Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
50
What would you like to change about your city?
What would you like to change about your school?
Would you like to change your name?
What job would you like to do in the future?
Would you like to live in a foreign country?
Would you like to be a professional photographer?
When you add a reason or detail, you need to
use more second conditional
structures:
eg:
"Would you like to move to another city in the future?"
"I would like to change cities if I had the chance, because if I lived in a different
city I would make lots of new friends and I could try lots of new kinds of food. Also I
might be able to find a well-paid job.‖
Activity 2
Go back to the previous activity questions and develop your answer with details or
reasons, using more examples of the second conditional. (Try to use some examples with
"might" and "could".) For some of these questions it is possible to use a negative form.
eg:
"Would you like to move to another city?"
"No I wouldn't
like to move to another city, because if I lived in another city I
wouldn't have any friends.
Try to make some negative sentences for the questions (remember your details and
reasons can be either positive
or negative structures, but they should be second
conditional).
Sometimes candidates begin these questions with: "I never thought about it." This
is not a good example of native-speaker language. The following structures can be used to
begin your answer.
Well, quite honestly I don't think I've ever thought about that, but I guess...
Actually, this isn't something that I've
ever considered, but in short...
I'm not really sure how to put this, but I suppose generally speaking...
Mat Clark – IELTS Speaking
51
Look at the following complete structure:
"Would you like to move to another city?"
―Actually, this isn't something that I've ever considered,
but in short I
suppose I would possibly consider moving cities, especially if I had the chance to move to
a coastal city like Xiamen or Sanya. If I lived in a seaside city I would be able to hang out
on the beach every day and I would also have the opportunity to get into water sports like
scuba-diving and possibly surfing."
Notice how the first structure used "verb+ing": "I suppose I would possibly
consider moving cities ..."
This structure is much more complex than the basic: ―I suppose I would like to
move to another city…‖
Try to use one of the following structures for your first structure.
I imagine I would possibly think about (verb + ing)…
I guess I would maybe contemplate (verb + ing)…
I would perhaps reflect on (verb + ing)…
Look at the activity questions again and try to use one ―verb + ing‖ structure for
each. Try to use a different verb from the question verb.
Eg: ―Would you like to learn another foreign language?‖
―Well, quite honestly I don’t think I’ve ever thought about that. But
I guess I
would maybe contemplate taking up a new language.‖
Now practice developing all of the ―Would‖ questions in this section.
