Idioms for ielt speaking master ielts vocabulary

Idioms for IELTS Speaking: Master IELTS Vocabulary là một tài liệu hữu ích và toàn diện dành cho những người học IELTS đang chuẩn bị cho phần thi nói của kỳ thi. Với mục tiêu giúp người học cải thiện vốn từ vựng và sử dụng thành ngữ một cách linh hoạt, tài liệu này đưa ra một tập hợp các thành ngữ phổ biến và quan trọng trong tiếng Anh.Tài liệu này được chia thành các chủ đề khác nhau, từ địa điểm, môi trường sống, công việc đến sở thích và quan điểm cá nhân. Mỗi thành ngữ được giới thiệu kèm với định nghĩa, ví dụ minh họa và cách sử dụng trong ngữ cảnh thực tế. Đặc biệt, tài liệu cung cấp các bài tập và hoạt động thực hành giúp người học nắm vững từ vựng và tự tin áp dụng chúng vào bài nói IELTS.Với Idioms for IELTS Speaking: Master IELTS Vocabulary, người học có cơ hội rèn luyện kỹ năng ngôn ngữ thông qua việc thực hành thành ngữ, từ đồng nghĩa và cấu trúc câu một cách chi tiết. Tài liệu này cũng giúp người học hiểu rõ hơn về văn phong tiếng Anh và cách sử dụng thành ngữ để tăng cường tính linh hoạt và tự nhiên trong giao tiếp.Dù bạn đang tự học hay có giáo viên hướng dẫn, Idioms for IELTS Speaking: Master IELTS Vocabulary là một nguồn tài liệu quý giá để nâng cao kỹ năng nói và cải thiện điểm số IELTS của bạn. Với tài liệu này, bạn sẽ tự tin và thành thạo hơn trong việc sử dụng thành ngữ và từ vựng tiếng Anh, từ đó mang lại kết quả tốt trong phần thi IELTS nói.

Master IELTS Vocabulary to Get a Higher Band Score

Jackie Bolen

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All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording

or other electronic or mechanical means without the prior written permission ofthe publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical reviews and certainother non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law For permission requests,write to the publisher/author at the following address: Jackie Bolen:

