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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 66 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
    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

    Yeah, I recently read a book that I borrowed from my friend named the alchemist by the famous writer Paolo Coelho. The book describes us about a young boy who keeps following his dreams and along his way he discovers the true meaning of life. What made me what made it interesting was a line that said if you really want something the whole world conspires to help you achieve it. I found it really motivating. That very line did a lot to me. The story briefs about the young boy named San Diego. Once he had a dream of finding a treasure in those Egyptian pyramids and he keeps following his dreams and along his way he meets lots of people and finally meets an alchemist who teaches him the true meaning of life, the life lessons. The story is based upon that and that very line. I would recommend that book to anyone who needs some motivation. It's an amazing piece of work.

    Band 6-7

    I feel that Harry Potter is one of my favorite novels. I found it very interesting. My father told me about it and I read it when I was 11 years old as a child. I found it so interesting because it acquires all genres of novels. It's thrilling, it's imagination and as fantasy genre it's really amazing. I found inspiration from it and it's very relative, relating for me because I was a child and the lead role of the of the novel Harry himself was a child. We were the same age, 11 years old and it's story is very inspiring for me because it tells tales about magic. I love magic at all and my imagination boosted when I listened and read the story.

    Band 6-7

    The novel or the book that has interested me most among fictions is The Alchemist and the author of Alchemist is Paolo Collo, who is one of the best-selling authors in his time. I read the book many years ago, like when I was in school and I remember having, traveling through the pages because I love reading and whenever I read, I just immerse into whatever the author is trying to tell the readers. Alchemist was a story, as far as I can remember, about a person named Santiago who is a shepherd and this boy is searching for treasure all around when he had the treasure right at the place where he was residing. And this is a metaphor which the author has used to tell the readers that you may search for treasures all around but the real treasure is the potential or the talents which is hidden right inside of you as a person and you need to excavate these things first, i.e. to get to know yourself first before traveling or just trying to figure out how to do life. Maybe you can figure out yourself first. So this is the basic thing the whole story revolves around. I love the Alchemist because the structure in which it is written, like it has a mysterious effect and it keeps the readers curious from the beginning till the end to know did Santiago actually find the gold or the treasure that he was searching for. And on the way there are also so many other twists in the plot and I really love mysteries and adventures so this has a combination of both of these, I think, so that makes it different.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so I remember reading a book quite recently and it is a part of trilogy and I have completed two books of the trilogy and I am already on the third part, I have reached half way. Now the author of this book is an Indian writer called Akshat Gupta and the genre is sci-fi and mythology and I could say that this book is the perfect amalgamation of both these genres. Now this book has a range of plot twists and the story primarily revolves around, I could start over. Quite recently, reading a trilogy and I have completed two books so far and have reached half way to the third book, half way of the third book. So I am quite recently reading, I am recently reading a trilogy, not quite an avid reader but I do sometimes, I am not quite an avid reader but I love reading sometimes and recently I have been reading this trilogy where I have completed two books. I am not quite an avid reader but I read sometimes and recently I have been reading this trilogy where I have already completed two books and I am half way through my third book. So this trilogy is written by an Indian author called Akshat Gupta and the plot of this book, the genre of this book is, and mark my words, I am not quite an avid reader but I do read sometimes and recently I have been reading a trilogy and I have completed two books and I am half way through my third book. The author of this book is an Indian author named Akshat Gupta and the genre for this book is science fiction and mythology. Now this book is the perfect amalgamation of both these genres and it has a lot of plot twists. The story primarily revolves around a man who is immortal and some scientists have found him and are interrogating him and he has been interrogated about how he became immortal, what is his purpose in life and many things. Now this story, as I said, has a lot of plot twists. This man was said to be living from almost more than 1000 or 2000 years and has been recently discovered and he says that he is here to protect something and later on in the story, other immortals come in to rescue him from the place he is being interrogated and there is an ultimate motive of a villain who is trying to stop this immortal man and the other immortals along with him from saving the world.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to talk about a novel which is written by the Canadian author Jan Martel which goes by the title of The Life of Pi. I first came across this novel when a movie having the same title suggested to me by my friend which later I realized was an adaptation of the novel by Jan Martel. So I felt curious by the synopsis which was given to me by my friend when he was talking about the movie which really made me so fascinated with the main theme, the story the novel was talking about. So I somehow gained access to the digital version of the novel by subscribing to the platform the Amazon Kindle platform and I sat down to read the book. As I got started I got to realize that it is something that I had never come across before since it mentions about a boy named Pi Patel who was of an Indian origin who gets stranded in the Indian Ocean on a ship. He later survives a shipwreck and somehow lands on a boat however the problem that he endures there is quite worse than the shipwreck that he had already survived. He found himself with a lion named Richard Parker on that lifeboat which makes him so worried about the very fact of a tiger being by his side. However it turns out to be that he and the tiger develop a very good friend.

