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Describe a story someone told you.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it about?
  • Who told you this story?
  • Why do you remember it?
  • How do you feel about it?
Show all 31 answers

Cue 1:What was it about?

  • Begin by summarizing the main theme or message of the story.
  • Include any interesting details that make the story engaging.

Example

The story was about my grandfather's journey during the partition of India. He shared how he had to leave everything behind and travel to a new land, facing numerous challenges along the way.

Cue 2:Who told you this story?

  • Mention the person who shared the story and your relationship with them.
  • Highlight any relevant background about the storyteller that adds depth to the story.

Example

My grandfather told me this story during one of our evening chats. He is a wise man with a lot of life experiences, and I always find his stories captivating.

Cue 3:Why do you remember it?

  • Explain the emotional impact the story had on you.
  • Discuss any lessons or insights you gained from the story.

Example

I remember it vividly because it opened my eyes to the struggles faced by many during that time. It taught me the importance of resilience and the value of family.

Cue 4:How do you feel about it?

  • Share your feelings regarding the story and its significance to you.
  • Reflect on how it has influenced your perspective on life.

Example

I feel a deep sense of respect for my grandfather after hearing his story. It makes me appreciate my own life more and reminds me of the sacrifices made by previous generations.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key points of the story and its impact on you.
  • End with a personal reflection or a thought that ties back to the story.

Example

In conclusion, my grandfather's story is a powerful reminder of resilience and the importance of family bonds. It has left a lasting impression on me, inspiring me to cherish my own experiences and those of my loved ones.

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: Being Too Vague

Avoid giving unclear or general answers. Vague responses do not provide enough detail and can make your story less engaging.

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Tip

Include specific details about the story, such as key events or emotions, to make your answer more vivid and interesting.

2: Ignoring the Cues

Neglecting the cue prompts can lead to incomplete answers. Each cue is designed to help structure your response effectively.

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Tip

Make sure to address each cue in your answer, ensuring a well-rounded and comprehensive response.

Overly Long Responses

Long-winded answers can lose the listener's attention. It's important to be concise while still providing enough information.

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Tip

Practice summarizing your story in a few key points, focusing on the most important aspects to keep your answer engaging.

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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

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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

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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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

People always tell us random stories most of the days, but today I would like to tell about a story which my best friend shared to me. It was about an incident happened in her daily life. While she was going to the school, one day a dog followed her, so she didn't mind it at first, then the dog started running behind her, so she started to panic, then she started to run first, which provoked the dog, and the dog started to follow her back, run her way behind her back. Then she said that people were actually looking at her, but no one tried to help, so she ran faster than ever, then she couldn't find any help from other people, so she just jumped to a pond near.

Band 6

So this story was about the gratitude. This was told by my mom and I remember it because of the moral values which are produced from these stories. So let me say you the story. This story involves a man who constantly prayed to God because he was not happy and thankful with what he had. So he was continuously praying to God that he need a big house and a wealthy life. Then God appeared to him one day and he asked God that I need a big house and a wealthy life. God told that okay instead of that you should give me something in return. So that man agreed. Then God asked for could you please give me your hands instead of a big house. Then that man ignored because he told that without hands how can I eat or have something or do something. Then the God asked for then could you please give me your eyes. The man ignored for this even because without his eyes he couldn't be able to see what's happening in his surroundings. So then God told us I have given you a much priceful or something which cannot be priced thing for you even without asking for but you are praying for what is not there with you. So please be thankful with what we have. The moral of the story is we should be gratitude and thankful with what we have now. Thank you and this I remember because of these moral values.

Band 6

This story was told to me by my grandfather who is around 75 years old right now. It was about how when he was newly married, he had forgotten his wife at some place, his wife means my grandmother, at some place when they had gone for a vacation. So what happened was, my grandfather and my grandmother had gone to Hong Kong for a vacation where again, because my grandmother doesn't know English that well, she wasn't used to travelling so much, so it was very tough for her to adjust and my grandfather, he had forgotten that he was married and he was travelling with someone else and so he had forgotten her at Disneyland. So that was really funny for us because looking at a grandfather right now, you would never think that he would make such a mistake and what I learned from the story is, even though we put our peers, our elders at such a high position, like at such a respectful position against even their humans and even they do make mistakes. So it just proves that how much

Band 6

So the story that I'm going to I'm going someone told me is the story of an 11 feet ghost that apparently existed in the hills of the tribal district of Akrul in Manipur. So the story goes like there was this woman who was killed by her in-laws family and then you know she jumps I mean she was pushed into a well by the in-laws who demanded some kind of dowry and then she became a ghost and you know what her identity was was that she was an 11 feet ghost and my grandmother had told me this story when I couldn't fall asleep one night and I think she was she was trying to force my force me into sleeping because I remember her telling me this story when I wanted when I did not want to sleep and I think she wanted me in bed and so she tried to scare me. Why I remember this story is because I was scared I was so scared that it's still etched into my memory and yeah I still think that the story is true because I felt that story into to my bones and I'm still very scared of that ghost.

