C. Describe an event (a festival, celebration etc.)
113. Describe a happy family event from your childhood.
- You should say:
what the event was
where it happened
what you saw and did *
and explain why you remember this event so well.
- Band 8.5 Model Answer for IELTS SPeaking Part 2:
There are numerous happy events in my life that I can recall and among them, I would like to talk
about the time when my family gathered to make the Chung cake for the Tet holiday.
The Lunar New Year, or Tet, is a very special traditional holiday in my country. It was probably
my most favorite holiday when I was a small girl as my family had a lot of activities to celebrate
this occasion. Among them, making the Chung cake made me excited the most. The Chung
cake is made of glutinous rice, green beans and fat pork, wrapped in banana leaves in the shape
of a square. I often played with my older brother when my parents prepared the ingredients for
the cake. And then, my father lit a small fire to boil the cake overnight.
It was perhaps the only time of the year when I was allowed to stay up late. While my family was
sitting around the warm fire, my grandmother would tell the old legendary story about the Chung
cake to commemorate the filial affection of Lang Lieu prince to his father and remind us of the
long
–
lasting Vietnamese tradition.
In recent years, my family has not had enough time for making the Chung cake on our own.
However, to me, a ready
–
made Chung cake that we buy from a local market cant bring the
special feeling and replace the taste of a Chung cake from my childhood. I hope that my family
can continue our tradition in the coming years.
114. Describe a short holiday (vacation) that was special for you.
- You should say:
where you went
who you spent time with
what you did
and explain why it was special for you.
- Band 8.5 Model Answer for IELTS Speaking Part 2
Today I’m going to share w
ith you a short vacation that left me a profound impression. It was a
trip to the hometown of one of my classmates at university
At the end of the second semester, our group at the university was invited to pay a 5-day visit to
the house of one of the group members, which is located in An Giang province. We had 5 people
in total and bought coach tickets to reach our destination.
On arriving at the countryside, which is quite secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city life,
we were greatly impressed by the picturesque landscapes there. The atmosphere was refreshing
and the air is unpolluted unlike in the city where many of us were living in. My friend acted as a
tour guide as he was well accustomed to the local lifestyles and tourist attractions there. We took
the motorbikes to tour the city land stopped at some street vendors to taste the local cuisine,
which I personally found tasty and delicate. After doing the sights, we gathered in the evening for
some small games and gossip about our study and our future career path.
All in all, such a short vacation still fills me with great delight each time I recall it. Hope that we
could make another vacation someday before Lunar New Year.
115. Describe a wedding that you have attended.
- You should say:
whose wedding it was
who was there
what happened
and explain how you felt.
- Model Answer
Today, I’m gonna
share with you a wedding of my friend that I attended. Last month, I received a
wedding invitation from my old friend from primary school. The wedding was held at the
beginning of April. We have been close to each other for over 15 years, therefore, I definitely
wanted to attend at all costs, due to the fact that we hadn’t had a chance to get together for
ages.
Her wedding ceremony took place at The Sum Villa, located near West Lake. It was decorated
impressively with a lot of lights, candles and flowers around the room. There were three
glamorous wedding photo albums, showing tables right at the centre of the official gate. The
principal colours were likely to be white and violet, so all the guests were requested to wear
clothes with one or both of these colours. Personally, I wore a white dress with small
accessories.
It was meant to be a casual wedding, which I had never attended before. It turned out to be
refreshingly informal. One of the best moments that really touched me was when the bridegroom
sang a song for the bride and all the guests sang along with him. Also, he made a photo clip by
himself marking their 4-year romance, to show to everyone in the room. It was no surprise that
everyone clapped their hands and cheered them. Of course, I was no exception.
It was also a good chance to catch up with my old friends and we all had a great time. We
definitely made the most of the occasion and took a lot of pictures with the bride and the
bridegroom. I gave my friend a gift to celebrate her wedding day. I had given much thought to my
wedding present when I was choosing it, and I wished her lots of happiness for the future.
116. Describe a time when you tried a new food for the first time.
- You should say:
what food it was
where you ate it
what it tasted like
and explain whether or not you liked this food
- Band 8.5 Model Answer for IELTS Speaking Part 2
Well, I’m a great fan of barbecues and I would like to talk about the first time I tried some typical
barbecue food. This happened when I was 10 years old.
