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Describe a time when the electricity suddenly went off: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When/where it happened
  • What happened when it went off
  • How people reacted / what you did
  • And explain how you felt about it
Show all 73 answers

Cue 1:When/where it happened

  • Begin by describing the specific location and time when the electricity went off.
  • Mention any relevant details about the setting, such as whether you were at home, school, or work.

Example

It was a hot summer evening around 7 PM when the electricity suddenly went off at my home. I was in the living room, trying to finish my homework while the ceiling fan was running to keep me cool.

Cue 2:What happened when it went off

  • Explain the immediate effects of the power outage, such as darkness or loss of appliances.
  • Mention any specific activities that were interrupted due to the electricity going off.

Example

As soon as the lights went out, the room was plunged into darkness. The fan stopped spinning, and I could hear the distant sounds of my neighbors reacting to the outage. My laptop screen went black, and I realized I couldn’t continue my studies.

Cue 3:How people reacted / what you did

  • Describe how you and others around you reacted to the sudden power cut.
  • Mention any actions you took to cope with the situation, like using candles or checking on family members.

Example

My family quickly gathered in the living room, and my mother lit some candles to provide light. My younger brother started to feel scared, so I reassured him that it would be okay. We all sat together, sharing stories to pass the time.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about it

  • Share your feelings about the power outage, whether it was frustration, fear, or something else.
  • Reflect on any positive aspects of the situation, like spending time with family.

Example

Initially, I felt frustrated because I was in the middle of my homework. However, as we sat together in candlelight, I realized it was a nice opportunity to bond with my family. We laughed and talked, which made me appreciate the moment despite the inconvenience.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, the sudden power cut was an unexpected event that disrupted my evening. However, it turned into a memorable experience as it brought my family together, reminding me of the importance of spending quality time with loved ones, even in challenging situations.

    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: Lack of Detail in Description

    Failing to provide specific details about when and where the electricity went off can make your answer less engaging and informative. It may leave the examiner with unanswered questions.

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    Tip

    Include specific details such as the location, time of day, and any relevant context to make your story more vivid and relatable.

    2: Ignoring Emotional Response

    Not expressing how you felt during the power outage can make your response seem flat. Emotions help to connect with the listener and add depth to your answer.

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    Tip

    Share your feelings during the event, whether it was fear, frustration, or humor, to create a more compelling narrative.

    Neglecting Reactions of Others

    Overlooking how others reacted to the situation can limit the scope of your response. Including others' reactions can enrich your story and provide different perspectives.

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    Tip

    Mention how family, friends, or colleagues reacted to the power outage to add variety and depth to your response.

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    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6-7

    I vividly remember a time when electricity suddenly went off. It was around 6 to 7 months ago when there was a drastic thunderstorm and I was a little scared at that time since it was a huge thunderstorm and the rain was like hailstorms. Moreover, initially we survived and got into our homes and then we find that electricity suddenly went off and we waited till 3 to 4 hours and we find that the electricity is not going to come since we contacted the municipal office and they told us that the light will not come that day since there was a huge tree that was fallen on the wires of the electricity. So, all the villagers and people around my town was very terrified and since there was no electricity and there was all dark. Additionally, we survived for 5 to 6 hours since the inverter batteries were working and then we survived to sleep by having a lamp in our room and that's how we survived at that night since it was a huge electricity burnout. So, this was the time that suddenly electricity went off.

    Band 6-7

    It was around 5 years back when my city Kolkata was hit by a massive cyclone known as Sheela. So was the devastation of the cyclone that it uprooted transformers and electric cables and left the entire city in a blackout. This was something no one was ready for as we have lived our entire life in the city facing little or no power cuts at all. At the most we may have faced a few power cuts in a lifetime which lasted at max of 5 to 10 minutes. However this was something we were not prepared for. It was unprecedented. It happened almost at the stroke of midnight when the entire city was asleep and trying to protect themselves from the massive wind created by cyclone Sheela. As much of the city thought that this is just a normal power cut and we would have our lives back in the next 5 to 10 minutes or little more than an hour considering the environment outside. It was not to be. The entire city was kept in darkness for the next 3 days. It put everyone's livelihood to a basic stop. Most of the city did not know how to get along with their basic needs at home without electricity. As we are all dependent on our electric gadgets at home. Be it a fan, an air conditioning, a light, a washing machine, a dishwasher, electric stoves.

    Band 6-7

    I personally don't have such interesting story to tell about the time when the electricity suddenly went off but the power outage in my area was quite common a few years back. I was when I was a little child so we me and my friends were playing just outside the houses and when the lights went off how the children do start hooting like whoo and all to scare each other so that was the fun thing that I remember my friend just randomly because it was dark we didn't even notice he went inside he went inside his home and he brought a candle out and he was making funny faces to scare one of the girls and she was a very scared and she was starting to scream and cry and that was the memory I still have how we had fun and in the dark and we used to do shadow puppets in the candle light then we used to have used to bring a little snacks outside and eat it around the candle and call it like a candle light dinner or something it was a very childish thing that I remember and it was very quite fun to have power outages in the area because that was the time then that time when people used to leave their televisions and get together and sit around because there was nothing else to do in the dark and children were happy because they don't have to do the homework so it was it was quite fun it was a mini get-together in the dark and that was actually kind of kind of the memory that I have inside my brain

