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Describe something you received for free.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it?
  • When and from whom did you receive it?
  • How did you feel?
Show all 67 answers

Cue 1:What was it?

  • Begin by clearly stating what the item or service was that you received for free.
  • Provide a brief description of its significance or usefulness to you.

Example

I received a beautiful handmade scarf from my grandmother. It was made from soft wool and had intricate patterns that reflected our cultural heritage.


Cue 2:When and from whom did you receive it?

  • Mention the occasion or event during which you received the item.
  • Specify who gave it to you and their relationship to you.

Example

I received the scarf last winter during my birthday celebration. My grandmother, who is very dear to me, gifted it to me as a surprise.


Cue 3:How did you feel?

  • Share your emotional response upon receiving the gift.
  • Explain why this feeling was significant to you.

Example

I felt incredibly touched and grateful when I received the scarf. It reminded me of the love and care my grandmother puts into everything she makes, making it even more special.


Conclusion

  • Summarize the importance of the gift in your life.
  • Reflect on how receiving this free item impacted your relationship with the giver.

Example

In conclusion, receiving the scarf from my grandmother not only warmed me physically during the cold months but also strengthened our bond. It serves as a constant reminder of her love and our family traditions.


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: Giving Vague Answers

Avoid being too general or vague in your response. Specific details make your answer more engaging and memorable. Vague answers can lead to a lack of clarity.

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Tip

Include specific details about the item you received, such as its appearance, purpose, and significance to you.


2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

Failing to express your feelings can make your answer less impactful. Emotions help to connect with the listener and make your story more relatable.

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Tip

Share how receiving the item made you feel at the moment and how it affects you now, using descriptive language.


Ignoring the Context

Not providing context about when and from whom you received the item can leave your answer feeling incomplete. Context adds depth to your story.

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Tip

Clearly explain the situation surrounding the gift, including the occasion and the relationship with the giver.


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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

I recently received a shoe for my 23rd birthday from my group of friends in Bangalore. It was a surprise gift and 16 to 17 of them had pitched in thousand rupees each and purchased the shoe online. They had come home at 12 on my birthday and gifted me the shoe. I was truly shocked because I had mentioned the shoe to them roughly eight to nine months earlier to my birthday. It was quite surprising that they remembered the shoe as well as my size and it was extremely thoughtful of them to gift it to me considering that it was quite an expensive gift. It had truly made my day. Moreover the shoe made this birthday of mine one of the most memorable ones. It's a pink color Nike Air Jordan 1 low bleached corals which is a limited edition shoe. I'm sure they had put in a lot of thought as well as effort into getting it. It's a pink white and black colored shoe with black shoelaces. All of them are aware that pink happens to be my favorite color which made the gift all the more special. But what truly touched me more than the shoe was the effort and thought behind the gift from not just one or two people but from all 15 of them.

Band 6.5

The best, I don't call it something free but I would call it as a beautiful gift, it was a tripod. I received it from my friend who was working with me at that time, he was my colleague but later now he has become my family friend. He presented me a beautiful advanced recent invented tripod because I have a passion for cooking and I love to record my culinary skills and upload it on YouTube and Instagram. So, it was a very thoughtful gift, I received it during my birthday as a pleasant surprise. So, still now it's working in a fine condition and I have never tried to replace it either. That will be my best gift that I have ever received because he is so thoughtful that he showed keen interest on my passion and he supported me. I think the tripod cost around 3500 in Indian money, that's quite expensive but still he managed to gift me that. I don't think I would have bought it on my own because it's quite expensive. Understanding that he has saved money from the salary every month he is getting and he has decided to give a gift to me. So, coming to the culinary skills I am having, I am very good at cooking non-vegetarian dishes compared to the vegetarian dishes. I like to try new recipes from different cuisines, it gives me a peace and happiness. So, I have used the tripod even during my vacations. We went to China last month and it is very useful to capture.

