Tag: IELTS Cue Card

IELTS Cue Card #Describe a time when you were friendly with someone you didn’t like

IELTS Cue Card #Describe a time when you were friendly with someone you didn’t like

Describe a time when you were friendly with someone you didn’t like.
You should say:

  • Who was he/she?
  • Why don’t you like him/her?
  • When and where did it happen?

And how did you befriend him at that time.

IELTS Cue Card #Describe a time when you were friendly with someone you didn’t like

Sample Answer :

We have a colourful world around us with variety of, not only objects but, people too. People differ not only in their physical characteristics but also in their mannerisms and behaviour. Some people are rough and rude while others are soft and polite, and so on. One can have a good rapport with the like-minded people only but still we have to carry on with all sorts. I also have one such person in my neighbourhood, called Rajesh. He stays just opposite to our house.

He always carries those airs of haughtiness and arrogance around him, out of his excessive wealth and property. He is never enough courteous to wish, the elders or for that sake, anyone in our colony. Once I volunteered to initiate a conversation with him but he treated me with disdain by his obtuse gestures and snobbishness. Even the children feel threatened of him asking for the ball when it, sometimes, falls inside his porch. In the park, he often displays his cruelty when he hits the stray dogs with no good reasons. Because of his poor mannerisms, not only me, everyone in our colony despises him.

But, strangely enough, he is now a friend of mine and we usually have a very warm conversation, whenever we meet. We also visit each other’s houses and sometimes, even go for an excursion together. All this happened after an incident in our market nearly three months ago. One night after dinner, I just happened to visit the market on a stroll, which is just walking distance away from my home. Since it was winter time, not many people frequented the market at that time. In one of the dark corners, I heard the muffled voices of a person in pain and his pleadings for help. Just then I saw, it was Rajesh who was being manhandled by two other assailants, who were trying to steal him. I immediately rushed with a stick and made those flee from there. Rajesh was badly bruised. I immediately referred him to the hospital where he stayed for two days.

After returning from hospital, he called me and invited me at his home. It was then that our friendship started and gradually we became good friends.

STRONG WORDS

 

Word Meaning
Rapport close/harmonious relation: Politicians from different parties have poor rapport with each other.
Haughty proud/snobbish: One should act humble and not haughty.
Despise hate: Bad people are despised everywhere.
Muffled unclear: Children should recite poem clearly and not in muffled tone.
Assailant attacker: Assailant came from that direction.
Follow-up Questions

Q. 1 What are your views on friendship?

Sample Answer: Friendship is a real blessing for human beings, that is what I believe. Friends not only add to our joy and happiness in good moments but they also lend out a supporting hand in times of distress. Presence of friends decorate an occasion very well and make the spirits go high.

Q. 2 Do you believe that there are true friends who help in troubled times?

Sample Answer: Yes, I firmly believe that there are good friends who help in every kind of weather. Although, most of the people are stuffed with selfish tendencies nowadays and they care to think about themselves only, but still, there are kind and good hearted people who turn out to be valuable friends.

Q. 3 How do people befriend each other?

Sample Answer: Like mindedness and the common interests, I think, play a vital role in forging a long term friendly relation. People with polarised views often have differences of opinion and frequent conflicts whereas those with the common thought process mix up easily and quickly. Although, I believe that, this is not the only factor responsible for a mature durable friendship. Apart from this, people should be kind, generous, polite and logical in order to come into friendship.

phone icon

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

9634777700

7249900007

IELTS Band 7 Saharanpur
Parsvnath Plaza, Saharanpur

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS Cue Card #Describe an ambition that you have not achieved

IELTS Cue Card #Describe an ambition that you have not achieved

Describe an ambition that you have not achieved.
You should say:

  • What was that ambition?
  • How did it turn into ambition and what efforts did you make to achieve it?
  • Why did you fail to achieve it?

And how do you feel about it now?

