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Describe an expensive item you bought.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What item was it?
  • Why did you buy it? How much did you spend?
  • Why was it expensive?
Show all 30 answers

Cue 1:What item was it?

  • Begin by clearly stating the item you purchased, including its name and type.
  • Provide a brief context about when and where you bought it.

Example

The expensive item I bought was a high-end smartphone, specifically the latest model of the iPhone. I purchased it last year from a well-known electronics store in my city.

Cue 2:Why did you buy it? How much did you spend?

  • Explain your motivation for buying the item, such as its features or personal needs.
  • Mention the exact amount you spent and if it was a planned purchase or a spontaneous decision.

Example

I decided to buy this smartphone because I needed a reliable device for both work and personal use. It cost me around 1 lakh rupees, which I had saved up for a few months. I had been eyeing this model for a while due to its excellent camera and performance.

Cue 3:Why was it expensive?

  • Discuss the factors that contributed to the item's high price, such as brand reputation or advanced technology.
  • Mention any unique features that justify the cost.

Example

The smartphone was expensive primarily because of its brand reputation and the advanced technology it offered, like a top-notch camera and high processing speed. Additionally, the build quality and design were exceptional, which made it stand out from other models.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your overall feelings about the purchase and its impact on your life.
  • Reflect on whether you believe it was worth the investment.

Example

In conclusion, buying this smartphone was a significant investment for me, but I believe it was worth every penny. It has greatly enhanced my productivity and allowed me to capture precious moments with its amazing camera.

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 the item can make your answer sound vague and uninteresting. It's important to engage the listener with vivid descriptions.

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Tip

Include specific features of the item, such as its color, brand, and unique qualities to create a more engaging response.

2: Ignoring the Price Context

Not explaining why the item was expensive can leave the listener confused. It's essential to provide context about the cost and its significance.

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Tip

Discuss the price in relation to your budget or compare it to similar items to highlight why it was a significant purchase.

Neglecting Personal Motivation

Overlooking the reasons for your purchase can make your answer feel incomplete. Personal motivations add depth and interest to your response.

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Tip

Share your personal reasons for buying the item, such as a special occasion or a long-term desire, to make your answer more relatable.

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Anonymous student Band 6.5

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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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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

and the expensive item which we bought just recently in the month of December last year was a treadmill and we being a fitness enthusiast we bought it so that we can maintain our weight and do some physical exercise rather than going out and being uncomfortable when we are doing certain types of exercise in the public so we bought it for our health benefit and it was quite expensive it cost around 80,000 rupees because of its variety of functions and its digitalization and moreover it also gives me music system inbuilt inside it so that's why it is more costly and it is also

Band 6-7

An expensive item I bought is a perfume. My dad actually bought it for me. The reason why I asked him to purchase it was because I love perfumes. I personally love to smell good. I feel like it gives me a confidence and also it makes me to feel positive whenever I smell them in my clothes. I love wearing it on a daily basis.

Band 6-7

i bought a bicycle in 2021 and it was a electric nyacore bicycle and it was so expensive i can't remember now but like something about 13 000 and it it had ability to speed up a 60 kilometer per hour and i used to for go to school tuition and many more thing and and it's good for our environment also and bicycle provide me a stay

Band 6-7

Today I would like to talk about although I am not interested to buy the expensive things but today I would like to talk about an experience when I spend money on my shoes. Actually I was having problem in my knees due to which I was having problem to walk in the school and I am also a teacher so I have to stand for long hours to teach mathematics to students so that's why I decided to buy Skechers shoes from its showroom. Initially I saw its price was quite high but after then when I wore these shoes then I felt so much comfort and I thought it was worth to buy these shoes. And I bought these shoes for 4500 actually it was the discounted price original price was 7500 so I found a pair which was at discounted rate and I was on cloud 9 as I want the comfort in the nominal range so I was really very happy that I got a chance to buy expensive item and I think the Skechers shoes are expensive because they give quality to the customer moreover their shoes provides the long lasting effects of comfort and also they are orthopedic they are recommended by orthopedic doctors so that's why they customize their shoes

Band 6-7

So the most expensive item I've gotten was my phone which is the iPhone 16 and I've mainly gotten it for using for my day-to-day life. Even though it was very expensive which was costing around 1 lakh, I still saved for it a bit and then I decided to splurge on it. It was costing around 1 lakh INR at that time which was a huge amount and a significant chunk of my income at that point of time. I still decided to go ahead with it. However, in spite of spending a huge amount, it still feels worth it because I'm able to use it for my everyday work and various other things and I can use it for a long period of time which makes sense in investing that huge amount on a phone. Usually people devoid of buying such an expensive phone because there's a risk of it getting stolen or you misplacing it or it getting spoiled but I still decided to go ahead with it because at that point, it seemed like the most logical and appropriate thing for me to do. Since I've started to use it, I've not faced any major issues with it and I'm very fond of its design and feature it provides. It has got very appropriate feature for using for everyday and it also has face lock technology which is very useful.