jb.business.online@gmail.com

Introduction 8

About the Author: Jackie Bolen 9

An Introduction to the IELTS Speaking Test 10

How is the IELTS Speaking Test Graded? 11

Tips for Getting a Higher Score on IELTS Speaking 12

How Difficult is it to Score Band 9? 14

A bee in my bonnet 15

Add insult to Injury 15

A dime a dozen 15

A hard nut to crack (A tough nut to crack) 16

Ahead of the pack 16

A lot on my plate 16

An apple a day keeps the doctor away 17

A piece of cake 17

As far as I can tell 17

As fit as a fiddle 18

A storm is brewing 18

A tough pill to swallow (A bitter pill to swallow) 19

Bang for the buck 19

Barking up the wrong tree 20

Beat around the bush 20

Beat me to the punch 20

Behind the scenes 21

Bend over backwards 21

Better late than never 21

Bite the bullet 22

Blessing in disguise 22

Blow off some steam 23

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth 23

Break the bank 23

Break out in a cold sweat 24

Bring a lot to the table 24

Bring home the bacon 24

Burning the midnight oil 25

Burn the candle at both ends 25

Bury my head in the sand 26

Busy as a beaver (Busy as a bee) 26

Butterflies in my stomach 26

By the book 27

By the skin of his teeth 27

Call it a day 28

Calm before the storm 28

Can't make heads or tails of it 28

Can't put my finger on it 29

Cash in your chips 29

Caught between a rock and a hard place 29

Caught me off guard 30

Compare apples to oranges 30

Cool as a cucumber 31

Corner the market 31

Costs an arm and a leg 31

Counting her chickens before they hatch 32

Crack the whip 32

Crunch the numbers 32

Cut to the chase 33

Don't see eye to eye 33

Down on my luck 34

Fall through the cracks 34

Feeling under the weather 35

Foot the bill 35

From rags to riches 35

Get down to business 36

Get into deep water 36

Get in touch with 36

Get my foot in the door 37

Getting on in years 37

Get up to speed 37

Give her a ring 38

Give him the cold shoulder 38

Give them a run for their money 38

Go for broke 39

Good head on your shoulders 39

Go out on a limb 39

Go the extra mile 40

Got a taste of his own medicine 40

Got up on the wrong side of the bed 41

Got started off on the wrong foot 41

Got wind of 41

Hit the books 42

Hit the ground running 42

Hit the nail on the head 43

Hold the purse strings 43

I'll have to see it to believe it 44

In it for the long haul 44

In the dog house 44

In the driver's seat 45

In the same boat 45

It's a long shot 45

It's not rocket science 46

It's time to face the music 46

It takes two to tango 47

I've got my work cut out for me 47

Jumping on the bandwagon 47

Keep me in the loop 48

Keep me on my toes 48

Keep this under wraps 49

Keep your eye on the prize 49

Keep your head above water 49

Land on your feet 50

Learn the ropes 50

Let off the hook 51

Like riding a bike 51

Like two peas in a pod 52

Living hand to mouth 52

Looks like a million bucks 52

Make a break for it 53

Making a mountain out of a molehill 53

Make ends meet 53

Make some bank (Make bank) 54

Missed the boat 54

Money burning a hole in your pocket 54

Money to burn 55

My hands are tied 55

Needle in a haystack 55

Nip this in the bud 56

No pain, no gain 56

Not going to fly 57

Not my cup of tea 57

Not set in stone 58

Off his rocker 58

Off the top of my head 58

Once in a blue moon 59

Out of the loop 59

Out of my depth 59

Paying through the nose 60

Pick up the slack 60

Playing catch up 60

Pull the plug 61

Pull the wool over my eyes 61

Put all your eggs in one basket 62

Put my best foot forward 62

Put your money where your mouth is 62

Put the cart before the horse 63

Quit cold turkey 63

Race against the clock 63

Rally the troops 64

Read between the lines 64

Rock the boat 64

Running around in circles 65

Same old, same old 65

Selling like hotcakes 66

Shake things up 66

Shop till she drops 66

Sick as a dog 67

Smoke and mirrors 67

Spice things up 67

Spill the beans 68

Stabbed someone in the back 68

Stealing my thunder 68

Step up to the plate 69

Strapped for cash 69

Take a breather 69

Taken to the cleaners 70

Take the bull by the horns 70

The ball's in your court 70

The best of both worlds 71

The bottom line 71

The elephant in the room 71

The straw that broke the camel's back 72

The writing is on the wall 73

Thinking outside the box 73

Throw in the towel 74

Tip of the iceberg 74

Too much time on your hands 74

Treading water 75

Twist my arm 75

Under the table 75

Under the wrong impression 76

Up in the air 76

Vanished into thin air 76

Walking a tightrope 77

Watch my weight 77

Water under the bridge 77

When pigs fly 78

Weather the storm 78

When it rains, it pours 78

Within our reach 78

Working my fingers to the bone 79

Work yourself to death 79

Worse for wear 80

You can't judge a book by its cover 80

Before You Go 81

Welcome to this book designed to help you expand your knowledge of idioms,expressions and phrases in American English My goal is to help you expandyour vocabulary and to be able to speak and write more fluently

Let's face it, idioms can be difficult to master, even for the best students In thisbook, you'll find hundreds of English idioms and phrases that are used in

boardrooms, over a meal, and with friends and family around the world

The best way to learn new vocabulary is in context That's why each idiomcomes with some example sentences You'll also find a simple explanation inplain English for each one as well as the origin of the idiom if it's known

To get the most bang for your buck, be sure to do the following:

– Review frequently

– Use each idiom or phrase in real life as soon as possible

– Don't be nervous about making mistakes That's how you'll get better atEnglish!

