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Describe an interesting traditional story: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What the story is about
  • When/how you knew it
  • Who told you the story
  • And explain how you felt when you first heard it
Show all 54 answers

Cue 1:What the story is about

  • Begin by summarizing the main plot of the traditional story, highlighting its key themes and characters.
  • Mention any cultural significance or moral lessons that the story conveys.

Example

The story I want to share is about 'The Ramayana', an epic tale from Indian mythology. It narrates the journey of Lord Rama, who embarks on a quest to rescue his wife, Sita, from the demon king Ravana. The story is rich in themes of duty, honor, and the triumph of good over evil.

Cue 2:When/how you knew it

  • Describe the context in which you first encountered the story, whether it was through reading, storytelling, or media.
  • Mention any specific time or event that made this story memorable for you.

Example

I first heard this story during my childhood, when my grandmother used to narrate it to me every evening. It was a cherished family tradition, and I looked forward to those storytelling sessions, especially during the festive season of Diwali.

Cue 3:Who told you the story

  • Identify the person who shared the story with you and explain their relationship to you.
  • Share any personal anecdotes about how this person made the story come alive.

Example

My grandmother was the one who told me this story. She had a magical way of storytelling, using different voices for each character, which made the tale even more engaging. Her passion for the story made me feel like I was part of the adventure.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt when you first heard it

  • Express your emotions and thoughts during your first experience of hearing the story.
  • Discuss how the story impacted you personally or influenced your beliefs.

Example

When I first heard 'The Ramayana', I felt a mix of excitement and awe. The bravery of Lord Rama and the loyalty of Hanuman inspired me deeply. It instilled in me the values of courage and righteousness, which I carry with me to this day.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, this traditional story not only entertained me as a child but also shaped my understanding of moral values. It remains a significant part of my cultural heritage, reminding me of the importance of good over evil in our lives.

    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 Story Description

    Failing to provide enough detail about the story can make your answer seem vague and uninteresting. It's important to engage the listener with vivid descriptions.

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    Tip

    Include specific elements of the story, such as key characters, events, and settings, to make your answer more engaging.

    2: Ignoring Personal Connection

    Not sharing your personal feelings or experiences related to the story can make your response less relatable. Personal connections add depth to your answer.

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    Tip

    Explain how the story impacted you emotionally or what it taught you to create a more compelling narrative.

    Rushing Through the Answer

    Speaking too quickly can lead to unclear communication and missed opportunities to elaborate on important points. Take your time to articulate your thoughts.

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    Tip

    Pace your speech and pause briefly between points to allow the listener to absorb your ideas and to give yourself time to think.

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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
    anonymous person icon

    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
    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

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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
    anonymous person icon

    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 6-7

    India is a vast country. There is a lot of tradition and culture. I travel from one place to another place to explore different cultures. But today I would like to talk about a tradition story that is very interesting for me. This is a story of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He is a writer of Indian Constitution. The story of his life inspires me because he has done a lot of hard work in his life. Because of the hard work, now India lives a freedom life. All the people have their own rights to live in India because of the Indian Constitution. And I think because of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, now India has grown day by day because of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. The story of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was listened when I was in eleventh class. My school principal on the function of Independence Day told me about Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's hard work about the Indian Constitution. It is not a cup of tea for him. After a lot of hard work and a lot of research, he wrote the Indian Constitution. Because of that, now every Indian feels safe and lives their life free from independence.

    Band 6-7

    Well, my grandmother was a good storyteller, and she describes various stories in different manner as she is very well in establishing a relationship between the characters of a story. And when I was a child, about 10 to 12 years old, my grandmother told me a story about our freedom, like the situation when our freedom fighters struggle in those years to make us independent. There was a fight between the two countries, like Pakistan and India, and the people from the Pakistan comes to India, like Hindus and some Muslims went away to that country, and there was quite a struggle during that time, as it was a difficult time, people didn't know how to deal with the situation. There was a lot of crisis, like there was financial crisis, and also some people sacrificed their life for their families as well as for their nation. So it was quite an emotional story, when I first heard that story, I became totally emotional, and I cried several times during the time of hearing that story, but later on, she consoled me and told that everything was managed well by the government of both nations, and they provided the homes and shelter, along with the food, moreover, they contributed for the nation and the people who belong to the country, so it was quite an emotional story, and I felt really concerned about it.

    Band 6-7

    So, I have heard a lot of stories since my childhood, but there is one very particular one which I would talk about here. This was during a time when I was visiting my sister and I was outside with my brother-in-law. We were along the banks of the river sitting and he was telling me the story of how a temple in his region came about, how the establishment of it took, how the king at that time, what measures he took in establishing the temple and how the whole story of the temple formation came. So, one of the key points that I understood from the story of the temple was, apart from the fact that the temple has a rich culture and a rich history and heritage through history, one thing that struck to me was the fact that the king had to call priests from a different region because the native people were not from a community who do rituals. When the priests came in the area, they had settled in a place nearby the temples, creating more and more temples in that area. That made me realize how deep-rooted the caste system has been in the history and how it is still prevalent in that area, that anywhere where there is a temple nearby, you see all the upper caste people living around and all the lower caste people get allotted places which are not so in elite areas of the city and how this one simple fact that the king just allocated them a land nearby had grown to influence the present-day scenario of the city, how it is.

    Band 6-7

    The story is about the God and the Goddess called Shiva and Parvati. So in this traditional story, Shiva is the God where he sends a pig which is Panjruli to protect the land of Dakshinakannada which is Karnataka, a place where more traditional and rituals are practiced. The story tells about the Goddess Panjruli Deva with Kola Bhuta, a spiritual dance to express God and believe that the nature is protected and the environment is being captured by the God and the Lord is the protector of all surrounding lands to help the people and the village. And I heard this story from the movie called Kantara which is an epic traditional movie. So this movie, the director himself admired because it's the traditional story of his own beliefs where his grandmothers and mothers were told him about the story of the God Panjruli Deva and the Kola Bhuta. And I hear this story for the past one week.

