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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.

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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.

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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.

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Tip

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

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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

well in my opinion everyone loves having a holiday especially talking about the India here people really like to have the vacations for around one to two week and it's the time in November when everyone celebrate Diwali we usually get around five to six days to celebrate it and no offices are working on that time and no schools are open on that thing so everyone just stay at their home and celebrate with their family and cherish each and every moment everyone exchange the gifts toys money and sweets in order to maintain a healthy relationship in order to make a strong connection with the relatives also everyone does the Durga Puja to seek the blessings of Lord Durga as Diwali is celebrated in order to maintain happiness and positivity in our environment so yeah

Band 6-7

So, I am talking about Diwali which is a public holiday, so it is celebrated by lighting up the year and also bursting crackers and worshipping our goddess Lakshmi which gives us health, and peace. Also, people go to each other's house and celebrate it with different types of sweets and foods like chakli, shave and many more. People greet everyone and they spend their family time very well. Also, it is the greatest festival celebrated in India and many children enjoy it as they get a minimum of 20 days of holidays for it.

Band 6-7

In my country India, most of the people enjoy public holiday like 15th August and 26th January. Today I would like to talk about 26th January. Most of the people enjoy a lot because 26th January we celebrate it as an independent day. That day people go to school and so many other places to celebrate memorable day. When they go to these places, they talk with other person and share their emotions and feelings about the special day. Also that day they eat different type of snacks and drink.

Band 6-7

We celebrate Onam as one of the national cultural festival of Kerala the holidays along with this Onam celebration is one of the favorite holidays for me and we the people of Kerala celebrate Onam as the most expensive way even though however we are very poor or rich we have diseases even we are not healthy we celebrate it in a grand way however Onam is in the month of Malayalam month of Chingam during between September or August it will changes in every year but we celebrate in the month of September we put flower decors in Malayalam it is known as Pookalam in 10 days we put flowers in front of our houses and we make grand lunch known as Onam Sadya having more than 20 curries 2 or 3 desserts like called as Payasam and we all our children and parents together play games having fun and lots of entertainment activities be there in these holidays also in addition every people need to be same in this festival and celebration because that is the concept of this Onam everybody treated as the same

Band 6-7

The public holiday that people enjoy would be Diwali or also known as Deepavali depending on the region that it is being celebrated. Diwali is celebrated all over India whether it's the North, South, East or West. It is celebrated due to the return of Lord Rama to India after 14 years of staying in the forest and it celebrates the win of good over evil. This festival could be celebrated in different ways depending from person to person. Various people do puja and burst fireworks and crackers and people like to hang out and party together but it just varies from one person to another. For me personally I do enjoy catching up with my friends, my family friends as well as burning firecrackers with them as it's a very beautiful precious moment together. And I do enjoy celebrating Diwali with my loved ones as well as doing puja with them.

Band 6-7

Freedom is the most important thing in life. India got its freedom and got independent from the British rule in 1947 on the beautiful day of August 15th. August 15th is a public holiday that the whole country of India enjoys and celebrates like no other festival. This day is celebrated with the most joy, with firecrackers, with parades, with flag hoistings all across the country and all the states in every school, college, office, building and everything. Independence Day in India is not just a public holiday but it's a festival. It's a festival people celebrate with their whole hearts and the citizens of India.

Band 6-7

I come from Mumbai and when it comes to Mumbai or Maharashtra, one of the major public holiday is Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesh Chaturthi is the first day of Ganesh festival. It is a festival of 11 days which we can celebrate for a total of 11 days. But there are people who worship Lord Ganesha for odd number of days like 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11 days. And 11th is the last day of this festival. Even though we don't get a leave for 11 days, we get holiday for the first day, that is Ganesh Chaturthi and the last day that is Ganesha Visarjan Day. And on the first day of this festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, we welcome Lord Ganesha into our house and we worship him, we take blessings from him and then a lot of friends and neighbours come to worship Lord Ganesha and take his blessings. It is not just a festival of 11 days because before the festival starts, all of the family members come together. They clean the house, they make sure that the house is pure and the vibes are positive and they make decorations. We have something called as Paddal and we decorate that Paddal before welcoming Lord Ganesha. And once we welcome Lord Ganesha, we make multiple sweets from them. That is one of the famous delicacy from Maharashtra and that is something Lord Ganesha loves and that is the reason we offer him every day. And we also have Satyanaray Puja celebrated on one of these days where we invite our friends for having lunch at our place. And overall the vibe is very positive.

Band 6

I certainly think that public holidays are a part of the EAD calendar throughout the world in all countries. Public holidays are, to name a few, like national holidays and festive holidays and on days where a particular country has got freedom. So these kind of public holidays are very enjoyable and these are celebrated in all countries and people usually have many enjoyable moments out there with their family members and children are very happy because they have breaks in between their regular school days. And people in all countries get time to spend with their family members, which is a good thing because these days, due to the kind of working conditions, many people are not able to spend time with their family members and public holidays are very great occasions where people have the opportunity to spend some time with their loved ones.

Band 5-6

The public holiday, in public holiday you can enjoy your free time, you can spend quality time with your families, in addition you can go outing with your families and nice picnics in this form, in cinemas, in gardens and furthermore you can go with your friends at a bachelor's trip, road trip and if you are also going on a public holiday in some other historical places and you can do a good time with your families, your children, your nephews and some people are going to their grandmother's and their father's house in a public holiday which is very good to see and the public holidays can correlate with your relatives and can maintain a good relation with your friends, your families. The public holiday is a relaxing moment for every person, you can challenge him to accept a break of your time, it's a break of your working days, you can use it very securely and very enjoyable, it's very memorable in the weekend with the one and two public holidays, it's very important for everyone, you can go out your stress, you can relieve your stress and the depression is very harmful for humans and you can to relieve your stress and the very much good the public holiday for and I'm thinking the public holiday is needed for everyone. That's it.

Band 5-6

The public holidays that are associated with the festival Pongal every year in the month of January is the one which I really enjoy every year because this public holiday comes together for minimum more than two days clubbed with a weekend so we will get enough time to enjoy and especially with reference to this public holiday this is a festival where we can give a gratitude to the farmers agriculture and the cattle's so which really gives a flourished moment in terms of celebrating this festival each and every day the first day we celebrate with the family in terms of giving a gratitude to the agricultural and Sun God and the second day definitely it is a kind of a gratitude which gives to the cattle which we use for farming and agriculture especially buffaloes cows and other things and the third day is kind of a festival where we give gratitude to the equipments which we use
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