Part Three: Suggestions
There are two areas of language here: first, you need to be able to say what you think the real problem is and second, you need to be able to make suggestions.
Describing the real problem:
- The real problem here is that ...
- The key point here is that...
- What this is really about is (+ noun/-ing form)
Making suggestions:
- What the government/city council needs to do is to (+verb)
- What people/we/they need to do is to (+verb)
- What we need to focus on is (+noun/-ing form)
- The way to tackle the problem is to (+verb)
- One way to solve the problem is to (+verb)
Be careful to use the correct grammatical structure to continue the sentence as shown in the brackets.
TASK
Below are some subjects. Talk about (1) what the real problem is in each case and (2) what you suggest. Remember to record your answers. I have given an example of an answer.
- The traffic in your city
- Litter on the streets
- Children playing too many computer games
- The education system in your country
- The healthcare system in your country
- Poor housing
- Lack of awareness of environmental issues
- Inability to quit smoking
Possible answer to 1:
The real problem here is that there is not enough investment in public transport systems. The buses are slow, overcrowded and dirty so anyone who can afford to buy a car, does. The result is that we have too many cars on the roads. What the city council needs to do is to invest in buying newer, more comfortable buses. They also need to build more proper bus stops with lighting and shelter and create more bus lanes. If this happened, I believe that people really would leave their cars at home and take the bus to work.