WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome back to English Pro Tips.

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In today's lesson, you are going to be doing a

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full general IELTS writing test

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under timed conditions.

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But don't worry, I'm going to be there to help

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you along the way.

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Now, if you're doing the academic IELTS, then

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just skip task 1 and move directly to task 2.

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But if you're doing general IELTS, then I

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suggest you go through this video in its

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entirety.

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Now remember, you can write your answers, so

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your task 1 and task 2 answers, in the comment

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section below.

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Okay, so you'll know for general IELTS writing,

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the first task that you have is to write a

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letter.

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Something like this.

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You recently bought some new furniture for your

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living room online.

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You were told that the furniture would arrive

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within 5 working days,

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but it has been 2 weeks and it still has not

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arrived.

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You phoned the shop but no action was taken.

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Write a letter to the shop manager.

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In your letter, explain that the furniture has

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not arrived.

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Describe what happened when you phoned the shop.

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Say what you would like the manager to do.

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Okay, so this is the task that we're given, and

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the instructions are always going to be the same

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.

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We're going to be told that we need to write at

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least 150 words.

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And we do not need to write an address.

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Remember that. We don't write an address in task

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1.

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We do start our letter with "dear" and then a

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name.

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Okay, so let's focus on how we would analyse

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this question.

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And that's the first thing you want to be doing

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when you start your IELTS writing test.

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Okay, so when we're analysing the question, a

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good idea is to find out what are the key words.

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So, these are the words that are going to help

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us to understand what we're writing.

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So, let's do this together.

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You recently bought some new furniture.

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Okay, so you bought some new furniture for your

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living room online.

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Okay, so you bought it online. You didn't go to

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a physical store to buy this furniture.

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You were told that the furniture would arrive

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within 5 working days.

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But it has been 2 weeks and it still has not

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arrived.

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Okay, so you ordered the furniture. You were

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told it would arrive in 5 days.

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But 2 weeks later, it still hasn't arrived.

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You phoned the shop, but no action was taken.

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Okay, so that's something that you might want to

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mention in your letter as well.

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Say, "Hey, I phoned you guys, but you didn't

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take any action. I'm still waiting for my

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furniture."

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Write a letter to the shop manager.

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Now, you'll always be told who you're writing

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the letter to.

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And this is important to pay attention to,

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because it helps you decide whether you're going

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to write a formal, informal, or even a semi-form

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al letter.

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In your letter, explain that the furniture has

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not arrived.

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Describe what happened when you phoned the shop,

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and say what you would like the manager to do.

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Okay, so we've underlined the key words that

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help us to understand our task.

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Next, when we're analyzing the question, is to

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question or to look at,

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are we going to write a formal or informal

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letter, or even a semi-formal letter?

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So, when we're deciding this, we look at who we

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're writing the letter to.

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In this case, we're writing a letter to a shop

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manager.

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So, we don't know who... we don't personally

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know the person who we're writing the letter to,

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in which case we're going to write a formal

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letter.

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Okay, next.

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What do I have to write?

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Well, we have these three bullet points, and we

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need to mention all of these three bullet points

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.

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The next thing is, what is the purpose of the

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letter?

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Okay, so usually you'll find this in the

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instructions at the beginning,

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or in one of the bullet points, and it's... it

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will show you why you are writing this letter.

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In this case, I think it's here.

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Say what you would like the manager to do.

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Now, it's very important to identify the purpose

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,

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because that's something that we're going to

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write about in our opener,

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which we'll get to in a second.

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Now, the last thing you need to think about is,

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how will you structure your letter?

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Okay, let's look at a typical structure.

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We're going to start with our greeting, and our

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greeting is going to be something like,

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"Dear sir or madam," because we don't know the

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name of the person we're writing the letter to.

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Next, we're going to have the opener of the

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letter,

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and I told you earlier, this is where we write

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the purpose.

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So, we maybe have one or two sentences that

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briefly explain to the manager why we are

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writing this letter.

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In this case, it's going to be something like

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this.

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"I'm writing this letter to request a refund for

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some furniture I bought two weeks ago."

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Okay, we're going to have separate paragraphs

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for all the three bullet points.

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Then, we're going to have a closer, so something

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like,

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"Please reply to confirm the refund at your

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earliest convenience."

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And then finally, we're going to end with a sign

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-off,

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which is going to be something like, "Yours

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faithfully," and then we put in a name at the

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end.

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Okay, so that's the structure of our letter.

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We have the greeting, we have the opener, which

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has the purpose of our letter,

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our three bullet points, the closer, and then

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ending with the sign-off.

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So, your letter is going to look something like

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this.

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Okay, now don't worry, you're going to have a

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chance to read this letter

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because I'm going to put a link to this letter

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in the description below this video.

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But I want to show you the letter here so that

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you get a general understanding

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of what the layout of your letter should look

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like.

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So, as you can see, we start with the greeting,

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then afterwards we have the opener,

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we have the three bullet points, which are in

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separate paragraphs,

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then we have the closer, and we finally end with

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the sign-off.

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Okay, now before you go on to write your letter,

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let's look at some useful vocabulary that you

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can use.

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Okay, here's one.

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"I'm writing to request a refund."

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So, a nice short sentence that you might want to

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use in the opener of your letter.

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"I bought this item from your website."

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Okay, so remember, we bought the furniture

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online,

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so we can say, "I bought this item from your

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website."

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"I was informed that it would be arriving within

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five working days."

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Okay, remember, you thought it was going to

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arrive in five working days,

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but it's been two weeks and it still hasn't

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arrived.

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"It was supposed to arrive last week."

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"It has been two weeks and I am still waiting."

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So, a useful grammar in this sentence.

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"It has been two weeks and I am still waiting."

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"I called your store last week and spoke to one

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of your customer assistants."

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So, a customer assistant is someone who, or shop

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assistant,

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is someone who works in the shop and helps

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customers.

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So, you can say, "I called the store and I spoke

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to one of your customer assistants,"

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or your shop assistants.

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"I was told that my chair had already been

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shipped."

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So, it has already been sent out.

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"I find this service to be far below the

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standards

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that your store claims in its advertisements."

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Okay, so you can see the writer is rather angry

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now.

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"I would like to express my dissatisfaction with

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the service I have received."

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"I would appreciate a full refund."

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"Please reply to confirm the cancellation and

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refund at your earliest convenience."

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So, it's a very passive-aggressive sentence.

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We're saying, "Please, could you just refund the

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furniture

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and cancel it at your earliest convenience?"

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Okay, now that we've looked at some useful

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language

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and we've looked at the letter,

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it's time for you to write your answer to this

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letter.

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Now, remember, in task one, you've got 20

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minutes,

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so you're going to have 20 minutes now.

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Good luck!

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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Okay, thank you very much. I'm looking forward

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to having a little peek at your essays in the

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comment section below.

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Remember, if you need any more help with your I

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ELTS preparation, then visit EnglishProtips.com

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where you'll find model answers, model essays,

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and courses to help you prepare for your IELTS

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test.

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Best of luck with your studies, and I'll see you

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in the next lesson. Bye then.

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[ Music ]

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[ Silence ]

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[ Silence ]

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