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Cue Card : A time the weather made you change your plans.

April 14, 2020 IELTS Research

IELTS Cue Card A time the weather made you change your plans.

You should say:

What the plan was

How the weather was

Why you had to change the plan

And explain on how you felt about the overall situation.

Cue Card A time the weather made you change your plans

Sample Answer:

Unpredictable weather can be a nuisance. I will now recount one such instance when the weather played spoilsport to my plans.

This happened a fortnight ago. It had been a long and tedious month of finals in college. As I gave my last exam, all I could think about was how much I was looking forward to relaxing during the oncoming weekend.

Now this might come off as a bit shallow to some, but shopping is my idea of time well spent, in fact it is my main hobby. I find it to be therapeutic in a sense; even buying a little cute teddy keychain can change my mood dramatically. I had asked my bestie, Natasha, to join me on Saturday afternoon. The plan was to visit a newly opened shopping centre in our neighbourhood. I kept seeing adverts about this establishment in the papers, they only served to hype me up even more. Little did I know that my big break was never going to arrive.

That same Friday afternoon it was unexpectedly cloudy and had started drizzling. I thought that the weather would be fine tomorrow. However, it became worse overnight; thunder and lightning continued for hours. When I woke up, it was raining heavily without any signs of stopping soon.

Just to see if there was any possibility of a clear sky in the afternoon, I checked the weather forecast. A severe cyclonic storm with heavy rains and gusts was predicted during the next 24 hours. Now, there was no choice except cancelling our afternoon outing.

I felt crushed. After having studied so hard for the last three months, all I asked for was one measly outing and god had denied even that. To make matters worse, the electricity cut soon after, and it did not come back the entire day. That was one day I remember vividly for being so miserable, lonely and cold. (350 Words)

High-level words and their meanings:
nuisance	something or someone that annoys you or causes trouble for you
fortnight	a period of two weeks. (14 days)
tedious	Feel boring
hype	advertised, discussed in newspapers & TV to attract everyone’s interest.
drizzling	rain in very small, light drops

Feel free to call for suggestions and queries.

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS BAND 7 Home page

IELTS Speaking: Part 3 questions related to work of art you saw

March 24, 2020 Pooja Ph.D. CELTA

IELTS Speaking: Part 3 questions related to work of art you saw

The examiner may ask questions about the works of art (e.g. paintings, sculptures and monuments). Here are a few art related questions.

How do people in your country feel about art?

Answer: Unfortunately, art is the least popular subject in my country. People don’t appreciate art very much. Sadly, artists are often neglected and their work remains unrecognized.

Answer: Art holds a special place in my country. In fact, there are many museums and art galleries where a wide range of local and international works of art are displayed. People from all walks of life visit them. They love art and appreciate artists.

Do people in your country prefer music over art?

Answer: Yes, they do. Music is an integral part of people’s life. Indians love all genres of music like classical, rap, pop, rock and jazz etc. I’d like to mention that young and old people have different tastes in music. The young generation enjoys fast music with beats whereas the elderly listen to slow and soothing music.

Are older people more interested in art than younger people?

Answer: Considering the inclination of young adults towards technology, I’d say that the elderly value and love art more than young people. But, I’ve been to many foreign art galleries and museums, I always found them full of teenagers, adults and old people. So, it’s quite difficult for me to decide if age can change people’s views about art or not. May be, it depends on the popularity of art at a given place.

Should the government provide support for art and cultural activities?

Answer: Art and cultural programs help people connect with their cultures. For keeping our cultural diversity alive, artists must be promoted at all levels. Any kind of support, in the form of money or resources, will enable artists to make a decent living and earn respect in society.

Feel free to call for suggestions and queries.

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS BAND 7 Home page

IELTS Cue Card Questions # Practical Skills

February 8, 2020 IELTS Research

Practical Skills – skills are the things you can do better than most of the people, things that you excel at. So, practical skills are the ones that help you deal with real life problems efficiently. So, communication skills, teamwork or Microsoft office, these are the practical skills that help individuals in their lives. This time we are looking at a cue card that talks about practical skills.

Describe a practical skill you have. You should say:

what the skill is

how often you use it

who taught it to you

also, explain how it helps in your life.

SAMPLE ANSWER

I would like to talk about this one skill I learned as a child, unknowingly and have been using it in every part of my life.

Back in the 1990s, when computers were initially getting there a way to our lives my father taught me to write on a computer. I mastered the skill of typing without having to look at the keyboard. While studying, when other kids made notes on their notebooks, I prepared presentations for my chapters and read through them. I made notes on the Microsoft word and learned the diagrams on paint. Back then, their importance to me was not clear.

It was when I moved to my college and then corporates, when most people were struggling with presentations, I aced them. I could make good presentations from a huge data and explain it well. This has been with my life for almost a decade and has truly helped me.

As a software engineer, my work revolves around coding and it is so much of help when you can actually focus on the code and not be divided into deciding what to type and how to type! Even more, making design documents or for that matter analyzing data using Excel is a piece of cake for me.

I believe practical skills surely help an individual in later years of life and it is the responsibility of the school and parents to teach them to their folks.

Feel free to call for suggestions and queries.

IELTS Band 7 Dehradun
Near Ballupur Chowk, Dehradun

email: info at ieltsband7.com

IELTS online simulator

IELTS BAND 7 Home page

IELTS Cue Card Sample Questions # Marriage

February 6, 2020 IELTS Research

Marriage is a relationship that is made in heaven, the kind where two souls meet to have a beautiful life. However, in today’s time, people often get into relationships quicker than most people change their clothes. Sometimes, therefore these relationships do not work out. People then believe that there is a fault in marriage as an institution. Everyone can have their own opinion about things, but this time we are looking at a cue card on marriage.

Describe a happily married couple. You should say:

how do you know them?

how long is their marriage?

what do you like about their marriage?

Also, explain, why do you think they are happily married?

IELTS Marry Ghaziabad

SAMPLE ANSWER

I have been quite sceptical about marriages for a long period of time until a very close friend of mine got married. Today I am going to talk about her marriage. There are very few close comrades that I have but out of them, a special friend of mine got married last year. It was an arranged marriage and to me it felt like the biggest mistake she has done! Her husband is a techie and she is a travel blogger. I felt she will have to compromise on her career to ensure her relationship works fine.

I met here a few months back, to know that her husband is completely supportive of her career and respects her choices. She told me about an incident where she had got a big assignment and it collided with the marriage of an important person in their family. Her husband, without informing her, told everyone in the family that they would not be able to make it because of his work priorities. For me it was a beautiful gesture.

It has only been a year and I have met the guy just a few times but we have become really good friends in the short course of time. It feels more like a family and I really love them as a couple. The one thing that I believe makes their marriage work, is irrespective of the differences they have, they respect each other and their choices. The fact that no one is forcing oneself on others, I believe makes them the best couple I have ever met.

STRONG WORDS

WORDS	MEANING
sceptical	doubting that something is true or useful
arranged marriage	a marriage planned and agreed by the families or guardians of the couple concerned.
techie	a person who is expert in or enthusiastic about technology, especially computing
compromise	an agreement or settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions
supportive	providing encouragement or emotional help
collided	come into conflict or opposition
gesture	a movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express an idea or meaning