Hello. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation. I'm Margot Politis.
Today we're going to talk about simple present tense, definitions and technical vocabulary,
all the things you need to know and use to write a report.
First, we'll listen to someone talking about copyright - the rights people have to their
It's structured like a simple information report.
Copyright's a passion of mine. Copyright is the exclusive bundle of rights, which is awarded
to the author or a creator of work, to entitle them to market it, to get economic reward
for their creative endeavour and to entitle them to say when, how and on what conditions
Once I put my book on the internet anybody can access it at the push of a button, or
click of a mouse. Anybody can download it, copy it and transmit it without my knowledge,
without my consent a hundred times over to every country in the world without me knowing.
There is a misconception about work, which is submitted to the internet, and it's that
if you've given it to the internet, it's gone to a public domain, therefore anyone can use
it as they will, when they will, and that is a very seriously ill-founded misconception.
The fact that you submit work to the internet does not affect your legal rights in relation
OK, so we heard Celine McInerney present an information report.
An information report presents information about a subject.
Its purpose is to classify and describe a subject using a range of facts.
The subject is usually a general topic or area, rather than a specific person or place.
For example, the general subject of today's information report is copyright.
But whatever the subject, there are a few common features that all information reports
have.
You might notice that the report is in the simple present tense.
Once I put my book on the internet anybody can access it at the push of a button, or
click of a mouse. Anybody can download it, copy it and transmit it without my knowledge,
without my consent a hundred times over to every country in the world without me knowing.
The simple present tense is used in information reports to describe qualities and features
This is one of the key features of an information report.
Let's look at some other key features.
Information reports often begin with an opening statement that introduces the subject. This
Listen to the Celine's first sentence.
Copyright's a passion of mine.
She uses the simple present tense to introduce the subject of the report.
Copyright's a passion of mine. Copyright is a passion of mine.
It's in this topic sentence that we learn what the subject of the report is, what the
This is also called an orientation.
What comes after the orientation?
Copyright is the exclusive bundle of rights, which is awarded to the author or a creator
of work, to entitle them to market it, to get economic reward for their creative endeavour
and to entitle them to say when, how and on what conditions their work may be used.
The next step in creating an information report is to give an explanation or a definition
So Celine begins by telling us what copyright is.
She needs to explain what copyright is, so that she can go on to talk in more detail
The definition will be followed by a short description.
In this case, she goes on to give a description of the topic copyright and the internet.
There is a misconception about work which is submitted to the internet and it's that
if you've given it to the internet, it's gone to a public domain, therefore anyone can use
it as they will, when they will, and that is a very seriously ill-founded misconception.
The fact that you submit work to the internet does not affect your legal rights in relation
So, let's go back over the main features of an information report.
It's written in the simple present tense.
It has an opening statement to introduce the subject.
It then gives an explanation or definition of the subject.
This is followed by a short description of the subject.
You should always follow this pattern when presenting any type of information report.
Reading or listening to any text is a good opportunity to extend your vocabulary.
In this text, there are a lot of technical words related to the topic of copyright.
Let's review some of the words connected with this topic.
When talking about copyright, the speaker uses the following nouns:
copyright, author, conditions, work, book, internet, knowledge, consent.
She also uses a number of noun phrases:
bundle of rights, creator of work, economic reward, creative endeavour,
public domain and legal rights.
awarded, entitle, market, access, download,
To understand all the information in this report, you'll need to know all of these words
and phrases, or be able to work them out from the context.
Listen to the full clip again to see where and how these words are used.
Copyright's a passion of mine. Copyright is the exclusive bundle of rights, which is awarded
to the author or a creator of work, to entitle them to market it, to get economic reward
for their creative endeavour and to entitle them to say when, how and on what conditions
Once I put my book on the internet anybody can access it at the push of a button, or
click of a mouse. Anybody can download it, copy it and transmit it without my knowledge,
without my consent a hundred times over to every country in the world without me knowing.
There is a misconception about work, which is submitted to the internet, and it's that
if you've given it to the internet, it's gone to a public domain, therefore anyone can use
it as they will, when they will, and that is a very seriously ill-founded misconception.
The fact that you submit work to the internet does not affect your legal rights in relation
OK, notice that she used the verbs submit and its past tense form submitted.
We're going to finish today with some pronunciation practice on words that end in
Regular past tense verbs end in -ed, but there are three different pronunciations.
After consonants 't' and 'd', -ed is pronounced 'id' or 'ud', for example:
After voiceless consonants p, s, k, f, sh, ch, or th,
the final -ed is pronounced 't', for example:
But after voiced consonants b, g, j, l, m, n, z, v, th, and ng,
plus all vowel and diphthong sounds, the final -ed is pronounced 'd'.
For example, we have fill and filled.
Now let's test you. Do you know how to pronounce each of these?
A good way to learn these sorts of endings and pronunciations is to practice reading
whole paragraphs. This will give you a feeling for the rhythm of the words.
I overslept and missed my train I slipped on the road in the pouring rain,
I sprained my ankle, skinned my knees, Shattered my glasses and lost my keys.
And you can practice that one at home!
That's all for Study English today.
I hope to see you next time for more IELTS preparation, bye bye.