Ilets Speaking Questions and Answers For Band 9
let's get started
00:06
this is the speaking test of the
00:08
international english language testing
00:10
system
00:10
taking place on saturday the 11th of
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march at beacon center
00:15
center number bn367
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the candidate is sabrine valencia and
00:20
the candidate number is zero
00:23
zero zero three four zero zero
00:26
the examiner is carol kennedy and the
00:29
examiner number is 433
00:31
816.
00:36
good afternoon
00:40
uh what is your full name please um my
00:42
full name is sabrine bellingeri
00:44
and what should i call you uh you can
00:46
call me saba
00:48
may i see your identification please
00:49
saba yes
01:00
okay thank you
01:10
now in this first part i'd like to ask
01:13
you some questions about yourself
01:15
let's talk about where you live where do
01:18
you live in your country
01:20
i live in hyderabad which is the capital
01:23
of andhra pradesh in the southeast of
01:26
india
01:28
it is a very big city about 7 million
01:30
people live there
01:31
and is it an interesting place to live
01:33
oh yes a very interesting
01:35
place to live hyderabad has a very long
01:38
history um
01:40
so there are lots of ancient forts
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mosques and
01:44
other monuments there is a very
01:46
beautiful lake
01:47
and there are also lots of wonderful
01:50
markets
01:51
and will you live in hyderabad in the
01:52
future uh
01:54
yes i think once i finish my studies
01:56
here i'll go back to hyderabad
01:58
my husband is from hyderabad too so i
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think
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we'll stay there now let's talk about
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hobbies and interests
02:06
what hobbies and interests are popular
02:08
in your country
02:10
people have many different pastimes in
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my country
02:13
i think the most popular these days are
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things like
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gardening and do it yourself which is
02:19
when people well usually men make things
02:22
for their home
02:23
i think women tend not to have too many
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hobbies
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you can't really call shopping a hobby
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i think in the past women used to fill
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up the leisure time that they had with
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with craft activities
02:37
but sewing and knitting aren't so common
02:38
these days i think
02:40
reading is still very popular especially
02:41
now these days with the new e-readers
02:44
and which hobbies and interests do you
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enjoy
02:47
um well like a lot of people uh my work
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takes up a lot of my time
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and at the weekend i like to meet up
02:53
with my friends or
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uh go out with my husband so i don't
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really have much time for hobbies
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but i do read a lot especially history
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and biography
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also i love collecting art so
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i go to a lot of art fairs i really like
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colorful abstract art which really
03:12
brighten up our homes
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and what hobbies and interests did you
03:15
have as a child
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gosh uh that was a long time ago let me
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think
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uh i used to collect gearings i think i
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had
03:24
about 20 or 25 they were silly things
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really but
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fun for a small child i
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used to like painting and drawing
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my parents were very supportive and they
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bought me a lot of oil paints
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but i'm not really very talented i also
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played the clarinet
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i was in a junior orchestra i remember
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once we
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uh we played a concert and my read broke
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during the first piece
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and so i couldn't make any sound and do
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you think
03:55
parents should encourage their children
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to have a hobby or interest
03:58
oh yes very much so i think it is very
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important for children to have
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something other than school television
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and computers
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sometimes a hobby can turn into a very
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successful career
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but even if it doesn't it can help the
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child
04:14
develop as a person as they learn about
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new things
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and meet new people who share the same
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hobby
04:21
now let's move on to talk about the
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weather do you prefer hot weather or
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cold
04:27
i think i prefer cold weather i know
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most people
04:30
prefer hot weather but uh it is always
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so hot in my country that it is such a
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nice change to feel the gold
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of course in the cold it's very easy to
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put on a hat and gloves
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to keep ourselves warm tell me about the
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weather in your country at different
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times of year
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india is so big that there are many
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different climates
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so i'll just talk about the weather in
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hyderabad generally we have
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a tropical wet and dry climate that
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means
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the summers march to june are hot
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over 30 degrees and very humid sometimes
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it can reach over 40 which is
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just unbearable at the end of the summer
