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Describe a place you visited where the air was polluted: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Where the place is?
  • When you visited it?
  • Why the air was not good?
  • And explain how you felt about the place.
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13 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 13 answers

Cue 1:Where the place is?

  • Begin by naming the city or location you visited, providing some context about it.
  • Include a brief description of the environment or notable landmarks that highlight the pollution.

Example

I visited Delhi, the capital city of India, known for its rich history and vibrant culture. However, during my trip, I noticed the heavy smog that often blankets the city, especially in winter.

Cue 2:When you visited it?

  • Mention the specific time of year or month when you visited, which can help set the scene.
  • Explain if there were any particular events or circumstances that contributed to the pollution during your visit.

Example

I visited Delhi in December last year. This is a time when air quality often deteriorates due to the cold weather and increased burning of crop residue in nearby states.

Cue 3:Why the air was not good?

  • Discuss the main causes of pollution in that area, such as traffic, industrial emissions, or seasonal factors.
  • You can also mention any health advisories or warnings that were in effect during your visit.

Example

The air was not good due to a combination of factors, including heavy traffic, construction dust, and the burning of agricultural waste. I remember seeing advisories urging people to wear masks and avoid outdoor activities.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about the place.

  • Express your personal feelings and thoughts about the pollution and its impact on your experience.
  • You can also reflect on how it affected your health or mood during your visit.

Example

I felt quite disappointed and concerned about the pollution. It was hard to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city when I was constantly aware of the thick air. I found myself coughing frequently, which made me appreciate cleaner environments much more.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your overall impressions of the place and its pollution.
  • You can also suggest any changes you hope to see in the future regarding air quality.

Example

In conclusion, while Delhi has a lot to offer in terms of culture and history, the pollution significantly detracted from my experience. I hope that in the future, more measures will be taken to improve air quality, allowing visitors and residents to enjoy the city without health concerns.

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 Descriptions

Using vague language can make your response unclear. Avoid general statements that do not provide specific details about the place or your experience.

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Tip

Use descriptive adjectives and specific examples to paint a clear picture of the place and its pollution.

2: Ignoring Emotional Impact

Failing to express how you felt about the polluted place can make your answer less engaging. Emotions help connect your experience to the listener.

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Tip

Share your feelings about the pollution and how it affected your visit, using phrases like 'I felt disappointed' or 'I was shocked'.

Lack of Structure

A disorganized response can confuse the listener. Jumping from one point to another without a clear flow can weaken your answer.

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Tip

Follow the cue card prompts in order, ensuring each point is addressed clearly and logically for better coherence.

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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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Anonymous student Band 8

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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.
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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.
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Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

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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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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

Thinking of a place where the air was polluted, a city or a part of city that comes to my mind is Havimumbai, it's a place next to Mumbai, it's an outgrown part or a newly developed area of Mumbai and I say that the air is polluted there is because there is a pungent smell in the air which is very hard to ignore and I didn't find it comforting at all. I went there to meet a friend recently and I found out that due to the industries around the area, the air there has become a lot polluted, the sewage is not proper in that area and it's just unpleasant to see or to inhale the air over there. I recently visited Havimumbai to meet a friend and one thing I noticed as I entered the area was the air had a stingy feeling or a stingy smell, a pungent smell if I would say. There is this place called Havimumbai which I visited recently, I went there to meet a friend of mine, she was staying in that area, one thing I noticed when I entered the area was the smell was very pungent, it was a general smell throughout the whole place and the reason being it is an industrial area, so there are a lot of big firms, a lot of big industries being set up there, the manufacturing they do have led to the air pollution in that area. Apart from just the air pollution which they are doing, the sewage plants and the sewage treatment over there was not proper at all, so you can smell the stinginess in the air when you move or when you are traveling around the industrial area and overall it made me feel very uncomfortable, it was a pleasureless experience for me and it was very hard to ignore or tolerate the smell. I asked a few people over there how do they manage with it and they were to my surprise they were very chill about it, they told that you get accustomed to it over time when you have been living there for a while and you get used to the smell, but for me as an outsider I found that smell and the pollution in the air very uncomforting and concerning for my health.

Band 6-7

Well, there are some places where sometimes a lot of pollution, but today here I would like to mention a place that I visited last week with my parents and the air was extremely polluted there. Actually, I am talking about none other than the huge city in Punjab called Ludhiana. I vividly remember that last week my family and I had a plan to visit the famous Gurdwara which is situated in Ludhiana. So we wanted to visit there and then we just decided to go there by car and while traveling there, we were having great conversation, but suddenly when we reached Ludhiana, what I saw there that the sky was extremely different than my city because in my city, the sky is literally sky blue and it is so fresh, but the air in Ludhiana was extremely blurry and I was feeling gipsy there since I was having that polluted air in my eyes and even my eyes, even I got red eyes too. Moreover, the air is polluted in Ludhiana city just because of industries and number of factories and sometimes lot of people love to visit there because of that Gurdwara or temple. That's why there is a lot of traffic jam that makes it more polluted. So I think Ludhiana is one of the most polluted city in Punjab that I visited.