IELTS Cue Card #Describe an ambition that you have not achieved

Sample Answer :

Ambitions are generally manufactured from the genes and the environment. In the present times, a child is moulded either by parents or society to rear an ambition and then pursue it with full zeal and enthusiasm. Introspection of your own self at a later stage might change the earlier ambition because of the recognition of individual’s interests and talent. I set up an ambition after my senior secondary, to clear the medical exam and become a doctor. Exam is conducted after high school every year.

Well, a student of tenth class is very naïve to identify his true interests and follow his passions. He is streamlined by parents, teachers and peer group at large, into a socially apt conventional career. In my case too, I was motivated by my father to become a doctor. He often used to stress on the privileges and social status offered to a doctor, which allured me to a great extent. After my tenth boards, I, at once joined a coaching institute for medical preparation. I used to devote nearly 8 hrs a day studying for the exam. I also used to go to libraries to consult relevant books and study material. I was so engrossed in my studies that I even felt reluctant to attend any family celebration to save my time.

On the D day, I was unable to score well in the exam. I was confirmed about my failure in advance of the result declaration. It was the factor of time management that proved to be crucial in exam. I was familiar with almost all the questions but I could not attempt all because of the lack of time. I rarely used to appear in mock tests, which appraise the candidate’s speed and performance. That was a blunder done by me, not solving model test papers in mock tests.

Later, I switched to the field of film direction. Even though I am not a big shot in film industry right now, but it gives me a tremendous work satisfaction as I recognized and followed my true passion. Thinking about my failure in my first ambition now appears to be a stimulator for my resilience in life.

STRONG WORDS
Word Meaning
Introspection observing oneself within: Introspection is a form of meditation.
Blunder Gross mistake: Without the assessment of proper field conditions, players can commit a blunder in a cricket match.
Follow-up Questions

Q. 1 What ambitions do the children usually have?

Sample Answer: I think, the only ambition for a child is to stay happy at all times. He may be switching to different tasks to attain that joy and happiness. Well-structured social ambitions are fabricated at an adolescent age.

Q. 2 Why do some people follow their ambitions virtuously while others do not?

Sample Answer: I suppose, it all depends on the development of psychological attributes because of genetic and environmental factors. Perseverance, determination and unquestionable faith in oneself; which are essential in following your ambitions, vary in degrees in different persons. Therefore, people differ in their striving for ambitions

Q. 3 Should parents give the children the freedom to choose their ambitions?

Sample Answer: To put it better, I would like to say that instead, parents should have keen focus on evaluation and recognition of true strengths and inclinations embedded in their children. They should then fan out that talent through appropriate conditions and freedom.

Q. 4 Is every ambition achievable?

Sample Answer: Definitely, through hard work channelized in the stream of passion, one can achieve every ambition. Nevertheless, one should be honestly aware of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats posed by environment and by himself.

phone icon

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

9634777700

7249900007

IELTS Band 7 Saharanpur
Parsvnath Plaza, Saharanpur

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

Cue Card Talk about a magazine or online article about healthy living

IELTS Cue Card Talk about a magazine or online article about healthy living

Talk about a magazine or online article about healthy living
You should say

  • Who writes the magazine/Article?
  • Where do you get this magazine/Article?
  • What the magazine/Article says about healthy living?

And explain why you agree/ disagree with the message.

Cue Card Talk about a magazine or online article about healthy living

Sample Answer

 

Media has a pivotal role in shaping our worldview. Every single thing we know is through the spread of print, online sites and our school system. Our opinions are largely formed from these sources. In fact, some infamous marketing campaigns have been so successful in imparting their opinions that they have shaped unhealthy, illogical now unquestionably integral habits of our society.

Take the weekend magazine that comes attached to our morning newspaper for example. Every single Sunday I am barraged by articles on “Healthy Living!!”, “Newest Fads!!”, “New Study!!” claiming things from the absurd to the plain manipulative and wrong. When reading these articles, I wonder for the sanity of those less fortunate than I, for those less aware and more trusting, for those that take anything written as proof of its factuality.