My familiy went out to have dinner to celebrate my younger sister’s birthday. After putting so
much thought into some new savoury food to have for our meal, we decided to go to a BBQ
restautant on Ba Trieu street.
We ordered four dishes with three different tastes. One of them which really interested me was
grilled-Australian beef, flavoured with something spicy, rich and aromatic. It not only tasted
delicious, but also looked appealing. Also, it went well with two kinds of dipping sauces and was
served with baguettes. There was also a salad, which gave it a mild taste to contrast with the
spicy flavours.
The idea of a barbecue originated in America, and for us it was a novel and sophisticated meal.
What I really enjoyed was that we could watch as it was cooked in front of us. I loved how juicy it
was and the aroma it had. Just mentioning it makes my mouth water. I mean, the BBQ was out
of this world. That was the first time I had tried it, and I would have liked to have kept on coming
back for more, but I was just too full.
117. Describe a difficult decision that you made.
- You should say:
what decision it was
what difficulties you faced
how you made the decision
and explain why it was a difficult decision.
- Band 8.0 Model Answer
Well, the most difficult
decision I’ve ever made was whether or not I should study abroad next
year. / Well, the most important conversation I had so far was with my parents about whether or
not I should study abroad next year.
In the recent couple of years, there’s this growing t
endency among high school graduates to
embark on a study abroad program. I’ve always wanted to do the same, because it’s a good
opportunity to see the world, to experience different styles education, and to improve my
language skills. And for a girl who has never been far away from home, studying in a foreign
country might bring out my independent nature. But I need to give it some careful thought before
I could make the decision. I told my parents who are both open-minded about my plan,and they
were pretty supportive, but they also pointed out some disadvantages. My mom told me that
being in a new place by myself could be overwhelming sometimes, and it tests my ability to
adapt to diverse situations. And it’s highly possible that I would feel lonely and hel
pless every so
often, because all of my close friends and family members are on the other side of the world. I
would be completely on my own, and basically everything I took for granted in the past would
then be a challenge, like paying bills, opening bank accounts,communicating with fellow
students, and the list goes on and on.
All of a sudden, I felt stuck. All those challenges sounded terrifying, but I really didn’t want to
miss this great chance to broaden my horizon and learn more about other cultures around the
world. I weighed up the pros and cons carefully, and after some serious consideration, I finally
made up my mind to seize the opportunity to go abroad for study.
118. Describe a time when you saw an interesting animal.
-
You should say:
what animal it was
where you saw it
what happened when you saw it *
how you felt when you saw it
and explain why you thought it was interesting.
-
Model Answer:
I found there was a bat nest in my balcony recently, and one night I happened to see they flew
across the patio under our apartment and hover in the sky. I was shocked, because it was dark
outside but they knew exactly where to go without mistakes. Moreover, they went out only at
night.
I thought bats are interesting not because they can fly in the dark since I know they are nocturnal
animals. I always think the ability which aids bats fly and prey capture is their unusual eye-sight,
like another nocturnal animal, owls. But the truth is because of their echolocation. Bat
echolocation is a perceptual system where ultrasonic sounds are emitted specifically to produce
echoes. By comparing the outgoing pulse with the returning echoes the brain and auditory
nervous system can produce detailed images of the bat’s surroundings. This allows bats to
detect, localize and even classify their prey in complete darkness.
119.
Describe a meal you had your friends or family (in someone’s home or in a restaurant).
-
You should say:
who organized this meal
where you had it
what you talked about during the meal
what you ate and drank
and explain why you had this meal with your friends.
-
Model Answer
The meal I really enjoyed with my friends was the one when we graduated from high school
three years ago.
We had it in July, when we just graduated. One of my best friends Monica organized it. She
reserved our favourite restaurant which was just two blocks away from our school. It served
traditional Chinese food and we all enjoyed it so much. We often had birthday parties together
there, so it was the perfect place for us to, you know, say goodbye to our high school and start a
new life.
The food there, like I just said, was very popular. We had a lot of amazing dishes, including
MapoTofu, vegetable soup and fried rice. The yummiest one was Kung Pao Chicken, we ordered
the super spicy one, and it was crazy hot.
During the dinner, we talked about our future, you know, the university we were going to, the new
life we would have in a couple of months. We even came to an agreement that every July, we
would come back to the restaurant and had a dinner together. We all made it so far. I mean,
we’ve already had two dinners together.