    Band 6-7

    One interesting traditional story I know is the story of the Hare and the Tortoise. It's a very old fable that teaches an important moral lesson. I first heard this story when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My grandmother used to tell it to me at bedtime. She always enjoyed telling stories that had good values for our message. The story is about a fast hare who always made fun of a slow tortoise. One day they decided to have a race. The hare ran very quickly at the beginning but then stopped to take a nap. Thinking he would easily win, meanwhile the tortoise kept walking slowly and finally crossed the finish line first. When I first heard, I found it very interesting and a little funny because I didn't expect the slow tortoise to win but after that I understood the lesson. The patience and hard work are more important than speed or overall competence. This story has stayed in my mind since childhood because it teaches us to be humble and consistent in life. Even now I remember it whenever I face challenges or feel like giving up.

    Band 6-7

    So there is a beautiful culture in my tradition where we worship Gan-Gaur. In this event, all the ladies wear red color clothes and we all group together and we sing, we dance, we cook the traditional meals, the sweets. And we worship the Gan-Gaur as the mother goddess Parvati and Esar is her husband Mahadeva. And it is celebrated in the happiness of Gan-Gaur means Parvati, the mother goddess coming back to her mother's home to Himalayas. And we celebrate it as happiness that our daughter is back. And it is celebrated for at least 18 days and on the last day, we celebrate and we sing and then we take all the things which we use in the ritual. The incense sticks, the lamp made of sand and all of the sweets and then we throw it in the river.

    Band 6-7

    I have listened to a lot of stories during my childhood. My grandmother used to narrate beautiful traditional stories before bedtime. I still remember the stories of Panchatantra, Ramayana and Mahabharata had a significant effect on me as they were rich with culture, history and values. I still remember one of the story about Sikh origin and it was about the Shri Guru Gobind Singh and their four sons and it was about back in time related to the war and how their four sons got got Shaheed. It means died because of the war and their sacrifice was significant in history as well as the bravery that they have shown it was immense. I still get shivers and goosebumps whenever I listen to the story about them again or any sort of part where there is any sentence which is about the story. Moreover, I got a lot of insight about my religion and the background that I belong to through this story and I still believe that the values I have learned from the story is bravery and sacrificing and staying strong even in the worst situation and it has made me more stronger and shaped my personal viewpoints. Moreover, I still love listening stories from

    Band 6-7

    Yeah, well, one of the most famous traditional stories in my country is the tale of Tenali Raman who is a witty poet and advisor in the court of King Krishnadevaraya in South India. I think it is one of the vital stories around my childhood and first I heard the story from my grandmother when I was a child. She used to tell it during bedtime. And I still remember being fascinated by how clever Tenali Raman was. In one story, the king challenges his ministers to find the smartest person in the kingdom. Tenali Raman cleverly proves that wisdom is not about wealth and power but about using intelligence and humour to solve problems. His quick wit and sense of justice often help the king to make fair decisions. Well, I really like the story because it reflects the traditional Indian value that intelligence and honesty are most powerful than strength or status. It also shows how humour can be used to handle even the most difficult situations. I think that is why this story is told to children today. It is entertaining but it also carries a timeless moral lesson. I think it was one of the beautiful bedtime story and interesting traditional lesson during my childhood.

    Band 6-7

    So, this is actually a folklore back in Kerala about a female vampire. She was actually a twin and she had a twin brother and she was very mischievous and during a situation where there was actually a theft, she was caught and she was killed by the society. Then she came back as a wife of an influential person in her second life. In this moment, she was actually betrayed by her husband and she then was buried by the husband and then she actually came back as a vampire and haunted the entire village. So in the village, she used to put a curse on each and every household and she would not allow these people to actually get out from the community and if they did, she would actually trap them and then kill them. So this was long ongoing since 20 years and it's still ongoing. So this is a very scary kind of folklore which people still believe that they see such a female vampire in their nightmares or during some supernatural scenarios where they encounter such a person. So in these moments, the people get really scared and believe that actually there is a female vampire who has been haunting the entire community and this makes them very apprehensive and scared for their lives because

    Band 6-7

    I heard this incredible traditional story from my grandmother when I was 5 years of age. She is passed away right now. I heard this story of the woodcutter and the tree. This might be a really common story but the way she explained and expressed it to me is still memorable. She reminded me always that the story didn't have a partake in the axis and that greediness was a very bad thing. So she went like saying on about the hardworking woodcutter who used to cut wood for a living and he used to sell the wood. And the day when his axe fell into the river he was very sad. And the next day when he arrived he found a beautiful angel waiting for him by the riverside asking him about the axe which fell into the water. She gave him 3 good axes and asked her if they were his and he replied no these weren't mine. But looking at the story I asked my grandmother that why did he say that those axes weren't his. So she replied that he is a truthful woodcutter and he wouldn't take the axes even if they were his. So continuing the story she said the angel was very happy with this and she rewarded him with the good axe and she told him to maintain his honesty. While this was all being looked upon by a stingy woodcutter who was watching from the sidelines who used to sell bad wood to customers. He tried the same trick and wanted the axes all to himself. That didn't happen to him because he asked and told the angel that the axes were his. And him in his greed he tried taking the axes but although he tried taking the axes the angel overpowered him and pulled him into the water killing him that day. So the important lesson I learnt from this story was greed is not good.
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