These articles are written by mere journalists with no license, no qualification, to talk on the trends they seem to swear by. Fad diets are ruthlessly promoted, real health experts willingly misquoted. Studies that should not even be allowed to see the light of day get prime spots just because of their outrageous claims. Those studies that have a sample pool of 5 people followed over 3 days diets that apparently worked miracles get the glory of the cover page. It makes me furious.

The magazine promotes itself as a health capsule and does in fact the devil’s bidding. Promoting processed food one day, Vitamin supplements the next, and organic companies the week after. It’s a blatant advertisement for companies bidding for the best article spots. Absolutely revolting, that people would even fall for this in their desperate times. Please do not even get me started on the fad diet section this magazine displays so proudly.

The Journalist rely so heavily on wispy claims by experts with no knowledge on how to verify the reports or see flaws in the expert’s work. The publishers are unaware of their own reach, rather than promoting critical thinking of the general population they prefer to use consumerism culture to rake in the money. Newspapers devote little to no space to in depth nutrition, despite having all the resources available. It’s purely frustrating to me, and also one of my biggest pet peeves.

Last week I really felt like writing to the publication house to complain, they should at least add a disclaimer box on any speculation rather than presenting it next to factual news. But then I realized it would be a waste of time, rather I made another phone call, a different one, one to cancel my mandatory subscription to those glossy misleading pages.

 

 Follow-up questions::

 

Q.1 How popular is reading in your country?

Ans: I’m glad to say that love for reading is still alive in my country. In fact, reading is so popular that each town in my state has a fully equipped library. People of all ages, including children, adults and the elderly, throng to these libraries regularly to enjoy their favourite publications.

Q.2 Do you think reading is important?

Ans: Yes, indeed. In my view, reading has a profound effect on human behaviour and personality development. It not only helps us grow mentally, emotionally and psychologically but also broadens our horizons and shapes our characters.

Q.3 Do you think men and women prefer different types of books?

Ans: Yes, generally speaking, male readers are more inclined towards non-fiction books whereas females enjoy fiction and fantasy based reading.

 

Useful words and their meanings
Worldview a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world
Fad a style, activity, or interest that is very popular for a short period of time
Blatant (of bad behaviour) done openly and unashamedly.
Peeve a cause of annoyance

Another Similar Cue Card

Talk about an article about health which you felt interesting to read.
You should say:

  • Where and when did you read it?
  • What was the article about?

And why did you feel it interesting?

SAMPLE ANSWER TWO:

Health is the most crucial element of our well-being. Only by being healthy can we enjoy all other worldly pleasures in life. Poor health is a curse which decapitates the joy of life. Importance of good health and its guidelines are impressed upon us by our parents and teachers in our childhood. Later, we come across various literature and social messages inking the techniques used to attain good health. One such health article that I came across, was published in the Sunday magazine ‘Health Plus’, that was subscribed by my parents. It was during the summers of last year that I read this article.

The article detailed out the causes and preventive measures of lifestyle diseases like hypertension, diabetes, stress and anxiety disorders etc., which are becoming commonplace nowadays. Medical cases related to these disorders are on a high tide rise, due to the increasing work pressures and emotional dissatisfactions. It mentioned that although we have allopathic treatment of these diseases but, they come as an addiction and consequential harmful effects to the body. Yoga and Naturopathy were suggested as the best alternatives, whose results might be slow to appear, but they are permanent with no side effects. Different yoga postures and techniques have been verified to be highly useful in preventing and curing these lifestyle disorders. Moreover, there are several herbs and medicinal plants which could be consumed instead of allopathic medicines, as medicines reduce in their effectiveness over a period of time due to the immunity built against antibiotics.

