arrow back icon Top Answers

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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    Tip

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

    calendar icon

    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

    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.

    Band 6

    I was very fascinated by the story named Harry Potter when I was in class 4. Within a week I completed the whole novel and even made my friends to read them. I came to know about the novel from the movie actually. There were, the movie was divided into 8 chapters which I couldn't get access to all of them and that made me go and read the book. Maybe I was in class 4th if I remember, that was the time I read the book. I felt like a whole new person after reading the novel. It just changed the perspective towards life for me. And I never knew I was the person who loved fantasy or fiction in my life. That made me to watch more fictional fantasy genres in life later. And also that made me read more fictional books later in life. Even after going through the novel, I watched the movies of Harry Potter.

    Band 6

    Okay, thank you for the question and I like to read novels and stories because that will give a good outcome to us. So, last week I read one novel by Jilda, written by Benyamin and through that I can really understand what a person can do for his life. So, he survived a very hard week and he got a good outcome. So, I felt so happy and sometimes in some situations I felt sad in a certain way. Anyways, at the end of the story I felt like anyone can do anything. So, we should pray and wait. Then we will get our blessings and a good, better life. So, through the life of an adult novel, mainly the character is Bashir. So, Bashir is a farmer and for a better life he went to some other countries and he worked hardly and in some situations he blamed also. So, after that also he survived with his own power. Then he got many happy life after that. He didn't go and share his wife, children and all. So, after that few years he came back to his home and he saw his family. So, through that I got the outcome.

    Band 5-6

    My interesting to reading some novels in my pleasure time and my favorite novel was this gen and poor guy because this book guide me to secure my future about my finance and about how to deal with money in my real world but first of all I am describing what the benefit of pursuing novel in the pleasure time in my pleasure time this is the only time which I could utilize to secure and most interesting time to get an achievement about how to deal with another hobby so I could realize that I am switching my pleasure time to read a novel my favorite novel was the gen poor and I am again say and this is also be a very vigorous thing because some people don't rely on there some people interesting topic on also interesting book was the rose water.

    Band 5-6

    Till now, I read many stories, but I would like to say about one of my favorite memory and story is king and his four sons. One day, the king has sent his four sons to the forest. So, they went to the forest and they are searching what purpose his father sent them. They don't know and they came to his father and said, what purpose you sent father to me? And his father said to them, you need to bring some raw material to build house. So, they went to again forest and they brought raw material. They are searching for raw materials. They don't have any idea about the materials while constructing the building. So, again they came to king and they are asking, what raw material we have to bring? On that day, they said some examples of raw materials and they went and they brought them. So, here finally the king said, after bringing back of raw materials, you should have to learn first. Then you need to know more or you need to listen first and you need to ask some doubts when we are going to do anything. So, this is the thing I have learnt on that day and I felt very happy. We should not have to be hurry-burry if anyone says work to us. We need to completely listen to them and we need to follow them. And if we have any doubts, we need to clarify and then we have to start the work.

    Band 5-6

    I read the book The God Life by Benyamin, it's actually I read in my mother tongue that is in Malayalam, it's name in Malayalam is Aadu Jeevidam, it was actually it was a story that happened for a human being, that means the main character of that story, that novel is a real world person.

    Band 5-6

    Well, the inspiring story is about Mahendra Singh Dhoni and after reading the story and I am very big fan after reading the story and firstly I read the story at my 8th standard and it completely changed my way of thinking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni and such an inspiring story that from ticket collector to the world cup champion and he took very very much man of the match trophies and all everything the team wants and if a match if a if a team and he was the captain of India up to 2011 and when the team won the match he will be on the back side and and pushing the team members like a leader and if a team loses the match he will be on the front and put his team members on the back and he the way he responds to the answers is very nice and I feel very inspiring about the story.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details