Unpopular opinion you hold or have - Cue Card # 707
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IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.
Describe an unpopular opinion you hold or have.
You should say:
- what it is
- for how long you have this opinion in your mind
- whether you have ever shared it to someone
and explain why you think this is an unpopular opinion.
[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 1:
Well, that's an intriguing topic and I am delighted that I have been given a chance to talk about something I feel deeply but can't discuss very often.
The obvious and yet very unpopular opinion I want to talk about is how our police and special security forces have been given an autocratic power to get away with their misconducts and oftentimes serious crimes. I am not talking about one or two corrupt cops and their discrete horrendous acts, but about the whole system that helps them get away with it.
Police and special forces are meant to protect ordinary people and their property and lives and maintain peace and harmony in our society by acting lawfully. They are also a part of society and they should be made responsible for any crime they commit. But, the legislative system and the existing policies make it really tough to hold them responsible and discriminate when it comes to ensuring justice. Police, in our country and many other countries, go unpunished for their crimes but ordinary citizens are convicted swiftly for the same crime. It's like a single country with dual policy and that's something I believe is totally unfair and unjust.
I have been holding this unpopular opinion for more than ten years. The first time a corrupt cop killed an innocent boy in our neighbourhood over a false charge of extortion and got away with it, I started to believe that something is wrong in our system. Despite the media attention and demonstration from ordinary citizens, the same policeman is now working in a different department with the police and seems like have been promoted for his crime!
I have shared my opinion with a few of my friends and their opinions are mostly against these discriminatory policies and system. My uncle is a retired policeman and when I discussed it with him, to my surprise, his opinion accords with mine.
This is an unpopular opinion because people don't want to talk about it, let alone do something to break the corrupt system. They either believe that they can't do anything about it or feel that police personnel are above the law and should be granted special privileges. Their opinion is often biased because they consider it a political issue rather than a social or human right issue.
Model Answer 2:
I am not exactly an opinionated person who likes to impose his views or opinion on others. But, there are some issues and opinions, which I feel really strongly about from time to time. Today, I would like to talk about one such opinion which is considered to be very unpopular by many.
This unpopular opinion involves imposing more than 100% vat or sales tax on all kinds of tobacco products/cigarettes and banning public smoking altogether, if possible. I have held this opinion for more than a decade, after witnessing the death of one of my dear uncles, but I started to feel even more strongly about all kinds of smoking in the recent years after learning about its negative effects on our health and environments.
In fact, Smoking can cause fatal diseases such as pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer. Smoking causes 84% of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). And, I am not even talking about the more regular negative health effects like cough, cold, wheezing and asthma. On top of that, the negative effects of smoking on our environments are just immeasurable, given the fact that trillions of cigarettes filters/butts, made of a form of cellulose acetate plastic, are tossed out every year worldwide which takes about a decade to decompose and then getting absorbed by the soil. And, because of this long process to recycle these plastic matters back to the soil, it slowly and slowly loses its fertility and natural characteristics to liven our earth. By the way, I have already taken up the issue to our local city council authority to put some kind of ban on smoking, but they simply laughed at my suggestion.
Anyway, I think that this is an unpopular opinion, mainly because the businessmen, who are involved with the business of manufacturing and selling tobacco products, are vehemently opposing this idea because that would make them lose their business and money. Besides, some chain smokers would simply never let go of their habit of smoking because they are just too addicted to this deadly habit.
