1. Talking About Personal Habits
2. Expressing Likes and Dislikes
3. Expressing Reasons for Likes and Dislikes
4. Expressing a Preference
5. Comparing
6. Talking About Recent Changes
7. Contrasting
8. Suggesting
9. Expressing Opinions
10. Giving Reasons for Opinions
11. Explaining
12. Speculating ( = Guessing When You Don't Know)
13. Speculating ( = guessing) About the Future
14. Expressing Plans, Intentions and Hopes for the Future
15. Clarifying
16. Explaining a Word When you have Forgotten (or don't know) the Word
17. Speaking in General
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1. Talking About Personal Habits
Example question: What do you usually do in the evenings?
- I usually ...
- I often ...
- While I'm studying I usually ...
- Sometimes I ....
- As a rule, I ...
- Whenever I can I ...
2. Expressing Likes and Dislikes
Example question: What kinds of music do you like?
- My favourite ... is ...
- I like ...
- I enjoy ...
- I'm (quite/rather) keen on ...
- I just love ...
- I absolutely adore ....
- I'm crazy about ...
- I'm addicted to ...
- I'm really into ...
- I don't mind ...
- As far as .... is concerned, I can take it or leave it.
- I don't care too much for ... = I'm not really into ...
- My least favourite .... is ...
- I dislike ...
- I can't stand ...
- I hate ... (extreme language)
- I find ...
3. Expressing Reasons for Likes and Dislikes
- ... because ...
- ... since ...
- The main reason I like...... is that it's ......
- What I like best about ..... is .....
- The thing I like best about ..... is ......
- The best/worst thing about ... is ...
- I don't like that very much because it's too ......
- That's because I find it ......
4. Expressing a Preference
Example question: Do you (or, would you) prefer to travel alone or with others? (e.g., a friend)
- I prefer ... because
- My preference is ... because ...
- I prefer A to B because ...
- If I had the choice, I'd + V ... because ... (假设的话)
- If I had the choice, I'd rather + V... because ... (假设的话)
- If I have the choice, I'll + V .... (a real possibility for the future)
5. Comparing
Example question:
What are the differences between modern art in China and traditional Chinese art?
- A is bigger than B.
- B is not as big as A.
You can also use some of these:
-
Use “much” as in, “A is much better / worse than B”.
-
“A is not nearly as good as B.”
-
“B is nowhere near as big as A”
-
“A is not quite as important as B.”
-
“A is almost as important as B, but not quite.”
-
“In comparison to B, A is quite big.” Or, “A is quite big in comparison to B”.
-
“Compared to B, A is a lot bigger.”
6. Talking About Recent Changes= Comparing the recent past and the present
Example question:
Has your hometown changed much in the past few years? (e.g. 20 years)
Yes, it has. For example, ...
-
Today there are many more cars on the roads than there were thirty years ago.
( ... there are/is more_____ than there were/was ....)
-
The air pollution is much worse/much better than it used to be.
( ______ is more ____ than it used to be.)
-
Compared to thirty years ago, the population of the city has increased by about two million.
(Compared to thirty years ago, _______ has + 过去分词)
-
The population of the city has increased by about two million people in the last thirty years.
(______ has + 过去分词 in the last thirty years)
-
More people today own a car than was the case thirty years ago.
(More _________ today + present tense than was the case thirty years ago.)
-
Today, more and more people are living in high-rise apartment buildings whereas thirty years ago, we had very few high-rise apartments buildings in our city.
(Today ______ are + 现在分词 whereas thirty years ago + past tense)
-
More and more large-scale supermarkets are being built nowadays but there were very few of them in my hometown thirty years ago
(More and more ________ are being + 过去分词 nowadays but + past tense thirty years ago.)
7. Contrasting
The question is usually 'a compare question'. When you answer one of these questions, you can use a contrasting statement. However, since the grammar of the comparing answers (see above) is more difficult, you will impress the examiner more by mostly using that, rather than by using contrasting statements.
Example: "A is big but B is small."
(____ is _____ but _____ is ____)
8. Suggesting
Example questions:
What would you suggest a visitor to your country see and do?
What do you think the government could/should do?