Band 6

I am going to tell about a story between two friends about their friendships and their behavior when both of them are in danger. My mother in my childhood told this story to me when I was cried because of a fight with my friend in school, but she was my best friend in that time. So, my mother told the story to give overview on friendship and the meaning of a true friend. Now, the story is about the two friends. Both of them are going for a walk and they have a long walk and entered into a jungle. In the meantime, a bear has come there and both of them and the bear has looked and the bear has seen them and he was when the bear was running towards them. Both of the friends are running at first moment and there was a tree. One friend was known how to climb a tree and he climbs up, but another friend doesn't know, but the friend who has climbed up the tree, he has not helped him to climb up. So, in the meantime, to protect him from the running bear, the friend left on the ground. He fell asleep like a dead man. The bear comes up and he is sleeping.

Band 6

I want to talk about a story which was told by one of my friend. Basically he used to live next to my room and his name is Aditya. He told me a scary story. It was a year 2019 when he was living with his family on the two wheeler. So basically he saw a girl over there who was asking for a ride. Then he gave her a ride. After few minutes the girl suddenly vanishes. Then he realized that she was a ghost. She was murdered 2 years ago by 2-3 guys. So basically that girl used to take lift from all the people who were traveling on that way. So that story was quite scary for me because I also suffer same situation when I was traveling on a car. I suddenly saw a girl who suddenly vanishes in 2-3 seconds. So overall it was quite scary experience. And it is also very adventurous and it is also full of goosebumps. So I want to say just one thing. I don't want to face a similar issue because it's not good for my heart and my mental peace. Moments like this do not let me sleep.

Band 6

this story is told by my friend Jenny she used to watch movies in Netflix it's a fantasy movie the name of the movie is damsel the story of princess Ellery and she married to a prince Henry to secure a better future for her struggling kingdom however her life takes a dark turn when she discovered that her marriage is a ruse and she is to be sacrificed to a dragon as a part of the royal family's ancient pact to save their own deadlines as Ellery is thrown into a dragon's lair she uncovers the truth behind the royal family's lies and the justice done to the dragon she had she's been an intelligent woman and brave woman to handle all sort of problems and she came out of those problems from this we can come to know that she is a brilliant and smart thinking woman so I take that all the points from her to make my life as an brilliant and intelligent woman in addition we all need to be like Ellery

Band 5-6

Here I want to talk about some story he is telling me my friend, one of my friend name is Rao he is telling me a story about when he visited for he going for a vacation in the one of the places there is a one of the heritage place but when he sleep in night he show that is a one of the white cloth are coming on the room side in his wake up everyone in the room all are just see that cloth but after that when he morning he see the one of the white cloth hanging on the tree only that's why I remember this all incident and I am laughing all and all his are just a miscommunication things only that's why the story I remember all those however story is boring and for my side but when my friend tell me I remember now also and it's good to understand.

Band 5-6

She gave him to 14-year exile when he went there. He killed so many demons over there. So after that Ravana he put up the Sita in the Lanka the when the Rama knew that When the Rama he was searching the Sita. So the suddenly he Saw that the Sita was not there So after knew that the Ravana put up the Sita in the Lanka after that he met the Hanuman over there With the help of Hanuman he attacked on the Lanka. He killed so many demons over there like Meghnath, Kumbhkaran Which were which were very powerful person rather than Like as a Ravana he killed to the Ravana on that day with the help of the His brother like Vishnu so after that when he killed to the Ravana, so he after that When with the after that when we they were coming back to Ayodhya When they come to Ayodhya the people they started to lighting the lamp. It was a start of the Diwali festival so I think in this story it's Gave us so many things about it to the I think we shouldn't do the bad things in our life The bad if we think the bad thing that it will be get the result of one day So I think this story it's very important Even this story has changed my life. This story told me about the obedient rules

Band 5-6

The story is about Dhimukund Varadarajan, he is an army officer. At the age of 6, he went to the Red Fort where they are doing the parade. At that age, he has decided to become an army officer and do the parade when he was at the age of 20. In this way, he had decided to move to the army force and he had studied related to that. Then after that, there is a girl whose name is Induribhika Varghese. She got into love with Dhimukund Varadarajan. Then on, Dhimukund Varadarajan got very spectaculated emotions. The story was told by my grandmother where she is very interested in armoured forces. She had studied about this in an article. My feeling after listening this is, I am so grateful to listen and I lost myself and started crying because at last he was died. It was very bad news for the family. She has a daughter, her age is about 6 years.
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