Cue Card Sample

IELTS Cue Card # 240 - Describe an animal that lives in the water

IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe an animal that lives in the water.

You should say:

  •  what animal it is
  •  how you know about this animal
  •  whether it is a common animal in your country

and describe this animal.


 

Model Answer 1:

This is an interesting topic because I am not really that much familiar with aquatic animals except only with a few even though I live in a country that has many lakes, rivers and ponds all over the country. Anyway, the few animals, living in water, I know about are crocodiles, whales, seals and dolphins, and today, I would like to talk about crocodiles.

Well, I have been familiar with this fascinating animal called crocodile since the days of my early childhood when I started to attend elementary school and learn about all the beautiful and exotic animals in the world.

But, I found crocodiles to be a bit special when I learned that crocodiles are one of the only animals that are thought to have survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaur population almost 250 million years ago. They survived the mass extinction and thrived for hundreds of millions of years to come. Therefore, it’s safe to say, their history on earth is a long and mysterious one!

Later on, as I grew up older, I came to learn a lot more about these large aquatic reptiles after watching many TV programmes. Then, I must also mention revered Australian legends like Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan, and the legendary Steve Irwin whose adventurous, sometimes very dangerous, works under the water made waters animals like crocodiles really interesting to me. By the way, I wouldn’t really say that the crocodile is a common animal in the country where I live, but they can be seen once in a while.

Anyway, crocodiles are large reptile animals that live in freshwater, lakes, rivers, brackish water (a mix between salty and freshwater). They can be anywhere between 5 to 18 feet long and 40 pounds to 2000 pounds, depending on which part of the world they live in. The skin of these meat-eating animals is highly appreciated in the fashion industry and represents a status symbol for wealthy people. Finally, crocodiles can live from 50 to 80 years.


 

Sample Answer 2:  

The whale is an interesting animal that lives in the water. It is the largest animal among the living creatures in the world, and they usually inhabit the oceans all around the world. The size of whales varies from 80 to 150 feet, and they have a lifespan between 70 to 80 years. But some whale species live over a century.

I have read about this gigantic aquatic animal in one of my textbooks when I was in kindergarten. Later, I have seen this animal and its characteristics on different TV channels. Some programmes were so impressive that I often wished to observe this magnificent animal from a close distance. By the way, this is not a common aquatic animal in our country, and just a few whales could be found in the ocean in our country.

The whale is so big that it is sometimes larger than a boat that sails in the water. To compare the size, it is often ten to twenty times bigger than an adult elephant. It is a marine mammal animal that can be 30 meters long and weigh more than 180 tonnes - a true giant indeed! Whales are warm-blooded animals that feed milk to their infants and have some hairs.

Different experiments and research show that they learn, teach, cooperate and even grieve like other mammal animals. Whales can make extremely loud sounds which are known as whale songs, and these sounds are their way to communicate with each other. It is generally considered that whales are predators, but they also eat various other foods like plankton. Whales that have teeth often eat fish and squid which they mostly hunt using echolocation. No doubt, this is a very intriguing animal to learn about.


 

Similar Cue Card Topics

Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would enable you to talk about the following Cue Cards as well:
  1. Describe a wild animal you know about.
  2. Describe a common bird or animal in your country.
  3. Describe your favourite animal.
  4. Describe an interesting animal that you have seen.
 
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