Cue Card Sample

IELTS Cue Card # 144 - Describe your favourite colour

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

Describe your favourite colour.

You should say:

  • what colour it is
  • what the significance of this colour is
  • how you started liking it

and explain why this is your favourite colour.


 

Model Answer 1:

I’m not sure I have just one favourite colour, but if you insist on making me choose I know which one it would be. Well, my favourite colour is blue! That doesn’t seem quite enough to say. There are so very many variants of the colour. Sky blue, sea blue, azure blue, navy blue, royal airforce blue, midnight blue, and cobalt to name but a few. Then there are all those colours that are sort of blue, but tip over into green as well like turquoise or teal. To make it even more complicated there are rich blues that might almost be purple like the colour of the iris flower in my country. If you go to a DIY store and pick up a colour chart for different paints I expect there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to describe the colour blue – and I don’t even know if we all see the colour in the same way. It is mind-boggling!

I don’t know quite what the significance of the colour is, but I find it a really attractive hue. In nature, I love a clear blue sea or the complex blues of a sky. Moody grey-blue before a storm, dark midnight blue at dusk or bright blue littered with fluffy white clouds on a summer day. As a child, I pronounced at an early age that blue was my absolute favourite colour. I think I did it partly to be different, most girls were expected to like pink but I wanted to dissociate myself from that and stubbornly declared a preference for blue, traditionally a boy’s colour.

We used to go for walks from my first school in a big crocodile of children. We each held on to a coloured ribbon that was attached to a long piece of rope, accompanied by two teachers, one leading at the front of the rope and a second walking at the back of the line to keep us all safe. My classmates would fight for the pink ribbon, but ‘my’ blue one was always free. That helped me feel an affinity for the colour from when I was very young.

As an adult I think the colour blue suits me to wear, particularly dark blues, I look positively ill in paler colours for some reason. I don’t know if that goes anyway to explain why I still like the colour so much, perhaps vanity is part of it. However, I think the main reason has to be that I associate blue with huge spaces, be that a great sea stretching out to the horizon or the sky opening away to infinity. Looking at that gives a sense of perspective, we are such tiny beings in a vast universe, what could be more impressive a colour than one that reminds us of that!

[ Written by - Lucy Marris | Careers Adviser (UK), TEFL teacher (Vietnam) ]


 

Model Answer 2:

Up until recently, I never really cared to distinguish among any colours to be my most favourite or least favourite.  However, several months ago, I had to change my mind after looking at a very beautiful painting work in blue colour.
 
Therefore, I guess, it is fair to say that "blue" is my favourite colour these days.  Of course, I have liked some other colours also before here and there just for the sake of liking them because of my mood or different circumstances, but there is no doubt today that blue is my favourite colour, and it will probably remain so for a long, long time.

So, what is exactly so significant about this particular colour which I really like that much? Well, the answer is, it is the colour of the sky.  Now, if something as vast as the sky, which is towering over our earth and universe, prefers its colour to be blue, then who am I really to like some other colours!  Sometimes, I also feel these days that our world and the things, especially the blue waters in the oceans, on it wouldn’t look as beautiful as they do without a beautiful blue sky over us.  On top of that, we can hardly associate anything negative with the colour blue.  Some people also suggest that we tend to become more creative and smart, more often than not, when we are surrounded by blue colour.  But, is there really any truth in this sort of suggestion? Well, it is hard to tell, but as far as I am concerned, when I am surrounded by blue, I feel more alive and energetic.
 
Anyway, I like the blue colour because it makes me feel more alive, and it is easier on my eyes than any other colour.  Besides, I have a thing against “colour pollution”, and I think that blue colour is the only colour that doesn’t present any colour pollution within our environments and on our building structures, no matter how much of it we really use.  In fact, I have also found that actually more people like blue than disliking it.


 

Model Answer 3:

My favourite colour is "green", and I have loved this colour even as a child. Green is the colour of nature, liveliness, fertility and freshness. The first reason I like this colour is that mother nature bears this colour everywhere.

There is nothing more beautiful than the vast green fields, woods, and nature - which is predominantly green. Green is the symbol of life and it represents safety. The colour green also represents good luck, health and tranquillity. This colour has long been a symbol of fertility and that's why once been used in wedding gowns, mostly in the 15th century.

If we judge this colour from the colour psychology perspective, we learn that green balances the heart and emotions and thus create an equilibrium state. From the meaning of colour perspective, green is the symbol of growth, the colour of spring and symbolises renewal and rebirth. It is the sanctuary away from the complexity and stresses of the modern lives and the tranquillity of the calm, fresh and greener area.

I have my wall painted green, and it is generally believed that green is an eye-friendly colour, unlike red. The mild green colour is a popular colour which does not look too violent or too dull. I liked this colour even in my childhood, and I can be sure of that from the dominant green that I used in my childhood paintings and arts. My teachers sometimes laughed at my weakness in the green colour when I painted a green sun and green moon! I still remember I painted a green alien and that painting became very famous among our friends! 

I am not quite sure how my fascination started to grow about his colour, but I guess I started liking this colour as I had spent my childhood in an area where green was the most dominating colour. This was the colour of nature and I was surrounded by the beauty of nature. Maybe this idea influenced my preference for this colour. It could be also true that this choice is not directly related to any of my experiences, and was reflected at a later stage as part of my individuality and personal preference. Whatever is the reason, I guess Green is a colour of profound importance, and no doubt is my favourite colour.


 

Similar Cue Card Topics

Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would enable you to talk about the following Cue Card Topics as well:


1.    Describe a colour you really like.
2.    Describe the colour you always prefer.
3.    Describe the most beautiful colour.
 

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