120. Describe a time when the weather caused you to change your plans
-
You should say:
what your plan was (or, plans were)
what weather you were hoping for (or expecting)
what happened
and explain how you felt when you had to change your plans.
-
Model Answer
I’d like to talk about the time when my travel plan got shattered by the horrible
weather.
Last summer vacation, my parents took me to Sanya, which is a coastal city in the south of
China where there’s gorgeous views and exciting entertainment facilities. We planed a wonderful
vacation during which we could try palatable seafood, play exhilarating water sports, or just lie on
the beach doing nothing, so as you can imagine, for a girl who has been living far away from the
sea, I was pretty thrilled about that trip, but to my great disappointment, there happened to be a
typhoon just the day I arrived there, which totally ruined my plan.
It rained heavily and it was unbelievably windy, I couldn’t even step outside, otherwise I would
get completely soaked, plus, it was pretty dangerous, you know, with the gale and all. The
typhoon lasted fo
r many days, and it didn’t go away until the day I left.
I bought lots of colorful dresses that are designed to wear on the beach but sadly I didn’t have
the chance to put them on. I thought I could take quite a few stunning pictures that I could post
on the social networking websites where I can get a lot of likes, you know. However, I just ended
up staying in the boring hotel, complaining about the unexpected weather, which pathetically
became my Plan-B.
So I felt that the money I spent on my flight tickets and the hotel just went down the drain. It was
literally the worst travel experience ever.
121. Describe a time when someone apologized to you.
-
You should say:
who apologised to you
why they apologised
where it happened
and explain how you felt (or what you said) after this person apologised.
-
Band 8.0 Model Answer:
Today I’m going to share with you an occasion when one tour consultant gave me an apology for
being late for picking us up at the airport.
It just happened in last month. My friends and I decided to go travelling to somewhere during the
vacation. Finally, we chose Korea as our destination. As none of us can speak Korean and in
order to avoid any uncertainties may occur during the trip, we think joining a travel group may be
the best choice for us. So we consulted a local travel agency and made the payment
immediately. The travel agency promised that they would pick us up on time at Seoul airport
when we arrived there. However, when we arrived in Seoul and waited for over 1 hour, no one
showed up. By nature, I’m a forgiving person and hardly take mistakes seriously because I think
anyone can make blunders sometime really. But waiting for such a long time made me feel
helpless and annoyed. I called back to the travel agency and after an hour of busy signals, I
finally got through. The staff who answered my phone explained to us that it was his fault that he
forgot to type our names on this travel group list and he would try his best to solve the problem.
Finally, the company arranged another car to pick us up and we got part of refund as well when
we came back to HongKong. He also sent us a long email to show the apology to us for his
mistake. My gut instinct told me that the apology seemed genuine and sincere, and I should try
to accept the apology and then I acted on that acceptance by replying his email to show my
appreciation for his attempts and my willing to recommend their tours to other friends who want
to visit Korea.
122. Describe the first time you used a foreign language to communicate
-
You should say:
who you communicated with
what the situation was *
what you said (or wrote)
and explain how you felt during this experience.
-
Model Answer 1:
I remember the first time I talk with other people in English happened when I was a middle
school student.
One day, my mom heard from her colleagues that there was an English Corner that would be
held twice a month near our apartment. So she encouraged me to go for practicing English-
speaking skills. Actually, I was not willing to do that. But finally I forced myself toward it because I
know it was a good chance to communicate with foreigners.When I arrived there, a guy came
over me with a warm smile. He started to introduce himself and showed his friendliness. He
spoke English in a fluent and natural way and sounded like a native English speaker. Needless
to say, I was a bundle of nerves because I knew my English accent, pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary were not good at all. Surprisingly, he told me that English was not his mother tongue
and urged me to speak out. Thus I used my poor English to chat with him and he listened to me
patiently, complimented on my accent which made me feel much more confident.
Although we just met for a while, that inspirational man really motivated me to learn English with
focus and commitment. I also got to understand that if you want to learn something new, you
must be brave and go towards it.
-
Model Answer 2:
The first time I used a foreign language was actually pretty funny.
