IELTS Cue Card # 145 - Describe a useful website you have visited

Details: Last Updated: Tuesday, 26 July 2022 18:02; Written by IELTS Mentor; Hits: 328836

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

Describe a useful website you have visited.

You should say:

what the website was
how you found the address for this website
what the website contained

and explain why it was useful to you.

Model Answer 1:
I hardly know or meet people who don’t like food. In fact, the idea of trying different kinds of food from different cultures and countries has become so popular among some people around the world that they don’t mind spending a lot of their time and money to learn about them. In fact, I also do the same, but I do it mostly by visiting some great cooking and food-related websites. Today, I would like to talk about one such website that I visit from time to time and find really useful.

The address of this website is www.foodnetwork.com. As the name suggests, it is a food-related website, and I found about it a few years ago when I was searching for some unique food recipes online, which I could use to cook some good dishes within a short period of time.

By the way, sometimes I just get bored of eating the same kind of food, so I look for new recipes so that my mother could try them sometimes to prepare some new but delicious meals.

The website contains recipes and food ideas pretty much from all over the world. The contents on the website are so unique and appealing that it would be almost impossible for someone to leave the website without having an urge to cook them sometimes on their own. Besides, the images and videos of different food dishes on this website are simply outstanding. In fact, just by looking at these pictures on this website or watching a video, one would automatically feel the urge to go into a kitchen even if he/she never liked cooking in the past. The website also contains all kinds of information as to what kinds of food is perfect for any possible occasions, a person could ever think of.

I find this website useful, mainly because it allows me to change my taste in foods without running to an expensive restaurant. Besides, it allows me and my family to surprise our friends and relatives by serving them some unique dishes, when they expect them in the least, which makes me so happy.

Sample Answer 2:
I use the internet almost every day, and if I make a list of useful websites that I like, the list would be pretty long. For this topic, I would like to talk about www.google.com website that I find very beneficial. Google.com is the most visited website in the world as well as the best search engine we have. It helps people search for anything they want. It brings websites, videos, news, images, and information for the searched keywords. The results are relevant and one gets enough information he/she is looking for from this website which mainly fetches information from all around the internet.

I have first used this website in 2000 when I read an article in a computer magazine about this search engine. Nowadays, this website has become so popular that a 5 years kid from any part of the world knows about Google.

This website basically contains a search input box, different searching options like video search, image search, web search, advanced search options, some copyright and help links, and search buttons. Since this website brings results from the World Wide Web, after we search for something, the results are shown on this website. This has become a very popular search engine because the result it shows serves the searchers' purpose pretty well.

For more than two decades, I have been using this website to search for the information I need. It can find search results virtually for anything someone searches. For me, this website is a great place to find information, references, academic books, story, news, websites and anything I wanted to know and find. This website is the gateway to other websites for me.

Part 3: Details Discussion

Discussion topics: The internet and communication

Q. What effect has the internet had on the way people generally communicate with each other?
Answer: The internet, one of the greatest inventions so far, today has completely changed the way we live, work and communicate. It is because of the internet that we can think of communicating with someone in another part of the world, and take care of our personal, professional and business needs within minutes, if not seconds, which was impossible to even dream only about two decades ago. With the help of the internet, we can also “personalize” our communication through some live video calls, in addition to very easily sharing and exchanging our views and opinions on important issues that are affecting our world.

Q. Why do you think the internet is being used more and more for communication?
Answer: The internet is being frequently used for communication today due to several reasons. The first reason, of course, is the ease at which we can communicate with each other so quickly, no matter where we live, and no matter whether we are walking, running, lying on the bed, or flying in the air. Another reason is that communicating over the internet is rather cost-effective, and since it is cheap, given the number of benefits it provides, people from all walks of life can use it without worrying about their hard-earned money. Finally, the professional world and the business world have embraced internet technology as their primary mode of communication and data sharing. It's another reason why the internet is so omnipotent when it comes to professional communication like emailing, video conferencing, group chatting and managing projects.

Q. How reliable do you think information from the internet is? Why? What about the news on the internet?
Answer: Even though the internet has revolutionised the way we communicate, the news and information it provides, aren’t always very reliable especially when they do not come from authentic and authoritative sources. This reliability issue arises because virtually anybody and everybody, with very little or almost no supervision, can access the internet and spread false or distorted news and information in the name of "blogging", "social networking" and “citizen journalism”. Besides, nobody’s data or information is safe on the internet because anybody can “hack” them and use those data and information to his or her advantage. So, good judgment and common sense should always be used when relying on the news and information on the internet. Relying on authoritative and famous news sources could be one such common sense in use.

Discussion topics: The internet and shopping

Q. Why do you think some people use the internet for shopping? Why doesn’t everyone use it in this way?
Answer: The idea of shopping on the internet can be rather tempting for those who don’t like the crowd, or to remain stuck in the road traffic unnecessarily while driving to a market. Some people may prefer online shopping also because they are more “homely” than others for whatever reasons that might be.

But, internet shopping just may not be everyone’s cup of tea because some of them prefer to see or feel their products physically before purchasing them. Besides, some of them may also prefer to enjoy the outdoors a little and socialise with others while shopping, but the internet doesn’t provide any of those opportunities.

Q. What kinds of things are easy to buy and sell online? Can you give me some examples?
Answer: These days, people can pretty much buy and sell anything, from needles to commercial aircraft, online, but it is mainly the small, inexpensive, and “not so essential for survival” items or products that are easier for online shopping.

Examples of such items or products would be flowers, sunglasses, dresses, perfume, computer mouse and keyboard, sound boxes, shoes, caps/hats, story books, compact disks (CD), and portable video/audio players, among many other things. These products are easy for buying and selling online also because we can afford to take a little risk with them, as far as their quality is concerned.

Q. Do you think shopping on the internet will be more or less popular in the future? Why?
Answer: It all depends on what kinds of products we are going to shop for in the future, and how assured we become about the quality of those products. But, on the whole, I think that it is going to be more popular since more and more companies are coming online to sell their products because, after all, all businesses want to maximize their revenues by using all kinds of sales channels. As a result of this, the competition becomes high, and once the competition to attract customers becomes high, the prices would eventually go down. And when the prices go down, more and more customers will visit online to buy their favourite products.

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