Cue Card # 141: Describe a gift you have received

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 141

Describe a gift you have received that is/was important to you.

You should say:

• who gave it to you and on what occasion
• what it looks/looked like
• how you use/used it

and explain why it is/was important to you.

[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:

I have been lucky to receive many gifts in my life at different times from my family and friends. While I like all of those gifts in one way or another, today, I would like to talk about a gift which I consider a bit more unique and important than the others.

This important gift, I have decided to talk about today, is a digital or electronic dictionary which I received as a gift from one of my dear uncles on my 21st birthday. Now, prior to receiving the digital dictionary, I didn’t really know much about it except that it was a “different” kind of dictionary which could come really handy if I needed to learn new words and their different kinds of meanings.

Anyway, once I was offered that gift, wrapped up in a nice and distinct-looking box, I became really excited and immediately opened up the box to see my gift. There, I saw a nice mini-laptop like handheld device in a shiny navy blue colour, just begging me to play with it. It was about little over 6 inches long with a separate LCD screen and a separate writing panel with a full keyboard. The dictionary had nice rounded corners and very smooth edges to offer it a very nice and distinct look.

Apart from the most basic and important dictionary function to look for the meaning of words, nice little electronic equipment also text-to-speech recognition feature, programmes to help study difficult vocabularies, calculator and calendar. It also had game playing and other multi-media features. By the way, made by Casio Company of Japan, the digital dictionary also came with a nice looking leather bag in order to carry it safely and securely.

Anyway, this gift was important to me, mainly because it had significantly helped me improve my English language skill in a very relaxed mood. The dictionary was important to me also because it would help me pass my time by playing video games and listening to music.