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Describe a book you recently read.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What is it called?
  • When did you read it? What was it about?
  • Explain how you felt about it.
Show all 44 answers

Cue 1:What is it called?

  • Start by clearly stating the title of the book and the author.
  • You can also mention the genre of the book to give context.

Example

The book I recently read is called 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. It is a philosophical novel that falls under the adventure and self-discovery genre.

Cue 2:When did you read it? What was it about?

  • Mention when you read the book and the circumstances that led you to choose it.
  • Summarize the main plot or themes of the book in a few sentences.

Example

I read 'The Alchemist' last month during my vacation. The story follows a young shepherd named Santiago who dreams of finding treasure in Egypt. It beautifully explores themes of destiny and personal legend.

Cue 3:Explain how you felt about it.

  • Share your personal feelings and thoughts about the book.
  • You can discuss what you learned from it or how it impacted you.

Example

I felt incredibly inspired after reading this book. It encouraged me to pursue my own dreams and reminded me that the journey is just as important as the destination. I found myself reflecting on my own life choices and aspirations.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your overall impression of the book.
  • You can recommend it to others and explain why.

Example

In conclusion, 'The Alchemist' is a remarkable book that I would highly recommend to anyone seeking motivation and guidance in their life. Its powerful message about following one's dreams resonates deeply with me.

Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

Tips to answer this Cue Card

1: Vague Book Descriptions

Avoid being too vague when describing the book. General statements can make your answer less engaging and informative.

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Tip

Provide specific details about the plot, characters, and themes to give a clearer picture of the book.

2: Ignoring Emotional Response

Neglecting to explain how you felt about the book can make your response less personal and relatable.

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Tip

Share your emotions and thoughts about the book, discussing what resonated with you and why it mattered.

Rushing Through the Timeline

Rushing through when you read the book can lead to a lack of context and depth in your answer.

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Tip

Take a moment to explain when you read it and how that timing influenced your experience or understanding of the book.

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IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

Answer

I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

Answer

The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

Answer

As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

Answer

When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
Describe a book you recently read
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

Answer

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 6-7

I recently read a one book, its name is Law of Attraction. I remember the last 31st night when I went to my friend's home, we were sitting together and talking different topics, at that time she said that she has been reading one book called Law of Attraction and it has helped her a lot, whatever she is thinking and want to attract in her life, she is able to achieve that thing, following that book's rules and she suggested me that I should follow if I want something in my life, so I just said that let's give a try, so I started reading that book and I felt that whatever mentioned in that book, I am going through from that problems and whatever thing I want to achieve in my life, I can achieve using the formula given in the book, it's not a formula, but it's just a simple step to how to achieve your goal and how to attract things and how to send a message to the universe, so the universe will help you to achieve.

Band 6-7

No audio text available

Band 6-7

I would like to talk about the book which I read recently. The book was titled The Real Challenges. It was written by Sukumar Chakravedi. He is a most famous writer in my country. I have moreover, I have came to know about this book from my friend's Instagram story. I messaged him to share the link of where to buy it. Then he shared me purchase link and I bought and ordered the book from online website and got delivered within 3 days of ordering. In addition to that, I spent around 2 days to read this book. The book depicts the challenges and difficulties faced by poor people. The book is a real story of a Bollywood actor as well as a political leader. I also referred this book to my brother to read and learn how middle class people face challenges and difficulties in their lives and how they overcome that problems. Actually, I am not a good reader but this book changed my perspective. Moreover, I came to know how a book can change a person's mentality and hardships and also as well as challenges can be overcome.

