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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
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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

    The story A story is about a Tiger King which I read in my class 12th NCRT book in my school and the story talks about a Tiger King who was in his childhood predicted by an astrologer that he would died by a tiger and he started killing tigers and he killed 100 tigers which is a very painful thing. Also at last the Tiger King was dead because of a wooden tiger which was injected in his hand and he got an infection and he died because of that. So the lesson we get from it is that the death is inevitable and we cannot avoid it. Thanks for watching.

    Band 6

    It was the book called Think Like a Monk. It was written by the author called Jay Shetty. It was a very interesting book. I got to know about the book when I was scrolling through my Instagram. I saw a post and I jumped into the link and actually found the summary of the book and I read the whole summary. And it's very fascinating for me. So I immediately purchased the book. And after reading it, I fell in love with the book. It was in my 11th grade when I actually first time read the book. After that I have read it many times but it made me change as a whole person. It's because the book summarizes about the character of a person, how a person should change his character based upon his nature and all. The book was all about the monk who led his life in a peaceful way. I found it very interesting because it changed me into a whole new person actually after reading the book.

    Band 6

    Here I would like to talk about an interesting novel that I read one week before. It is written by Mr. Mugundan who was a very famous writer in Kerala. And the name of the book was Moses Anandi. The main theme of the book was two different people who met in a railway station and their love story and how they connected to each other. It is a very attractive and enthusiastic story. Once we start reading this book we can't stop without completing it. It gives that much addition to this book. He wrote different kind of stories but this one is very special when compared to others. This novel is suggested by my close friend who is already completed reading this book. I used to read novels during my train journey. So once a day I accidentally met a book seller in the train and I bought this book from the train. And I have a long journey for 7 hours so I started reading this book. And when I started reading I didn't look for the time. I don't know how easily I covered these 7 hours. And within these 2 short time I completed this book and that gives a very good experience.

    Band 6

    Yeah, I recently read this book called Financial Freedom. So this book was written by Mark Waldo. This book was got published in the year 2000, early 2000 or 2001. And I read this, I read this book, two months back, I, this novel got this book got inspired me because this taught me a couple of lessons. And by reading it, it enlightened me with multiple ideas.

    Band 6

    I have read quite a lot of novels but my favorite one is Three Men in a Boat. It is a story of three guys going on an adventure trip with their dog named Mortmorency. It is quite humorous story, it's funny. Also I liked one more novel that is Canterbury Ghost. It is about how a ghost lives in an abandoned house for many years like 500 years. So these are my favorite novels. I think everyone should read novels.

    Band 6

    I would like to discuss about a story which I heard when I was a kid studying in school, I think in the grade 5th. The story was about the life of Jesus, where he had to face a lot of struggles, hardships, to overcome his life as a good-hearted person and also as a descendant of God. And I heard this story when all our school students were gathered in a common hall. The story is described as a film where we can able to watch and able to understand easily. From this story I came to know what are the good things we have to do and what are the bad things we should not do to others and what are the small things we did even create a big impact in others' life. Moreover, there are many stories I heard about him. But the most favorite part is when Jesus was hanged with the crucifix, when one of his own descendants betrayed him for silver coins. Even though he didn't want to punish him, he also praised him to do not do this again. From this story I came to know about even at a bad situation, we have to be good and act kind to others. And when we are kind to others, when something will happen to us in future, it will protect us from being hurt or hurted by something else. These are the things I came to know by reading this novel.

    Band 6

    The novel is related to a mysterious murder story. I came to know about it through one of my friends. I have read that novel in a library and it is also available on Amazon Prime series. Additionally, it's a series based on teenage or adolescent boys who are indulged in drug activities and due to that they have been killed in mysterious ways. And the parents have adopted a child who was a drug addict and they were doing a lot of drug trafficking in and around the cities. Related to that, to hide the secrets, there was enormous plans that have been implemented in and the plan to kill a boy where I advocate that this drug trafficking and drug addicting and the supply of drug in the market should be banned and they must implement strict norms in the society due to which we can protect our children in a good way and the children should concentrate on studies other than extraordinary activities. It's a so sad and boring story in my view as it hurts a lot of sentiments of the parents and it's a painful story to watch.

    Band 6

    So this is about, so I would like to tell you about a novel and that is a fictional novel and it is Harry Potter. It is quite famous with young, with our generation, with all of it, all other generations too. So it was quite fun when I have read the novel Harry Potter. It was having seven parts. Therefore I found it interesting that in every part there is something new to learn, there is something new experience or there is something new magics are happening. Moreover, I found it, it was a good story where they have told us about how friendship is important. So I like that, I quite like that thing. Also, it has, so my, one of my friends prefer me to read this because back then I didn't knew about Harry Potter. I was not aware about Harry Potter stories or movies. So she prefer me to watch movies or read novels. So I prefer reading novel while, rather than watching because in movies there may be a cut short but I want to go deeper and deeper. So I bought novels. It was seven parts. It was something that interested me a lot. So, Harry Potter was good. I am not the person who usually

    Band 6

    A story or novel that I was interested in is Game of Thrones. I heard that story from my peers that has been going through a lot more and getting more influence day by day. So I thought maybe I should read this novel and when I start reading this Game of Thrones I get to know about how the people of old age used to think, how they are talking and how they respect each other. But again I also learn how the people betray and don't respect their relationship with each other for just power. In this novel I start reading in my teenager when I was around the age of 16 or 17. It was so interesting that I used to read all day long even when I was eating or even when I was going outside. It was so interesting and I have learnt more and more things that I use in my day to day life just like how you should get a sense of justice if you see something unexpected you should raise your voice and how you should stick to your own thoughts.

    Band 6

    Recently, one of my friends suggested me a book called Will You Marry Me? from a well-known author. This book has a mind-blowing love story of two teenagers. So when I took this book and started to read, initially I felt it boring because the story was started from a fight and the distance between the two teenagers in college. But gradually this book takes me into a beautiful and a fascinating love story. So gradually both teenagers become friends and also they are followed by the cute couples in their college. Then one day, the boy took the decision and initiated and he proposed a girl with a wonderful scenery. So why I like this book is it tells how much effort the boy will take to propose that girl and what all plans he'll do and how he'll take the help from others and how much effort he'll put. So that is very important nowadays. This book highlights that love and relationships are important nowadays and the effort is very important in a relationship.
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