IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 142
Describe a present which you received and that you broke accidentally.
You should say:
- what gift item it was
- on what occasion it was presented to you
- how you broke it
and explain how you felt when you broke it.
[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]
Model Answer:
Once I received a precious gift from my mother on the occasion of my 17th birthday. I loved the gift so much and tried to secure it as best as I could, but despite my best efforts, I broke it one day by accident. Here I would like to share that story with you today.
My 17th birthday was a very special one for me as I had just graduated from college. Naturally, I was very excited because I was going to start a new life at a new educational institution with new friends and surroundings. So, what kind of gifts, I was going to receive on my birthday was the least of my concerns, but that, of course, didn’t prevent my mother from buying a special gift from me. However, when my mother told me that it was going to be a Chinese kettle, I wasn’t very much amused, to say the least.
But, when I opened up the gift, I was thoroughly impressed with it as my mother actually had gone through all sorts of pains to take to a designer’s shop and curb my name on it. The shiny gift in bright magenta colour also had the birthday wishes of my loving mother, written all over it. By the way, it was a small kettle that was made of very fine quality ceramic, and I used it only occasionally to prepare my tea. But, one day, it fell on the floor and broke as I had put it on the edge of a table by mistake.
Anyway, when I broke the kettle, I felt really terrible. In fact, I rebuked myself for quite some times for not being careful enough with my special kettle. After that, I, of course, told to myself, while collecting the broken pieces in a broken heart, that I was going to buy a new one, but, then I also thought that the new one wouldn’t have the loving touch of my mother anymore.