Band 6-7

Generally, everyone in the community likes expensive items because they are good in quality. They have much more benefits as compared to the cheaper ones and they are expensive due to some reasons. Recently, I bought a Nike sneakers named as Nike Air Jordan which was expensive for me because I come from a middle-class family so the price which are higher than 10k and spending this much amount, spending in shoes or the sneakers feels pretty much expensive for the community, the people like me. So, I bought that sneaker last year and I used to take more and more care of them, means whenever I wear them, first of all I polish them before wearing and recently after 6 months I service them, I give them to the shoes laundry for their service and maintenance.

Band 6-7

Well, that's an interesting cue card to talk about an expensive item I bought. Well, item is something which is extremely pertinent and act as a parts and parcel in everyone's life. In my 23 years of life, I have bought a lot of expensive items, for example, laptop, playstation and some electronic devices. But today I would love to talk about an expensive item that is my mobile phone which was gifted to me by my father way back 4 years back. So when I bought it, my father gifted it to me, it reflects a very happy moment for me because I didn't have anything with me, so my father have decided to gift me that. So when he gifted me, it was a very special moment for me. After that, the worth of the mobile phone was way back 50,000 which was very expensive. So I think that is the only thing till date I have the most interesting thing or most important thing with me. I would love to keep that with me for long long time so that I can keep it as a memory as it that my father have gifted to me. So these special things are always in there.

Band 6-7

An expensive item that I have bought recently would be my laptop. I very much love my laptop and how it's helped me throughout my daily life. The main reason that I got a laptop was for my college and for my personal use. And it has costed me approximately a lakh and a 20,000 for this. So, yeah, I had to take an EMI to pay off the cost of the laptop because I did not have any other support. So, the laptop was very much expensive because of the specifications it had and it's a very powerful laptop. Moreover, it had amazing software and it had the modest specifications as well. It is an Intel i9 which really adds up to the cost of the laptop because an Intel core weighs more than any other specifications when you are getting a laptop. And also another asset which is adding to the cost of the laptop was it's a new generation laptop and it also had 1TB storage. So, all these specifications together makes it easier for us to use. And I can use very much powerful softwares in this laptop which is helpful for my college and it has a ton of storage which is helpful for me because it stores all my different files, heavy files. It is also helpful for me to watch movies or work on my college work. It also has a pretty big screen which is again adding to the cost.

Band 6-7

When I just completed my, somewhat like in my final year of my bachelors, that is 2020, well, I just need a laptop because that too it's a pandemic situation and also I just need it because of my project, on my project basis I just need it. So at that moment I just thought of trying to buy a new laptop and somewhat like I just said myself, we can go ahead with 35,000 like that so that I could get a good one, which would be quite useful for my mechanical career also towards the designing and all, but what happened is, I just went to the store, like, but after going there it seems to be so expensive like all the, like all the laptops were quite with the higher prices, which seems to be somewhat like, you know, like it's not affordable at that moment, so, but one thing is, I just want a laptop which has some features which I felt like these sort of features were quite comfortable for me that the, what you call, the designing softwares can be useful for that. So in that case I just prepared to take one laptop and it just cost me 56,000, but due to the requirement on that day and also my, towards my, I mean, taking into consideration all my career and entire, what you call it, as some aspects towards my designing side, I just prepared myself to put my savings on that, but I just took 30,000 from my parents and just kept my savings of 25,000 on that and then finally I just took the laptop, which is very useful, which made me very useful for me in the pandemic situation, which was during the project and also right now I'm using that and it is very useful for me and towards my designing side also.

Band 6-7

I will be talking about the most expensive item I've bought and that is iPhone. I bought my iPhone last year and this story is very emotional because I was very much into trouble when I genuinely wanted a phone. My phone previous phone got stolen and all my friends possessed an iPhone. At that point of time I had no money to buy a new phone which was that expensive. I somehow convinced my dad, my father who generally takes care of our family very well to give me an iPhone but due to some conditions he could not fulfill it but still he managed to do it and while saying this I'm getting really emotional because he had no money to buy it in one go but still managed to do it by doing an EMI. I was so convinced that my dad or my father loved me so much that he is genuinely doing that that will make me really happy. So what I did was I first of all bought the iPhone which I was really craving for because of the good camera I needed it to sync with other things as well so I made sure that I make the most of it. I used the camera for shooting, I studied on my iPhone, I did everything that is possible for me to get a job and as soon as that in three months I got a new job where I had to shoot, I had to film, I had to edit everything on my iPhone and in three months after getting the job I could pay entirely from my salary for the iPhone and not only that it's been seven months now and now I will have taken a new iPhone for my father and this is what really matters to me. It is not always
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