Vocabulary for IELTS: Money, Travelling, Media
There is no special section in the IELTS test for testing your vocabulary range.
However, for the high band score you must know a lot of advanced words and expressions.
Good vocabulary is especially important in the Writing and Speaking sections of the test. In each section, there’s a criterion Lexical Resource which assesses a candidate’s use of vocabulary.
To succeed in the Speaking and Writing parts of IELTS, you need to know vocabulary on different IELTS topics.
In our previous articles we have already discussed several thematic groups of lexis, such as Education, Technology, Crime, etc.
In this article, IELTS Game want to cover three more IELTS topics: Money and Finance, Travelling and the Media.
1. Money and Finance
In the modern society people cannot imagine their lives without money.
So, there is no surprise that money is quite a common topic at the IELTS exam.
There are a lot of essay questions related to money matters. For example:
In the Speaking section, there can be topics for discussion in Part 2 somehow connected to money and finance. For example:
Describe a time when you saved up some money to buy something special. You should say:
- what you wanted to buy;
- why you wanted it;
- how you saved your money;
- and explain how you felt when you finally bought the item.
If you want to answer the questions like this accurately and get a high band score, you need to learn different words and expressions related to money and finance.
Let’s have a look at some of them.
Expressions related to money and finance
1. Make a profit & make a loss
First of all, let’s discuss two expressions with the opposite meaning:
- make a profit and
- make a loss.
The first collocation means to get money from some business, and the second expression says to lose money.
For example, Unless you’re the ballet theater of Hartford, the purpose of a business is to make a profit. Sometimes managers face risks with no chance of profit and the best they can hope for is not to make a loss.
2. Loan & Mortgage
If somebody makes a loss, later he can take a loan or a mortgage in the bank.
- Loan is an amount of money that is borrowed, often from a bank, and has to be paid back.
- The meaning of mortgage is a little different. It is an agreement that allows you to borrow money from a bank or similar organization, especially in order to buy a house.
For example, The loan is repayable after a six-month grace period. They took out a £400,000 mortgage to buy the house.
3. To borrow & To lend
Talking about loans, it’s useful to know and use English verb with the same meaning
– to borrow – to get or receive something (e.g. money) from someone with the intention of giving it back after a period of time.
- For example, She used to borrow money and not bother to pay it back.
The opposite verb is to lend – to give something (e.g. money) to someone for a short period of time, expecting it to be given back.
- For example, The bank agreed to lend him $5,000.
4. Deposit & withdraw
There are a lot of money operations connected with bank.
For instance, you can deposit money or, the opposite, withdraw money.
Also, in the bank you may have:
- a current account (a bank account that you can take money from at any time and that usually earns little or no interest) or
- a deposit account (a bank account that pays you interest, in which you usually leave money for a long time).
For example, The client also has the opportunity to replenish his/her deposit account during the whole period of contract validity.
5. To credit & To debit
It’s useful to know some verbs to talk about bank money.
To credit means to pay money into a bank account, and to debit implies the following meaning: to take or pay money out of a bank account.
Also, you need to understand the difference between the following words:
- shares – one of the equal parts that the ownership of a company is divided into, and that can be bought by members of the public. The value of my shares has risen/fallen by eight percent.
- stocks – part of the ownership of a company that can be bought by members of the public. She buys and sells stocks and shares.
- dividends – the profit of a company that is paid to the people who own shares in it. Dividends will be sent to shareholders.
6. Wage & Salary
Do you know how to call the amount of money that a person earns by working? You can say a wage or a salary.
But you need to pay attention to different meanings of these words.
Wage is a particular amount of money that is paid, usually every week, to an employee, especially one who does work that needs physical skills or strength, rather than a job needing a college education.
- For example, He gets a good wage, because he works for a fair employer.
Salary is a fixed amount of money agreed every year as pay for an employee, usually paid directly into his or her bank account every month.
- For example, She’s on quite a decent salary in her present job.
7. Broke & Bankrupt
When a person doesn’t work and doesn’t get any salary, you can call him a broke or bankrupt.
Broke means “without money”.
- For example, Many small businesses went broke during the recession.
You are considered to be a bankrupt when you are unable to pay what you owe, and having had control of your financial matters given, by a law court, to a person who sells your property to pay your debts.
- For example, He went bankrupt after only a year in business.
8. Save money & Invest money
If you don’t want to be a broke, you’d better save money or invest money.
For example, It is wise to save money for a rainy day. Before you invest money in the project you got interest in, surely you need to analyze every aspect of the program.