Good luck and I wish you well on your journey to becoming more proficientwith idioms in American English

I taught English in South Korea for 10 years to every level and type of student.I've taught every age from kindergarten kids to adults Most of my time hascentered around teaching at two universities: five years at a science and

engineering school in Cheonan, and four years at a major university in Busanwhere I taught upper-level classes for students majoring in English In my sparetime, you can usually find me outside surfing, biking, hiking, or snowshoeing Inow live in Vancouver, Canada

In case you were wondering what my academic qualifications are, I hold aMaster of Arts in Psychology During my time in Korea, I completed both theCambridge CELTA and DELTA certification programs With the combination ofalmost ten years teaching ESL/EFL learners of all ages and levels, and the moreformal teaching qualifications I've obtained, I have a solid foundation on which

to offer advice to English learners

I truly hope that you find this book useful I would love it if you sent me anemail with any questions or feedback that you might have

Jackie Bolen (www.jackiebolen.com)

Twitter: @bolen_jackie

Email: jb.business.online@gmail.com

You might also be interested in this book: Advanced English ConversationDialogues (by Jackie Bolen) You can easily find it wherever you like to buybooks It has hundreds of helpful English phrases and expressions that can beused in a wide variety of situations Learn to speak more fluently in AmericanEnglish.

The IELTS speaking test is the same, whether you choose the general or

academic version of the test It's face-to-face with a real person, as opposed tosome other English proficiency tests where you speak into a voice recorder.However, each IELTS speaking test is recorded to ensure quality control

The test takes 11-14 minutes and consists of 3 parts:

Part 1: The first set consists of general questions about where you work, study or live There will be two other question sets after that on personal topics such as clothing, holidays, food, etc It takes 4-5 minutes and will consist of approximately 12 questions in total.

Part 2: Speaking for 1-2 minutes about a topic that will be given to you You will have 1 minute of preparation time There may be one short follow-up question.

Part 3: A 4-5 minute discussion that goes into greater depth about the topic from part 2 The examiner has freedom to ask follow-up questions based on your answers The discussion will be about general ideas and not personal ones (like in part 1) Think of this section as more of a 2-way dialogue with the examiner.

The speaking and listening portions of the test are the same, whether you choosethe general or academic version of it It's the reading and writing portions thatare different Be sure to check closely which test is required for whatever

purpose you're taking the test for The general test is usually required for

immigration purposes while the academic one is most often required for collegeentrance

You will be graded on four things:

Fluency and coherence: How quickly you speak, without pauses or

repeating yourself Is the previous thought connected to the next one and how do you finish off what you're saying?

Lexical resources (vocabulary): To score at the band 7 level, or above, you'll need to be able to speak about all the topics on the test with precision, as well as use things like collocations (words that occur together more often than by random chance), idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs This book will focus on helping you with this!

Grammatical range and accuracy: To score at the highest levels, you'll need

to be able to form a variety of simple and complex sentences accurately The keys are to use a variety of sentence types and to make few errors.

Pronunciation: You'll need to be able to be understood very easily, without any effort on the part of the examiner Plus, you'll have to put emphasize on the correct words within a sentence and also within a longer speaking turn.

For most proficient English speakers, getting a band 7 or 8 on the IELTS

speaking test is a very achievable goal Here are a few tips for getting there!

• One of the keys is striking a balance between giving enough detail in youranswers to develop topics fully and not talking too much The examiner has aprescribed set of questions that they need to get through within a strict timelimit Pause when you're done with your thought The examiner will ask anotherquestion

• Don't feel the need to keep talking, and talking, and talking, and talking This

is not how this test works and you will not get a higher score just because youare able to talk endlessly This can hurt you if you begin to repeat yourself

• Don't repeat yourself but do connect the things you say in an organized waywith the use of discourse markers: as I previously mentioned, firstly, after that,finally, etc

• Being able to paraphrase and summarize things is quite important for the test.Aim for a balance between giving some details and also giving a summary oroverview of things

• Do NOT attempt to memorize anything for this test You will get penalizedvery heavily for this and it is a waste of time There are so many questions eachyear that even if you were to find out some of them, it's impossible to memorizethat many answers

