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Describe an old person you know who has had an interesting life: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who is this person?
  • Where he/she lives?
  • What he/she has done in his/her life?
  • And explain how you feel about him/her.
Show all 68 answers

Cue 1:Who is this person?

  • Introduce the person by name and relationship to you.
  • Mention their age and a brief description of their personality.

Example

The person I want to talk about is my grandfather, Mr. Sharma. He is 85 years old and has a very warm and cheerful personality. He always has a smile on his face and loves to share stories from his past.

Cue 2:Where he/she lives?

  • Describe the location where this person lives.
  • Mention any interesting aspects of their living situation.

Example

He lives in a small village in Rajasthan, surrounded by beautiful fields and a close-knit community. His house is traditional, with a lovely garden where he grows vegetables and flowers.

Cue 3:What he/she has done in his/her life?

  • Highlight key achievements or experiences in their life.
  • Include any challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

Example

Throughout his life, my grandfather worked as a teacher and later became the headmaster of the local school. He faced many challenges, especially during tough economic times, but he always prioritized education and inspired many children to pursue their dreams.

Cue 4:And explain how you feel about him/her.

  • Share your personal feelings and admiration for this person.
  • Mention any lessons you have learned from them.

Example

I feel incredibly proud to have him as my grandfather. His resilience and dedication to education have taught me the importance of hard work and perseverance. I often seek his advice, and his stories motivate me to strive for my goals.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, my grandfather is not just an old person I know; he is a source of inspiration and wisdom in my life. His interesting life experiences and positive outlook have greatly influenced my values and aspirations.

    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 Specific Details

    Avoid vague descriptions that do not provide specific information about the person. This can make your answer less engaging and informative.

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    Tip

    Include specific anecdotes or examples from the person's life to illustrate their interesting experiences.

    2: Ignoring the Cues

    Neglecting to address all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. This may result in a lower score for coherence and relevance.

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    Tip

    Make sure to systematically cover each cue in your response to create a well-rounded answer.

    Overly Complex Language

    Using complicated vocabulary or sentence structures can confuse the listener and detract from your message. Clarity is key.

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    Tip

    Use simple and clear language to express your thoughts, ensuring that your ideas are easily understood.

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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
    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

    So, the person to whom I have met in my life and it's always remembering to me is my maternal grandmother and grandfather, they both are not with me today, they are in heaven but they had an interesting life. They lived in Frostburg and they just loved each other infinitely and my grandmother was a fighter woman, she has struggled a lot in her life because my grandfather was mentally upset but she was the one woman who took care of him, he used to beat her, everything, abuse her but she had so much of patience in her that she lived with him, she loved him and also the interesting thing is my grandfather used to write on his hand Queen, Queen was for my grandmother and I am going to remember them always because they are the special part of my life and they are always in my heart, I love them so much and I just want that, I want to become like my grandmother, she is my role model and my grandfather who is my hero, he has given me every luxurious life, he has just loved me infinitely after my grandmother died and this year 2025 took my grandfather away from me but they both will always be remembered by me, thank you.

    Band 6-7

    An old person whose life is interesting is my grandmother, her name is Iqbal Begum, she stays in Hyderabad and she has wonderful life, she has done so many things for her children and she has amazing analysing skills and she cooks very well, she cooks very well and her children obey her and she is very courageous person, I have ever seen anybody in my life, she has done all of his children work alone as her husband has been expired, she has given so much of her time, effort to their children, yeah, thank you.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I am outspoken and extrovert by nature and I love to be socialized with people around me. Here, I would like to talk about an old person whom I know and has had an interesting life, is my bosom friend's grandfather. He lived stone's throw away from my house and I knew him from my childhood. I vividly remember once I was having a brisk walk in the park and I met him and we started casual conversation there. They told me that he was the principal of a prestigious school of her hometown and was a great speaker. I was so much admired by their conversation. Apart from this, he also told me that he was one of the great speaker in the universities and had a wonderful experience in his life. On the top of that, he is very magnanimous, altruist and philanthropic by nature as he leave no stone unturned in aiding the poverty stricken people. Also he is very genuine and social person. He is very convivial and vivacious towards everyone. He meets everyone with calm and with respect and I am always fascinated about having communication

    Band 6-7

    An amazing old person in my life who had done many interesting things in their life is my principal. She is my teacher and we have many great memories. She is a person that is so humble and she had done many great works and she had to help for children like NGOs etc and she donates money for them as well as she had made our school in that level from average to that high level. Somehow she is very very captivating and she knows how to do the things great.

