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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

A recent gift that I received was a purse from my favorite brand Steve Madden. It was gifted to me on the occasion of my 21st birthday by one of my best friends. The reason this bag was extremely important to me is because of the values that the bag carried for me. My purse is something that I had always had on my wish list for the longest time. My friends being able to remember what I mentioned once during our course of friendship, then gifting the same thing to me made me feel extremely nice and seen. It was a sign of important listening and curiosity to my friends and me. This gift proved to be extremely useful as it doubled not only as a fancy bag purse but also as a tote bag so I could carry it with my formals and casuals both equally.

Band 6-7

The gift that I recently received was from a friend of mine. He gifted me an action camera. It was really small, portable, but super powerful. It can be used for a variety of recording tasks. In fact, I am particularly looking forward to recording my trekking adventures with it. It can be used even more for vlogging, content creation, and recording daily activities. I am really looking forward to it. A gift that I recently received from my friend was an action camera. He gifted it around 2 weeks back when I got my first promotion. The action camera is something that I really am fond of and was greatly looking forward to in using. I was thinking of documenting all of my daily life experiences and moreover use it for recording my adventures like a trek that I am planning to go. This action camera would help me record all those experiences just to relive them at a later time or maybe I will record them for editing and publishing them in some social media. Let's see how that goes. I was really grateful for that gift and looking forward to using it in my daily activities. I might even lend them to some of my other friends because they are also going to go on some adventures which I am also looking forward to but would not be able to. The reason for that is I am quite busy. Due to this, I think lending my action camera would help them record it so that I can view that experience from their perspective.

Band 6-7

I had visited a mall once with my children. I went to a watch store in the mall. There I saw a watch which was very beautiful. I tried it on myself. It was a Titan Raga watch. It was very expensive at that time so I did not buy it but it was really amazing. I loved it. I mentioned it in front of my husband and he bought it for me for my birthday. He remembered it and it was really a very sweet gesture on his behalf to have brought it as a surprise for me. He had given it to me on my special day and I was very grateful to him that he remembered it and he could purchase it for me. I am really fond of watches.

Band 6-7

I would like to talk about my phone that was in fact gifted to me by my sister back in 2023. It was when Samsung had just launched its S23 series which I had been looking forward to for quite some time. So the launch price was around 70,000 which cost an arm and a leg for me. In fact for my parents at that time since it was my parents who were funding my phone. So I got into multiple discussions and arguments with my parents trying to get them convinced to buy me the phone that had constantly been on my bucket list. However they were so resolute and stubborn to change from their opinion that it was too much for or for a 20 year old kid to have a phone that cost around 70,000. Nevertheless my sister stepped into the scene and offered to pay the 50,000 rupees which kind of helped me buy the phone with the help of my parents who had contributed 20,000. So it was a moment of joy and satisfaction and overall gratitude for me when I felt over the moon to receive the phone that I had really been looking forward to. Because at some point I even thought to myself that I would lost it and I would stand no chance of buying it since even after multiple consultations that I would had with my parents failed. It was solely because of my sister's generosity and helping mentality I would gotten the phone and I really am

Band 6-7

When I was in my high school, I really wanted a phone, a great phone, a popular phone, an iPhone for taking selfies, like that. So I really dreamed and I really wished someone gift me that. But unfortunately, after my degree, I got married to a person who I love. After one week of my marriage, it was my birthday. On that day, he gifted me my iPhone 14 Pro. When I received it, I was surprised and I was shocked. Then it was useful for me for a clarity photo and easy to use. So I really wanted it.

