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  • 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

  • own work.

  • 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

  • their work may be used.

  • 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

  • to that work.

  • 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.

  • Listen again.

  • 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

  • of the subject.

  • 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

  • is the topic sentence.

  • 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

  • text is about.

  • 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

  • of the topic.

  • 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

  • about it.

  • 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

  • to that work.

  • 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.

  • And she uses these verbs:

  • awarded, entitle, market, access, download,

  • copy, transmit

  • 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

  • their work may be used.

  • 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

  • to that work.

  • 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

  • -ed like this:

  • 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:

  • awarded or submitted

  • After voiceless consonants p, s, k, f, sh, ch, or th,

  • the final -ed is pronounced 't', for example:

  • tip and tipped

  • 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.

  • Here are some more examples:

  • measure becomes measured

  • direct, directed

  • dip, dipped

  • pick, picked

  • drain, drained

  • and use becomes used

  • Now let's test you. Do you know how to pronounce each of these?

  • omitted

  • walked

  • arrived

  • calculated

  • stopped

  • washed

  • 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.

  • Try this one:

  • 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.

Hello. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

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