    Band 6-7

    So, I recently read a novel which is a courtroom drama and the name of the novel is Khamosh Adalat Jariye and it is written by Vijay Tendulkar in 1970 and while I was reading that novel it was quite intriguing to me. It's a story of a lady who is not married yet but is having a child and she was indulged in some courtroom drama and eventually leads to the case of the fetus death inside the mother womb and at the end it leads to the conclusion that the judge orders the court to kill the baby inside the womb of the woman rather than killing the woman herself.

    Band 6-7

    Today, I am going to tell a storybook or you can say a novel which I like to read or seems to be interested that is Bhagavad Gita Mahapurana. So how did I get attracted with this book? So one day, a podcast was going on where Ranveer Singh and Amitabh Bachchan, these both personalities are very high personalities. So they were having conversation with each other. So Amitabh Bachchan told in his podcast, during the podcast, he told that how Lord Shri Krishna has given the rule of karma. Lord Krishna stated that every karma has its reaction. So he told in the brief that it means that whatever you do, like whether you are moving a hand or whether you are going here and there or whether you are helping any person, it has some reaction as well. So that point catches my eyes. So I found it very interesting. So I bought it on Amazon and started to read it. So I liked it. So after reading it, I found it very interesting because in this book, a various lot of facts has been written like how to control any situation in a very calm way. There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita, but I do not know now exactly what was the number of the verse. But I roughly tell you that how it told me that how to control any unforgettable situation in a very calm way. So I found it very interesting and I also recommend other people as well to read it. Thank you.

    Band 6-7

    The novel which I have found very fascinating was The Dark Matter. I don't really remember the name of the author. I have read this book 6 months back and I found this very interesting and engaging because of its genre. The genre of this novel is thriller and it is based on time travel and various realities. Because of that it was very thought provoking. I was thinking what will happen if this is reality. For instance, if there are multiple realities, how would our life will be. Moreover, this book was very exciting and it helped me to think in a different manner. Also, I like to buy books from bookstores because when I physically go into the bookstore and buy the books, it will feel very different and I definitely like that feeling. When I stand in the bookstore, I will feel very happy and energetic.

    Band 6-7

    The book's name was Two States and the story was Falling in Love. I came to know about this book by one of my friends who suggested it to me last year when she was going through a tough time. I read the book few months back, I felt it was really interesting because it described the hurdles and the difficult times two people face when they are in love. Love stories are different, the endings are not always happy. There may be so many hurdles, so many difficulties but at last you have to reach a point where you know you both are meant to be together. Some love stories may have a good ending, some love stories may not. This book luckily had a good ending that's why I was keen to read it. I knew the ending well before but still I read it because the climax and the mystery was very nice in this book. Some of the other problems they were facing and it was very nice to know how they faced each problem with a brave heart. Even though their families were against this love marriage and whatever they were doing still they found out a solution to it. They were trying to convince them so hard, each day each problem used to come in front of them. Still they used to be with each other, try to hold each other's hand and never leave each other's hand. Also they were trying to be very much stubborn with their decision that they want to marry each other. Whatever may happen they will marry each other. Also I found the story very interesting because love is about compromise and sacrifices. That is what the book tells us. Sometimes one person has to compromise, sometimes the other person has to do. It's always 70-30 or 80-20. It's never 50-50. Love is always one person doing more than the other and that's what we need to learn how to be compatible with each other and live a happy life rather than fighting.

    Band 6-7

    So, I would like to describe a story which I saw in the movie because I don't read many books or novels so I hardly know any stories and there are no stories which really caught my attention or that I liked a lot. However, this movie that I saw recently on Netflix is titled Shakahari. So the story of the movie goes something like, it starts with a hotel run by one certain person and he ends up murdering a lot of people and the entire murder plot is based on his brother's wife and friend and eventually it ends up in such a way that the truth dies with everyone who dies in the story. So the police who are investigating the murder are left with no clues and are completely astonished in the end. To be honest, I did not really like the ending of the movie. It could have been better but overall, I was at the edge of my seat throughout the movie because it was really intriguing and in general, I love such movies which have suspense and thrillers and this was one of the top movies on my wishlist which I would love to repeat. And another important thing that I would like to mention is that the actor of the movie is one of my favourites of all time. His name is Yash and he has been starring for around 10 years. In the recent years, he has made more movies and I like all of his movies. The stories of each of his movies always catch me and it always gets to the core of my heart all the time.
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