Describe a photo that you enjoy looking at: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

What the photo is?
When and where it was taken?
What is shown in the photo?
Why you enjoy looking at it?

118 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 118 answers

Cue 1:What the photo is?

Begin by describing the photo clearly, mentioning its subject and any significant details.
Use vivid language to create a mental image for the listener.

Example

The photo I enjoy looking at is a beautiful landscape shot of the Himalayas. It captures the majestic snow-capped peaks under a clear blue sky, with a lush green valley in the foreground.

Cue 2:When and where it was taken?

Provide context about when and where the photo was taken, including any relevant details about the occasion.
Mention any emotions or thoughts you had during that moment.

Example

This photo was taken last year during a family trip to Manali. We visited in the summer, and I remember standing on a hilltop, feeling a sense of peace and awe as I looked at the breathtaking view.

Cue 3:What is shown in the photo?

Describe the elements in the photo, such as people, objects, or scenery, and their significance.
Share any interesting stories or memories associated with the elements in the photo.

Example

In the photo, you can see my family members smiling and posing together, with the mountains towering behind us. It reminds me of the fun we had hiking and exploring the area, creating lasting memories.

Cue 4:Why you enjoy looking at it?

Explain the emotional connection you have with the photo and why it resonates with you.
Mention how it makes you feel or any lessons it reminds you of.

Example

I enjoy looking at this photo because it brings back wonderful memories of our family trip. It reminds me of the beauty of nature and the importance of spending time with loved ones. Every time I see it, I feel a wave of happiness and gratitude.

Conclusion

Example

In conclusion, this photo is more than just an image; it represents a cherished moment in my life. It inspires me to appreciate nature and the time spent with family, making it a truly special photo for 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: Being Vague About the Photo

Candidates often give unclear descriptions of the photo, which can confuse the listener. Specific details help create a vivid image in the examiner's mind.

Tip

Provide clear details about the photo, including colors, subjects, and emotions it evokes to make your description more engaging.

2: Ignoring the Context

Failing to mention when and where the photo was taken can lead to a lack of context. This makes it harder for the examiner to understand the significance of the photo.

Tip

Always include the time and place of the photo to give your answer more depth and context.

Rushing Through Your Answer

Candidates often rush their responses, leading to incomplete answers. This can prevent them from fully expressing their thoughts and feelings about the photo.

Tip

Take your time to think and structure your answer. Use pauses to emphasize important points and ensure clarity.

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 6-7

The picture is, the photo that I enjoy looking at is my family picture, family photograph. The picture I love enjoying looking at is our family picture. It's really a memorable picture we took three years ago, sorry three to four years ago. It's the full family that before my grandfather and my uncle died and this frame was, this photograph is framed by my mother and she, after framing this we have lost two souls so it's really a memorable photo that we took as a family. Whenever I see that picture it reminds me of a happy family, we really share our enjoyable moments together and we were having a, having a party that time when we took that photo. It's a, it's party for my uncle came from abroad so we were celebrating that and celebrating that with a cake, with a family, with relatives, we invited many relatives. It was really nice time we spent together, remembering those days, it's really a nostalgic moment for me and we really miss my grandfather and my uncle in those photographs because I was living with my grandfather, he was a guardian, he really, he really made us this, the whole family and it's really a proud of him so whenever I look at the picture I think of them and it's really most memorable and enjoyable thing looking at it.

Band 6-7

There is a photo in our album which is with our great-grandmother, with mine and my sister. That photo really reminds me of my old childhood days when she was alive. She took care of all of us. She took us to the terrace and played with us. That golden days really reminds me of her and she was very important in my family. She was like a pillar to our family. She was our strength. After her demise, we were broken and we don't have any support right now, the great pillar. That picture really reminds me of her. She was really an inspiration for me. Her strength, her knowledge, her appearance, her body language is different. It's really very influential to me and to my family. That picture is a life example. That picture is really an example of my childhood and my old childhood days, which is the golden childhood era.

