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Describe something that surprised you and made you happy: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What it was?
  • Who did this?
  • How you found out about it and what you did?
  • And explain why it surprised you and made you happy.
Show all 50 answers

Cue 1:What it was?

  • Begin by clearly stating what the surprising event was.
  • Provide some context about the event to engage the listener.

Example

The surprise that made me incredibly happy was when I received a scholarship for my master's degree. I had applied for it months ago and had almost forgotten about it.


Cue 2:Who did this?

  • Mention the organization or person responsible for the surprise.
  • Explain their significance in your life or studies.

Example

The scholarship was awarded by a well-known educational foundation in India that supports students pursuing higher education. This foundation has helped many students like me, and being chosen felt like a huge honor.


Cue 3:How you found out about it and what you did?

  • Describe how you learned about the scholarship award.
  • Share your immediate reaction and any actions you took afterward.

Example

I found out about the scholarship through an email notification while I was studying at home. When I read the subject line, my heart raced, and I quickly opened it. I was overjoyed and immediately called my family to share the good news.


Cue 4:And explain why it surprised you and made you happy.

  • Reflect on your feelings of surprise and happiness.
  • Connect the event to your future aspirations or goals.

Example

It surprised me because I didn’t expect to receive such a prestigious scholarship, given the number of applicants. It made me happy because it not only eased my financial burden but also motivated me to work harder in my studies, knowing that someone believed in my potential.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, receiving the scholarship was a life-changing moment for me. It reminded me of the importance of perseverance and the joy that comes from unexpected good news.


    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: Being Vague About the Surprise

    Candidates often give unclear descriptions of what surprised them. This can make it hard for the examiner to understand the significance of the event.

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    Tip

    Be specific about the event. Use clear details to explain what happened and why it was surprising.


    2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Some candidates forget to express their feelings about the surprise. This can make their response less engaging and personal.

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    Tip

    Share your emotions. Explain how the surprise made you feel happy and why it was meaningful to you.


    Rushing Through the Explanation

    Candidates often rush their answers, skipping important details. This can lead to a disorganized response that lacks depth.

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    Tip

    Take your time. Structure your answer by addressing each cue clearly and thoroughly to create a complete picture.


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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
    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
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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 7

    When I was looking for colleges to apply to, I was initially considering Culinary Arts as my main course. So I went to visit this Culinary Arts Academy near my house to look around the place and see if I wanted to apply. As I showed up, one of my friends, who I haven't met in two years, showed up out of nowhere to surprise me. He had been living in Switzerland for two years, so I haven't met him for a while. And it was very surprising because I was not expecting him to be there. In fact, I did not even know that he was back in India. It was very heartwarming to see him out of nowhere. And also because he is also studying Culinary Arts in Switzerland. So he helped me a lot with my decision whether to apply to the college or not. In the end, it made me feel very happy, it helped a lot with my decisions and it made me more confident about my choice to apply to the Culinary Academy.

    Band 7

    Last weekend, my childhood best friend surprised me by making a visit to me in my city. She happened to coordinate with my other friends and give me a surprise. She visited me at my building and it was really a great surprise for me as I was meeting her after three long years. I saw her and the next reaction was to go and hug her. I felt very happy to see her after so long as well as I was really surprised by the move that she made. I was really not expecting this as I was not aware if she would be visiting my hometown anywhere near the future. Additionally, I felt really happy that she made time and decided that she would pull off this surprise for me and it definitely turned out to be really well. I got to know about it when two of my friends called me and they asked me to come down as they were waiting for me. Right there, I saw her when I exited the gate of the building. Overall, it was definitely a great surprise for me and I really felt great after meeting her after so long.

    Band 7

    A very enriching experience which I experienced was when my friends from my college days they gave a surprise visit on my 32nd birthday which was last year and since my birthday it has always been like a very regular day for me but my 32nd birthday it was something which made me very happy. My friend they travelled from different parts of the country just to give a visit to me and one of my friends he travelled from Spain in order to make it to my birthday. So it was planned by one of my best friends he is Sean again he is currently working as an assistant professor in a university and it was he who planned everything from making this surprise birthday visit to bringing cakes and gifts for me. So as I was about to sleep and suddenly the bell of my door rang and I found that my friends were outside my house and they entered with lot of balloons and gifts and surprises and I was actually terrified at first but overall I enjoyed my birthday we celebrated till 4 in the morning we sang some songs then we shared a very delicious food which they brought with them and this is something which I am never going to forget all my life as this is one of a kind thing which I have experienced overall.