Evidential results along with testimonies of different people inspired my faith in effectiveness of natural techniques. I affirmed the strong importance of yoga and naturopathy for staying fit and healthy. Apart from that, I felt good to know various yoga techniques and names of plants that can be easily grown in homes. I also developed a firm resistance for medicines, in case of curing lifestyle diseases.

STRONG WORDS

Word Meaning
Hypertension high blood pressure: Hypertension can be handled by meditation.
Decapitate cut down: King decapitated the head of the rival soldier.
Follow-up Questions

Q. 1 Is there a shift in the health patterns of people over the time?

Sample Answer: Yes, there is a visible shift in the health patterns of people. In the past, many years back, although we didn’t have as good health infrastructure as now but then, there were less number of diseases too. Lifestyle diseases were very rare and even chronic diseases like tumours were very few. People were relatively healthy and disease free in earlier times.

Q. 2 As per you, what is the reason of this declining health graph?

Sample Answer: Food and dietary patterns are the foremost reason for this depreciating trend in the health domain. Nowadays, grains, cereals, vegetables and even fruits are grown with the application of lots of fertilizers and pesticides which are extremely detrimental to our health. Apart from that, lack of physical exercises in our daily lifestyle is another reason for this trend. Outdoors junk food consumption is a rising phenomenon in the youngsters nowadays which is a serious compromise on our good health. Needless to say, growing work pressures and fragile relationships present today, take a heavy toll on the psyche and various stress and anxiety related disorders are peaking as a result of it.

Q. 3 What do you do to stay fit and healthy?

Sample Answer: Most of the times I take my food at home only and try to avoid the outdoor junk. Apart from this, I regularly go for jogging and stretching exercises in the morning. Also, I try to stay calm and composed, free of agitation in all situations. With practice, I have developed this tempo of staying relaxed which doesn’t allow the stress to weigh heavily on me.

Q. 4 How do you verify the bonafideness of an article?

Sample Answer: First of all, it is the magazine and its esteemed brand in which the article is published, that matters the most. Good reputed magazines thriving well for the last many years have proven their credibility and established the faith in the minds of its readers. Then the signatory authorship of the article is also considered for the genuineness of the article. Finally, the testimonies and interviews presented in the article act as major supplements to ensure the truth about it.

phone icon

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

9634777700

7249900007

IELTS Band 7 Saharanpur
Parsvnath Plaza, Saharanpur

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS Cue Card Sample Answer # Book That Influenced

Describe a book that influenced you.
You should say:

  • The name and the author of the book?
  • How did you first hear of the book?
  • What is the main story of the book?

And why does it plays such an important role in your life?

SAMPLE ANSWER
Whenever I get time, I try to read books and the ranges vary from profession related books, technical, religious, fiction, classic and contemporary books. Mostly while buying a book, I go for the name of the book and if it sounds interesting to me, I buy that one. Recently, I picked up a novel called “Wisdom Of Whores” by Elizabeth Pilsani. While buying this book, I was at a bookstore and had gone to rather buy the new series of “archies comics”. While shuffling through them, this book by mistake got into the stack of the comics and I fumbled into it. After reading the name of the novel, I was very much interested into reading what this book is about and so read the summary and found it extremely exciting and bought it.

This book revolves around the business of AIDS, during the early 90s when the world had just become acquiainted of this disease and work was in its initial stages. So, there is this women, who has worked in Reuters and then takes up a medical course in a university and becomes an epidemiologist. She then works for UNAIDS, making reports and questionnaire and do’s and don’ts for AIDS. It was later that she goes on and works more extensively towards it. Obviously she has a team and they try bring money from organisations to help victims of AIDS. She tells about what are things that may go wrong while taking survey and what needs to be taken care of.

The book also tries to bring into notice the different attitudes of people across world towards AIDS. For instance, suppose a country X gets affected by AIDS because of sex while in other country it is because of drugs. So, Elizabeth gives and account of how the world of brothels, gays and “innocent wives” got changed because of AIDS and the journey she had during the entire time.

