arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a public holiday that people enjoy.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What public holiday is it ?
  • How is it celebrated?
  • What you do during that time?
Show all 50 answers

Cue 1:What public holiday is it?

  • Begin by naming the holiday and providing a brief background about its significance.
  • Mention why this holiday is particularly enjoyed by people in your community.

Example

The public holiday I would like to talk about is Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights. It is celebrated by millions of people across India and signifies the victory of light over darkness and good over evil.

Cue 2:How is it celebrated?

  • Describe the various traditions and activities associated with the holiday.
  • Include details about decorations, food, and any special events that take place.

Example

Diwali is celebrated with great enthusiasm. People decorate their homes with colorful rangoli designs and lights. Families gather to perform puja (prayers) to Goddess Lakshmi, and the evening is filled with fireworks, which light up the night sky.

Cue 3:What you do during that time?

  • Share your personal experiences and activities you engage in during the holiday.
  • Mention any special memories or traditions that are important to you and your family.

Example

During Diwali, I spend time with my family preparing sweets and snacks. We also visit relatives and exchange gifts. One of my favorite memories is the family gathering where we light diyas (oil lamps) together, creating a beautiful atmosphere of joy and togetherness.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the significance of the holiday and its impact on people's lives.
  • Express your feelings about the holiday and why it is meaningful to you.

Example

In conclusion, Diwali is not just a holiday; it is a time of joy, love, and togetherness. It brings families closer and allows us to celebrate our culture and traditions. I cherish this holiday deeply as it fills my heart with happiness and gratitude.

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 Too Vague

Candidates often give very general answers without specific details. This can make the response less engaging and informative.

bulb icon

Tip

Include specific examples and personal experiences related to the holiday to make your answer more vivid and interesting.

2: Ignoring the Cues

Some candidates forget to address all the cues provided, which can lead to an incomplete answer and lower scores.

bulb icon

Tip

Make sure to answer all the cues: the holiday, how it is celebrated, and what you do during that time.

Overly Complicated Language

Using complex vocabulary or long sentences can confuse the listener and detract from the clarity of your message.

bulb icon

Tip

Use clear and simple language to express your ideas, ensuring that your answer is easy to understand.

calendar icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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

So, in India 26th January is celebrated as a Republic Day which is a public holiday for everyone nationwide. In Delhi specifically all the states take part in the parade that happens early in the morning and the states get to showcase the various cultures and the specialties and about the environment in front of the whole world making a mark about the state they resemble. Schools, offices and other organizations celebrate this day by flag hosting, a special guest might be called and the entire nation comes together with pride in front of the flag and gives it a national anthem. I personally celebrate Republic Day by visiting my school where students perform dances on national anthem, on national songs, they show their patriotism towards the country, there are multiple acts, we talk about the soldiers, the leaders and that's a lot of learning for the students as well as everyone present there. Apart from that there is flag hosting which is a moment of immense pride to everyone, there is rangoli everywhere, flowers are distributed, sweets are distributed and that's the thing the entire nation comes together and feels proud of the country that is going to be and how they are going to contribute towards it.

Band 6-7

One of the Indian public holidays is Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, October 2nd. We celebrate it by hoisting a flag and give holidays to the school. And that time, in free time, I spend time with my family and make sure we have dinner at the same time, sitting together. It gives me a very happy to meet my friends at the evening. Because everyone is working, they give holidays. All we are together and enjoy and talk about our lives. It helps me to know them, know my friends more. And my family, at the night we watch a movie with my family and my sister make biryani for us. We do more activities in that day. It's all depends, it's all thanks to the government who provide public holidays. It gives chance to us to spend more time with family.

Band 6-7

The public holiday that I like the most is the festival of Navratri. It is celebrated by the end of September or early October. This festival is celebrated for 9 days and it is celebrated in the worship of Goddess Amba which she is believed to kill the demon Mahishasura after a war of 9 days. So for 9 days we celebrate Navratri. During Navratri we worship Goddess Amba and we wear long skirt and blouses known as chaniya choli which is available in different colors and the skirts are colored with different varieties of clothes and different colors and different mirror work and a lot of work is done on that and it is mostly very famous in Gujarat. People dress up and they form a circle around Goddess Amba and celebrate her triumph over the demon and we dance to music in a traditional dance known as Garba which is very famous in Gujarat. People dance to it and we celebrate Navratri.

Band 6-7

Okay, being a citizen of India, I feel very, very overwhelmed and happy to be the part of this huge diversity that India holds. There are tons of holidays, public holidays we get as we have a vast diversity in cultures and so we used to get holiday, public holiday on every single festival. One of my favourite public holiday is Diwali. Basically, it is the festival of Hindus and is very well known in Hindu culture and in every culture but especially for Hindus. Moreover, this festival is celebrated because of returning of Shriram from 14 years of Vanvas. I love celebrating this festival because I love to decorate my house and I get that opportunity on this festival. I love to decorate my house. I love to make rangolis, light diyas. In India, we celebrate like this. We light up diyas in our house. We decorate our houses and I love doing that. I enjoy doing that and I'm very grateful. I feel very blessed to be the part of Hindu culture and being a part of this beautiful life. Thank you.

