IELTS Preparation Series 3, Episode 26: Giving Advice
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Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.
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What should you do to stay healthy? This is a possible question in IELTS. How might you
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reply to such a question - what language choices do you have?
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The language function required is "giving advice". Today we'll look at language choices
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in English for giving advice.
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First, let's listen to someone giving advice about health:
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Having good health is something we all want. There are several things we should do to keep
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fit and healthy - eat well, exercise and get plenty of rest. If we have a good diet, lead
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an active life and get enough sleep, then we should stay healthy. If we get sick, then
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we need to manage our recovery. There is prevention, and there is cure - but prevention is better
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than cure.
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"Prevention is better than cure". This is a common saying that means it's better to
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avoid getting sick than trying to cure the sickness later.
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So what does our advisor recommend we do to prevent getting ill?
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There are several things we should do to keep fit and healthy - eat well, exercise and get
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plenty of rest. If we have a good diet, lead an active life and get enough sleep, then
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we should stay healthy.
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What sort of language does she use for giving advice?
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First she uses the modal verb 'should'. Listen again:
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There are several things we should do to keep fit and healthy - eat well, exercise and get
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plenty of rest.
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The word 'should' is used in a number of ways. Here it indicates advisability - there are
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several things we should do to keep fit.
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Listen to another use of should with this meaning:
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You should try to walk a couple of kilometres every day.
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The negative form "shouldn't" is often used to give advice about what not to do.
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There are three things that you shouldn't do. You shouldn't smoke, you shouldn't eat
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too much junk food and you shouldn't drink too much alcohol.
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There is another modal verb that is used in the same way as should, but is a more formal
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choice, ought.
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It's used by this man in an interview about immigration to Australia and its impact on
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the environment:
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It's an open question whether people are applying more strain on the environment if they're
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living in a flood plain in Bangladesh than if they're living in Australia. Secondly,
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I think that if you're worried about the environmental sustainability of the pattern of economic
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growth in Australia - and there are good reasons why you might be - then you ought to be looking
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at policies to reduce, say, carbon dioxide emissions, water usage, regardless of how
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many foreigners you let in or don't let in.
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"You ought to be looking at policies". You could also say you should be looking at policies.
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Advice is suggesting choices, so you don't use the word must. There is no choice when
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you say must - it's an obligation or something you have to do.
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Sometimes you need to suggest choices in a way that doesn't upset the person you are
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advising.
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Instead of saying 'You shouldn't smoke', you can express it as a question:
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Shouldn't you give up smoking?
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A more formal way of saying this uses the word oughtn't:
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Oughtn't you give up smoking?
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In the next clip, listen to another way of using should:
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If we have a good diet, lead an active life and get enough sleep then we should stay healthy.
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Here, should expresses the idea that this is likely to happen if the condition - having