Skinny Models # IELTS Listening Sample Questions

SKINNY MODELS

The audio has been taken from BBC 6 minutes English. The audio talks about skinny models.

You can download the audio from the following link above.

Answer the following NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

  1. What is the synonym of very thin?
  2. What is the long runway that models walk down at fashion shows called?
  3. Which country banned the use of underweight models in 2013?
  4. The speaker talks about the different ways in which information gets communicated. What is it?
  5. Which media company is Jamie Gavin founder of?
  6. The speaker uses a phrase for limiting or an ending. What is it?
  7. The speaker uses a phrase for “won’t be allowed”. What is it?
  8. Give the full form of BMI.
  9. The speaker uses a word for the relationship between two things. What is it?
  10. The speaker uses a to refer to the fact that you need medical treatment for a condition or illness. What is it?
  11. In which illness the person refuses to eat in order to lose weight?
  12. The speaker uses a phrase to refer to the fact that the responsibility lies with someone. What is it?

ANSWER

  1. skinny
  2. cat walk
  3. Israel
  4. media
  5. inPress
  6. cut-off point
  7. banned
  8. Body mass index
  9. ratio
  10. clinically unhealthy
  11. anorexia
  12. buck lies with
IELTS BAND7

IELTS Essay Sample Answer # Shift Work

You should spend 40 minutes on this task.
With increasing competition, companies want to work 24/7 and in order to fulfill that they offer a higher pay for working in shifts.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in shifts?
Write at least 250 words.

SAMPLE ANSWER

There has been a considerable increase in the competition and with time becoming a constraint, more and more companies are offering their employees work in shifts. This allows the employees liberty to work when they feel like at higher pays and companies benefit from being able to operate non-stop. Although, shifts do offer great advantages to both the employee and employer their are certain disadvantages associated with them.

On the positive side, shift work gives employee the liberty to work when they want to. So, a person who needs to take care of home can work at night and vice versa. Secondly, it brings in the restriction of hours. So, in regular work, it is more of task completion based, while in shift a person needs to do whatever he or she can do in the given time. Anything left is taken care by the person coming next in the shift. Also, a person can easily avoid the peak hour rush, by choosing a shift when there is less traffic.

Shift Work

However, shift work brings along lot of disadvantages as well.  Firstly, there is no routine for a shift worker. Regular workers become accustomed to a routine while shift people need to juggle between life and work. Often, it so happens that a person has to work in alternate shifts in a gap of few days. Secondly, shift work brings with it lot of health problems. When a person is young it is easier for a person it is easier for him or her to have fluctuations in eating and working habits but later in life, shift work causes diseases like blood pressure, insomnia, indigestion, gastritis and acidity.

Overall,  shift work allows the person independence to chose the timings of work but it can even be very harmful for the health if done at a long stretch.


EXTRA POINTS

This is  a sample answer on the advantages and disadvantages of shift work. Have a look at some points on the essay and try writing it on your own –

Advantages –

  1. It allows employees to choose the shift according to their needs.
  2. The working hours are less in shift works and there is enough time for relaxation.
  3. One gets enough time to spend on training activities. So, one need not to take leaves just to attend a training.
  4. You can avoid travelling in rush hours. Choose a time that allows you to travel when there is less rush and traffic.
  5. You need not to push work for weekends.
  6. You can take leave in any part of the week and then make up for the work somewhere else.

Disadvantages –

  1. Their is no pattern left for shift workers. Night shift workers are not able to achieve much because feel lazy during the entire day.
  2. Sometimes shifts are given based on seniority. So, the seniors get day shift while others get evening or night.
  3. There is lot of imbalance in work, so places like hospitals, there is more work during night as compared to in the day.
  4. In rotational shifts, one gets very less sleep. This reduces the worker’s efficiency and competence to work.
IELTS BAND7

IELTS Speaking Sample Answer # Cooking

We all eat food, we all need it to survive but then do we eat only raw food. No! We need cooked food for our daily energy requirements. Cooking is something we all do. It might be making small things like may be maggie or some delicacies like Dosa. Let us today have a look at some of the questions related to cooking that might be asked in IELTS speaking section.

How often do you cook?

I am working woman and currently living with a friend in a new city. Initially we did not cooked, but now we are cooking daily.

How good are you at cooking?

I would say, I am just fine at cooking. I can surely cook food for myself or two other people but not for a huge bunch of people. Neither do I know how to cook the great delicacies that my mother can cook.

