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Describe A Story Or Novel That Was Interesting To You: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What story or novel was it?
  • Where did you come to know about it?
  • When did you read it?
  • How did you feel about it?
Show all 70 answers

Cue 1:What story or novel was it?

  • Begin by mentioning the title of the story or novel clearly.
  • Briefly describe the main theme or genre of the book.

Example

The novel I found particularly interesting is 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. It is a philosophical story about a young shepherd named Santiago who dreams of finding treasure in Egypt.

Cue 2:Where did you come to know about it?

  • Share how you first heard about the book, whether through a friend, school, or online.
  • Mention any specific recommendations or reviews that influenced your decision to read it.

Example

I first came to know about 'The Alchemist' from a friend who recommended it during our college days. She spoke highly of its inspirational messages, which piqued my interest.

Cue 3:When did you read it?

  • State the time period when you read the book, such as during a specific year or season.
  • You can also mention any particular circumstances that made you choose to read it at that time.

Example

I read this novel about two years ago during my summer vacation. I had some free time, and I wanted to read something that could motivate me.

Cue 4:How did you feel about it?

  • Express your emotions and thoughts after reading the book.
  • Discuss any lessons learned or how it impacted your perspective on life.

Example

After finishing 'The Alchemist', I felt inspired and hopeful. The story taught me about following my dreams and listening to my heart, which has influenced my decisions since then.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, 'The Alchemist' is not just a novel; it’s a journey of self-discovery that resonates with many readers. Its timeless message encourages us to pursue our dreams, making it a memorable read 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: Avoid Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer less engaging and informative. It’s important to provide specific details about the story or novel to capture the examiner's interest.

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    Tip

    Include key plot points, character names, and specific themes to make your description vivid and memorable.

    2: Don't Rush Your Response

    Rushing through your answer can lead to unclear explanations and missed details. Take your time to think about each cue and structure your response logically.

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    Tip

    Pause briefly to organize your thoughts before answering each cue, ensuring clarity and coherence in your response.

    Neglecting Personal Feelings

    Failing to express your personal feelings about the story can make your answer less relatable. The examiner wants to hear your unique perspective and emotional connection.

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    Tip

    Share how the story impacted you personally, discussing your feelings and thoughts to create a more engaging narrative.

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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
    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

    My favorite story or novel of all time is Harry Potter. I have read all the parts of Harry Potter. I like fantasy and Harry Potter serves the purpose. My favorite character is Hermione Granger. I like the way she is brilliant, amazing, beautiful and up to the mark always. Her intellectual level is so high that even teachers need to ask her for some doubts if they have. McGonagall gave her the time turner and not to Harry Potter who is the main character because she is capable of that time turner. I found the book first when I was 4 years old. I was just wandering around the library and I came across that book. And the front page was so captivating that I felt I should read it. I should read it.

    Band 6-7

    The story is about the courage a human can make so God can always help us. As the story title is Himmate Marta To Madate Kota. I read this story in 5th grade. It was in my textbook when I was so inspired by this story. And till I am getting courage while only thinking about it. So this story is about a boy who captures in his own house. And some robber who pretends to be his father comes to his house and tie him up to rob in the house. So he gathered the courage and while robbers were robbing the house. He goes to the balcony of the house while he locked the door from outside. And gathered people by screaming and so that whole neighborhood was gathered. And they captured the robbers. So it is about the courage when we made if we are in totally so bad situation where nothing comes into our mind. So we should calm down and think about what we can make out of the situation rather than what we can't do. So I truly inspired by this story because it tells how much courage and mind when in the situation help us to go through it. Instead of worrying about it.

    Band 6-7

    Reading a book has always been fascinating to me as I have my favorite hobby is reading and I started reading when I was in eighth grade and after that I mainly focused on fictional books at that time but now I am into non-fictional books. Today I would like to talk about a book that gave a story that was really interesting the book's name was Da Vinci Code. The story was really interesting and amazing as it followed a different style of writing and the book was written in a way of different perspectives and it really intrigued me and I got to know about this book through my friends because the book was really famous at that time and from my friends would suggest me this book. It is one of the books that I was really keen on reading because it was really famous and I read this book when I was in ninth grade and it really inspired me to read more books and it really made me more into books and to learn more about the culture and the perspective that the book gave me as the story goes to say that it is an adventure book and the story goes on to say it is a story about a person who goes after a painting and the painting is stolen by some thieves and it really gets interesting at the end because it doesn't follow a traditional way of storytelling as it really gets interesting by the end and this book has really helped me to widen my

    Band 6-7

    Few months back I read a novel called Sweet Bean Paste. The storyline revolve around three people. One of them is an old lady and then there is a middle-aged man and a teenager. The story revolve around these three people where the middle-aged man named Sakoru own a bean paste shop and he's been making bean paste for years. And then this lady, an old lady come in the story when she was willing to get a job in the shop as a sweet bean paste maker. Firstly, the man was not sure about the woman but later on he decided to hire her as a sweet bean paste maker and when they started working together they get to know about more each other. Then he realized that once in her life she was diagnosed with a disease which was considered untouchable at the beginning of her life so she was isolated for years and now she came from that isolated area and all of the people who get to know about her disease was afraid of meeting her, touching her because of the disease.

