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Describe when someone gave you something you really wanted /a gift your received: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who gave it to you?
  • What was the thing?
  • When you received it?
  • Why you needed it?
  • How you felt about it?
Show all 90 answers

Cue 1:Who gave it to you?

  • Begin by introducing the person who gave you the gift, mentioning your relationship with them.
  • Share a brief background about why this person is significant to you.

Example

The gift was given to me by my younger sister, Priya. She has always been my closest companion and knows me better than anyone else.

Cue 2:What was the thing?

  • Clearly describe the gift you received, including its name and any special features.
  • Explain why this particular item was something you really wanted.

Example

The gift was a beautiful leather backpack that I had been eyeing for months. It was stylish and perfect for my college needs, with enough space for my books and laptop.

Cue 3:When you received it?

  • Mention the occasion or event during which you received the gift.
  • Provide a timeline to give context, such as the month or year.

Example

I received it on my birthday last year, which made the moment even more special as I had been hinting at wanting it for a while.

Cue 4:Why you needed it?

  • Explain the practical reasons for wanting the gift, such as utility or necessity.
  • Share any emotional reasons that made the gift more significant.

Example

I needed the backpack for my daily college commute, as my old bag was falling apart. It also represented my sister's understanding of my needs and style.

Cue 5:How you felt about it?

  • Describe your emotional reaction upon receiving the gift.
  • Share how this gift impacted your relationship with the giver.

Example

I felt incredibly grateful and happy when I unwrapped it. It made me realize how thoughtful my sister is, and it strengthened our bond even more.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the importance of the gift in your life.
  • Reflect on how this experience has influenced your views on giving and receiving gifts.

Example

In conclusion, this gift was not just a backpack; it was a symbol of love and understanding. It taught me the value of thoughtful gifts and how they can strengthen relationships.

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 Detail in Responses

Providing vague answers can make your response less engaging and informative. It's important to give specific details to create a vivid picture for the examiner.

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Tip

Use descriptive language and include specific examples about the gift, such as its appearance, significance, and your feelings.

2: Ignoring the Cues

Failing to address all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. Each cue is designed to guide your response and ensure you cover all aspects of the topic.

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Tip

Make sure to answer each cue in order, providing a clear and structured response that flows logically.

Overly Simple Language

Using very basic language can limit your score. It's important to demonstrate a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures to impress the examiner.

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Tip

Practice using varied vocabulary and complex sentences to express your thoughts more clearly and effectively.

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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

On my last birthday, I received my dream gift from my sister who is very close to my heart and we are sharing a very emotional and strong bond. So she gifted me an iPhone 17 which is the latest model of the iPhone and I actually wanted it. So the gift was a very surprising gesture for me and I was emotionally overwhelmed when I received that gift. She surprised me with some flowers and cakes also. So the gesture was very sentimental and it is carrying the very high emotional value in my mind. Also she bought it from her first salary so it was very special for her too and the phone is latest model of iPhone. So I was looking actually forward to buy it.

Band 6-7

So, my topic is flowers. Why I chose it because till this date I haven't received it. Flowers are the most auspicious and prettiest thing that you could ever give to someone. It signifies your love to that person and it's the most cool or decent gifts that you could give. Flowers are shared during your birthday, even birthdays or any year's success party or like that or even in your weddings. So, it has many colors and each color signifies with some meanings and flowers are basically beautiful. I haven't received it till this day from someone. Maybe I was thinking how I'm gonna react when I do receive it in the future days.

Band 6-7

A gift that I'll always remember is actually a pair of sunglasses that I received from my mother. I have always fancied collecting sunglasses since I've always seen my mother collect them. She has always loved sunglasses and wherever she could, she bought a pair of goggles and kept it with herself and obviously used them as well. So for some reason I've always fancied doing that myself. But the favourite pair that I'll always and always remember is the one that my mother gifted to me after my US trip. So what happened was that we had travelled to the USA in 2094 and while we were shopping there at a brand I fell in love with a pair of goggles because it was a very unusual colour. It was a camel colour pair of goggles with a cat eye but not a regular cat eye but a diamond shaped cat eye and a golden small logo on the sides of the goggles. I had fell in love with it and we ended up buying that for me. But then during the trip somewhere we lost it while we travelled from the east coast to the west coast. We lost that pair of goggles and I was really sad about it. Once we came back, I was still sad about them but I thought I'll forget it and I'll move on from there. But my mom ordered it from somebody who was travelling from the US to England.

Band 6-7

In February 2024, my existing earphones broke down and did not work as expected. The sound would cut off abruptly and also sometimes it would not play at all. So, at this time, I really needed a new pair of earphones. And that's when my parents decided to gift me a pair of earbuds from the company Noise. They gave this to me once I asked it to them and they surprised me with this and I was very delighted. The reason I needed these were just not because my earphones did not work, but also because my existing earphones wrapped around my neck and were very uncomfortable to use and walk with everywhere. So, I needed a new pair of earbuds which did not interfere with my natural movements and I could wear them everywhere, enhancing portability. Once I received it, I was very happy and I was grateful that my parents would give me anything I ever asked for them. Not only that, but it also came at a time where other things in my life were not going so good, so well. So, my parents decided to surprise me and gift me this pair. And it made me feel that, yes, despite life being bad in a certain phase, it is absolutely fine as long as you have good people around you. Overall, I was extremely thankful to my parents and was pleased with the gift.