• Aim to use precise words to describe something, instead of words like “thing,stuff, like that.” This shows that you don't have a large vocabulary, or can'taccess it when needed Avoid filler words that don't have any meaning

• It's easy to repeat words as a kind of filler (the author of this book says, “like”way too much!) when speaking However, this should be avoided Look onGoogle for some sample IELTS speaking test questions and then record yourselfanswering them to see if there are words that you use too often Like is the mostcommon one of these kinds of words but there are lots more

• Use a mix of complex and simple sentences Even if you use simple sentencesperfectly, it will make it difficult to score above a Band 5

• Finish off your thoughts in an appropriate way Ending most sentences with:like that, that's why, that's it, or something similar will make it difficult to scoreabove a band 6

• Show your personality Emphasize key things in what you're saying and don't

be scared to show your opinion about something The examiner is only gradingyou on your English ability, not on your opinions about a topic

• Using humour or telling a (short!) funny story about something is great It's anice way to show that you know English quite well if you're able to do this

constructions

It's quite difficult (though not impossible) for non-native English speakers toachieve a band 9 on the IELTS speaking test There are people who have beenlearning English as a second language (most Europeans for example) since theywere a young child and they also have a first language that is similar to English.For these people, it may be achievable

Or, there are some people who moved to an English speaking country when theywere young who may be able to get this score Or, those who did a large part oftheir education in English

However, being a native English speaker doesn't automatically mean that you'll

be able to get a 9 It's not that easy to do! To do that, you'll also need to do thefollowing:

– Develop topics fully and at length

– Connect thoughts, without repetition

– Only have pauses that are related to forming an opinion about something, forexample and not searching for a word (no pauses in the middle of sentences)

– Use a large range of very precise language, including things like idioms

– Be understood easily, without any effort on the part of the examiner

– Avoid the use of filler words (this is what even native speakers may strugglewith)

The good news is that there is almost no reason why someone would need to get

a 9 on this test For educational, immigration, employment or other purposes, Idon't know of any of them that would require getting a 9! So, don't worry about

it Scoring a 7 or 8 on the speaking test is a far more achievable goal and should

be acceptable in almost all cases

is messy and my dad has a bee in his bonnet about the house always being organized It leads to a lot of conflict between them.

Meaning: Make something already bad worse For example, a guy fell off his bike but then a car ran over his foot.

Origin: Possibly from the ancient Roman fable of a bald man and a fly The man tried to crush a fly on his head but used too much force and hurt

himself too.

Example IELTS question: Do you like your job?

Possible answer: It pays well but there are some negatives For example, I often have to work overtime on the weekends To add insult to injury, it's usually not paid.

Meaning: Something that is very common; not special.

Origin: First seen in the early 1800s when you could often buy a dozen (12) things for $0.10 (a dime).

Example IELTS question: Is marketing a popular job in your country?

Possible answer: Yes, for sure Marketing and PR people are a dime a dozen

in all of Europe It can be quite difficult for them to get jobs unless they have some sort of specialized skill like paid advertising.

Meaning: Someone who is difficult to get to know.

Origin: Used since the 1700s Refers to how it's not easy to open a nut

because of the hard shell Depending on the nut, it's not possible to do it without a special tool.

Example IELTS question: Can you describe your best friend?

Possible answer: Sure, her name is Cindy and we've known each other for

10 years now She's a tough nut to crack when you first meet her, but after a while, she warms up and is very generous and loyal.

Meaning: To be ahead of other people or companies trying to do a similar thing.

Origin: “Pack” has been used to refer to a group of people since the 1400s.

Or, it could be a reference to pack animals like dogs that have a leader that goes near the front.

Example IELTS question: What's your favourite website?

Possible answer: I often check out techcrunch.com I love to be ahead of the pack when it comes to technology and I usually have the latest gadget It can

be quite an expensive hobby though!

Meaning: Many responsibilities.

Origin: First used in the 1900s Refers to a plate that's heaping full of food and difficult to balance when carrying it to a table Now, imagine those are your responsibilities!

