The vocabulary recordings.
Register, collocation and emergency paraphrase: the three demonstrations Chapter 5 points at.
How this page works. Play each clip, repeat aloud, and then use the phrases the same day in a recorded answer – the phrases only count once they survive in your own speech. The drills that force them out are on the lexical resource page.
The register shift, demonstrated.
The same speaker, three rooms: Part 1 warmth, Part 2 organisation, Part 3 analysis.
From Chapter 5’s register guide: Part 1 is semi-formal and warm – contractions, simple vocabulary: ‘I really enjoy cooking – it’s quite relaxing.’ Part 2 is organised and descriptive: ‘I’d like to describe a memorable journey that significantly influenced my perspective.’ Part 3 is analytical: ‘Urbanisation presents both opportunities and challenges for developing economies.’ The classic error is formal vocabulary in casual Part 1: ‘I derive considerable satisfaction from culinary pursuits’ – when the room wanted ‘I really enjoy cooking’.
Computer-generated British voices for now, at natural pace.
The high-impact verb collocations.
Make, take, do, give, have: the partnerships that appear in every test.
make: make progress, make an effort, make a difference, make sense, make arrangements. take: take action, take responsibility, take into account, take advantage, take steps. do: do research, do business, do exercise, do your best – and never ‘make exercise’ or ‘make research’. Learn every new verb with its noun partners; vocabulary in isolation does not survive test pressure.
Computer-generated British voices for now, at natural pace.
The emergency paraphrasing phrases.
For the moment a word refuses to arrive.
Buying time: ‘How shall I put this…’, ‘What’s the best way to explain…’, ‘Let me think of the right word…’. Describing an unknown word: ‘It’s a type of…’, ‘It’s something that…’, ‘It’s like…’. Approximating: ‘roughly a quarter’, ‘approximately half’, ‘the vast majority’. Delivered smoothly, these read as fluent self-management, not as failure – which is exactly what they are.
Computer-generated British voices for now, at natural pace.
Repetition installs them. Use fixes them.
A phrase bank is only as good as its retrieval speed.
Lessons drill retrieval under live questions, with a report naming which phrases stuck – £20 for fifty minutes.