[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]
Topic: Telephoning
Q. How often do you make telephone calls? [Why/Why not?]
A. Thank you for the opportunity to let me talk about this. In fact, I scarcely use a landline these days but profoundly rely on my cell phone. I usually make 5-8 calls a day and receive calls more than that. Besides, I sometimes make international calls from our landline but that would not be more than once or twice in a month.
Q. Who do you spend most time talking to on the telephone? [Why?]
A. I guess it would be my mother with whom I talk the most on the telephone. There is hardly a day that she does not call me and I feel quite relaxed talking to her. She is the person I love the most and feel most connected to. She loves me unconditionally and calls me whenever she has something to share. I believe there are many others like me who talk to their moms the most.
Q. When do you think you’ll next make a telephone call? [Why?]
A. Well, this is an interesting question! I will make the next call to my mom as soon as my exam is over and I am outside. I am sure she is eagerly waiting to know how I performed in my test and I would let her know how my experience was.
Q. Do you sometimes prefer to send a text message instead of telephoning? [Why/Why not?]
A. Yes, I often send text messages instead of calling someone. I do it whenever I need to send information to someone like my address, bank account number and so on. I also prefer sending texts at a time when I believe a phone call might interrupt someone. Thus sending texts is more suitable and convenient in many situations.
[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.]
You should say:
and explain why you remember this journey well.
Cue Card Answer:
This is a fascinating topic for me and I would like to thank you for this excellent topic. Just after looking at the topic, I recalled many journeys and trips I embarked, but for this cue card topic, I have decided to talk about a recent journey that I took by our private car.
I went to visit my uncle, James, who works in a research firm and lives with his family in Ontario and we made the journey around 3-4 months ago. This was quite a long journey and I was with my parents, aunt Julia and my younger sister. It was almost 10 hours’ journey and we thoroughly relished it. The scenic beauty on both sides of the road was mesmerizing and the country songs that my sister played on the stereo made the journey more amusing. My father and aunt drove the car and they both told us stories from their childhood which sounded unbelievable to me and I was happy to learn that they were just like me in their teenage. This was such a refreshing journey that I will always remember it.
We travelled by our personal car which is a Mitsubishi Sedan and suitable for the long journeys. My uncle James became a father for the first time and we planned the trip to see the new member of the family. We were looking forward to meeting my uncle, his wife Anna and the newborn baby. We brought many presents for all of them and had planned to stay the night there.
This was truly a memorable journey for me and I would like to take such a journey soon. First of all, this long journey helped me to get rid of the monotonous city routine I usually have and it was like a great family reunion. We stopped at least four times in different places on our route and took photos. It was like a family picnic and my father, who is usually very busy, had a great time with us. When I looked at the angelic face of the new baby, I felt like it was a journey worth taking.
Discussion topics: Reasons for daily travel
Q. Why do people need to travel every day?
A. Well, it seems like the movement is one of the most fundamental activities of the human being. They travel every day to reach different destinations including educational institutes, workplaces, or markets. They often travel to meet someone, visit a place where they engage in recreational activities, buy or sell something, to fulfil a personal or professional need and so on. Since necessary establishments are not located at a place and people have very different professions and daily requirements, they need to travel to a variety of locations and then get back home at the end of the day.
Q. What problems can people have when they are on their daily journey, for example, to work or school? Why is this?
A. I think traffic congestion is the most heinous predicament people face while commuting to their schools and offices. The traffic jam kills valuable time, create anxiety among many and make them miss their important schedule. Besides, some people are allergic to dust and yet they have to travel to and from their offices each day. Long queue for a public bus, extra taxi fare, pickpocketing and accidents are some of the common problems people face every day. It’s quite sad to notice that some women face even more challenges and problems while they are on the road.
Q. Some people say that daily journeys like these will not be so common in the future. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
A. I think for some particular types of people the journey would become less prevalent as they would take advantages of the technology and complete many tasks from home. However, as a whole, the necessity for daily commuting and travel would keep on increasing over time. A programmer or a student might stay home more than they do now but people’s need for getting outside would grow. To understand what it would be in the future, we can compare it with the past. Even after dramatic technological progress, more people, these days, travel daily then they did a decade ago. This obviously forecasts what might happen in the coming decades.
Discussion topics: Benefits of international travel
Q. What do you think people can learn from travelling to other countries? Why?
A. Travelling offers first-hand experiences and enhances our horizon and way of thinking. Travelling to foreign lands is even more beneficial. It helps us learn about a totally new culture, diversity of human interaction and refreshes us from our monotonous lifestyle. It is said that a new country always brings new ideas and experience and this eventually helps us become more receptive to other cultures and races. For instance, after I visited Europe, I started realising that we live in a world where we have a diverse lifestyle and hence we should always respect other cultures.
Q. Can travel make a positive difference to the economy of a country? How?
A. I think travelling brings benefits both for the host country and the country of origin of the tourists. From tourism’s point of view, the number of tourists and travellers directly contribute to the economy of many countries who rely on tourism. On the other hand, tourists often get ideas for new ventures or businesses both in the national and international arena and this has quite a powerful impact on the economy of a country. For instance, the entrepreneur of a large IT firm in my country actually got inspired to launch his company after he visited a similar company in Finland.
Q. Do you think a society can benefit if its members have experience of travelling to other countries? In what ways?
A. I am positive that a society, whose members travel to other countries and bring many innovative ideas, would progress faster than other societies where people scarcely travel. The same lesson is plenty in our history. Nations which travelled more had better technology, trade facility and enlightened citizens who helped progress the whole nation. This is even more true in this age of technology.
This post was last modified on 30th May 2019 8:14 pm