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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 memorable gift I received on my last birthday was a neck pillow which was gifted to me by my best friend Harinandana. So she got it for me from Miniso and the neck pillow is very soft and cushiony and comes with a free eye patch. It has a very cute avocado imprinted all over the pillow. I was really happy as I always wanted one for all my travel purposes. I have to travel a lot for most of my study related programs and exams so having a neck pillow is very important to me. She paid attention whenever I told her I needed this very much for my journeys and that made me feel very grateful about her being there in my life and buying me stuffs that I always wanted to. Moreover the neck pillow is very comfortable and I can always carry it along with me because it's very light in weight and very attractive in look which allows me to be relaxed whenever I'm traveling by train or car and sleep comfortably.

Band 6-7

there was a my friend my best friend she gave me my lipstick on my birthday it was really costly and also the shade suited me so well I was so so excited for it I'm mostly into brown lipsticks but it was a plum it was in the shade plum and I I bought another two shades in the same brand it was good yeah I loved it

Band 6-7

The gift I received that I really wanted for around 3 years was XBOX. I received it on my 7th birthday. I just couldn't digest the fact that someone actually cared to get me an XBOX. It was actually my close relative who had gotten me from Canada. The moment I saw it, all my emotions were really at their peaks. I couldn't process my emotions. I was so happy. I was crying at the same time. I was really grateful to my family members who have gotten it to me. The best thing was they also got me all the CDs that related to it. 4-5 games that came with the XBOX as default. I just really loved the way they presented it to me in a box wrapped around with a Christmas wrap. The fact that they paid around 40-50,000 and the most complex emotion for me was I never actually cared to talk to them to know how they are. But after that we have been happy ever after and I am still happy that I have the XBOX. From then on I started to care about my family and respect them. That was one of the part of my memory in my life that I could never forget.

Band 6-7

On my last birthday I got a really special gift which was a Casio watch which had a rose gold color strap and a digital dial. I was eyeing on it for a long time more than maybe two years and it was gifted by my friend for that instance and my birthday evening he came and he just put up a box near my bed and left. I was confused like who gave me this and when I opened it I was very excited to see that the same watch which was in my wishlist for more than two years was there right in front of me. I was overjoyed by it and it was a really special gift for me because at that point of time I didn't have a watch with me and I really needed it for the daily usage as well. My friend who knew me better and whatever I wanted he took a lot of effort however it was my best birthday gift which I have received because I didn't own the Casio watch before and I heard plenty of good reviews about it so I love that present very much

Band 6-7

My friends gifted me this Silly Sloth hoodie blanket. It is essentially a really oversized hoodie which almost wraps around you like a blanket. I received it as a birthday gift during my 17th birthday. I was really happy to receive it because it was something that I saw on Instagram while scrolling and I just thought maybe it's a fun thing to have and when I told my friends they immediately went and got it for me and it was something that made me feel really seen and really happy because they didn't dismiss it as something a child would want or something which is not useful but the good thing is that it did I did use it a lot especially when I was in my college. The area that I used to live in was in a valley and it was quite cold especially during the winter days it used to get extremely cold so I would just wear my blanket hoodie and wrap myself and then go to sleep. I felt that although it may seem like a fun investment at the end of the day I did get a lot of use out of it and I still use it whenever I want to feel cozy and I just want to you know just want to feel the softness of that blanket I would wear it, turn on my AC and sit on my bed which is something really memorable and I love doing that and I love my friends for getting me that gift although it may seem like a childish thing to ask for I was very excited to get it and I still get a lot of use out of it so I'm really thankful for my friends to get that for me

Band 6-7

During the lockdown, due to covid, I was having an exam, there were online exams at that time and I do not have any type of laptop. I wanted the laptop so that I can clear all the exams on online mode. My father gave, after some request to my father, he brought me a new macbook air having M1 chip which was recently launched at that time to me so that I can prepare for my exams and clear it well without any lag or without any interruptions. When I was in need of anything, my father brought it instantly instead of saying I will bring it tomorrow or something else.

Band 6-7

I received a gift on my 16th birthday and it was a very beautiful bicycle and the person who gave me the bicycle is none other than my sister. Yes, my elder sister gave me it and it was a very beautiful bicycle with a pink color in it and with a little beautiful basket decorated with flowers and it decorated with my little ribbons as well and the person who decorated it is none other than my sister. Okay, so what she bought me this gift on my 16th birthday when I really need that because I always have to ask about dropping me to my tuition and I don't feel very good about it that I have to depend on anybody to like doing my chores so I decided, sorry, I feel like I feel very good that now I can go by myself to the tuition and I don't have to bother somebody and I feel very grateful to my sister and love that she is my sister who really care about me, my feelings and know what her younger sister really needed and that was a very beautiful great memory for me.

Band 6-7

Okay, so the gift which I received, it was given by my friends, so it was a joystick. So I have always been a huge fan of gaming and my friends do know about this that I really enjoy gaming. So they decided that on my birthday, they would just gift me a joystick and I was really not expecting that thing that they would do such thing for me as it was a really nice joystick and it was really, it is really smooth and while controlling it feels like the vibrations and other thing it feels like you are just a part of the game and of course, I and many times I have told my friends that this joystick is really cool and look so many features it has got, it has a wireless earphone where we can directly connect to the joystick and play games and it has many kind of vibrations and also we can put on weight to this. So they were like, this guy is always bragging about this stuff, why don't we just gift him this and I really like that idea to be honest. So on my birthday, they just got me this joystick and they also knew that I have a laptop and I usually play games on my laptop. So on that laptop, it is quite difficult to play game with the size of the keyboard which it has and of course, you have mouse and keyboard, you have to control both the things at a time. So sometimes, as I have been usually playing games on computer so but while first time when I played with the joystick at my friend's house, I was really like fascinated about it. So they decided that fine, we will just get him this and after getting this, I was really happy like I never thought that they think so much about me and when I got the joystick, and now my gaming experience is really smooth and I kind of enjoy gaming rather than bragging on.

Band 6-7

The most favorite thing I received is a car. It was given by my father. I received it one year ago. The car is a black Kia Seltos and it's an SUV. I really like the car and when I received the car I really felt happy and very grateful to have a father like him. I use it for my daily purposes like going to colleges and also during the weekends I go to different places to explore with the car along with my friends. It's a really good car containing good specifications and also when I travel a lot with the car I covered almost like 5000 kilometers using the car. It's a top-end model. It is really expensive and whenever I drive the car I feel like I am driving a luxurious car. I feel really happy to have that car and also it makes my life very easier as many people need to go through bus but my parents could afford me a car so that I could go to college comfortably.

Band 6-7

Although everyone received various gifts on occasions like birthdays and weddings, but only few gifts were very useful in day to day life. Here I would like to talk about a gift which I received from my grandfather on last year on my birthday. My grandfather gifted me a watch, an analog watch. At that time I am suffering from heavy losses because I am not able to manage my time and schedule. Like, I also suffer in studies and I am not doing well in my work also. As I am working in some particular fields where time is very important. So my grandfather told me to wear this watch daily. As a result, when I start wearing that watch, my schedule gets corrected and I am able to do everything on time as I know what is the time and when you have to do what thing. As a result, my schedule also improved but my other things also improved like I get time for everything and also some leisure time. And the feeling about it was overwhelming. First, I think it would not help me as much as that much but when I start using it, then I realize I just need a watch to manage my time and at the end I feel excited and I am thankful to him.
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