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the monsoon comes
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and it rains for about three months
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after the rainy season it's winter which
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is
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quite short uh just a couple of months
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which time of year did you enjoy most as
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a child
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uh well i think like most children
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i would say the summer uh when we had
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the long school holiday
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but uh i always preferred spring
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there's something so lovely about when
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everything starts to grow again after
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the winter
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you can almost smell it in the air and
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has the weather changed much in your
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country in recent years
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um i don't think so really i know that
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in some countries
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the climate has been changing because of
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global warming but where i live it seems
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to be the same
05:54
just heat and rain i have noticed
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something uh
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in recent summers when it's very hot
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there have been many water shortages i
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don't remember that happening when i was
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younger
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thank you
06:11
now i'm going to give you a topic and
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i'd like you to talk about it for one to
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two minutes
06:16
you have one minute to think about what
06:18
you're going to say and you can make
06:19
some notes if you wish
06:20
do you understand yes
06:24
there's your paper and pencil
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and
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it's your topic i'd like you to describe
06:34
a gift or present that somebody gave you
06:46
recently
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okay now you have one to two minutes for
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this
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so don't worry if i stop you i'll let
07:48
you know when the time is up
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could you start speaking now please
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i'm going to talk about a present my
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husband gave me last year for my
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birthday
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we had gone to istanbul for a few days
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my husband had always wanted to go there
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anyway we had a few days holiday from
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work and we decided to fulfill my
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husband's dream
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as i said earlier i'm really interested
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in art
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and so even though i had no real desire
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to go to istanbul
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i was totally captivated by all the
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beautiful buildings and the wonderful
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arts and crafts that were available
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there
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the blue mosque was my favorite building
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from the outside it looks
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just like a typical ottoman mosque but
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inside it is quite
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startling the large windows with the
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light reflecting on the exquisite blue
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tiles made it just
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breathtaking uh i asked one of the
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guides
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about the tiles and she told me that
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they were from iznik
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and that they are still made today when
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we left the blue mosque we walked down a
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pedestrian lane
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full of shops including some tile shops
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in one of the shops the owner told us
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that the
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tiles were made in iznik anyway one of
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the tiles
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really caught my eye actually it sang
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to me it was a fish four big fish
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and lots of little ones all in different
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shades of green
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i really really wanted it but when we
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asked the price it was very high
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something like 300 american dollars
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obviously i knew we could negotiate but
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it seemed such a high price that we just
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left
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the next night we went out for my
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birthday meal
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just as we were finishing the dessert
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the waiter came over
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and handed me the most beautifully
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wrapped gift
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i knew at once because it was very heavy
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that it was the fish style
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that's why
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and does this person often buy you
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presents
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well he's good at remembering my
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birthday
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and our anniversary so he does usually
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buy me something nice then but
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he doesn't just buy a present out of the