Example IELTS question: What do you usually do in the evenings?

Possible answer: Well, I have a lot on my plate with two young children at home so evenings are usually spent making dinner, cleaning up, doing laundry and putting them to bed All the chores that need to get done in a busy household After that stuff is done, I'm usually tired so I just watch some Netflix for a couple of hours.

Meaning: Eating healthy keeps you from getting sick.

Origin: First seen in the late 1800s to early 1900s in Wales In old English,

an apple could refer to any round fruit so it may be related to the fact that healthy eating is vital for good health.

Example IELTS question: Do you have a healthy diet?

Possible answer: In general, I think I eat a reasonably healthy diet My mom always used to say something similar to, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” As I've gotten older, I've started to see how true that is!

Meaning: Something that's easy to do.

Origin: From the 1870s Cakes were often given as prizes during

competitions and at fairs so that's why they're associated with something being easy to do.

Example IELTS question: Why did you choose your field of study?

Possible answer: Honestly, I'm a little bit of a lazy student and my friend told me that this course was a piece of cake but would lead to a well-paying job It's not as easy as she said but it's still not that difficult and most people get jobs quite easily after they graduate.

Meaning: In great shape.

Origin: From England in the 1600s Initially used to mean well-suited but

“fit” later came to be known as in good shape A fiddle is used because of the alliteration (fit/fiddle) and also because it's a nicely shaped instrument.

Example IELTS question: Tell me about an older person that you admire.

Possible answer: I admire my grandfather He's 90 years old now but is still fit as a fiddle He plays tennis and can sometimes even beat me! Plus, he never eats junk food I'm sure he'll live to be 100.

Meaning: Difficulty or danger is expected in the future.

Origin: Unknown but could be related to sailors reading the signs in the ocean and sky to predict a coming storm.

Example IELTS question: Describe a journey that didn't go as planned.

Possible answer: I'd like to talk about my brother and I going to Argentina.

He was so disorganized and hadn't packed a thing even the night before I could tell that a storm was brewing and that he'd for sure forget something important As it turned out, he forgot his passport which caused us to miss our flight because we had to go back home to get it.

Meaning: At the last minute.

Origin: Possibly from Mathew 20:9 in the Bible In this story, each worker received a denarius (unit of currency) for a day of work, even those who started at hour 11 in a 12-hour day.

Example IELTS question: Describe a zoo or aquarium near your home.

Possible answer: I live right by the Vancouver aquarium and have been there a couple of times During Covid, it didn't have any revenue coming in and was maybe going to have to shut down However, they got enough donations at the eleventh hour that they were able to remain open.

Meaning: Something that offers good value for the money you paid for it.

Origin: Bang = excitement and buck = money Could be a play on Pepsi's advertising campaign from the 1950s, “More bounce to the ounce.”

Example IELTS question: What's one of your favourite restaurants?

Possible answer: Oh, I love Pho Love It's a Vietnamese place with soup and Ban Mi, a kind of sandwich Whatever you order, you get a lot of bang for the buck as the portions are huge and if you take it home, you have enough for another meal the next day.

Meaning: Blaming the wrong person.

Origin: From the 1800s in the USA where hunting dogs would bark at the base of a tree when they thought a wild animal like a raccoon was in it so that their owners could shoot it But, the wild animal had sometimes already escaped which left the dogs barking at the wrong tree.

Example IELTS question: Do you like your neighbors?

Possible answer: I get along well with most of my neighbors However, one

of them always blames me for leaving dog poop on his lawn He's barking

up the wrong tree though—I'm careful to always pick it up.

Meaning: Avoid talking about something important, or not getting to the main point directly.

Origin: From the early 1400s Rich men used to hire people to beat the bushes when they went hunting to scare the birds out of them so that they could shoot them.

Example IELTS question: Do you get along well with your colleagues at work?

Possible answer: Generally yes, except for one of them She is famous for beating around the bush and talking way too much at meetings I think she just likes hearing her own voice!