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Describe a time when you saw something in the sky: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What you saw in the sky
  • When/where you saw it
  • What it looked like / any details
  • And explain why it was memorable
Show all 72 answers

Cue 1:What you saw in the sky

  • Begin by clearly stating what you saw in the sky, such as a rainbow, a shooting star, or a unique cloud formation.
  • Use descriptive language to create a vivid image of the sight.

Example

I saw a beautiful rainbow stretching across the sky after a light rain shower. The colors were vibrant, with shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet blending seamlessly into one another.

Cue 2:When/where you saw it

  • Mention the specific time and location where you witnessed this sight.
  • Provide context about the weather or the situation at that time.

Example

This happened last summer while I was visiting my grandparents' village in Kerala. It was late afternoon, and the sun was just beginning to set, creating a perfect backdrop for the rainbow.

Cue 3:What it looked like / any details

  • Describe the appearance of the sight in detail, including colors, shapes, and any other notable features.
  • Share any personal feelings or thoughts you had while observing it.

Example

The rainbow was a full arc, and it seemed to touch the ground at both ends. The colors were so bright and clear, almost like they were painted in the sky. I felt a sense of joy and wonder as I watched it, reminding me of my childhood when I used to chase rainbows.

Cue 4:And explain why it was memorable

  • Reflect on why this experience stood out to you and what it meant personally.
  • Connect it to any emotions or memories that it evoked.

Example

This moment was memorable because it reminded me of my childhood and the simple joys of life. It also symbolized hope and beauty after a storm, which resonated with me deeply during a challenging time in my life.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, seeing that rainbow was not just a visual treat but also a meaningful experience that brought back fond memories and a sense of hope. It taught me to appreciate the beauty around us, even in difficult times.

    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: Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer less engaging and informative. Candidates often fail to provide specific details about what they saw, which can lead to a lack of clarity.

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    Tip

    Include specific details about the object in the sky, such as its color, shape, and size, to create a vivid image for the listener.

    2: Ignoring the Cue Card Structure

    Not following the cue card prompts can result in an unorganized response. Candidates may miss important aspects of the question, leading to incomplete answers.

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    Tip

    Address each cue in order: describe what you saw, when and where, details about it, and why it was memorable to ensure a structured response.

    Overly Short Answers

    Providing overly brief answers can make it seem like you are not engaged or knowledgeable. Candidates often give one-sentence responses that lack depth.

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    Tip

    Expand your answers by adding personal feelings, thoughts, or stories related to the experience to make your response more engaging.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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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    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

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    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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    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

    I fondly remember the first time that I watched an aeroplane in the sky. I was about the age of six when I saw an aeroplane flying over my house in the sky. At first, I was extremely shocked and admired by how a particular thing can fly so high up in the sky. But thankfully, standing next to me was my mother. She educated me on the whole concept of aeroplane and how flights take human beings from one place to another. I remember this moment so clearly as this was one of the shaping moments of my life in terms of knowledge and education. I think this was the very first time my mother showed me and taught me something which was quite deep as well as quite practical in its approach. I do love aeroplanes till date. Whenever I see one in the sky, I get happy and I pray for the people in the flight to have a safe and

    Band 6

    well one day I saw a meteor in the sky and I was very much surprised because it was my first time seeing a thing like that few years back I was sitting in my veranda on an evening with my family and suddenly I saw something moving in the sky it was like a firework and I was surprised seeing it I couldn't even I couldn't even believe my eyes because it was my first time seeing something like that first I thought it was some kind of firework or something else then I googled about it and I understood that it was a meteor I would not forget about that incident because it was very beautiful sight so my family was also surprised seeing that thing and after that I never saw something like that it was the only time I saw it and it lasted just for 10 seconds and it was gone but it was a great experience seeing something like that

    Band 6

    In a sky that I watched during in last week there is a moon eclipse that happened in India. Moon eclipse means the earth and moon in between the sun will come and sun will block the moonlight and it appears to be a dark for few hours. I watched it with my parents in my building top and it was looking like a black circle and the border of the circle is looking gold. It is memorable because I watched it with my parents and it occurs rarely in sort of some years. It appears only once in years. Moreover it is eye pleasing to watch it at night and traditionally they say we shouldn't watch eclipse, it will harm the race. The race coming after the eclipse will harm our health and again I watched it with my eyes so it was a memorable moment.

    Band 6

    When I was a child, we used to sleep outside. We arranged our beds in the open space that we were having in front of our house and we sleep and we just stare at the sky with lots of stars. Sometimes I tried to count the stars as a child. I know that's the innocence that you were having when you were a child. Apart from that, my grandmother used to sleep with us. We are three siblings. She used to sleep with us. We always used to have a fight over where she has to sleep because we used to ask her to sleep with me and my sister used to ask us to sleep with her. She ended up sleeping in between us. She used to share some stories about the stars and sometimes about culture and other times about random stories that put us to sleep. One time when we were staring at the sky, we have seen one star passing through. It's called falling stars. It was told by my grandmother and whenever you wish something seeing that star, your wish will be fulfilled. That's how she explained about that star. Apart from that, I used to see some stars are very near to us and some are very far to us. It's a very unique experience sleeping outside and just staring at the moon and the stars and the whole sky lit up with all those bright stars.