What are some things that you can cook?

I can make chapatis, dal, sabzi, i.e. the daily meal. I can cook Paneer, Pulses, and any other kind of vegetable.

What dish or food are you best at cooking?

I really make great fried rice. My friends and family love it.

Do you think you can cook better than your mother?

No, definitely now. My mother is a great cook and there are times when even I cannot eat the food that I have made because I love my mother’s food so much.

Who is a better cook, your mother or your grandmother?

I never had any experience of eating my grandmother’s food, but I think my grandmother must have also been a great cook because my mother had learnt a lot about cooking from my grandmother.

Are cooking shows popular in your country? Do you watch any cooking shows?

Yes, they are. There are so many of them out there and people, especially woman and males interested in cooking, do watch them. Some of the popular shows include are by Sanjeev Kapoor, Ranvir Brar,Vikas Khanna,Madhur Jaffrey. For some reasons, people in my country are fascinated by cooking. There are so many people who enjoy it and love learning more about it. No, presently I am very busy working and juggling life between job, play and life. But, surely very soon I will look forward to learning more about cooking.

What is the hardest thing to cook?

For me, the difficult thing about cooking has to be definitely making chapattis. It is such a long process. You need to make sure that the dough is prepared well because if the dough is not good, there is not chance of making great chapattis. Then, the frying pan should be properly heated, not less not more. Also, to ensure that the shape is important. I think lot of love and patience goes into making chapattis.

What are some of the advantages of cooking your meals at home? How about the disadvantages?

Cooking meals at home brings with it lot of advantages. Firstly, it ensures that the quality of food is good, because you know what you are putting in. Even more, it is very precise, according to your taste. For example if some one does not like salt, he or she has the choice of not adding it. Also, one can cook, using their own recipes, the same things in different way.

But, it is not so easy as well. Cooking means time, patience and the love for it. One needs to take care of what are the things that are available, what are getting over. Then you have to do your own dishes. Also, if you are not a great cooking, initially having your own food could be very troublesome.

Cooking

 Is it important for husbands to know how to cook?

I think yes. It takes away the monarchy of woman in the kitchen. Even more, it strengthens the bond between the husband and wife. A woman when eats the food made by husband would definitely love him more. Because, it shows that the man treats her equally and respects her.

Does your father cook?

Yes, my father is a great cook and we often get to taste his delicacies.

Who is the best cook you know?

I would go for my mother. It is not about comparing her with those big cooks out there, the love that she puts in for cooking our food and the love with which she serves us, it is beyond anything else.

Would you like to be a chef? Why?

Not now, for sure. Had it been sometime back, may be. Because at that time I had not decided on my career. But, now I have found my love in writing, so cooking won’t be possible. But, I really do admire cooks because it is a great job and if you are able to fill someones appetite, there is no better thing to do.

If you had your own personal chef, what meal would you ask for most?

I would have gone for south Indian most of the times, because I really like eating them. And, if I had a personal chef, I think I would have talked out what are the things that are healthy and I should eat and would have gone for them.

How hard is it to become a chef? What do you have to do to become a chef?

I believe there is nothing called hard or soft. If one has the passion to do something, it is not a big deal to be either a chef or anything else for that matter. However, too an extent, yes this job is not seen with lot of respect initially, especially for males and requires lot of persuasion to be able to do it. There is lot that needs to be studied and then cooked.

To be a chef, one needs a degree in Hotel Management and then a burning desire to be a great cook.

IELTS BAND7

Domestic Chores # IELTS Listening Sample Question

DOMESTIC CHORES

Given below is an audio taken from BBC 6 minutes learning English. The audio talks about domestic chores.

Listen to the audio and answer the following questions. You can download the audio at –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-160825

Answer the following questions in NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

  1. The speaker uses a word that relates with family or home. What is it?
  2. The speaker uses a word describe a job that is boring. What is it?
  3. Who spends more hours on domestic chores, men or women?
  4. Which word describes the situation when you start feeling something?
  5. What percentage of men take responsibility for giving the house a weekly clean, according to a recent online survey by the UK organization, Mumsnet?
  6. What is the synonym of strong dislike?
  7. The speaker uses a phrase forsomething that is achieved with lot of difficulty. What is it?
  8. The speaker uses a word to refer to apron. What is it?
ANSWERS
  1. domestic
  2. chore
  3. women
  4. threshold
  5. 5%
  6. aversion
  7. get by
  8. pinny, pinafore
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