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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
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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 6-7

    As the festival of Bhaitoja is approaching, there is a traditional story that is told every year on this occasion. It is told by my grandmother to all of us children. It also dictates the different rituals we do on that day. It talks about a kingdom where a perfect man was needed to be sacrificed. There used to exist a man who was perfect and his sister got to know about this sacrifice requirement. So she planned to bad mouth her brother in front of the soldiers so that they spare his life thinking that he is not as perfect as they thought him to be. Later on she regrets a lot about what she said and apologizes to her brother and promises to never say anything against him ever again.

    Band 6-7

    An interesting traditional story that I have known since my childhood is that when you keep your shoes upside down or when you do not put it neatly in a corner, that basically means that you might get scolded by somebody. This was a story that I first heard when I was in grade 5th and my great great grandmother told it to me. My great great grandmother's name was Lakshmi and she lived almost all her life in Kerala which is my native state. Though after sometime she moved to be with my parents and she used to take care of me and my brother since both my parents were working. Although I did not understand the meaning behind it at that point, it scared me a lot because the fact that I might get scolded because my shoes is upside down was not comprehensible to me at that point. But I loved my great great grandmother. She always had this nurturing and caring attitude towards me and my brother that I always wanted to follow whatever she told. She would tell us stories about Kerala and the traditions and I would listen to her with all the interest in the world. Now that I have grown up, I understand that she probably told me this story so that I keep my shoes properly and I do not create a mess. Still for me it is a story that I hold dear to me and I would also like to pass it on to the children of my family.

    Band 6-7

    First impressive story that I could ever heard and felt thoughtful and thrilling is the story of Mahabharata. I initially heard it when I was in one of the religious ceremony organized at my home. I was a very young at that time, around 13-14 years old girl who was childish and always loved to laugh and hears good, thrilling, adventurous stories. During that period, one of the saint of the religious ceremony came and he was more willingly towards explaining and telling all the adventures of the story of Mahabharata. At that time, I was a furious child who was thoughtfully and completely listening to the story that being told by him. Most of the thing that I felt through the story is all the experiences from the religious and great kings and all the expertise that they have gained from that. It is the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita as well. For the first time in the history, I feel that it was deeply rooted in my cultural heritage and had a significant impact on the society as well. When I was fully into that story, I thoughtfully admired the efforts of the saint who was willingly and enthusiastically telling me, narrating all the characters in my head.

    Band 6-7

    The story I'm going to talk about is related to Ganpati. Actually it's when Ganpati's mother orders him to protect her when she goes to bath and he does what she says. But when he's protecting her, her father comes and asks that he wants to enter. But Ganpati still refuses because she didn't mention that he should allow entry for her father. So his father gets angry and he cuts off his head. When the mother observes this, she gets very angry at the father. So the father promises her to recover him and cuts off an elephant's head and replaces it with the original head. Now this story was told to me by everyone like my teacher, my parents and even I saw an animation depicting this story. It was really inspiring of how Ganpati follows orders and doesn't even give his life for his mother. It's really inspiring and I would aspire to do the same someday.

    Band 6-7

    When I was a kid, I used to sleep with my grandparents. And like every other grandparent, my grandmother used to tell me different stories every night. But then, one day she told me about the story of Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman. How he helped to save Lakshman. So, Lord Ram was fighting with Ravan one day. And then, he said that only one thing can save Lakshman Ji. That was that Sanjeevani Booty. But when Lord Hanuman reached there, he was searching for Sanjeevani Booty. But he was not able to recognize that which one was the Sanjeevani. Then, after that, while thinking, he took all of the mountain with him, with all his strength to Lord Ram. And then they revived Lord Lakshman. Lord Lakshman was the brother of Lord Ram. And these stories inspired me that we should always use all our brain cells and come out of the best.