Band 6-7

The photo which I enjoy looking at is my family photo. This photo was taken at my cousin's wedding where we have dressed very nicely. In addition to that, I used to look at this picture and feel very grateful for the family which I have been born into. This photo reminds me how lucky I am to be able to born in the family where a lot of love is given to me by my parents and siblings. Honestly, this photo is very close to my heart as this photo involves all the family members in my family. I feel proud and honor to be a part of the family which I have been born in. Lastly, there are many photos where any one of the family members is missing but the photo which was taken at the wedding was where I was born.

Band 6-7

So, I love to watch the photo when I went to Malaysia with my family when I was in class 12th. I love that photo because it was my first experience in a foreign country. I visited there and I loved the place, I loved the people and I loved the environment there. That photo of me and my family is in front of KL Tower, Malaysia. I was looking at that tower, it was so tall, so beautiful, so mesmerizing that I kept looking at it for at least 5-10 minutes. I loved the place and I loved the vibe there. I was so happy because it was my first trip and now when I go back to the memories which I cherished at that time, I am fond that wow, what a beautiful place it was and what a beautiful memory it was. It was a memory of me and my family enjoying our best times of our lives and taking a good time for us. The memory was a beautiful memory and I have to say that it was a very good first trip of my life. So, I just want to think about that photo and I just go back to the time when I went there and I loved to go and I would love to go again and I don't know what else.

Band 6-7

My family and I, we are the kind of people who enjoy spending quality time together. However, we do not really like clicking pictures. So, there's this one particular photo that we had clicked right before my brother moved to Canada for his higher education. It was on a trip that we went to, in Komkan. It is a place in Maharashtra which has beautiful beaches and coconut trees. And it is surrounded...

Band 6-7

Well, I am a kind of a person who loves to take pictures and also enjoys being clicked. One of the photos that I enjoy looking at is of my mom's and dad's. The picture was taken by me and it was a candid picture and it was taken in Masuri, that is a beautiful hill station of Uttarakhand. So it was a candid and it was a chilly evening, we were shivering with cold and we were sitting near a desk of the reception of our hotel and the view outside was insane. It was fog covering all the mountains and the lush green beauty of trees and everything. The best view. My mom and dad were having a deep conversation at that time and I took a candid picture of them. They were both looking at each other, wearing shawls and jackets to keep themselves warm and the picture is very, very comforting to me. So whenever I am in a bad mood or I am away from home and I miss them so much, that is a picture I always look forward to.

Band 6.5

I enjoy looking at one of my old photos, where I am standing with my grandparents, four of them are there, like my mom's grandparents and my dad's parents, now the four of them are not with us, they are gone from this world, far away, and by looking into that I just remember them, their stories, the stories they taught me, and everything, especially my grandmother's, in my family, my mom's family, four girls are there, so my mom's grandmother is with me, and my dad's family also, only one boy is there, so we are looking at them, so both the grandparents just came with me in our same house, and each and every night I used to sleep with them, and they told me exciting stories, like that, they are holding me, and that photo they are holding me, and I think it's 8 years old, 8 to 7 years old, I think, it's a memorable photo for me, because whenever I saw the photo I just came to remember all the memories that I had in those days, we used to cook, two of my grandmothers helped my mom to cook, it's so awesome, my grandfathers, two of them used to play with me a lot, even they played cricket with me, because they are old, but they are awesome.

Band 6.5

work. The photo that I like looking at the most is my family picture with me, my wife and the baby. It is a picture that we took when the three of us visited Lal Bagh together. It has a lush garden as a background and myself holding the baby and my wife leaning on me. It was taken by a professional photographer, so the color composition, the exposure and the lighting are just perfect. I think it is something that we can cherish and frame for a long time. I believe even when my daughter grows up and looks back at this picture, she'd be glad to have this family moment even though she doesn't remember it. Furthermore, the picture serves as a token of good moments shared with them. This is especially important for me because I do not get much time with the family as most of our time is spent in managing household responsibilities. Furthermore, I spend more than 12 hours a day at work, which leaves very little time to play with the baby or spend quality time with my wife. So these moments really stand out in memory and being reminded of this moment is especially cherished and a heartfelt moment. I would also like to emphasize the role the photographer played in taking the picture because it was he who convinced us. Yes, sometimes listening to people who are professionals can pay off in the long run, even if it is just a simple photograph. I'm really glad I could cherish the moment and frame it.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12