For me, it was more of an eye opener and I realised that things are not always as cushy as they seem to be.

Another Similar Cue Card

Describe an exciting book that you enjoy reading.
You should say:

  • Which is that book?
  • When did you read it?
  • What is it about?

And why did you feel it exciting.

SAMPLE ANSWER TWO:

My grandfather used to say that books are one’s best friends. They make people travel to anywhere, anytime without moving an inch. Literary geniuses and people with inflated imaginations are the ones to pour out their creativities in form of books. In general, books are categorized in two separate classes. One class consists of facts, observations and inferences, comprising the nonfiction or literature section while other class contains purely the imaginative stories called as Fiction. I am an avid reader of both but primarily, nonfiction. One such book is ‘GLIMPSES OF WORLD HISTORY’ by J.L. Nehru, who was also the first prime minister of India. I read it when I was in high school and found it very exciting.

This book is, actually, a compilation of the letters written by Nehru to his young daughter Indira, from his prison cell, before independence. Nehru was a statesman visionary who possessed the vast knowledge of different historical events in the world. In these letters, Nehru takes up the chronological accounts of people, kings, wars, culture and conditions in different parts i.e. Asia, Europe and Americas. How the great Persian empire came into being and how it sustained for a long time? What was happening in Rome and Greece in those contemporary times? Why few kings were liked and successful while others were doomed to fail? A beautiful narration of all the remarkable historical events from medieval to modern times, has been provided in a beautiful comprehensible manner.

Till the time I happened to go through this book, I read Indian history and a little about world wars only, in context of world history. Therefore, I was ignorant of all the significant events that took place outside India. While reading that book, I could relate the contemporary events in different corners of the globe and deduce the effects produced by an event in one part to other parts. This correlation between different regions and times presented a complete picture of the world history, which made me feel exciting about the successive developments in a relative manner.

STRONG WORDS

Word Meaning
Statesman skilled/experienced leader: Nowadays, we have politicians but very few statesmen.
Chronological in order as per time: Medieval came after ancient as per the chronology of events.
Follow-up Questions

Q. 1 Why do we read books?

Sample Answer: Books are a vast storehouse of knowledge and information. Various events of the past, different scientific principles and theories help us to understand not only the world around us today, but it also details the process, how we shaped the present from the past. This gives a meaning to our existence and we feel confident in exerting control on environment. Apart from this, books are also liked, especially by children, for their captivating suspenseful and imaginary fairy-tale stories.

Q. 2 Do you feel some books as boring too? Why?

Sample Answer: Yes, there are some books which do not draw my attention and interest and I feel quite boring reading those. So, generally, I quit reading them after a few pages only. It may be for different reasons. There are some books in fiction whose stories might be too trivial and uninteresting. Others might not have that flavour of suspense that I like in a story. Sometimes, the writer is so unclear in his tone and flow that the text automatically becomes boring.

Q. 3 Are there any particular subjects, on which you want to read apart from fiction?

Sample Answer: A person’s interests keep on shifting with the passage of time. For instance, I liked reading history till the time I was unaware of the past events. But once I knew most of those, I started reading psychology books. To know the what and how of brain and various processes and disorders related with it turned out to be an interesting read for me. Therefore, I think, based on the mind-set and changing interests, I keep on hopping on the subjects of different kind of books.

Q. 4 Do you like reading a story or watching that? Why?

Sample Answer: Well, as a child, I loved watching stories on TV. The visual effects, while watching a story on TV, simply add to the value of the story. Every emotion, feeling and act is vividly represented in front of our eyes. The pulsating tones of different actors provide a wonderful auditory experience too. But, although I grew up watching lots of movies, my interests shifted to books gradually, which were not thoroughly experienced by me. So, later on, I started enjoying reading books in a calm atmosphere, with no noise of movies

phone icon

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

9634777700

7249900007

IELTS Band 7 Saharanpur
Parsvnath Plaza, Saharanpur

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

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