    Band 6-7

    One traditional story I want to share with you is the way we celebrate the festival Sankranti. The festival celebrated three days long. The first day is called Bogi. It means you burn your old thoughts and start a new thought from that day onwards. Early in the morning we collect the old furniture wood or something from the outside. And we will make a bonfire early in the morning and people gather around the fire. After completion of fire, people use that fire to boil the water to cleanse themselves. After completion of this process, people make Rangoli in front of the house. And mainly it is a tradition to make meat on that day. And the second day will be a day for the ancestors who gave us this life. We celebrate our ancestors by cooking their favorite food. On top of that, we offer new clothes to them. We will go to their funeral place and visit them to take the blessings from them. And the third day is all about the meetings, get-togethers of all the family members, making food, celebrating outside. We select one place which is basically like a farmhouse or something. We prepare a wide range of food and we will celebrate the meeting of our family members. It is one tradition that we follow.

    Band 6-7

    There are so many traditional stories in India which represent the culture and our rituals like Mahabharata, Pancharatna stories and so on. I would like to tell about the Ramayana which is my favorite traditional story. I knew it when I was a child and my grandfather told me the whole story. Every night we slept together and my grandfather told me the part by part story and explained how Ram and Sita loved each other and how Lakshman supported Ram and Ravan is the evil of the story. Personally my favorite character is Hanuman who is brave and they killed so many human who are very bad impact like Ravan. Ravan is very dangerous, they loved Sita but Sita is very brave girl. In Ramayana story we can learn how patiently and calmly walked. My grandfather told me this story about Ramayana. Every night I also curious about the next part.

    Band 6

    Okay, so the interesting traditional story, this story has been told to many kids in their childhood and the story's name is the farmer and the axe. So the story is something like when a farmer who is just working at the riverside and due to some reason his axe falls into the water, in the river and he starts crying as he is a poor farmer, so he can't afford another axe, so he starts praying to the god and the goddess comes out from the river and offers him the golden axe, but he says no, that's not my axe, my axe was the normal one, after that the goddess gives him a silver axe, but still he rejects it and he said no, this is not my axe, his axe is a simpler one and after that the axe which was fallen into the water is given by god to the farmer and then the farmer gets happy and also the goddess is impressed by his loyalty and his truthfulness, then they give him all the three axes as a reward of his being loyal and truthful. So this story was told by grandma to me and it was told when I was about 5 years old and this story is most of the time used in every household in India and in Maharashtra, most probably in Maharashtra. What I felt like it kind of gave me a message that greediness should not be the part of a human being as one should ask for how much they want, not for more, of course asking for more is a good thing, but not as being greedy, as being hardworking and loyal towards your work and gaining it by your hard work, not just for free.

    Band 6

    Father, well, there are a number of stories which are narrated by my mother and grandmother, but here I would like to talk about a traditional story which was narrated by my mother. I vividly remember that it was COVID time when I used to stay at home due to the corona pandemic. One day I was turned on the TV and coincidentally there was a channel where Ramayan was going on. I got very curious about it and I asked my mother to narrate it for me. Then she narrated the story and told me that Lord Rama's father sent him to exile and also her brother Lord Lakshman and Goddess Sita was also going with him. I felt first on that exile period the Goddess Sita was kidnapped by demon Ravana but by taking the help of Lord Hanuman and her brother he rescued the Goddess Sita and killed the demon Rama and she also told me that it is the victory of goodness over evil. I thought it was a great traditional story because I found the character of Hanuman was so attracted because it shows the value of friendship and how he stood up with the Lord Rama. So that is a traditional story which was narrated by my mother and fascinated me a lot.

    Band 6

    The most interesting and fascinating story in our tradition is about a king and a queen and their daughter. The story is about the king's journey with his family in a jungle for a week. The story was narrated to me by my grandmother during my school days and I got really fascinated at that time and I used to think about, I used to imagine all those pictures in my mind. The story goes like one day the king decided to go around to see in his kingdom. He want to go around in the jungle and look for any tribal people living there and to look for some wild animals. The king decided to take his family, his wife and his daughter. The king with some of his guards started the journey. When they reach in the jungle, there was a large lake. They decided to stay near the lake.
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