Tag: Speaking

Describe a situation when you had a talk with a stranger.

You should say:

• who the person was
• where you met him/her
• what the conversation was about
• and explain why you found the conversation exciting.

Sample Answer:

I enjoy meeting new people. Today I’m going to talk about a time when I met a stranger and had an interesting conversation with him.
On weekends I go to Rishikesh for learning yoga.  I normally travel by bus as the buses are quite regular and comfortable. But, on last Sunday, bus drivers were on a one day strike. So, I had to drive in the morning. This time there were many foreigners in the yoga centre. All of us did yoga for about 2 hours. Thereafter, we went to the dining hall for breakfast. Naturally, I started interacting with the person sitting next to me. He was from Scotland and had come to India to complete a 120-hour yoga course. His name was Thomson.
Somehow, the focus of our conversation went to festivals and celebrations in our respective countries. He shared some interesting information about the New Year’s Eve Celebrations in Scotland. It’s called Hogmanay. The origins of this word are unclear but it’s the biggest Scottish celebration.

Many traditions like cleaning the house and singing etc. are observed on this auspicious day. The most important of them is first-footing, where families wait for the first person to visit their homes at midnight. Surprisingly, the first foot must be a man or a boy with dark hair, not a woman. It’s believed that the first foot brings fortune to the family for the New Year.  If you are the first foot, you should carry three things: food, coal and something to drink.

I found this conversation very exciting because I didn’t know anything about Hogmanay. The way we celebrate the New Year is very different from how it is celebrated in Scotland. This conversation gave me a glimpse of the Scottish culture. Altogether, the novelty of this information and his friendliness made it a memorable interaction.

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Feel free to call for suggestions and queries.

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

email: info at ieltsband7.com

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Describe a time you needed to use imagination.

You should say:

• what the situation was;
• why you needed to use imagination;
• what the difficulties were;

and explain how you felt about it.

SAMPLE ANSWER

I would like to talk about an extracurricular activity class that my father made me join during the summer holidays of class X. It was the first time I had to get out of my comfort zone and think beyond marks. We were a bunch of forty children and every day we used to have a different kind of activity. One such day, our teacher announced that we will be having a storytelling the class. In it, we were challenged to come on stage and make a story out of three words, she provided.

I was the last person to go for my story and my words were ball, pen, and books. We were supposed to speak for five minutes and I clearly remember standing one minute in absolute silence figuring out how to connect the three words and make a story. My story started off with a girl who was a cricket player and she is a bowler, her family did not support her much. So, when her parents asked her study, she would sit down and write stories about cricket or read books of renowned cricketers and then connected the ball, pen, and books in her life.

For that particular story session, I was standing there with my eyes closed and saying whatever came to my mind. Initially, the connection between the three was difficult for me to gras[. So, I picked up a word and carried on with the story. Once my turn was over, I opened my eyes and saw people cheering for me. I loved it. It was the first time someone told me that I must go on reading and be a storyteller some day. I was deliriously happy and extraordinarily excited.

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I would like to talk about a time when I had to step out of my comfort zone to join a table topics contest which made me think out of the box and work flat to win it.

Toastmasters is an international organization and I had just joined when someone told me about a table topic contest. As part of it, each speaker had to come on stage and speak for 2 minutes on the topic provided by the contest chair. Each year the contest draws people from across all the clubs and it was really competitive and challenging for me. Therefore, when I was awarded the winner, I was deliriously happy.

The goal of the challenge was to speak for two minutes and portray the speech in a well-structured way. It is a competition, there were many other experienced people present and I was obviously terrified. What made me think too much about it was that it was spontaneous. So, the only thing that mattered was that moment and how well you can use it and explain your story. I woke up that day for the entire night and practiced around 100 table topics and by the end of 90^th, I was broken down.

Although many congratulated me for the victory, I still believe that the moment I decided to go for practicing the 100 table topics, I had already won. The victory was just a cherry on the cake.

 

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Feel free to call for suggestions and queries.

8439000086

8439000087

7055710003

7055710004

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS BAND 7 Home page