    Band 7

    The thing that surprised me and made me happy is to get a gift from my close ones, especially my supervisor Dr. Ranjana Sharma. I found it when she gifted me a watch when I defended my thesis. That watch was very close to my heart and I felt very happy and amazed to get a gift from my moral teacher.

    Band 7

    It was my trip to South Korea that surprised me and made me happy. It was my first international trip that was on business side and it was the first Asian country that I visited. South Korea is very different in language, culture and food when compared to India. I started the journey in July and the total duration of business trip was 40 days. At first, there was a very less number of people to whom I could talk since it was a different country and the language was a big barrier. But during my stay, I built a rapport with my colleagues and the local people and I felt the warmth and pleasure the South Koreans people show to foreigners. I got many opportunities to visit the capital of South Korea which is Seoul. I interacted with many locals and travelers from countries like Japan, China, Mongolia, America and Europe. So overall, I can say that it was a very welcoming experience for me in South Korea.

    Band 7

    I had a very funny and exciting personal experience. It was on my birthday at around 12 a.m. My favorite hero Mahesh Babu came to my house just to wish me. It was a fan moment for someone like me. I was a die-hard fan of him. I love him so much that I never missed a movie, single movie of him. I watched his each and every movie going to theaters on Thursday for a show. It was all planned by my parents. Thanks to them and I got to know about this through my brother. He never keeps surprises surprised. He always leaks them off. It was a very happy moment and fan moment for me, cute little moment. I guess everyone in their life should have a moment like this.

    Band 7

    This incident happened three months back. My mother called me up and asked where I was at that moment. I told her that I am returning from office and will be back home in 10 minutes. Currently, I am staying in Bangalore and my mother stays in Kolkata. So she said, okay that's fine. When I returned home, I saw that my mother is standing just near my door. I was completely surprised. She gave me a surprise visit to Bangalore and that made me very happy. Then as soon as I returned, as soon as we entered home, I just clicked few pictures of that moment and captured that moment forever.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to tell an incident that happened a few years ago at my house. It was the day of Rakhi festival, which is a commonly celebrated festival in India, where sisters tie Rakhi to their brothers and their brother's promises to protect them and in return they would give gifts to their sisters. So as a ritual, I woke up and get ready to tie, to celebrate Rakhi with my brother and I was very excited that I will receive gifts and money from him. So when I tie him Rakhi, he told that I have bought nothing for you and he just gave me a coin of one rupee, which made me somehow sad and disappointed a little. But after an hour, he came with a big box of Ferrero Rocher, which is my favorite chocolate by the way and surprised me with it. He bought it already, but he wanted to keep it a little surprise for me and he surprised me with that chocolate box and I was so happy and I thought I misunderstood him and I didn't get his surprise, but when I saw him, my eyes were full of tears and I felt very happy and the luckiest person.

    Band 6-7

    Things that surprise me and make me happy that was my anniversary gift. It was given by my husband on my anniversary day, was on the 20th June. When I came from the hospital, he asked me to keep my hands both on eyes and even before he never gave me a gift like this. So I was very excited to know about the things, what is going on. And when I kept eyes, I wanted to see what he is doing or the things, but I kept the promise and keep hand on my eyes. And when he asked to remove the hands, I was very surprised because it was a ring for me that I like the most. And once I go to the shop and I selected that ring, but that was out of my budget and I left that ring at that time. So he gave me that ring. I was very excited and I was very surprised how could he find that ring, which I left there. So that was very excited and was very memorable day for me. That anniversary I ever enjoyed in my life. I also want this to happen in future time and make me surprised and I also give same surprise to him to make Andrew feel him.

    Band 6-7

    When I started living in India, especially the people really surprised me. The reason why I was really surprised was because I am from Papua New Guinea, from a different country and different culture. I was so judgmental thinking that Indians were very traditional like. For example, most Indians would be wearing their saree every time, even throughout their jobs or throughout any marital ceremonies. Or especially in terms of when they are having a casual outing with friends like just being out in the park. I was thinking that they mostly are dressed in the traditional attire. So when I had started living in India, I was so surprised that even they are wearing westernized clothing. For example, I noticed that especially the females would wear t-shirts and shoes and jeans. So to me it was such a surprise that it really had made me happy to the point like. It is really good to step outside of other countries to experience other type of culture. And it was really good to see how others could live and coexist with each other, foreigners within India as well. So the whole clothing agenda really had me super surprised in a more, I should say,
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