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blue thank you
10:10
could i have the booklet the pencil and
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the paper bag please
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thank you
10:23
now you've been telling me about a
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present you received and i'd like to ask
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you some more general questions related
10:29
to this
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so let's talk about attitudes to gifts
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can you tell me something about how
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people feel when they receive a homemade
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gift
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and when they receive a shop bought gift
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well i think as with everything it
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depends on the person
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and the gift when a grandchild makes
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something
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for their grandparents like a bookmark
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or a clay pot that they've made at
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school
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then obviously their grandparents will
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treasure it for adults i think it's a
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bit different
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if people are going to give homemade
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gifts then they need to be
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of really good quality why do you say
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that
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well when children make things it's the
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thought that counts
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but when it's adults making things it
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has to look
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like the present is a proper present
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rather than something they've made just
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because it's cheaper
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of course the thought still counts and
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in many ways
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our time now is more important or
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precious than money
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so if somebody has spent a lot of time
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making a gift it will mean a lot
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but if someone has made some chutneys or
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pickles
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or some other type of food then it has
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to be edible
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and tastes nice as well so what about
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shop bought gifts
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most gifts these days are shop bought
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and there isn't really anything wrong
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with that
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what is important i think with the shop
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board gift is that
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the person buying the gift should spend
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some time
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thinking about what the other person
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would really appreciate
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it's no good a husband going into a
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perfume shop and
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buying the first perfume he likes he
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needs to see what
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perfume his wife is wearing that shows
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his wife
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that he is paying her attention and do
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you think that children get
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more pleasure receiving gifts than
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adults do
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yes and no obviously children love
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receiving gifts
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but children do generally get a lot of
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gifts children these days
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are spoiled and they get too many gifts
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so the more gifts they get the
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less they value them adults on the other
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hand generally
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have the resources to buy things for
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themselves
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so if they really want something they
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can buy it
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of course this then makes present buying
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for adults much more difficult
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but of course there are things that we'd
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like
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that we can't really afford or we can
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afford them but can't justify
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their expense what sort of things are
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you thinking of
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for women it might be perfume or a day
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at the spa or a new pair of party heels
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uh for men usually something to do with
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their hobbies
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or books or cds do you think that more
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people get
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more pleasure giving or receiving gifts
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oh um this is a tricky one why
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well i think most people get pleasure
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out of both
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of course it depends we may not get a
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lot of pleasure
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out of giving gifts to children who we
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know may not appreciate them
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but if we have found the perfect gift
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for someone we love and we know it's
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going to make them happy
13:40
