Speaking Sample 35

IELTS GT Test – Speaking Mock Test # 35

[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]

PART 1:

Topic: Flowers

Q. Do you like to have flowers in your home? [Why/Why not?]
A. I absolutely love having flowers in my house. This is, in fact, a must on special occasions. Flowers make the home look beautiful and the aura of it gives us and the visiting guests a fantastic feeling.

Q. Where would you go to buy flowers? [Why?]
A. Well, that depends. I mostly visit the nearby florist’s shop, which is only 10 minutes walk from my home, to choose the type of flowers I want to have to decorate my home or to present someone. However, with the wide acceptance of online shopping, these days I can order flower online and the shop owners deliver them to my doorstep in an hour.

Q. On what occasions would you give someone flowers?
A. I think I would give flowers to almost any happy occasion. I mostly give flowers to people when they have a birthday, graduation day or a marriage anniversary to celebrate. Apart from that when visiting someone in a hospital, I buy flowers to show my good wishes. In my country, we can give flowers to someone on any occasion except in sad moments like in someone’s funeral.

Q. Are flowers important in your culture? [Why/Why not?]
A. Yes, we have different flowers with numerous colours and they are a part of our culture. We decorate our house with flowers while celebrating special occasions, congratulate people with the bouquet of flowers and show our respect to our national heroes with flowers as well. It is very common for neighbours to welcome a new family with flowers and sweet items in our country. So I would say the use and importance of flowers are deeply rooted in our culture.

PART 2:

[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.]

Describe a meeting you remember going to at work, college or school.

You should say:

• when and where the meeting was held
• who was at the meeting
• what the people at the meeting talked about

and explain why you remember going to this meeting.

Cue Card Answer:
Meetings were fun during my school days while it got quite serious and obligatory after I started my professional life. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to let me talk about a meeting I remember. I will prefer to talk about the first meeting I had with some top-notch executives in my office just after a week I joined the company.

It was the early March in 2014 when I joined a reputed law firm in London. When I was struggling to finish my initial tasks, I was informed that top management will have a meeting on Friday morning and I am requested to be present at 7.30 am sharp. It was a bit horrifying to have a meeting with the powerful executives of my company and honestly speaking, I was quite intimidated just after I entered the meeting room on the 24th floor of the office complex.

I was introduced to the bosses, and it was quite relieving to notice that two other newly joined employees were also present at the meeting. Our manager introduced us to the senior members and the director talked about how they are looking forward to seeing us work hard to maintain the integrity and reputation of the company.

I mostly remember the meeting because this was one of the first professional meetings in my life and I was nervous to be there. At a point, I started feeling at ease and while my turn came, I had to talk about my initial impression of the company. During this time, my hesitation and hypersensitivity were already gone and I was quite myself.

PART 3

Discussion topics: Going to meetings

Q. What are the different types of meeting that people often go to?
Answer: I believe the type of meetings or assemblages people go to depends on their professions, ages and objectives. For instance, higher executives decide different future strategies in their meeting while a group of employees discuss their work and deadlines. On the contrary, neighbours in an area have meetings to solve a problem or to plan for the coming events. Besides, students meet mostly to discuss a topic or their preparation for coming exams. This way the meetings and gatherings vary to a large extent.

Q. Some people say that no-one likes to go to meetings – what do you think?
Answer: I believe when meetings are boring and have no productivities to yield people find them uninteresting and a waste of time. However, there must be occasions when people look forward to joining a meeting. For instance, most of the students like to join the meeting where they are allowed to express their view. Similarly, employees love to be present at a meeting where they are allowed to talk, express their opinions and can participate.

Q. Why can it sometimes be important to go to meetings?
Answer: Meetings are meant to bring out a solution to a problem or let people discuss, complain or share opinions. This is why it is important to share our opinion in a meeting. For a professional, meetings are almost mandatory and they need to answers many queries from the top management. For all these reasons, attending a meeting is often important.

Discussion topics: International meetings

Q. Why do you think world leaders often have meetings together?
Answer: World leaders often meet to address important global issues, discuss pressing regional and international concerns and make critical decisions related to the fate of humanity. One notable such event is UN assembly, where most of the prominent world leaders gather and make decisions on important issues. They often vote in favour of a proposal or veto the motion.

Q. What possible difficulties might be involved in organising meetings between world leaders?
Answer: World leaders often have opposite views and interests. Their dividing views often creates an antagonistic approach to each other. Due to this dividing views and interests, it is often difficult to bring the world leaders to a single platform.

Q. Do you think that meetings between international leaders will become more frequent in the future? Or will there be less need for world leaders to meet?
Answer: I am quite positive that meetings between world leaders in the future would become more frequent. If we look back at history and compare it to the current era, we can notice that the meetings among the global leaders have become more common. I believe the need for meetings among global heads would become more prevalent in the coming days.