IELTS Preparation Series 1, Episode 4: Rising Dollar

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Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

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Today we're going to be making comparisons, and looking at some tricky prepositions of

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time.

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But first, let's listen to an academic talking about the Australian economy and the Australian

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dollar. See if you can hear him use some comparative adjectives.

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It couldn't have come at a worse time, in the sense that with business investment weakening,

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and with the housing market, at least in activity terms, having turned, that's where the timing

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is unfortunate for us.

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The stronger the value of the Australian dollar and the longer it stays strong, the weaker

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our economic activity will be next year.

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I think growth in 2004 will be comparatively weak. My own prediction is that throughout

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the year growth will be around about 2 per cent.

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Being around the Reserve Bank's board table at this time I think would not be a comfortable

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place to be. The bank is probably in a bigger dilemma over what to do with interest rates

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with monetary policy than at any time that I can remember.

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Dr Ian Harper is discussing the value of the Australian dollar, and the growth of the Australian

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economy, including interest rates.

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He describes all these factors by comparing information. Listen to him talk about the

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value of the dollar.

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The stronger the value of the Australian dollar and the longer it stays strong, the weaker

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our economic activity will be next year.

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The stronger the value of the dollar, and the longer it stays strong, the weaker our

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economic activity.

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The adjectives used in the clip are strong, weak and long.

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The Australian dollar is strong. It is stronger than it used to be.

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It has been strong for a long time. It is making economic activity weak.

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The longer it stays strong, the weaker the economic activity.

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Let's look at comparative adjectives a bit more closely.

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With single syllable words, we add -er: strong stronger

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long longer weak weaker

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big bigger

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But not all adjectives follow this simple pattern. Some are irregular.

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It couldn't have come at a worse time.

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It couldn't have come at a worse time.

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Worse.

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Worse comes from the adjective bad:

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bad, worse.

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Irregular adjectives are often best learnt with the superlative or 'most' form:

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bad, worse, worst

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and

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good, better, best.

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When comparing, there are 2 ways to do it.

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To say 2 things are the same, we use as ______ as.

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Growth is as slow as it was last year.

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When saying one thing is more than the other, we use the comparative form. We usually use

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the word 'than' when comparing.

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Growth is slower than last year.