    Band 6-7

    An older person that I know and who has had an interesting life is obviously my grandfather who is my father's father who is still in my home. Still at my home and he is 86 years old and he has some health issues but he still has an interesting life ahead. Who has a chef who was a widely known chef during the 1980s and 1990s and he went to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and more UAE countries for making food and delicious food for Malayali associations in UAE. He also got an opportunity to go to the United States of America but because of his schedule he couldn't go to the USA. He is a well-known chef in his past and I felt very proud of being his granddaughter because one day I went for my cousin's wedding and the food was served by my grandfather. They asked me where I am coming from and I said I am coming from here and I am the granddaughter of this person. They said oh really I am very happy that you came here and we are very proud that the lunch was amazing and so many good things about him and I am so proud. My father and my whole family members felt very proud and happy to hear that the food was amazing and that it was prepared by my grandfather.

    Band 6-7

    The person whom I know. The person whom I know, his name is Quentin de Kock. He is my neighbor of almost 63 years old at present. Generally I have considered him as an interesting person with respect to his life which he have mentioned me. He had prioritized his life in few ways and have completed his role in an appropriate way. He has given time to his family, friends and his passion towards his business. He is an entrepreneur who has worked as a wholesale businessman. He taught me various aspects of business and also shared relevant ideas related to his wholesale business. The ideology of him is absolutely brilliant according to me. His way of approach and solving the problems is just phenomenal. However, I felt really happy of being a person like him helping to me of my age who is 23 years old which is very energetic and enthusiastic.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to speak about my maternal, maternal grandmother. She died at the age of 92 years and she lived a very honorable and a very challenging life. In her early days she got widowed. My maternal grandfather died because of stroke followed by a heart attack. So she was without her husband all through the rest of her life. Her life was very challenging. She struggled a lot to earn money. She had eight kids, six sons and two daughters, the younger daughter being my mother. She faced many hurdles. She faced many hurdles to come up to, to, she overcame various hurdles in her life. She used to stitch the worn-out clothes and make laces and decorate the, the veils, the, the clothes and used to sell it, sell it to people and earn few money and earn few penny out of it. I admire my old maternal grandmother.

    Band 6-7

    An old person who I am trusting in my life is with my dad. Basically he lives in the hometown as I am working so he cannot live with me because I am hiding in a PG, my accommodation is not good as far as and he is not with me yeah but whenever we get free time he used to call and moreover you can say the interesting part is that he is almost around 60 to 70, crossing 70 and still the amount of energy spent on doing work, any work you can say whether cleaning the house or washing clothes he would not depend on the machines, nowadays more people are depending on the machines using like you can say geyser, washing machine, AC, refrigerator, no he is typically old culture residing on the natural resources like using potable water for getting cold, I like his idea implement in my life, he is more much more close to me and he basically describes me that instead of going for this modern technologies use the old fashion as it would be longevity in your career including your health, it would not make you ill as early as possible, I would live longer and he is moreover likely fragile using new advanced technologies as they are not consistent, moreover you say that see these technologies are coming and making our mind much more reliable that you would be dependable on the machines rather than you should have your own physique instead, he is too much old but the physique and fitness, amount of energy he has that even I am bothered that I am in my 20's and I am not able to do that amount of work which he is doing right now, for example I am not able to stand for 6 to 8 hours.

    Band 6-7

    I think I cannot thank any person other than my grandpa. He is one of those person who has had a great impact on my life. He is no more with us but what I have learnt from him is something that will remain with me till the time I die and I will try to spread it or perpetuate those learnings wherever I go. The one thing that I appreciate the most about him is the level of patience that he had. I think he hit the nail on the head with that. He had led his life in such an exemplary manner and I could not imagine my life without him. He was the person who had faced so much difficulties in his life and at the same time he remained so composed and calm in all his existence. I think that is what I have learnt from him and that has shaped my perspective towards world, towards seeing or experiencing gratitude every single time that I live on this planet. I can also see how it has impacted my other cousin's life and he has just given bits and pieces of everything to each one of us.

    Band 6-7

    So, the person I would like to describe is my grandmother. She recently passed away, but she had a very crucial impact on my life and is someone I still look up to. My grandmother was not as much educated. She can't even write and read in her own mother tongue, but still she was someone who inspired all of us to work. In spite of not having that much knowledge, she worked. She had her own home remedies. Everyone in my native place used to know my grandmother. She used to cure illness. She had a very vast knowledge of all the herbs that were used for curing illness. At that time, doctors were not available at such remote places. So, she was the one who used to prepare those remedies for them, free of cost and never charged anything. She has a huge impact on my life as she taught me how to never give up and always keep fighting and striving. She was always there with a smiling face in spite of her struggles. She used to work day and night in the farms and then also work for the people free of cost. Her way of giving to the people was with a smile and always a happy soul. I never saw her irritated. I never saw her cry about things. She was the one who did everything and was actually the man of our family.
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