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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 80 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
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    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
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    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 this novel is called The Alchemist and it is written by Paul Coelho. This novel was suggested to me by my friend and she suggested me to read more about it as it somewhat resonated with my life journey. So to enhance a bit, to make me feel good, the story is somewhat related to how to find a self-purpose in life. It's a story about a boy who was in a confused situation and when he came across a person who was sort of a magician, he gave the outlook of the next five years, how it's going to be for him. Then across few journey, when he travelled to different places, he had some difficulties along the way, but somehow he tried managing to escape them. And thus he got to know that this is the part where he thought that maybe he should focus on self-purpose of his life. This story was quite meaningful for me and it showed me a lot of reason, a lot of different perspective of how we usually see our life. It also made me realise that whatever we are looking for out there, we should definitely look for in our nearby area before going out there to look for some different things because we will never know what we will be forgetting.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to tell a story of a player named Ardik Pandya who is a player in Indian cricket team. He is a middle order player who plays fantastically. His background is a very low middle class family where he used to play games for 100 and 200 rupees minimum at his school grounds or any other privatized grounds to make his living. So that was an interesting part of him telling where he struggled and came to an Indian cricket team where his parents were on a daily wage so they couldn't make a living. So in that cruel times he still woke up and dreamt of playing for an Indian team which made him a very good thing and his story about he got recognized in 2019 Indian where he smashed 97 runs out of 26 balls which made him very wonderful. So this story dedicates me telling that it's not about where you are it's about what you dream and how you come up. So it's not about only where you stand it's about where you want to come up in your life. This teaches the moral is that never think that you are always down. Think big, imagine big and which is very useful.

    Band 6-7

    The book which I fantasized over when I was studying school was the Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling's magical and extraordinary ideas about the wizarding world is something which every reader should read about. The Harry Potter series is about the protagonist Harry who is the boy who lived and he attends school of wizarding along with his friends named Hermione and Ron and the adventures he follows is in the book of Harry Potter.

    Band 6-7

    I am a book lover person, you can say I am a bookwormer. I always found out to find a new stories, new books for the reading. My favorite story is named Jannat Ke Patte. I find it from a college library. I just read his first page and I fell in love with that novel. It is all about the life of a person who have only one relative. He don't know about his parents, he just knows about his uncle. And how he find his lost family, what difficulties he suffered, what kind of the challenges, what kind of the strategies he applied. It is a simple story how people try to find out their name, their family, their backgrounds. The other picture of the story is about two sisters. They are twins and they both have a same face, same feature. One is a very innocent, the other one is like a evil genius but she is not innocent. Whatever the bluff she do, the innocent try to cover either it's a school, either it's a homework, either it's a family time. So the combination of both these stories in Jannat Ke Patte, it make it so beautiful.

    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.
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