well then this will really fill our
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hearts with joy
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similarly if someone receives a gift
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of something that they don't really want
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or they can sense that it has been
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bought
13:53
out of haste then this isn't really
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going to make them feel that good
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but if it's something wonderful then
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well of course
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they're going to feel fantastic about it
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let's move on to talk about the
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commercial aspects of giving
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how much do advertisements influence
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people when they buy gifts
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in my opinion probably not too much
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i mean most adverts are for things like
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cars
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and household products which aren't
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really gifts
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although a lot of young people like to
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be given
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new phones and other gadgets so if a
14:31
parent isn't sure which model to get
14:33
then they could be influenced by
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advertising and do you think that some
14:38
festivals have become commercialized as
14:40
a result of the emphasis
14:41
on buying gifts oh yes definitely yes um
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in fact i think it's much worse than
14:46
that it's not just the
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old festivals becoming commercialized
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but
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so-called new ones being created just
14:54
for the sake of present giving
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can you tell me more about that yes uh
14:59
things like valentine's day and mother's
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day these aren't indian traditions but
15:03
suddenly we find we have to buy a
15:06
present for our spouse on valentine's
15:08
day
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and while it is nice to recognize
15:12
how important our mothers are surely it
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should be something we do every day not
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just
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once a year when we buy her some
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chocolates thank you very much saba
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that is the end of the speaking test
15:37
this is the speaking test of the
15:39
international
15:40
english language testing system taking
15:43
place on saturday the 29th of september
15:46
at didtown center center number dd
15:50
783 the candidate is javier
15:54
manuel rico and the candidate number is
15:58
zero zero zero four two nine
16:01
zero the examiner is carol kennedy
16:04
examiner number four three three eight
16:06
one six
16:08
good morning my name is carol kennedy
16:11
can you please tell me your full name
16:13
uh yes i'm javier manuel rico and what
16:16
should i call you
16:17
uh you can call me charlie can i see
16:20
your identification please chavy
16:23
here
16:34
thank you
16:43
right in the first part of the interview
16:46
i'm going to ask you some questions
16:48
about yourself
16:49
so let's talk about what you do do you
16:52
work
16:52
or study i'm still studying uh in my
16:56
final year
16:57
i've nearly finished my career my course
17:01
and what he's studying and do you enjoy
17:03
it i'm studying law
17:05
and yes i do enjoy it most aspects of it
17:07
but
17:08
in this final year there is a lot of
17:10
hard work and
17:12
a lot of reading and i cannot say that i
17:14
enjoy all of this reading
17:15
but um what i really enjoy is working on
17:19
case studies
17:20
what i mean is discussing cases um i
17:23
like to exchange ideas with people
17:25
so what are your future plans i want to
17:28
have a career in law
17:31
i have to decide which area to
17:32
specialize in first and then maybe study
17:34
for
17:35
another four or five years uh i hope to
17:38
specialize in
17:39
environmental law uh which is the law
17:42
that businesses use
17:43
to have to abide by to ensure that their
17:46
practices do not
17:47
affect the environment let's talk about
17:49
friendships
17:51
how do you spend time with your friends
17:54
like
17:54
most other people i think having a drink
17:57
or a meal
17:58
i play football salah with some old
18:01
friends
18:02
i think it's called five aside in in
18:04
this country there are
18:05
sometimes six or seven of us um i
18:08
haven't been able to
18:09
to keep it up so i'm looking forward to
18:11
getting back into it
18:12
and is there one person you could call
18:14
your best friend
18:15
uh i would say maybe my girlfriend is my
18:18
best friend
18:18
um although if you ask her maybe she
18:21
doesn't say
18:22
uh say this um but among my male friends
18:25
i do not think that
18:26
i have a friend who is closer than
18:29
all the others in spain we tend to have
18:32
a big group of friends on the weekend
18:36
maybe a friday or saturday
18:37
we will all go out together sometimes
18:41
classmates from school or university and
18:44
a big group of guys
18:45
and girls 15 to 20 of us will go out and
18:48
have a meal or
18:49
end up in a club or a bar and sing some
18:52
music
18:54
and can you tell me about a friend you
18:56
remember from your childhood
18:58
uh that's going back a long time um
19:01
there is a way that i don't know now but
19:04
was a very good
19:05
childhood friend of mine was called
19:06
hector uh we were about
19:09
nine or ten years old and we did
19:11
everything together
19:12
um he was kind of geeky i guess
19:16
uh i had other friends that um i had
19:18
similar interests with and i did sport
19:20
with but
19:21
i like hector because he was very
19:23
different
19:24
he used to play with chemistry sets and
19:26
fix engines and things like this
19:28
but then we went on to different
19:29
secondary schools and
19:32
we made new friends and we grew apart
19:35
now let's move on to talk about culture
19:37
tell me about something that you feel is
19:39
special to the culture in your country i
19:41
mean it
19:42
could be the food or maybe the music or
19:44
perhaps art and literature
19:47
i could talk about any of these things
19:49
but uh give me a moment
19:53
i think it's better that i talk about
19:55
food i'm very
19:57
proud of spanish art and literature but
19:59
i think that i know most about food
20:02
you could say i'm a food expert
20:05
actually i think spanish food could be
20:07
more recognized i mean everybody knows
20:09
dishes like tortillas
20:12
and there are tapas restaurants in every
20:13
city but our cuisine is more
20:15
sophisticated than that and
20:17
when everybody comes to spain they think
20:18
that we only ever eat snacks and
20:21
when you go for me there are lots of
20:23
dishes on one table
20:25
there are some very good tapas
20:27
restaurants but most of them are
20:30
how do you say
20:33
specialized not specialized um
20:36
standardized
20:37
um because they make the food so that
20:39
everybody
20:40
will like it um it's like italian food
20:44
or chinese food
20:45
so is there a traditional dish that's
20:47
associated with your country
20:48
i see that there are not one traditional
20:51
dish but there are many