Band 6-7

I remember when I was around 11 years old I got this gift. Actually it's for a surprise present gifted to me by my parents. I was very keen for having a bicycle. On my 11th birthday my parents did gift me a geared bicycle and I was very happy about it. Having a geared cycle as a 11 years old was actually a very big thing in that times. Also I remember I was the first one in our society to have a geared bicycle at that time. It was very heartwarming that my parents gifted me the cycle. I used to play cycle with my friends in our society compound.

Band 6-7

I really wanted something is a mobile phone. My brother gave me a mobile phone as a gift of my birthday and it was not an Android 4 it was a iPhone. My great wish is to use iPhone because my friends and my old friends have iPhone and they used it to use that phone to take pictures and the clarity of the picture was very awesome that's why I feel very enthusiastic to use that mobile phone. On my 16th birthday my brother gave me iPhone at that time I feel overjoyed and it was a premium and new version iPhone 60 Pro Max mobile phone so at that time I felt very happy and I can't explain what I feel that time. After that he gifted me a small teddy bear and that also makes me very happy that both those gifts are very valuable for me and also I loved it very much and that was the wish I ever had in my life.

Band 6-7

The time when someone gave me something I really wanted, I remember it was in my birthday. But before this, I remember me and my friend, we went window shopping together. And there's this very store, a famous store called Miniso. And it's one of my favorite stores, mainly because it has the cutest plushies and the cutest accessories. And it's just really such an adorable store. And I remember I loved window shopping there. But I was really sad because I really wanted to buy almost all of the items. But you know, it's out of my budget, it's out of my pocket. So I can't really do anything about that. And me and my friend, she noticed that I was eyeing a plushie. It was this huge banana plushie. And it was like almost the same height as me. And I was just telling her how amazing this was. Like a huge life-size banana plushie. That's like so cool. And she noticed I really was fascinated by this gift. And my birthday is in November. And this incident happened in September. And literally after a month, guess who bought me that banana plushie? She bought me this and brought it to school to give it to me. And I remember telling her how crazy she was because it was really expensive. And I really felt bad because I didn't realize she would actually buy it for me. It was an unexpected present. And I really, really love her for that. And I told her that I would cherish it for the rest of my life. So in conclusion, I would say that this banana plushie was something I really wanted. And it was one of the best gifts I ever received in my entire life.

Band 6-7

so I remember when I remember an incident when a close friend of mine gave me a coffee tumbler that is really special to my heart and it was in brown and white in color and I really need that coffee tumbler and the close friend of mine gifted me that on my birthday it is brown and white in color and it is a coffee tumbler and I needed it most because I am a coffee crazy I needed coffee I need caffeine every day and every minute then that's why they gifted me a coffee tumbler I really felt happy I felt over the skies that my friend really gifted me that thing that is very close to my heart

Band 6-7

Well, exchanging gifts on occasion is very common in my country, moreover receiving gifts shows a different kind of love and care for the other person, however I would like to talk about a time when my parents gave me something which I really wanted on my 18th birthday, they gifted me a smart phone which was packed in a lot of boxes, I was very curious about knowing what they will gift me, so they gifted me a smart phone, it was branded by Apple, also I needed it a lot because of my educational purposes, also I needed to make my assignments and also to prepare my lessons during my exams, so they gave me an iPhone and I felt on cloud 9 after receiving that gift, also it has a really eye-catching color with the latest features, I was very happy after receiving that gift, I also clicked many pictures in my mobile with my family, also I went to cafe to give party to my friends on my birthday, so I also clicked pictures there and my friends told me that it was an amazing smart phone and it has a good camera quality, also whenever I get free, I used to listen music, also I watch movies during my leisure time, so that is the gift which my parents gave me and I really wanted it for my educational purposes.

Band 6-7

My father gifted me a bicycle on my 10th birthday it was something that I had wanted for a very long time and he knew that I would love to have it on my birthday that's why he gifted it to me on that particular day. Actually for a very long time I had been telling my father that I wanted to have a bicycle he told me that he would buy it when I become of that age that I am able to ride a bicycle in a in an efficient manner. He gifted it to me on my 10th birthday as I had turned 10 and it was the time when I should have taken a bicycle because it would help me in many ways. A bicycle was very important for me since it helps a person to improve his health and it was also good for commuting to and from the school. I used to take my bicycle every day to school and came back via it. I loved that present and it was the best present that I had ever had because that was what I had wanted with all my heart. Moreover my father also gifted me a helmet and protective gear for riding the bicycle and it was an altogether amazing and extraordinary present that I had received. I still remember it very vividly till this day and I would never be able to forget it for the rest of my life.
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