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.

44 unique answers with expert feedback

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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.

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.

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.

Tip

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

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Okay, talking about the book what I read, there are a lot of collections of book what I read until now, but particularly I would like to speak about a holy book, Quran, which I do follow and I do read. The reason why I am talking about this holy book Quran, there is a lot of reasons. One, it teaches us the ways to live the life, the thoughts of the prophets, the way how do we follow the living, etc. There are various things which helps us to live in a right way and that is how it shapes our future as well. Quran teaches us lot of things, how do we meet people, the life lessons, the life after death and the life what we live here. There are lot of things what we can learn from Quran. The time when I discovered at a very early age, I started reading it, but I couldn't understand what the meaning was. Later on, when I tried to figure it out, I was very fascinated about the book because it teaches you a lot of things about your life and if you do follow, it would be really helpful. It also tells us to bring peace and harmony between people, not to fight as we can see in recent times, people fighting over properties and various things, over subject and which really doesn't teach us in our holy books. Talking about different holy books, it tells the same as well. I agree upon that because every religion tells you not to fight or neither to harm anyone or anything. It tells instead to bring peace between people and even it tells to live in harmony. But the current generation don't follow the holy books, that is why we feel we...

Band 6

I love to read different type of book. I have a collection of books in my house. A few weeks ago, I read a book about Ikigai. This book written in Japanese. I heard my friend told me this book is very good and also give so many knowledge about build relation with other person. So, I purchased book 3 weeks ago and I started read about relationship and I gained details knowledge about how to build good relation with your parents and your sibling with also your loved one. This book give me wonderful thoughts about family and I appreciate this book very much and give me a lifetime lesson about the relationship.

Band 5-6

To be very honest, I'm not actually that quite fond of books, but my friend suggested me a book from the author Khalid Ansaini, and the book name is A Thousand Splendid Sons. So I started reading the book out of compulsion. The story, it revolves around two women, that is Mariam and Laila. And the story starts with Mariam being married off to a man named Rashid in Kabul, who is over...

Band 5-6

The name of the book I read is A Monk Who Sold His Feathery. I read it before 3 months back. It is about a lawyer or advocate who had spent almost 30 or 40 years in his employment arguing the cases and also he won many awards for his accomplishments and he is very great in his job. He has solved many cases and also has won so many awards for his excellence in solving them. But he is not satisfied in his job so he sold all his assets and also his car which is a Ferrari and then he moved to India. He went to Himalayas and he further pursued the calmness and peacefulness of mind with the Yogis there. He also found out that there is much more in life to learn other than living the life he had. So he is very much fascinated about new things to learn and when he came back to the place where he used to be, the servant of the advocate came and asked him and he said that this is not the life, this is not the richness we have, this is not the money we need to have. We have a very different life in Himalayas where I got all the new powers and also got to know.

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