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.

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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, the person that I am going to describe, he is an old person and he is my neighbor, he is a retired banking employee and he is living his life right now, after retired he is not doing anything, he is sitting in his balcony and he is looking at his wife and children. The person that I am going to describe is an old person, his name is Marco, he is a retired government employee, he used to work in a bank and he was very funny, he used to work in his bank. After his retirement, what he does is that he used to sit on his balcony at his house and he used to look at other people's life. So, my house is in front of this guy's house and every time he used to look at my house from his balcony and what he does is that he talks about other people's life. So, I am going to describe an old person right now and this guy is a retired bank employee, he used to work in a bank at his younger days and he was a bank manager. After his retirement, he is not doing anything, he is just sitting in his house. My house is opposite to his house, so he could see me and my family. Even when we are sitting inside our house, through the windows he could see us. So, that is the kind of situation we are in. So, this guy used to sit on his balcony which is opposite to my house and he used to watch us. So, according to me, according to my intelligence, the only thing that he did after his retirement is that looking at us, the way we live, the things that happens in our house, all these things are being noticed by this person. So, this is his life. So, everyday he wakes up, he comes in front, he started sitting, he will come to the balcony and he will look at us, that's what he does. This is his job once after his retirement. So, this guy is very annoying and because of him I had to pull the curtains down. I was not getting fresh air when I covered the window with the curtains. So, I don't like that. But because of this guy sitting in front of my house.

Band 6

As I know many person in my life, but here I am talking about a person who is my uncle. He is very calm and very positive thinker. I always gain a good vibes from him. He is 59 years old and he live in Delhi which is capital of India. Firstly I want to talk about my uncle. He is very polite and everybody praise him in their surrounding. Whenever he came in my house, I just thought that whole of the house is becoming full of energy. Moreover he has a good thing to communicate good power to anyone. He is very extrovert kind of person, always give good things to others. I always feel very happy with him. The one thing I want to tell, he gives positive thinking to everyone so that they forget their stress. However I believe that my uncle is the unique person in this world. Because he has a ability to resolve the tensions and give good solution to everyone's life.

Band 6

An elderly person whom I know personally who has inspired me a lot and has had an interesting life has to be my grandfather. My grandfather stays in my house as of now and he is an interesting person. He started off as a farmer. He worked as a farmer for around 16 to 20 years of his life. Then he shifted to a metropolitan city, Pune to be specific. After that, he became a teacher. He was a teacher for around 8 to 9 years and after being a teacher, he figured out that there was more to his professional life than just being a teacher. So he hustled his way out of that profession and then pursued a career in a pharmaceutical company. When he was in a pharmaceutical company, he made a decent career growth and he was there for a healthy 10 years approximately. For me, he is an inspirational personality. I really look up to him and I can proudly say that he is my grandfather. One cherishable memory of my childhood is that I went to his office once. I met his colleagues and he introduced me to all of them. The thing that really fascinated me is that all the equipments which are used in a pharmaceutical company were really cool to look at. So to put it in a nutshell, I really look up to him as a person and as a grandfather as well.

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.

Band 6.5

So, an old person who I know who had a very interesting life is my grandmother. My grandmother, that is my mother's mother, used to live alone in Coimbatore after my grandfather passed away in 2002. She has been living alone from 2002 until recently she has developed some health issues. The interesting part of her life is that I believe living alone at that age was very difficult but at the same time very interesting. She has done her groceries alone, she pays her bills alone and she lives her life alone completely unrelied and independent of any of her daughters or any of her siblings or let it be any family members. Another part I found very interesting about her is that she never complained that she is living alone. She did not find that living alone at a very old age was difficult or was tiring for a person. She used to enjoy the kind of life she had. She used to enjoy doing groceries alone, she used to enjoy doing house chores alone, she used to enjoy paying the bills alone, she used to enjoy managing her finances alone. She was a very independent person and another interesting factor about this is she is not a highly educated person. She has done her matrics and then she had to marry my grandfather because that was the trend at that period of time. So, she has not done any kind of formal education and she has been living in a very guarded kind of environment. So, such a kind of person coming out and living alone at her older state of life, completely underlied and independent.

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