Cue Card # 83: When you had to keep silent

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 83

Describe a situation when you had to keep silent.

You should say:

• who is she
• where she is from
• what she does for others

and explain why you like her. 

[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:

Naturally, I am a talkative person and I believe that I have got this quality (not sure if it’s a good or bad one) from my mother who likes to have interesting conversations with people around her. Being silent is not my cup of tea and I don’t feel like being in my comfort zone when I can’t express my thoughts. But at some points or situations in life, we have no other options except to remain silent. Unfortunately, I was in that position in a drama stage at my University. I will tell you the story now.

The Cultural and Art faculty students were holding a drama to celebrate our independence day a couple of years ago and I happened to be a part of this performance. So I was present there and everything was going smoothly. Everyone was working very hard to attain perfection in both ‘stage appearance’ and ‘acting’. My part was to supervise the actors’ dialogues, which was my favourite zone in the entire process.   

Finally, the time was near for the drama to be performed on the stage. Suddenly, the director announced that one of the actors was unable to perform her role due to her health condition. So the director forced me to play the part as a replacement for her because it was just before the final call to be staged. The role was to play “dead” as a freedom fighter at a stage, and “dead people” don’t talk! They remain silent for eternity.

However, I did not remain silent for eternity as the drama ended in an hour. But at that time it felt like it was forever. Playing dead was not an easy task for me. In the entire time, I had to remain silent on the stage, while everyone was uttering their dialogues and fairing the script with their facial expressions. I was bursting with inner irreconcilable senses. But I eventually realized that it had to be done for the sake of the perfect scene in the show. After all, the show must go no.