Cue Card Sample

IELTS Cue Card Sample 45 - Describe a river or a sea you have visited

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

Describe a river or a sea you have visited.

You should say:

  • where the river/sea was
  • what things you did there
  • who was with you, and why you would recommend the place.

and explain why you liked this particular place.

Follow-up Questions:

  • What are the differences between a road trip and a boat trip?
  • What is the importance of rivers in your country?

 

Model Answer 1:
Visiting a river site is one of my most favourite things to do during the summertime, and if I am visiting a calm river, as opposed to the “violent” ones, that’s even better. Today, I would like to talk about one such calm river that I visited about a couple of years ago.

The river, I visited, was located about 50 kilometres away from my hometown in the countryside. It was a public place, so anybody could visit the beautiful river site. In fact, I would say that it is one of the most beautiful and scenic river sites, as well as one of the longest rivers in my country. Originally, starting its journey from one of our neighbouring countries, the river has left its traces of sediments on both sides of the sandy river while passing through a number of cities and regions of my country.

Anyway, the side, which I was visiting with a few of my friends during the summertime couple of years ago, was protected by brick-built embankments. There were a number of restaurants and café on the riverside in order to provide refreshment facilities for its visitors. There were also many beautiful trees on the riverside which offered enough sitting arrangement for a significant number of visitors. Anyway, after arriving at the riverside, we first rented a large machine-operated boat to ride along the river water. After that, we also walked on the sandy bank of the river before resting at a café and enjoying some delicious snacks. By the way, I would recommend this place for others to visit because this could offer them a great escape from the busy city life.    

Anyway, I liked this particular river site because it had all the ingredients to make me feel very closed to Mother Nature. I also liked this place because I didn’t have to spend a fortune in order to enjoy the beautiful nature. Finally, I liked it also because it allowed me an opportunity to spend some quality time with some of my best friends.


 

Sample Answer 2:
I have once been at Cox's Bazar for about a week and really enjoyed my visit there. Cox's Bazar is considered to be the largest sea beach in the world and it is beside the Bay-of-Bengal. We had the trip to visit the sea, beach and natural beauty of this place.

Three of our friends including me went there in 2010 probably around June. This was a good time to visit the sea beach. We stayed at a hotel which was very close to the sea. We could hear the roaring sounds of the sea from our hotel, especially at night. The sea seems endless and this was my first time to see the vastness of the sea. I tried to imagine the position of the other shore of the sea and the depth of it and after sometimes abandoned this silly idea! I was really surprised when we took a motorboat to visit a nearby island. All I could see was water around us. The waves were so enormous and high that I thought this would hit us hard and our boat would sink. I am not ashamed to disclose that I was a bit frightened about the big waves and our small boats.

At night I walked beside the sea, I watched the lives surrounding the sea, people and their culture. The moon looked like a hanging light in the wall on the other side of the sea. The sea looked less formidable at night, except the sound which was louder at night. Tourists from different locations, local people, fishermen, long sea beach and the sea itself exposed the aspects of life and places that we never knew about. I enjoyed fresh foods and fishes, different cultures of people, the vastness of the sea, the hotel, the working-class people and their mildness and have planned to visit the place again whenever possible.


 

Tips for answering this cue card question:

You can either talk about your visit to a sea or to a place near a river. Do not describe only the sea or the river as the cue card expects you to describe your whole trip, not the river or sea only. But as part of your trip, you have to describe how was the sea/ river, where it is, what you did there, how long you stayed there, a bit about your journey and stay, what different things you observed there, what things you have enjoyed there and who was/ were with you.

If you describe a sea, you should talk about a real sea and give some factual information as people would already know about this sea. On the other hand, if you talk about the river, you can mention any river you have seen.

Some common things people do on their trip to a sea:
1. Enjoy the vastness of the sea.
2. Take sunbath on the sea beach.
3. People do some surfing and riding near the sea beach.
4. They walk beside the sea beach.
5. They enjoy the heavy tide and the sound of it.
6. They eat fresh seafood.
7. They get down in the seawater and take a bath.  
8. They take photos and enjoy the sunrise and sunset.

Some common activities people do on their trip to a river:
1. Enjoy the sweet breeze.
2. People catch fishes from the river.
3. They swim in the river.
4. They enjoy the natural beauty near the river.
5. They sit near the river and enjoy the scenic beauty.
6. They arrange a picnic there.

Your preparation for this cue card would help you answer the following cue card topics as well:

1. Describe a place near lots of water.
2. Describe your experience of the boat journey.
3. Describe your experience of visiting a sea beach.
4. Talk about a trip you had.
5. Describe a journey you recently took.

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