Band 6

A gift that I have received in the past for free would be from my sister about a year ago for my birthday and she had gifted me this beautiful album that had pictures from when I was little up until my 20 year old self and the album had intricate designs and beautiful colours and moreover she is someone who is very creative and very artistic so she had expressed this through painting the album cover with cute messages and very pretty colouring and yeah this was incredibly meaningful it truly touched my heart and I shed a few tears but it really showed me that people make observations and your life does mean something the pictures also had many little funny comments next to it as well as describing overall timeline of what year and the event that was happening at that time considering that one of my love languages or the way that I express love is gift-giving as personally I would describe myself as someone who cannot communicate as well I tend to express that to my loved ones to gifts and usually ones that are homemade by crafting and therefore someone recognizing that and doing that for me was truly something that was very meaningful and it showed an immense amount of love towards me and I value that a lot

Band 6

Till now I haven't received anything for free because I was the only one who gives to other people just to make them happy but no one gives to me. However, recently one of my father's friend has gifted him a iWatch just for free of cost. He didn't ask for money neither my father paid for it. When I first saw the watch I was astonished and surprised because for a middle class family buying an iWatch worth 1,45,000 is a big thing. Like we do purchase some gold or purchase some TV of that certain cost but generally we won't purchase tiny gadgets like mobile phone and iWatch of that cost because if I buy things which are too much expensive or hefty, if we lose the items then it will be heavy on us to get it back. So generally we won't buy it. So I was not so happy about the purchase because my mind is tuned like I need to buy only low expensive inexpensive items.

Band 5-6

Here I would like to talk about, I have recently something which is for free, generally no one can give a free product for a gift, no one can give a free product, here I would like to talk about last vacation when my parents go for the shopping in a big bazaar, there is a issue of shopping around 10,000, they give free gifts, we don't know about that and we do the shopping, after the shopping our bill is around more than 12,000, after that we just bring the bill and we can throw out there, but after sometime the big bazaar assistant come and give us our gift, because we know that we will forget the asking for gift, after that we are not sane, so firstly he told me what I was talking about, but when he told me that we have a policy about the big bazaar nowadays, he gave us free gift, he gave us free gift, I am feeling so happy from that time, because we have taken the free gift, because we have been shopping around 10,000 and it has been nice to him, and after that he held my hand and gave me the free gift, and all those things are effective on our happiness and communication with the client and customer, and we have an experience of shopping with the big bazaar only.

Band 5-6

इतने का लगो किना बनदा फ्री का? हाँ? बिन्नू की पता आणा? स्टेड़ है. बहुत फ्री के लिए मुझे करता हूँ. मुझे बिन्नू की पता आणा बनदा फ्री का है. इसे मुझे बहुत एक्षण है. वर्स्ट वाच्च है. मैंके पादर में बना आना नहीं था, मुझे आणा करने के लिए. अगर में चाहिए बाते है, मुझे पादर के लिए खिलांचा है. इसे मुझे पादर के लिए खिलाचा है. मैं बहुत एक्षण है, यह वाच्च में, वह यह के लिए कहिस रहता हूँ. मुझे वो बहुत आशिक, में वह वो बहुत दिलना पूरिमाची। इसलिए, जब मैं आशिक करता हूँ, मैं बहुत नवाच्च करके हूँ, मैं बहुत अशिक थी, और पर, मैं यह वाच्च के लिए खिलाचा हुँ, यह बहुत अशिक देखना थी और यह बहुत क्राइट भी ज़रूर थी, मैं बहुत अशिक देखना थी,

Band 5

It was a one watch I have received from the shop and I shopped in the mall and many many many more things I buy and the voucher card is over 10,000 rupees and give me a free gift watch and then I am very very very happy because of it's my dream to watch a smart watch oh and when I wear it's my wrist like two two two two too much good good good stop I love the free I love the free free gifts from the other and because of the one is signed for relationship friendships and other relations to make a make a giver give or receive a gift from her or him it's too much good and I like the to buy and buy a gift for the other and receive a gift for other especially on the my birthday because of all a person give me a smaller big things to make me a happy and my my friend knows I like to do this thing that's why he or she give to me this thing and I am the very very very happy on the my day and I like that
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