Band 6-7

So, the public holiday that I enjoy the most is Independence Day. It is on August 15, the day when India got independence from the British. So, it is really very inspiring. The one thing that I always used to look up to was the flag hoisting, which used to happen at my school and all the kids were given chocolates and sweets after flag hoisting and the dance events. We were all made aware of the kind of sacrifices made by our freedom fighters and all of that stuff. So, that day really gives every individual a chance to acknowledge the life that they are living today, which was really precious to our ancestors. And it is because of their fight to freedom that we are able to enjoy what we have today. Many times we might not acknowledge that because it seems to be simple and the bare minimum. But I think this day gives us a chance to reflect on the fact that our ancestors were deprived of this bare minimum thing called freedom, which is every person's birthright. And my favourite part is singing the patriotic songs. As I am a fan of Lata Mangeshkar ji, I am really a big fan of her song, Ae Mere Vatin Ke Logo. I make sure to listen to it and sing along, not just on this day, but every other day whenever I get time because it's my go-to favourite song.

Band 6-7

India is a diverse country, celebrating a lot of festivals and a lot of remarkable and memorable days. One such public holiday that is widely celebrated in the country that I want to describe is Independence Day, which is celebrated on August 15th every year. So I remember when I was in school, we had a lot of performances and a lot of speeches given by the students and it was also a time to reflect on the sacrifices that were made by a lot of people in the past and there were also a lot of performances which is made by the students and which was practiced at least a week before the Independence Day and all of the whole of the school would come together and would start the ceremony by the speeches in majorly English and the Hindi language, which is widely spoken and later we would sing the National Anthem, which is followed by hosting the flag and after which there are a lot of performances, dances, singing, which is performed by the students and at the end of the day when we come back from the school, we would receive like a muffin and a biscuit from the school.

Band 6-7

A public holiday that I would like to talk about here is Christmas, Christmas comes towards the end of the year and it is usually celebrated by people of all castes and creeds and age groups. There is a norm of exchanging gifts during Christmas, moreover people come together and have vines and often indulge in different kinds of pastries. It is widely celebrated by

Band 6-7

The most favorite public holiday according to me is The most favorite Being subjective about the topic My favorite My favorite public holiday When I was in school I used to be so excited about the My most favorite public holiday is Independence Day It is celebrated on August 15th every year It represents the independence of India Which we got from British And during this time we used to go to grounds And all the schools would gather there We used to do march past, we used to hoist the flag We used to sing the national anthem And we used to get sweets and biscuits That was the most favorite part of the day And also we used to have various cultural programs Like dancing, singing, mimes And the district commissioner would come to hoist the flag over there And it would be fun The good part was we used to go with friends We used to enjoy whole day And we used to get up early in the morning Put a tattoo on a cheek And we used to take Indian flag in our hands It was very nostalgic And it is quite some memories that I made in my school days

Band 6-7

My company has a public holiday on 25th of December which is Christmas. I usually spend it with my friends. The must visit to Park Street in Kolkata is done. I enjoy with my friends by visiting the St. Paul's Cathedral which is beautifully decorated during Christmas. I love my time with my friends on the streets of Park Street which is lit up with a lot of lights and it looks very beautiful. People from around India come here to see the beautiful lights on the streets. This is how I enjoy my public holiday.

Band 6-7

Talking about the public holiday, public holiday is basically the holiday which whole nation celebrates and on that day everyone is at home spending their holiday with their family. They celebrate it on rare occasions because there are rare public holidays. For example, in India we celebrate Diwali, Holi, these are the public holidays which is granted to all and if we talk about different cultures such as Sikhism, we used to celebrate Guru Nanak Jayanti which is considered as public holiday and everyone enjoys that because it is the moment that everyone and every culture brings up together and it's a time in which we can simply gather around, we can socialize, we can talk to new people, we can know about them and we can know about new different cultures and if I talk about my favorite public holiday, it would be Diwali because as we know that on Diwali, the Lord Rama has returned to his home after 14 years of exile. So, on that day, we use to burst crackers, to light up diyas, make new sweets and we puja together and we worship to Goddess Lakshmi and Ganesha Ji and on that day, we wear traditional and it's not only that only Hindu celebrate that public holiday, everyone celebrates it with great enthusiasm and it is really very great festival to celebrate and it is good to socialize on public holidays.
1 2 3 4 5
ielts logo

Get the IELTS Prep App

Star rating icon

4.2

1M+ Installs

 app download banner image

Get the app link on your phone

+91

Or download app from

google play storeapp store
master ielts speaking ad