Band 6-7

events of the VG schedule. Well, today I would like to talk about a gift which I received from my brother and he gave me it on my 15th birthday when all my family members when my parents have decided me and decided that we have to celebrate this we have to celebrate your birthday my 18th birthday it was a surprise party for me and my family members invited all my friends and also my brother came from Canada and he gifted me a watch a smart watch on my birthday which I really need because all time whenever I whenever I talk to him I always ask my parents and also my brother that I really want a smart watch because it is that it is a handy it is a handy gadget which I can handle easily and it is more convenient for me to take it along while traveling and also it give and also whenever I go for a morning exercise it can control it can check my heartbeat my pulse rate and also some and also check out the calories and how much and also check out at how much calories I burnt and moreover it will also reschedule all my events and also give me the and also make me alert from doing such unnecessary events or unnecessary activities which are not beneficial for me overall and this gadget is very meaningful for me because it was the first gift which I received by my brother it is very close to my heart

Band 6-7

I always wanted a silver pendant as a jewellery and because I never received or I never got to buy such kind of an accessory for myself, I kind of wanted a similar piece I have seen online on my birthday. As a result of that, my friend gave this stunning piece of jewellery which was obviously a silver pendant which I loved and it was very similar to the one I saw on the website. As I said, it's silver. In the middle of the chain, there was this leaf design with white stones embedded on it and it was so beautiful. I sincerely loved that gift and I thanked him and I wore it recently on a trip and also on an event. So overall, I loved that gift and it was really considerate and I would say that receiving that gift gave me utmost joy. I literally want to cherish this pendant all my life. It's still there and I was gifted this around 3-4 years back and I still wear it all the time. It's my most favourite piece of jewellery now.

Band 6-7

Something I really wanted and was given as a gift to me was a Michael Kors branded black and brown printed scarf which I really wished for the longest time. It was given by one of my best friends on my 19th birthday and this was a surprise for me because I did not expect this from anyone of them. It was made of wool and it has a really good fabric. I am really fond of scarves and woolen shawls etc and because I feel like they are used to enhance your outfit and they can be styled in so many different ways and can build better outfits in person. This was something I really wanted and received as a gift by one of my best friends. I really admire to keep that scarf or shawl forever with me.

Band 6-7

The gift that I got for my 5th birthday was a doll and this doll is still very close to my heart and I remember when I was 5 years old, I really wanted a huge Barbie doll and I requested my parents to bring me that doll, that specific doll and I did not think that they would actually get me that doll but when we were cutting the cake, he surprised me with that doll and that was the best gift I have ever received till date. It is very close to my heart and till date, I have that doll in my bed as a decor but I remember when I was growing up, I really destroyed that doll by giving her a makeover by painting her eyelids with eyeshadows and nail paints and cutting her hair off. By the way, it is a beautiful doll but if you see it now, it is very horrifying. My sister still plays with that doll but I am very protective about that doll so I don't let her play with my doll but whenever I am not home, she plays with it and I don't like it but I can't help it. I can't seem to make it more significant for playing with that doll but I believe that it helped me in many ways because that was the first thing that taught me how to take care of things that we love because before that, I used to just throw my dolls away and not care about them. I used to just play for one or two hours with my dolls and I used to throw them away and forget about them.

Band 6-7

So, I was asked to describe when someone gave me something that I really wanted. That would be a soft toy that was gifted by my college friend on my birthday. So, there was this one time where we were just talking casually and I had mentioned him how much I love soft toys and how much I've always wanted a soft toy as a kid. And that is mainly because I am fond of hugs and having a soft toy and hugging it every day was one of my biggest fantasies as a kid. And that never really happened in my childhood because my parents used to say it would get dirty and dusty, so I never got the big teddy bear that I always wanted. And once I told this to my friend in the conversation, he sought out to get me one such soft toy for my birthday. I was actually 18 years old when I got the birthday gift, but I still loved it so much. It was the best thing I ever got in my life. However, another thing that I can think of which I really loved and valued when I got it is my first watch. I was always fond of watches, digital or analog, just something on my wrist which would tell me the time. I always thought that it made people look cooler to have watches. I think one of the main reasons I felt that way is because I was prohibited from wearing watches in my school. And when I came to college and I was allowed to wear watches to my college, I was just so happy that I used to wear watches every day. Even to this day, even though we can see the time on the phone or other smart devices, I prefer wearing a watch which is a valuable thing in my life.
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