A list of Words & Expressions related to Money
Here’s the list of some more words and expressions that you will need to talk about money in IELTS exam:
- extravagant – spending too much money;
- frugal / economical – careful with spending money;
- income tax – tax levied by a government directly on a person’s income;
- excise duty – a tax on some types of goods such as alcohol, cigarettes, or petrol paid to a national or state government;
- discount – reduction in a usual price;
- refund – a repayment of a sum of money, typically to a dissatisfied customer;
- bargain – something on sale at a lower price than its true value;
- overpriced – when the price of something is too high;
- exorbitant – unreasonably high (about the price);
- inflation – a general increase in prices;
- deflation – a reduction of the supply of money in an economy, and therefore a reduction of economic activity, that is often part of an intentional government plan to reduce prices;
- income – money that is earned from doing work or received from investments;
- expenditure – the total amount of money that a government or person spends;
- pension – a regular payment made during a person’s retirement from an investment fund to which that person or their employer has contributed during their working life;
- cost of living – the level of prices relating to a range of everyday items;
- overdraft – an amount of money that a customer with a bank account is temporarily allowed to owe to the bank, or the agreement that allows this;
- unemployment benefit – a payment made by a government or a labor union to an unemployed person;
- distribution of wealth – a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society;
- interest – money that you earn from keeping your money in an account in a bank or other financial organization;
- inherit – receive (money, property, or a title) as an heir at the death of the previous holder;
- rebate – a partial refund to someone who has paid too much money for tax, rent, or a utility.
2. Travelling
Nowadays people have more opportunities to travel. That is why, questions related to holiday and travelling often appear in the IELTS test.
Look at the example task for the essay:
Here’s the example of the topic in Speaking Part 2:
Describe a memorable journey you have made. You should say:
- where you were going;
- how you were travelling;
- why you were making the journey;
- and explain what made the journey so memorable.
When you want to go on holiday, you can buy a tour in a travel agency.
Another option is to find a tour operator who will offer you a good package tour.
For example, We bought a cheap package tour to Spain and stayed in a big hotel by the sea.
A person who is going on a package tour is called a package tourist.
The opposite of it is an independent traveller.
It is a person who books plane tickets and looks for accommodation by himself without any help from travel agency.
One more type of travellers is an armchair traveller.
It is someone who finds out what a place or location is like by watching travel programs on television, looking at internet websites about travel or reading books about travel.
Types of holidays
Now let’s look at some other types of holidays:
- all-inclusive holiday is a holiday in which the price includes flights, transfers, accommodation, food and drink;
- cruise – a journey on a large ship for pleasure, during which you visit several places;
- excursion – a short visit to an interesting place arranged by a tourist organization, often as part of a holiday;
- walking tour – a trip on which you walk from one place to another, spend the night, and then continue walking the next day;
- journey – the act of travelling from one place to another, especially in a vehicle;
- trip – a journey in which you go somewhere, usually for a short time, and come back again;
- voyage – a long journey, especially by ship.
Tourism
The business field which is responsible for providing different services for tourist while they are travelling is called tourism.
There are different types of tourism. For example, mass tourism and ecotourism.
The first type is a form of tourism that involves tens of thousands of people going to the same resort often at the same time of year.
It is the most popular form of tourism as it is often the cheapest way of holiday, and is often sold as a package tour.
Ecotourism is becoming more and more popular these days, and it offers holidays to places of natural beauty in a way that helps local people and does not damage the environment.
For example, Costa Rica’s national parks have made it a center for ecotourism.
One more type of tourism is cultural tourism.
It is the subset of tourism concerned with a traveler’s engagement with a country or region’s culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religion, and other elements that helped shape their way of life.
For example, The varied cultures of the small island developing States also present opportunities for the development of cultural tourism.
It’s also useful to know about sustainable tourism.
It is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment, society, and economy.
For example, Sustainable tourism protects the environment and the rights and livelihoods of local communities.