Band 6-7

There are so many instances in my life when I got opportunity to read various books about different field but here I would like to talk about a book which is related to Uttarakhand history and which still has indelible impression in my mind. The name of the book is Pariksha Vani which is well known for Uttarakhand competition specially competitive exam of group C and group B. Therefore, I purchased this book two years ago when the world is facing covid-19 pandemic. Whole shop and workplace was shut down at that time. I was bored at my home and I had nothing to do. Therefore, one of my friend suggested me to purchase this Pariksha Vani Uttarakhand culture book online and I ordered it. Therefore, I received this book after 7 days of my order placement. I started reading this book and completed in 2 months. But this book has very vast knowledge although it is 250 pages book but it has very vast knowledge about different culture such as Kumavani culture, Garhwali culture and so on. When I read it, I feel as proud as peacock because I was born in Uttarakhand and Uttarakhand is a heritage palace. In Uttarakhand, everybody

Band 6-7

I would like to share information about the novel I read about two weeks ago. The novel I read has a very fascinating storyline about how world will look after 500 years. It was completely fiction based and it had a great storyline which consisted of a person who actually time travelled from 2020 to 2500 and faced many challenges and difficulties over there and how he overcome them and returned back to today's world and informed the world about what will happen 500 years ago, what will happen 5 years after and he told about all the climatic calamities about that no one will remain alive on earth as earth will be unlivable after 500 years and no piece of wood will be there on earth and almost 90% of the human population will be living on mars.

Band 6-7

A book recently read is the life and its depth written by Lois John an American writer a well-known writer with many inspirational lessons from that I have read it very recently and I still continue reading that it mentions the story of a boy wandering around and exploring all the things beyond his capabilities and not forgetting to help others in any condition you might be this is such a thought-provoking lesson I have learned and the situations he has been facing in life but he remains to keep smiling and positivity in his mind and heart I felt very energetic and it is self-motivating as well boosting that life is a book which has to be passed easily with a smiling face and every day is a new beginning with a new challenge it has developed that instinct in me to

Band 6-7

The name of the book is Computational Neuroscience, recently I read that book in the month of the August 2024. In that book, the writer of that book is Alan Wolf, who is also my mentor at the Invention Factory program which held at IIT Bombay recent year, in the past 2023. So in that book, there is a description about how our mind and the computer relates to each other. So there is a deep concentration on the neurons of our brains and as well as how the computer uses that brain techniques to stimulate the memory power. So somewhere the memory, the computer memory and the brain memory are similar to each other. So the book focuses mostly on the similarity between the brain as well as the human. I exactly remember that Alan Wolf told me that you should read the book once in your life. So I read that book, I read that book and also there is a deep, deep dive of the Willis disease, the world is currently now suffering from. So the book is also announcing the solution of that disease in that book. It is restless leg syndrome is the neurological disease in the human's body. So how can the human, how can the human

Band 6-7

The book that I read recently is called The Palace of Illusions. I read it in the first week of December, so about 10 days ago. The book is about Indian mythology. Again, people say it's fiction, but religiously speaking, as Hindus, we do not think it is fiction. So, the book is from the famous Hindu epic called the Mahabharata. It is about a woman with her five husbands and how a family and things like that lead to war, which is one of the biggest wars in Hindu mythology. So, it is about a woman and the book narrates the story from the perspective of the protagonist called Draupadi. She is the queen and she is married to five brothers, who are also kings of a kingdom and they are being mistreated by the rest of the family and being tricked into a lot of things, which is what leads to the big epic because the five husbands fight in order to protect their wives' honor and it felt refreshing to read about something from a woman's perspective and yeah.

Band 6-7

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

Band 6

I'm fond of book reader, but I recently read a book, The Name of the Life, written by R.K. Singh, who is very famous writer in India. This book is very amazing and it's really near to my heart because in this book, many chapters come from my real life side and this book accordingly about which difficulties about coming your life and how to solve it. When I start this book, I thought I just read one to two pages, but it's amazing book. Moreover, I spend my all day to read this book and I complete this book in a week and this is such a good moment in my life. I never ever thought I finish this book in few weeks, so it's amazing experience for me and I recommend to everyone to read any book because books is a friend. If you read books, you can teach many things from books, also you can learn from books life lessons and how you spend your life and what do you do in your life.
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