- I'd .... (suggest, recommend, say, tell him/her/them) ....
- Maybe/perhaps/possibly ... + could / should ...
- It might/may help if ....+ past tense form of verb
- It would probably + (be a good idea, be useful, help) if + past tense form of verb
- I .... (suggest, recommend, say) ....
9. Expressing Opinions
Example question:
Do you think that children should always be offered an incentive (a reward of some kind) when parents ask their children to do something?
- I think ...
- I believe ...
- I feel ...
- Personally, I (think, believe, feel) ...
- I tend to + (think, feel, believe) that ...
- In my opinion, ...
- In my view, ...
- I've always + (thought/believed/felt) that ...
- I maintain that ...
- I've always maintained that ...
- It seems to me that ...
- I'm convinced that ...
- As far as I'm concerned, ...
- My view is that ...
- From my point of view, ...
- To my mind, ...
- The way I see it, ...
- As I see it, ...
10. Giving Reasons for Opinions
- ... because ...
- ... since ...
- The main reason I say that is because ...
- One of the reasons I say that is because ... (One reason I say that is because ... )
11. Explaining
Example question: Why are many older people reluctant to learn computer skills?
- The reason why ... is because / is that ...
- The main reason why ... is because / is that ...
- One reason why ... is because / is that ...
- One possible explanation (for that) is ...
- To understand why ....., you first need to ..... (understand, know, be aware that)
- Well, it's like this: ....
- You could look at it this way: ...
12. Speculating ( = Guessing When You Don't Know)
(When talking about the present or the past)
Example question: Do old people in China have opportunities to attend any forms of classes?
- Well, I'm not sure but ...
- Well, I've never thought about that before but ...
- I imagine ...
- I guess ...
- I suppose ...
- I'd say ..
13. Speculating ( = guessing) About the Future
(Most commonly, how the future will change, compared to now.)
Example question: How do you think the tourist industry (in China) will develop in the future?
- I predict ... + a noun
- I (can) foresee ... + [a noun + 现在分词] or + a noun
- I imagine / suppose / guess ...
- ... will + adverb (or, adverb + will)
- ... be (present tense) likely to ...
- ... be (present tense) bound to ...
- ... be (present tense) + going to + V (原形动词) = "will" + V (原形动词)
- There’ll probably / possibly be ...
- We might see / have ...
- ... will be + 现在分词 ...
- ... might be + 现在分词 ...
- I'd be surprised if + past tense/past continuous tense
- I'll be very surprised if + present tense/past continuous tense
- I expect ..
14. Expressing Plans, Intentions and Hopes for the Future
Example question: What are your future work plans? (after you graduate)
- I plan to ...
- My plan is to ...
- I plan on + Ving (动名词)
- I intend to ...
- I hope to ...
- I'm going to ...
- My ambition is to ...
- My immediate goal is to ...
- My ultimate (= final) goal is to ...
- Ultimately, ...
- Hopefully, ...
- Ideally, ...
- I expect to ...
- I’d like to ... = I want to ..
- As an alternative, I might ...
- If all goes well, I'll / I should ...
- If everything goes according to plan, I'll / I should ...
- My dream is to ...
- It's always been my hope/plan/ambition/dream to ...
- My heart is set on + Ving (动名词)
15. Clarifying
- What I mean is ..
- My meaning is ....
- In other words,
- That is to say, ...
- Let me put that another way.
- To put that another way, ...
- What I'm trying to say is ..
- My point is that ...
- More specifically, ...
- For example, ...
- For instance, ...
16. Explaining a Word When you have Forgotten (or don't know) the Word
"I can't remember the word but .....
- it's a thing that ...
- it's a type of ...
- it's something you ...
- he's a person who ...
- it's something like ...
- it's similar to ...
- it's kind of like a ..."
- These sentences use the present tense because you are speaking in general. For example, "It's a thing, a tool that you use to put air into your bicycle tyre - you use it like this" (Show the action). (a bicycle pump)
17. Speaking in General
- On the whole, ..
- As a rule, ...
- In general,
- Generally, ...
- Generally speaking, ..
- For the most part, ...
- Typically,
- Usually,