A list of Words & Expressions related to Travelling
Here are some more useful words and phrases that you can use while talking or writing about tourism and travelling:
- to embark – when passengers get on an aeroplane or ship;
- to disembark – when passengers get off an aeroplane or ship;
- check-in – the act of recording your arrival at a hotel or at an airport when you are going to travel;
- to check in – to report your arrival, esp. at an airport or hotel, so that you can get the service you are paying for;
- visa – an official mark, usually made in a passport, that allows you to enter or leave a particular country;
- long-haul flight – a flight which takes a lot of time;
- business class – a kind of air travelling with better conditions and more expensive price;
- peak season – the time of year when a lot of people travel and prices are usually very high;
- tourist trap – a crowded place that provides entertainment and things to buy for tourists, often at high prices;
- border controls – measures taken by a country to monitor or regulate its borders;
- culture shock – a feeling of confusion felt by someone visiting a country or place that they do not know;
- deported – someone forced to leave the country;
- expatriate – someone who does not live in their own country;
- internally displaced person – someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country’s borders;
- refugee – a person who has escaped from their own country for political, religious, or economic reasons or because of a war;
- repatriated – someone who was sent or brought back to the country that he came from.
3. The Media
The last IELTS topic we are going to cover in this article is the Media. First of all, let’s look at the examples of questions in Writing and Speaking:
Here’s the example of the topic in Speaking Part 2:
Describe a television or radio station that you often watch or listen to. You should include:
- why you choose that station;
- what you like about it;
- how other people feel about it;
- and say what you think could be improved about its output.
Useful vocabulary related to Media
1. Information
Let’s start with the word information. I’m sure you know this term very well and can use it in your speech. I want to get you acquainted with several expressions with this word:
- gather/get/obtain information (Can you tell me where I can obtain further information?)
- ask for/request/demand information (I wrote requesting information on how revenue statistics were compiled)
- give/provide/share information (The investment research company provides information in a timely way)
- information on sth (The questionnaire asks for detailed information on family and medical history)
- information about sth (Regulators are demanding that firms release more and more information about their performance)
- additional/more/further information (Anyone requiring further information should contact this office)
- classified/confidential/proprietary information
- accurate/detailed/reliable information
- financial/personal/business information
- piece of information (It was a very interesting piece of information).
One of the ways to get information is a broadcast. It is a television or radio programme. For example, We watched a live broadcast of the concert.
2. Broadsheet
You should also know a broadsheet – a newspaper that is printed on large sheets of paper, or an advertisement printed on a large sheet of paper. For example, In Britain, the broadsheets are generally believed to be more serious than the tabloids.
By the way, tabloid is a type of popular newspaper with small pages that has many pictures and short, simple reports.
3. Media staff vocabulary
People who work for newspapers, magazines, TV and radio programmes are called journalists and reporters.
One more profession related to different media is a paparazzi. People use this word for the photographers who follow famous people everywhere they go in order to take photographs of them for newspapers and magazines.
Paparazzis are often associated with gutter press, the type of newspapers that pay more attention to shocking stories about crime and sex than to serious matters.
For example, Imagine the damage if this got into the gutter press!
Gutter press often deals with celebrities’ lives. The newspapers of this kind try to find any shocking information or gossip about a famous person’ life.
In this case, we can talk about an invasion of privacy. For example, Such acts are regarded as an invasion of privacy and, as such, are prohibited.
4. Freedom of press & Censorship
Talking about media, it’s also useful to know the expressions freedom of press and censorship. These are quite disputable issues nowadays.
For example, The freedom of press, radio and television is guaranteed and prior censorship of a means of communication is prohibited.
5. Media tycoon expression
One more interesting expression is media tycoon (or media baron).
It is a person who owns and controls a large number of newspapers, television companies, magazines, etc. and is able to influence public opinion.
For example, Republican media tycoon Michael R. Bloomberg becomes a third-term Mayor of New York.
A list of Words & Expressions related to Media topic
IELTS Game prepared for you a list of some more media words and phrases that will be useful for you in the IELTS test:
- coverage – the reporting of a particular important event or subject;
- current affairs – information about events happening at the moment;
- information overload – a situation in which you receive too much information at one time and cannot think about it in a clear way;
- chequebook journalism – the activity in which a newspaper persuades someone involved in a news story to give their report of events by paying them a lot of money;
- investigative journalism – a type of journalism that tries to discover information of public interest that someone is trying to hide;
- integrity – the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change;
- libel – a piece of writing that contains bad and false things about a person;
- readership – the group of people who regularly read a particular newspaper, magazine, etc.;
- unscrupulous – behaving in a way that is dishonest or unfair in order to get what you want.
- Vocabulary for IELTS: Education, Environment, Food
- Vocabulary for IELTS: Crime, Space, Art
- IELTS Vocabulary pdf: 2000 words to score 7 – 8 in IELTS exam
When you learn new vocabulary, don’t forget to practice using newly learnt expressions in speaking and writing.
The more you use them the better you memorize them.
Good luck!
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