    Band 6-7

    So, the story today I am going to tell, the novel that I have read is a book named Half Girlfriend. So, this is kind of a love story between two people, like very interesting people. One comes from a village boy and the girl is super rich. So, I got to know this book from my friend. So, he suggested me to read this book so that I will get a new look around how relationship is in different kind of scenarios. So, in this what it happens is like the boy and the girl meet, they start loving each other at first sight, then they just go deep and deep and after some point the girl doesn't feel okay with this relationship and the boy also doesn't feel okay. But somehow they try to convince each other and they kind of adjust and they just make out through their lives. So, it was a very interesting story to me, like lot of good things I learnt from the story. And coming to the conclusion, like what I felt in the story, like nowadays people get very busy and they don't know what to do with the relationship. So, they can consider this as an example and move on in life.

    Band 6-7

    Back in COVID days, when I just graduated from my pre-university college, we had been under lockdown in my house and I had a novel gifted by my principal for being a good student in my PU college. So, it was about Sudha Murthy and her childhood. So, its name goes by how I taught my grandmother to read and I really felt good reading that novel as she described how her childhood went from village and back then they did not have any good technologies. So, she had nothing much exposure to any of the things we have right now like internet or online schooling. So, she had to teach her grandmother by herself and it was a beautiful experience she described through that novel which I really loved about and there were small stories of her childhood, very sweet stories which really makes anyone happy when they read it. So, yeah that was a good novel. Moreover, she described how she went from a small village girl to a big corporate entrepreneur. So, that was really motivating me to get out of my small town and go out and explore new things. So, yeah as she described I did so and finally I am here going abroad.

    Band 6-7

    I was 12 years old when I fell in love with a book called Chahal Pahar. I was in my 8th standard and the book was part of the Bengali curriculum. At first it was quite difficult for me to read because it contained a lot of difficult Bengali words. But as I read, I found the character very courageous. But since it was part of the curriculum and I had to read it for all the exams, I was not much interested. However, later on, my father was the one who helped me finish the book. Basically, when I was about to go to sleep, my father would recite the whole story to me. It was about a young man who was dreaming about an adventure in Africa in hopes of finding a buried treasure. The story was explained in such detail with such vibrancy that it felt like I was literally standing there beside Ashok, the main protagonist of the story. And that story gave me a sense of independence because the main guy who had nothing, who was poor, went through all the hurdles of the life, went through all the uncertainties to find himself in a position that very few people can even imagine. That is why I think what I have learnt from the book is courage.

    Band 6-7

    The favorite novel that was interesting to me is A Thousand Splendid Sons by Halid Hussaini. He is an Afghan author and he talks about the freedom fighting journey of the Afghanistan through this book. It actually says about the miserable life of Afghan women clearly and the chauvinism shown by the men in Afghanistan and also the revolution, the battles and the wars happened in Afghanistan before the freedom happened is clearly depicted in this book and it literally made me cry to the end. The characters named Mariam and Leila, the pathetic life they have faced in Afghan they are deprived of their basic fundamental rights is shown in this book clearly and we just feel like living their life with us and the author has done a great job writing this book. This is such a must read book for a book lover.

    Band 6-7

    Novel always helps us to broaden our perspective. Hence, last year I came across a novel written by Agatha Christie. It is named as Mousetrap. It describes how six people live at a house which is on rent purposes and there happens to be a murder. It is based on a genre of thriller and murder mystery. I like how every person portrayed different characteristic features. It is based on social issues. Also, it is engaging, interesting and a lot of descriptive features can be seen in the book. Last year when I was reading a lot of murder mysteries, I came across the Mousetrap. I loved how anonymously the murder took place and till end we didn't even realize, I didn't even realize that how and who committed the murder. The plot twist was fascinating. I was astonished. I really really loved the book. It was fabulous and an absolutely great work by Agatha Christie. I felt amazing and she will always be my role model.

    Band 6-7

    Because what they did at the end, the later Mughals, they actually used all the kingdom's reserves, the kingdom's funds, and they actually misused the power. They misused the people's money, they misused the funds, they misused the taxes which people paid. And at the end of the century when Britishers were there, by 1857, they actually crumbled in the hands of Britishers. Eventually they gave up, though there were revolts in other parts of the country, however the Mughal Empire or the Mughal Emperor could not withstand the British power. Though he had a lot of allies from other states, from Uttar Pradesh, from Bengal, from other parts of India, but still the Mughal Emperor was captured and was sent to Burma on an exile and that was about the last Mughal Emperor. And the journey described or the dynasties, chapters described by William D'Arumple was, in the beginning, how great the Mughals were, how the India's culture and the Mughal culture mixed up and made a new Mughal culture, Hindu Mughal culture. Akbar was a great king who always was benevolent and liked the Hindu culture. He married a lot of Hindu princes and he had a lot of respect for the Hindu religion. So he was much more benevolent compared to his previous
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