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Written by IELTS Mentor

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

Describe something special you brought home from a holiday.

You should say:

• what it was
• when and where you went on this holiday
• what you did with it after you brought it home

and explain why you think it was something special.

Model Answer 1:

Call me “frugal” or “not-interested-in-random-things”, I seldom buy anything, when I am on a holiday trip, unless of course, they are exceptionally beautiful. But, when I went on a holiday trip last winter, I bought something special without worrying about its price at all.

It was an extraordinarily-beautiful looking quilt blanket. Of course, I am no expert of quilts, but I was very sure that it was quilted with the utmost care and love from start to finish. And, yes, it was a homemade quilt which used some traditional cotton fabrics both at its top and bottom.

Not sure, how many layers are used in this quilt or what kind of materials are used to make it soft and smooth from the inside, but those materials surely made this quilt very comfortable and light. By the way, at some point, after buying it from the small souvenir shop of the small tourist town near the ocean about six months ago, I became so impressed with it that I actually wanted to tear it a little in order to find out what kinds of materials were used to make it so comfortable. But, I decided against it as I feared that I would destroy that “one of a kind” quilt by doing so before even taking it to home.

Anyway, before taking it to my home, I wrapped up the quilt in some beautiful coloured paper and offered it to my dear mother as a gift.  After all, I wanted my mother to use it as a blanket, and needless to mention, she just loved the idea!

Anyway, I think that it was something special, primarily because of the way it was made. After all, it was quilted with some extraordinary designs and artworks. It was special also because my dear mother loved it as soon as she had seen it and touched it. Finally, it was special also because it couldn’t only be used as a blanket but also for the purpose of home decoration.

Sample Answer 2:

A few months ago I went to Switzerland on a holiday and brought home a painting from a local shop in Zurich. It was a large painting and I had to pay a large sum of money as the tax at the airport to bring it home. However, it was such a nice piece of painting that it was actually worth the hassle and money. It was a large oil painting that depicts a beautiful natural scenery common in Switzerland and not quite common in my homeland. I have hung it in my drawing-room and this is one of the most beautiful and cherished souvenirs for me.

It was a 5 days holiday tour that was arranged by my office and we went to Switzerland on this tour. We went there in early January and visited Geneva, St. Moritz, Zurich, three museums on different places  and Swiss National Park. The alpine scenery, picturesque villages, glittering blue lakes, beautiful lakeside and astounding tranquillity of the villages took our breath away. Luckily a festival was going on during our visit to Zurich and this was another pleasant surprise for me. I visited almost all of the stalls and enjoyed the exotic foods and items they were selling. I bought the oil painting from this festival and this was something I liked when I first looked at it.

As soon as I brought it home, it became one of the best souvenirs for me and my family. I showed it to my parents and they also liked it very much. Then I decided to hang it in our living room. Every time I look at this painting, it reminds me of the exciting and memorable days I had spent on our holiday in Switzerland. Apart from that, the painting is a bit different than the other paintings I have in our house. I do not know about the painter of this mind-blowing painting, but I am sure he or she must be a very talented artist who has an inherited talent for portraying the beauty of nature in a magical way. I have brought home some other souvenirs from my other tours and holidays from different parts of the world like a neckless for my sister, a set of forks for my mother, a few dresses for me and other family members, a wooden toy gun, a guitar, a wooden box and so on but the painting I brought from Zurich festival is my personal favourite till now.

Sample Answer 3:

Street shopping in Thailand is really an outstanding idea to collect home appliances. In my last holiday in Thailand, I brought an electronic stove. This really is of great importance to me now. It helps to cook the foods early than the ordinary stoves. 

Usually, I like to shop at the street markets wherever I go. And accordingly, I take some notes to buy the things I need from the street markets. Being a bachelor, it is really difficult to cook foods and it is hard indeed to manage time to cook foods in the morning. An electric stove was the best solution for me. So, when I got the chance to get it, I did not miss it. Besides, the street markets of Thailand offer a wide variety of the piece and within a reasonable budget. On the other side, in my native city Tokyo it is much pricy. 

In each of the summer, I make a holiday visit in different attractive places inside the country, Japan. But this time I changed the plan and travelled outside of Japan. Thailand is a place of natural beauty and has many notable tourist spots. So, I moved to Thailand with some of my engineer friends. As this was a short visit of five days, I was unable to move in all the attractive places. I just have visited some of the notable places. Besides, I moved in the street markets and made a huge shopping for my parents and some of the close buddies. It was really an interesting experience for me to shop in the street. Actually, I am not habituated with such types of shopping. Besides, haggling appeared as one of the common features of the street markets. But everything went fine with me. 

The electric stove is made by a reputed Korean manufacturer and it runs well. In fact, there are some magnetic mechanisms that help to cook faster than the other types of stoves. After bringing the stove in Japan, I started using it. I have my parents who live in the other part of the city and I live in the university dormitory. I do not prefer to take food out of the home, and thus I cook my own food. But the stove of the dorm was not up to the mark and I had to wait in a queue to cook my meals. As a result, I made late for my classes in the morning. Now, this is easier for me. I can cook my meals or anything whenever I want. I do not need to move in a queue with the other students and get the cooking done.  

The electric stove is special in some aspects. First of all, it can cook very quickly that I want most. The taste of the foods remains the same. Further, it does not require any gas or oil. It completely runs on electricity. As a result, the maintenance cost is limited. Besides, I had burnt my hands a couple of time while cooking on the ordinary stoves. But there are no such risks. This is completely a risk-free device I can rely on. Based on such grounds, it appears to me that this electric stove is special to me. 

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