Band 6-7

I recently visited Chennai, which is the capital of Tamil Nadu, a month ago. Actually, I had a chance of a two-month stay over there and the reason why I find Chennai to be very much polluted is because of the number of vehicles that are seen on the roads. Because the city is so populated in Tamil Nadu, I really, really feel the necessity of those so many vehicles in and around Chennai. I really felt that each and every street were full of vehicles with so much of smoke, outlets. I guess that's one of those reasons why Chennai is pretty much polluted. I visited Chennai to attend a college competition where I had to stay for two months. Those two complete months, I really had to face a lot of breathing issues, acne problems related to this pollution. I think the air, the amount of air, fresh air we get to breathe is really, really less and it's going to obviously lower down the quality of lungs and even the survival chance. I really believe that government has to take initiatives in order to lower down the levels of pollution in the city, which will obviously increase the life expectancy of people over there.

Band 6-7

Okay, so it was last summer that I went to Delhi which is also the capital of India. So we went to Delhi because it has many of the monuments like we have Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Jantar Mantar and etc. So we went there. So what we just saw was incredible like the air quality over there was so bad like we were not able to inhale properly. It was very exhausting for us and the reason why it was so polluted because Delhi is one of the emerging cities that we have in India and because there are so many people around the traffic, the pollution, the rate of people they pollute, air is very frustrating, there are many factories, industries that are there. So because of it, it's very polluted and they don't plant much trees over there. So because of that, it is very irritating.

Band 6

I have visited many places in my life, but one of the most visited and a memorable place was the Delhi, which was overpopulated. The air was not good at all, there was a very crowded place also. Firstly, I could say the air population was tremendous, huge, that people are facing many health issues about that. Secondly, the students over there are wearing compulsory masks, without that they cannot survive at all. So this is a huge problem that Delhi is facing from a few weeks. Additionally, the cause of this air pollution is measured by the overpopulation of the cars. People are facing traffic for one hour or two hours, and it is a huge problem. Next, there is less trees. Because of industrial development, people have lost the trees and environmental sustainability over there. Additionally, the construction lines are going vast, so people can't suffer anymore, and the human life has become worse than anywhere else. The farming culture is also going in a different, like, in a chemical way. People are using more chemicals, and the burning areas are getting open. So these are the most causes that are often due to this air pollution. And the city I will not visit ever. Because of that, I had suffered a lot of health issues after coming here in Mumbai.

Band 6

So, I would like to share my experience on where I am working a past few months ago. So, I worked for 6 months in New Mumbai, Mafe area, so that is an industrial area, however it is a very growing area, it has many industries surrounding there, so there are more job opportunities, but it is a very polluted area, so there were no buildings and home towns or any living areas in that area. So, the environment was very bad, we can find difficulty in breathing, the smell coming from the industries is very very bad. So, when newly visited go there, they find it very difficult to survive for the day. So, it is nearly half an hour from the Kober Karan station, so as it is an industrial area, there are many workers, many people working in that area. So, for 6 months I also have been working in that area.

Band 6

A place I visited in 2022 was Delhi. It was the very populated area, polluted area and populated area. The AQI value was very high in that day in the city. It reached the peaks and any person inhaling this pollution would be, it would be chronic and it would lead to death. So, when I visited this city, this air pollution was caused by too much traffic, too much of transportation and there were harmful gases burning in the industries and factories. These types of gases and this type of air polluted the whole city and there was no sun rays or sunlight in the morning were able to pass through that air pollution. This made people's lives a lot harder and by seeing that scenario in Delhi, it made me feel that we need to take counter measures to decrease the air pollution in the city and make it a safer environment for people to live and breathe healthily or else it could affect the people in various ways and it could tragically lead to death instantly. And this air pollution would lead to more various diseases. Furthermore, I would like to add that the air pollution should be kept in control with different transport, like using public transport and using electricity.

Band 5-6

Recently I went to Patna, Bihar. In my vacation holidays, I found it the most polluted city I have ever seen. The air quality index of that city was very poor. While travelling, I can see, I saw there are too many vehicles with congested roads and also sound pollution over there. And there was lots of burning, burning of woods and plastics are going on over there. May be because of illiteracy rate which was, which is very low there. And I can say also due to that, the rivers are also polluted there because of bad habits of throwing plastics and wastages around the water resources. So I can say that, that was the most polluted city I have ever visited. I can vividly remember that cows and other animals are just walking around the street and having plastic as food wastage. So I can predict that all the city is very poor quality of life over there.

Band 5-6

Recently there was a lot of air pollution and most of the tourist spots are being polluted with so many vehicles coming over and burning of plastics and other substances. Recently me and my friends went to Munnar in the last winter and it's not like every time like we used to go there so many times and last time we went there it was not the same as before. The air was not even good and it was polluted by burning of plastics in the near areas like most of the shops are burning their waste substances to get rid of the garbage. And like even the people who comes there throwing their emptied water bottles and plastic bags into the flame. And seeing that it was really devastating for us like that place was used to be very beautiful and the air was very fresh like we could just stay there for a long time but this time we left like in 15 minutes like we couldn't watch that devastating thing like ruining the environment. By these people and these things should be stopped like in most of the places where this tourism is one of the major.

Band 5-6

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