    Band 6-7

    So this used to happen a lot when I used to live in my hostel I was I am from KIT University in Bhubaneswar and the the situation over there that electricity was not that great So there used to be power power cuts in like one some month And what used to happen was everyone used to go crazy when this used to happen So the first time it happened, I had no idea this was going to happen I was just sleeping in my room. It was around 11 p.m I guess and as soon as the lights went off everyone started shouting. It was just crazy. Everyone went berserk So it was really fun. I had a lot of fun at that stage of my life and We all did so many things we started dancing in the corridor and the funny thing was there were CCTVs Which were connected to the Electricity, right? So now since there's no electricity the CCTVs were not working. So what we did was we Changed the placement of the CCTVs. We moved the angles so that they could not record it again so we used to mess up with the CCTVs and this people used to shout the name of the warden and just call him names and People started running in the corridors and This used to be very fun and this used to happen like once a month or so. So yeah, that's pretty much it

    Band 6-7

    A time when I witnessed an electric outage was in my school where it was a rainy day and the rain had struck so hard that the entire city's power had went out. As soon as the power went out, there was dead silence. The projector went off, the lights were shut, and everyone looked at each other. But the silence was short lived. People started screaming at the top of their lungs, thinking it was extremely cool to do that, or freaking out just because there was no light. There were also weird noises that were coming from different rooms. When I went to check, I felt something was wrong. I felt an almost eerie presence in the school. I felt somehow it was projecting onto us. The farther I went into the hallway, the louder the noises became. But before I could reach the hall, I shut it up and the lights came back on.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to share an experience which happened during my childhood days. The incident was, there was a power shutdown for nearly half an hour, half a day. During this half a day we didn't have any electricity. This delay in the electricity made us so difficult to carry out the day-to-day activities. The children in homes, they were so irritable and they cried. What made them cry was, they found it difficult to bear the heat as it was summer and we didn't have the mixer grinders and refrigerators for using. The people nearby were using hand fans to cool their children. And after the half day, the electricity has come. So this sudden electricity went off, created a lot of mess in our area. So this was the experience.

    Band 6-7

    It was January 2025 when we arranged a photoshoot, maternity photoshoot for my sister-in-law as she was going to give birth to a baby and we just wanted to memorize this moment for her. So, we arranged a photoshoot for both of them, suddenly the electricity went off and there was a darkness in the room and everyone were very shocked that this was not happening in the last photoshoot, so not everyone was able to adapt this change and my sister-in-law was also got upset due to this electricity cut out, so the cameraman arranged few lights and started their clicking photos and that photos gives a very beautiful look and she was very thrilled about after seeing her photo, the light effect and the background looks perfect and it's beyond her imagination that after the cut off, the photos still clicked very professionally and the pictures look very elegant and she liked that photo and she framed that photo personally for her room, so that she will be able to use it.

    Band 6-7

    It is quite surprising that this topic would come up because the time when electricity suddenly went off was just yesterday. Yes, usually our electricity doesn't go off because nowadays we use systems like UPS which stores electricity and delivers it to us when there is a power blockage. But now when our UPS was faulty and the transformer blasted nearby, the current just went off. I was actually anxious a little bit initially because I was not used to it from many years. But then I actually enjoyed it because it gave me a time off from television and I used a torch to walk through my house without the light. The people reacted in different ways. My mother actually thought it was very good that the power went off and it teaches me opportunity to handle the situation properly. The neighbors were asking us whether the electricity is out in our home too because they wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong in their house. Of course the transformer had blasted. It was a really good experience because we played some board games and we ended up having a good time.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, an incident which I remember when there was a certain electricity cut-off was during my 7th standard of study. I was a kid during that time and the light suddenly went off. Everyone was clueless. The light for the entire locality was cut off due to a short circuit in the main box. People were creating chaos, they were fighting over how this happened and they were criticizing each other for having a lot of consumption of electricity. Later, as soon as the light went off, people started searching for candles, matchsticks and even torches. At night, we slept without any fan. It was quite difficult to sleep without fans and there were a lot of mosquitoes and we were sweating due to heat. Later, we were not able to cook food because most of the gas system in my hometown is based on the electricity, so we have to bring food from outside. Apart from this, it was quite fun because there was nothing to do. We usually used to watch television or do separate activities and during that time, we were able to spend time with our family. We were thinking about a creative solution for the various problems. There was even a problem of water during that particular period as pump works on electricity and we were not able to pump the water in the main tank and not use most of the water, so we had to go to our home.

    Band 6-7

    So, there was a time when electricity suddenly went off and all my family members started panicking. I was the one who was very calm to handle the situation calmly. I gathered everyone up in a place where there was a torch and I turned on the torch and I made all of them sit there and to distract them, I started playing cards with them and everyone started enjoying. So suddenly, we get to hear a sound from outside our house which goes like the roaring of tiger. And we all went out in the balcony to see the tiger and it was really a tiger that came out of a zoo because our house is near to the zoo. And then I made everyone sit in the house again and I closed the door of the balcony. And then all of us started being furious.
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