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.

34 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 34 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.

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.

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.

Tip

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

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

So, in my life, I met a person whose age is 70 and his name is Kumaraswamy. He is none other than my college dean. He is working as a professor over there and gradually, because of his education and the skills he promoted as a dean of my university in a stream of civil engineering. So, he is a person who really works hard. Firstly, he lives in my hometown city. So, the name of my hometown city is Guntur. And then, let's talk about his education. So, I will give you a brief about his education. He did his graduation and then his master's. After that, he completed his PhD also. And then, he joined as a lecturer in one of the high professional colleges. So, where he entered his professional life as a teacher. And then, he makes his profile very good. So, he is always eager to teach students about the new things and softwares which are presently going in the market which helps the students to improve their skills and get a job in a competitive world. So, he is a person who is always eager to learn the new things and having persistence to learn about the new topics which he is not aware of in the current generation. So, I feel very excited about this person. Always when I think of something, he captivated me always to do the work.

Band 6

The person is my god-given father. He is a god-given person. He does his work happily and enjoys his life and he likes to do his daily routine in a disciplined manner and always feels happy to live with his family and enjoy his life comfortably. I saw him wake up early in the morning and take his bath and eat his food timely and enjoy his life and he will always have a charming face and no, I have never seen his feeling of sadness. He always boasts the happiness in everyone's life.

Band 5-6

There are many people who inspire me in many ways, but I think my mother is very inspiring me in many ways. She is such a great lady. She has inspiring in me in many ways. Whenever I feel sad, I go to my mother and talk about my stress. She provide me the best way to relieve stress. She set me to do yoga in early morning. She is very pretty. She is doing everything whenever I want. Whenever I hungry, she made the food for me. I very obey of my mother. I think she doing his high school from 1968, but I have such great memory with my mother.

Band 5-6

A person whom I know who is old in her age and I feel her life is interesting is my colleague and she is a lab assistant for one of the departments in my college in which I am working. I feel her interesting job life because of her dedication to her work. I really think her way of doing the work and her passion towards the work even in this age is really interesting and motivating the other students as well as the people around her. She wakes up early in the morning, makes all the food that is for her family and then she gets ready for the work till then and will complete her job on time and returns to home. This is one dedicated lifestyle one can see from her which inspires other people also to have a healthy and dedicated life.

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