannas it looks
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like the mangrove goannas will head out onto the flood plain and they do seem to eat frogs
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so it's possible that when the cane toads arrive here on the flood plain in big numbers
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the goannas will eat them. So it's possible there'll be an impact.
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We expect that most of the goannas are going to eat a cane toad and die, but we're just
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hoping that some of them, even a small proportion, won't be interested in eating a toad and they're
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the ones that will be living to pass on their genes and hopefully bring numbers of goannas
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back up, eventually.
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So the scientists aren't sure what will happen in the future.
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When we're trying to 'predict the future' - or speculate about what might happen - we
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have several language choices.
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Let's put together a list of our options.
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First, we have verbs. We could use verbs like:
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guess
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suppose
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imagine
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think
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suspect or hope
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Second, we can use modal verbs.
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For example:
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may
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will
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would
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might or
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could
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Or, we can use conditionals like if:
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For example:
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If I pass the exam I will buy myself a new DVD.
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Other conditionals use similar constructions like this:
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If, I might, or
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If, I could
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We might also use discourse markers to speculate about the future.
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Some examples are:
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perhaps
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maybe
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hopefully
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possibly
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or even: you never know
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