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NA 2 Speaking Test Situations for Dialogue Section

1) Is physical education always healthy? 2) The worried friend and the “counsellor” friend, giving advice and being advised regarding relationships. 3) The journalist and the pop singer 4) The doctor with chain-smoking, hard-living patient 5) The psychic “believer” and the skeptical friend

NA 2 Monologues Topics

Another Country

Would you like to live in another country? Which one?

Consider the following possible challenges when you travel to your new country:

1) unusual food                2) feeling lonely or homesick

3) bureaucracy                 4) language

5) accommodation           6) different climate

Money

·         What do you think of the expression "money makes the world go round"?

·         How important is money for you?

·         Would you give up work if you won the lottery? Why or why not?

·         Love, Health, Money; how do you rate these three elements in your life?

·         Do you think income tax should be abolished?

·         What other ways could the government raise money?

House and Home

·         What would the house of your dreams be like?

·         What do you know about houses in England?

·         What are the advantages and disadvantages of country and city life?

·         What do you think of the English saying "My home is my castle"?

Moods and Humour

·         What can make you depressed?

1) bad news   2)commuting   3) relationships   4) politics    5) the weather

·         What do you usually do to overcome depression?

·         What factors are important to you to be happy?

·         How often do you laugh? What makes you laugh?

·         Can humour heal pain and suffering?

·         What differences are there between Spanish and English humour?

·         What types of humour do you like best and least?

TV and Cinema

·         How much TV do you watch every day?

·         What programmes do you always watch and which do you never watch?

·         What types of films do you like?

·         Do you prefer watching films on TV or at the cinema?

·         Comment on the differences?

·         What is the best /worst recent film that you have seen?

·         What is your favourite classic film?

·         Where do you think the best films are made? In Europe or the USA?

·         Have you ever seen a Bollywood film?

·         Are you familiar with Oriental martial arts films?

Conversation Practice NB 1

Dialogue one: Here is an example of a NB1 team's work:

Adrián :  Hello, my name is Adrián. What’s your name?

Ana: Good afternoon. My name is Ana.

Adrián :  Nice to meet you.  Ana is a beautiful name, my cousin is also called Ana.

Ana: Nice to meet you, too.

Adrián :  I am from Las Palmas, where are you from, Ana?

Ana: I am also from Las Palmas.

Adrián: Really? Whereabouts?

Ana: I live in La Calzada near the famous Botanical Gardens, in an old, modernized home.

Adrián: I am a computer engineer, but now I am unemployed. What’s your job?

Ana: I am an administrative assistant but I am unemployed too.

Adrián: I like to do sport and I play video games. What are your hobbies?

Ana: I love to walk in the countryside. And I also like to cook for my friends.

Adrián: I have got three brothers and a sister. We live all together in the same house with my parents. Have you got any brothers or sisters, Ana?

Ana: Yes, I have got three sisters alive and me I have got two nieces and two nephews. Three of us live alone. Well, my sister has got children and lives with them. But anyway I think they are alone at the end.

Mexican Cookery Course

On holiday last year my two travelling companions and I joined a cookery course in a Mexican restaurant. There were eight participants, all keen to learn the secrets of the nation’s cuisine. The students ranged from people who already had some expertise in the kitchen, to totally unskilled people like myself. 

Our teacher, Liana Cabrera, started with a short talk, then handed out some notes giving explanations of terms we’d be coming across. Soon we were trying out a range of exotic ingredients, with suprisingly good results. Cabrera started giving cookery lessons five years ago, and has become quite a celebrity, with a long waiting list for her courses. And because of her extensive knowledge of almost-forgotten regional dishes she is also a regular contributor to cookery programmes on national television.

In the afternoon I joined the salsa-making team, with rather disastrous results. My colleagues complained that my food was so painfully hot it made their eyes water. There own efforts turned out considerably better than mine. The communal meal at the end of the day was delicious, and I’d not only learnt something about cooking, but I’d also broadened my understanding of Mexican culture.

Traffic jams are nothing new

         In the age before the motor car, what was traveling in London like? Photographs taken 100 years ago showing packed streets indicate that it was much the same as it is now. It has been calculated that, even with new anti-congestion systems in place, commuters who choose the car to get to work travel at an average speed of 17 kph from their homes in the suburbs to offices in the centre. This /That / It is virtually the same speed that they would /must have traveled at in a horse and carriage a century ago.

      As towns and cities grow, so does traffic, whether in the form of the horse and carriage or the modern motor car. It would seem that, wherever there are people who need to go somewhere,  they would rather be carried than walk or pedal. The photographs show that, in terms of congestion and speed, traffic in London hasn’t changed over the past 100 years. London has had traffic james ever since it became a huge city.  It is only the vehicles that have changed.

        However, apart from the congestion which affected London long before the car came along, the age of the horse produced relatively little unpleasantness. This age, for example, saw none of the exhaust fumes which city dwellers have to live with today.

Love Alone, a calypso classic for NB 1

The calypso classic, Love Alone, is our showcase song for this week at the EOI Sta B

If you are interested in the story of King Edward and his fateful abdication, please check out the film The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth, which provides some of the details of that era leading up to World War II. 

Here are the lyrics to the song, more or less as sung in the recording (my version varies, sorry!): 

LOVE ALONE

It was love; love alone
Caused King Edward to leave his throne
It was love, love, love, love, love alone
Caused King Edward to leave his throne

On the 10th of December we heard the talk
He gave his throne to the Duke of York …

King Edward was noble, King Edward was great
It was love that caused him to abdicate …

He said he was sorry that his Mommy would grieve
He cannot help it, he would have to leave …

You can take his money you can take his store
But leave him that lady from Baltimore …

I don’t know what Mrs Simpson got in her bone
That caused the king to leave his throne …

On the 10th of December 1936
The Duke of Windsor went to get his kicks …