    Band 6

    When I was a kid, I saw aeroplanes passing in the sky. It was very fascinating. I feel like how people sit in aeroplanes, how they were like, how it feels like sitting in an aeroplane. And when I see clouds, white clouds in the sky, it seems great. It's very relaxing and I feel like I am airborne. Sometimes we see ghosts, pigeons and many other birds in the sky. They feel like they are free from the world. They have nothing to do, just chilling, flying. But as a human, we can't fly. So, we don't have that freedom.

    Band 5-6

    That would be a plane and I saw that plane last day from my home. I was just walking in my garden and I just saw plane passing by and I noticed the company of plane. It was Emirates I believe and it is very memorable for me. When I look back I did want to be a pilot when I was studying my 10th standard 11th and 12th and I did start preparing to be a pilot and that was an amazing time period for me to dream something about or to talk something about and I had an accident after my 12th and I did forgot everything not everything but many of things I forgot and my papa spent a lot of money in the hospital and that's also a reason that I couldn't be a pilot anymore and I did really struggled to pursue my pilot dream even after my accident and I did manipulated in my medicines and took the medical examination and I passed out and even though after that my family was struggling to find the money for me to pay for the Academy and I saw that and I felt very bad about that and after that I thought okay being a pilot it's not my

    Band 5-6

    When I was 10 years old, I see an airplane at the roof of my home and at that time, I was on the roof of my house and I saw an airplane. I think it's an Emirates airplane which was flying in the sky and it's not very far from the house, it's like far, we can see the plane and it's white color of plane and I see some notice in the plane that the plane was flying and at the back of the plane, something, smoke is came out and I really enjoy it when I was seeing this because at that time, I initially saw this type of thing because I do not see before this thing could happen with me and I really enjoy it. At that time, before the airplane, rain was come there and the weather was very delightful and I really enjoy it to seeing this. After that… Thank you for watching this video. Please subscribe this channel. Thank you for watching this video. Please subscribe this channel.

    Band 5-6

    So, one day when I was standing on my roof, I saw a beautiful sky, the color of the sky is blue and red, and there were the stars were chirping, and I saw beautiful lights were glowing up, because it was a Diwali time, and the lights were glowing, and the lights were glowing, and I saw the lights were blinking, and the people have putted the candles, and they were, and they have lightened up, so it was a very beautiful sky, they have, they have, they have shown up, and, and in the sky, the stars were shining, and they were glowing, and at a, and at a point, when a star, and when a star broke up to the next star, and it was a magical moment for me, and I saw it for the first time, it was really beautiful, and at that time, I pray, I pray that, that my all wishes come true, and soon, I got a scooty, that was my prayer, that was I prayed for, so, that was a beautiful time, I pray that, that soon, that moment will come in my life again, and I will always be thankful to my God, that he has, hmm.

    Band 5-6

    well I love to see a sky here I'm going to talk about a time when I saw stars in the sky it was time when I completed my graduations from Pitt University it was my vacation day I spent my time with my family and my brother also it was a rainy day when I sat with my father in the garden I saw one star that is blinking that were blinking twice or thrice a time in a minute I saw that moon and stars that blink very perfect way once a time when I I also saw different kinds of clouds in the skies that are of different colors like sky in colors and white colors my father said to me it is the it it is the time when the clouds are too clear after the rains and I also fascinates the why my father's birds why my father words it was a time when I saw blinking of moon and stars in the Sun and and I also shares these things with my father's and my mother's how stars are blinks how they interact with each other I started talking with my mother's I think stars are talking with each other's then my father and my mother were laughing on me and said that these are the properties of the stars and the moon well it was a time when I saw the blinking of stars in the moon

    Band 5-6

    Like, when I was a child, I went for a walk with my grandmother at night, we just went to our relative's home by walking. So suddenly I just saw a lightning effect on the sky, like it was just for two seconds, but it was like, it was all over the dark at night, but suddenly a light come up from nowhere and just end up in two seconds. So like, I was, I was thinking like, what, what the shit is happening? So like, I don't know that it was a comet. And suddenly I said to my grandmother, like, what was that? And she said, like, it's a comet, it's a, it's a thing that happening on our sky. She said like, like, at that time, I don't know what is a comet. It was on my childhood, I think I am on second or third standard, I think so. So like, so I was, so I am so, I don't have any idea about that. Like, I was just surprised what the, what the thing is happening. Like, at the same time, at the same time, I'm afraid too, because I didn't see anything like that before. So I also have some afraid in my inner mind that, that was a thing that, that I saw on the sky.
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