IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 4: Clouds
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Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.
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Today, we're going to look at 'paragraphs'.
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But what's a 'paragraph'? Well it's a group of sentences that are related and develop
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an idea.
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You need to use paragraphs in any formal writing you do, especially in the IELTS writing test.
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Let's listen to a weather expert talking about clouds, and then we'll look at how a paragraph
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works.
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Clouds have two effects. Now clouds obviously decrease the amount of incoming radiation,
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that is heating, from the sun. That then affects how many more clouds form. It affects how
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hot it gets in the daytime. At the same time clouds, at night time, prevent radiation or
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heat escaping from the earth. This not only affects temperatures, but it affects the atmospheric
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systems, the winds, then the humidity and how everything occurs.
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Jim Arthur speaks clearly on the topic of clouds.
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What we have here, when it's written down, is a really good paragraph.
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A good paragraph consists of three main parts: a topic sentence, supporting sentences and
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developing sentences.
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Let's start by looking at the topic sentence. The topic sentence provides the main idea
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of the paragraph. It tells us what the paragraph is about.
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Here's Jim Arthur introducing the subject he will be discussing.
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Clouds have two effects.
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"Clouds have two effects."
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This is Jim's topic sentence.
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There are two parts to his topic sentence.
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"Clouds have 2 effects."
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The first part tells us the subject: the subject is 'clouds'.
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The second part tells us the controlling idea.
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The controlling idea is that clouds 'have two effects'. This is what the rest of the
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paragraph will discuss.
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Let's listen to Jim discussing the effects.
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Now clouds obviously decrease the amount of incoming radiation that is heating, from the
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sun.
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In his second sentence, Jim states one of the effects of clouds that relates to and
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supports the topic sentence.
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"Clouds decrease the amount of incoming radiation." This sentence is called a supporting sentence.
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Listen to him continue.
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That then affects how many more clouds form. It affects how hot it gets in the daytime.
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These two sentences further develop or support the idea expressed in the supporting sentence.
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They're called developing sentences.
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Developing sentences provide examples back up
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explain illustrate
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or clarify the point made in the supporting sentence.
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Listen to the next sentence in the paragraph.
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At the same time clouds, at night time, prevent radiation or heat escaping from the earth.
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This is the second supporting sentence in the paragraph.
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It supports the topic sentence. It gives the second effect of the clouds. They 'prevent
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radiation or heat escaping from the earth'.
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Now Jim develops the idea further.
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This not only affects temperatures, but it affects the atmospheric systems, the winds,
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then the humidity and how everything occurs.
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Jim clarifies the information in a developing sentence. He tells us that clouds affect 'atmospheric
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systems, winds and humidity'.
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Let's summarise how paragraphs work.
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Paragraphs consist of related sentences that develop an idea.
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The idea is introduced in the topic sentence.
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The idea is supported in the supporting sentences.
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The idea is further developed with examples or clarification in the developing sentences.
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There are different ways to structure a paragraph, but these basic elements occur in all of them.
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When you practise writing paragraphs, try to 'make the ideas clear' and 'provide details'
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to strengthen the points you are making. Also do this when you're speaking.
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An important feature of a good paragraph is 'coherence'. Arranging your ideas logically
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will help provide coherence and get your message across.
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Now let's look at some vocabulary about the weather.
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The clips we've seen feature a weather expert, Jim Arthur, talking about clouds.
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He's a 'meteorologist'. He studies 'meteorology', the science that looks at processes in the
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Earth's atmosphere that cause different weather conditions.
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Jim works in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory in Australia. Let's listen to him
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talk about the particular weather conditions around Darwin.
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Around Darwin we get tropical cyclones because we're close to that hot water to the north
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of us. We also get continental thunderstorms - just come off the land, very violent thunderstorms
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with a mixture of hot arid dry air and hot, humid air. We get monsoons, classic monsoons,
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where the northwest monsoons come in for weeks on time.
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Jim mentioned three words describing weather:
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cyclones
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thunderstorms
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and monsoons
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These words describe severe, and in some cases, violent weather conditions.
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A 'cyclone' is a violent tropical storm or hurricane.
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A 'thunderstorm' is a storm with thunder and lightning.
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A 'monsoon' is a period of heavy rains, and the wind that brings those rains.
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Many words used in English originally came from other languages. We use them so often
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that we no longer regard them as foreign.
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Let's look at some weather words we've borrowed.
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'Cyclone' is from a Greek word.
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'Monsoon' is a Portuguese word.
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'Typhoon', which is a tropical cyclone or hurricane, is from the Chinese 'tai feng'
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meaning 'extreme wind'.
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'Tsunami', a large, destructive wave caused by an earthquake, is from the Japanese word
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meaning 'harbour wave'.
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A 'tornado' is a violent windstorm that circulates around a centre. It's from Spanish and it
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means 'turning storm'.
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So, in our glossary of words belonging to the field of weather conditions we can include
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cyclone
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thunderstorm
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monsoon
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typhoon
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tsunami
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and tornado
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Listen to Jim using some of these words.
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Around Darwin we get tropical cyclones because we're close to that hot water to the north
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of us. We also get continental thunderstorms that come off the land, very violent thunderstorms
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with a mixture of hot arid dry air and hot, humid air. We get monsoons, classic monsoons,
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where, where the northwest monsoons come in for weeks on time.
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Let's finish today by writing a simple paragraph using our new weather words.
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The topic is 'English words', and the controlling idea is that 'many come from other languages'.
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My main idea will be expressed in my topic sentence:
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"Many words used in English originally came from other languages."
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My supporting sentence will add:
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"We use them so often we no longer regard them as foreign."
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I can use a developing sentence to give examples:
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"Monsoon, tornado and tsunami are words from Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese."
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Lastly, I might finish with another supporting sentence that reinforces the main idea in
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the paragraph:
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"English is always changing because it adopts new words."
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I hope you can put your new weather vocabulary to good use in some interesting paragraphs.
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To find more information and tips, visit our Study English website.
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That's all for today. I'll see you next time on Study English. Bye bye.