Cue Card # 97: When you encountered a wild animal

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 97

Describe a situation when you encountered a wild animal.

You should say:

• when and where it was
• what the animal was doing
• what you did

and explain how you felt when you encountered this wild animal.

[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 seen many wild animals, on TV, that is. But, when it comes to describing a real-life situation, which involves encountering a wild animal, I think that I can remember only a couple of situations like that in my whole life to describe, and the following story is just one of them.

It was back 10 years ago when I used to be described more like a wild child. In fact, I used to be so stupidly wild and brave that I even dared to swim from one of end of a lake to the other end, which could stretch as long as half a kilometre. From catching fish in the lake to catching birds in a forest, if anybody could do it in a blink of an eye, it had to be me. Anyway, it was these wild behaviours in me which led me one day to visit a forest, far away from where I lived, on my bicycle so that I could collect the eggs of some Asian “koel” birds. But, after reaching the forest and trying for a long time to find the eggs in the nests, I got a little tired and decided to rest a little. It was at that time that I saw a fox, about 50 feet away from me, staring at me, with its teeth exposed.

Apparently, it didn’t like my presence in his territory. Not knowing what to do, I simply kept quiet without moving an inch while scrutinizing its movement very carefully. I believe that the encounter lasted for a few minutes. After that, the fox just left me alone, probably because he figured out that I wasn’t there to harm him.

Anyway, after seeing that wild animal so close to me, my first and natural instinct was to run away from it. Then I decided against the idea, as I thought that I could handle that small fox if it ever attacked me. Besides, since I knew that a fox doesn’t kill a man, it wasn’t necessary for me to run away from it, courtesy of the courage a wild boy.