When I was in high school, I attended a summer camp in London, and our school arranged
home-stay for us in order to help us learn the language and customs. We were so thrilled about
that trip and most of us just couldn’t get to sleep on the
plane, even though it was an exhausting
15-hour flight. I remember by the time we arrived at our homestay family, it was early in the
morning, but due to the jet lag, everyone was drowsy. And I drank a lot of coffee on the way, so I
needed to use the bathroom badly. It was a three-
story house, there’s no way I could find the
bathroom myself. So I asked the mother in the family where the bathroom was, but she led me to
a room with a bathtub but no toilet. I was confused. But I suddenly remembered there are minor
language differences between American English and British English, so I thought maybe that
was one of them. I got out of the “bathroom” and racked my brains trying to find a word better
than “pee”, ‘cause I guess “I want to pee.” is not a proper thing
to say to a stranger. But I really
couldn’t think of anything other than that, so I just went ahead and said “Excuse me, where can I
pee?” And she took me to a room on the second floor.
So that was the first time that I communicated with a foreigner, and as you can see, it was a little
embarrassing. But once I got to know the language and their customs better, everything just
went much smoother.
123. Describe an occasion when you helped someone.
-
You should say:
who you helped
how you helped them
where it happened
why you helped them
and explain how this person reacted to your help
or/and explain how you felt after helping this person.
-
Sample Answer
Well. There are times when people need other’s help and lend a helping hand to others as well I
am no exception. Last year, I helped my roommate to see a doctor as she could barely walk
because of the great pain caused by kidney stone.
Actually, it was in a snowy morning, I waked up and saw that she was trembling all over and as
white as a sheet in her bed. She thought it would be alright after a while. Without a second
thought, I took all the cash I had and helped her to get dressed, and then we hurried to the
nearest hospital in a taxi. However, after all the difficulties we had in catching a taxi and all the
coldness and pain my roommate suffered, the hospital did not put an immediate end to it. We
had to stand in a long line to pay the registration fee first.What pissed me off was that there were
still more patients before us waiting to see the doctor. Later, with prescription in hand, I had to do
the whole waiting thing again to pay for and pick up medicine separately. Thankfully, the acute
pain of my roommate was greatly relieved by a shot of painkiller. As we returned to school, I put
her to bed and saw her grateful look.
For my part, I think it is quite natural to help people we care about and expect nothing in return.
And I believe a friend in need is a friend indeed. Besides, I do enjoy the feeling of being needed.
124. Describe a time when you made a mistake.
-
You should say:
where you were
what you were doing
what mistake you made
and explain what was the result of your mistake.
-
Band 8.5 Model Answer:
Ok right then, I had a project I was working on, and while I was in the middle of typing up my
documentation, my computer started acting weird. It froze for a while and so I rebooted. After 10
minutes, the computer showed a blue screen saying that there were problems and
recommended that I reboot the computer again. After another reboot, everything appeared to be
ok. I continued my work and finished for the day. I spent two days on this assignment and when I
went to retrieve my data the next day to double check my work, my computer wouldn’t start up. A
technician came and found that my hard drive malfunctioned. I lost all the data and lost two days
of work.
I was disappointed and thought I would never trust a computer again, but there was a great
lesson to be learned. I had a couple of warnings and I ignored them. From then o, I practiced
being someone who can anticipate problems. I now think of potential problems ahead of time
and pay attention to details along the way. If I applied this sooner, I would have saved the data
on another computer and I wouldn’t have lost a couple days of work. But I can’t sa
y I regret
making the mistake because it made me someone who can anticipate problems better.”
125. Describe a situation that made you a little angry.
-
You should say:
what it was that made you angry
where you were when this happened
what you were doing at the time
who you were with
and explain how you handled this situation or and explain why you felt angry.
-
Sample Answer
A recent situation that made me angry was getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way to meet some
friends. It was last Sunday lunchtime,
and I didn’t expect there to be much traffic; people don’t
work on Sundays, so the roads aren’t usually very busy.
Everything was going well until suddenly I saw a queue of cars on the road in front of me. I had
no choice but to join the queue and wait to get past whatever was causing the delay. It turned out
that it was caused by some roadworks, and it took me an extra 30 minutes to get past them.
Getting stuck in traffic congestion doesn’t usually make me angry, but this time it did, mainly
because I w
asn’t expecting it and I knew that my friends were waiting to meet me for lunch. I felt
frustrated and powerless because there was nothing I could do to change the situation, and I had
no idea how long I would be sitting there waiting. When I finally saw the reason for the
congestion, I was relieved that I was close to getting past the roadworks, but I still felt a bit
stressed knowing that I was half an hour late.
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