20:53
regional dishes that are famous for
20:56
example paladilla
20:57
is very famous in coastal areas which is
21:00
grilled seafood
21:01
and everyone will have every kind of
21:03
fish you can imagine
21:04
um but if you're in the mountains you
21:06
will eat food that is from the mountains
21:08
maybe
21:09
deer or goat or things like this but
21:11
don't think that spanish food is
21:13
necessarily just about traditional
21:14
dishes like i said the best restaurants
21:16
are
21:17
the most adventurous thank you
21:24
now i'm going to give you a topic and
21:26
i'd like you to talk about it for one to
21:28
two minutes you have one minute to plan
21:31
what you're going to say and you can
21:32
make
21:32
notes if you wish you understand yes
21:36
so there's your paper and pencil
21:40
and that's your topic
21:45
so i'd like you to describe an event
21:48
that you attended recently
22:10
so
22:29
[Music]
22:36
[Music]
22:50
[Music]
22:52
okay now you have one to two minutes for
22:55
this
22:55
so don't worry if i stop you i'll tell
22:57
you when the time's up
22:59
could you please start speaking now
23:03
i'm going to talk about my grandparents
23:06
golden
23:07
wedding anniversary which was two months
23:09
ago they're in the 70s now
23:11
um and have been married for 50 years so
23:14
it was
23:14
a very special day i've been to many
23:18
kind of
23:18
anniversaries and parties and weddings
23:22
but i must say that i enjoyed this day
23:24
more than any other
23:25
uh it was a moving and memorable
23:28
day i think that the combination of the
23:31
importance of the day and
23:33
the fantastic atmosphere was was what
23:36
made it so
23:37
special this
23:40
anniversary was was uh in a country
23:43
house which in spain we called una finca
23:46
which is like an old ranch there were
23:48
many guests who came from far and wide
23:51
this venue was perfect because there was
23:53
a
23:54
courtyard and a big garden a magnificent
23:57
hall where
23:58
we could have the evening meal my
24:00
girlfriend and my brother's girlfriend
24:02
they
24:02
came together with us as soon as we
24:04
arrived with everybody there my
24:06
mother she saw everybody and started to
24:09
cry
24:10
i can tell you that my mother she cries
24:13
very easily
24:13
and there were plenty more tears on this
24:16
day
24:17
there were musicians playing in the
24:19
courtyard like
24:21
an orchestra and with just four people
24:23
and everybody had
24:24
a glass of champagne now perhaps the
24:26
most important thing of
24:28
this day was the people that are so
24:30
there i so many
24:32
uncles and aunts that i hadn't seen for
24:34
many years and many cousins that i had
24:36
not seen since i was a boy
24:38
my mother's brother came from canada and
24:41
one of my grandfather's sisters came
24:44
from australia
24:45
it was very emotional and and it was
24:47
wonderful to see my grandparents this
24:49
happy the best moment for me was when my
24:52
grandfather made his speech
24:54
he thanked my grandmother for sticking
24:56
with him all these years and
24:58
it was not only my mother crying at this
24:59
point i can assure you
25:01
he is a very good speaker and he made
25:02
everybody laugh as well and
25:04
finally of course they cut the cake and
25:06
everybody came together for the group
25:08
photo
25:09
thank you so what time did you get to
25:12
bed that night
25:13
i think we were um some of the last to
25:16
leave at around
25:17
2 00 a.m thank you can i have the um
25:21
booklet the pencil and the paper thank
25:26
you
25:32
now you've been telling me about an
25:33
important event in the past that you
25:35
attended
25:36
now in the final five minutes of this
25:38
test i'd like to ask you some more
25:39
general questions that are related to
25:42
this
25:43
let's talk about past events in general
25:46
do you think photographs are the best
25:48
way to record
25:49
and remember special events in our lives
25:52
that's a
25:53
really good question and i mean of
25:55
course photos are
25:56
a part of our lives now in a way that
25:59
was not possible in
26:00
all the eras um i read there was a day
26:03
that
26:04
more photos are taken now than ever
26:06
before and i mean
26:07
millions or maybe billions of photos
26:10
every day since if
26:12
we have to take a photo to prove that
26:14
something happened
26:15
and i can't understand that i mean i
26:18
think that
26:18
people want to remember special events
26:20
and and even everyday things too and
26:23
personally i love taking photos when i
26:25
go places and see my friends and
26:28
i also love looking at old photos i
26:31
think they
26:31
can provide an insight into the past as
26:33
well why do you think that
26:36
i think that they can be very powerful
26:38
and remind us of
26:39
special places and and people and even
26:42
remind us what
26:43
we were doing this day or how we can be
26:46
feeling in this
26:46
in this moment and they are also
26:50
a record of our lives uh visually and
26:53
for example
26:54
photos of you as a baby and then as a
26:56
child and
26:58
that thing is an incredible thing like a
27:00
diary i think it
27:01
can act as a trigger for memory as well
27:05
what about written records can they also
27:08
encourage us to remember past events
27:11
written records by written records do
27:13
you mean
27:14
writing things down like diaries or
27:17
letters yes
27:19
well yes i think that writing things
27:21
down can definitely help us to remember
27:22
the past but
27:24
also the reality is that people no
27:27
longer write things down in the same way
27:28
uh like long letters or diaries some
27:31
people do but i think that we have less
27:33
time and and patience
27:34
nowadays and writing is more of a luxury
27:37
i suppose
27:38
in fact i kind of remember the last time
27:39
that i put pen to paper
27:42
apart from this exam i think i can just
27:44
about stretch to a postcard
27:46
however my mom tells me that she kept a
27:48
daily diary
27:50
uh throughout her childhood recording
27:52
everything that she did
27:54
and she wrote lost and lost during the
27:56
school holidays especially and
27:58
i like the idea of doing that but i know
28:00
that i would never
28:01
get around to actually sitting down and
28:03
putting my thoughts on a page
28:06
and which do you think is better
28:08
recording important moments by taking
28:10
photographs
28:10
or by writing them down well i'm not
28:14
sure that i can come down on one side or
28:16
the other
28:16
uh though on balance i would say that
28:19
visual image is more powerful
28:22
i'm trying to think of a good example
28:24
here there are so many famous photos
28:26
that capture
28:27
a moment in time but one particular
28:29
photo
28:30
stands out for me is the image of the
28:32
wall coming down in
28:34
berlin in germany in 1989
28:37
when you look at the photos you can
28:40
imagine the place
28:41
and the time and the moment very very
28:43
clearly and i think it's amazing that
28:45
one image can do that
28:47
some people think that it's more
28:48
important to be concerned about events
28:50
in the future
28:51
than events in the past what do you
28:53
think
28:55
i'm not sure that i can agree with that
28:57
because
28:58
i don't believe we can make sense of the
29:00
future unless we understand
29:01
what happened in the past why do you say
29:03
that
29:05
well in spain we are very proud of our
29:07
culture and
29:08
identity and i'm sure that that's true
29:10
for many people across the world
29:13
maybe that's why so many people spend a
29:15
lot of time researching back
29:17
into their family history i know that
29:19
from traveling around to other countries
29:21
like
29:21
the uk how important history is and how
29:24
important celebrating the past is
29:26
he enables people to understand where
29:28
they came from and where they are going
29:30
so in a sense the person and the future
29:33
are linked
29:35
so we cannot forget the past even if we
29:38
do want to concentrate on the future
29:41
thank you very much that's the end of
29:43
the speaking test
29:45
thank you
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