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

Describe a family not your own that you like.

You should say:

• whose family it is
• how many family members they have
• what are they like

and explain why you like this family.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer 1:
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to tell something on this great cue card topic. Actually, I am truly blessed to know a number of great families, and today, I would like to talk about one such family who I have known for a long time.

The family, I am talking about here, is none other than the family of a very good friend of mine. I have known them since my childhood when both I and my friend used to attend the same elementary school.

However, even though, both I and my friend became close friends right after meeting each other at our elementary school, I didn’t really have a chance to meet the whole family of my friend until after they had come to watch an annual sports competition of our school, which was actually long time after I had met my friend. Needless to say, immediately after meeting them at my elementary school, I started to like the whole family of my friend, which included his parents, three elder brothers and a couple of younger sisters (yes, my friend has a big family). By the way, one of the remarkable things about my friend’s family is that they always like to spend a lot of money in travelling and buying gifts for other people, even though, they may not necessarily be that rich.

Anyway, since meeting them for the first time on that day, there had been hardly any week when I didn’t visit them at their place or one of my friend’s family member didn’t visit my family, even though, both my family and my friend’s family live at a fairly long distance from each other.

Well, I like this family, mainly because each and every one of its member treated me like their own. In fact, since meeting them a long time ago, I can’t remember of a major festival of my country during which they didn’t buy me a gift or invite me to their place to have a family feast.

Sample Answer 2:
Umm... that's an interesting topic, I would say. There are many families I know about and I am very close to some of these families, but I have never thought that I would have to describe such a family. Well, I think describing Emma and her family would be more convenient and natural for me as she is one of my best friends and I know her family very closely.  

Emma has a family with 5 members- her parents, she, Jonathan who is 11 and Emma's sister Paula, who is a doctor. They live only 5 blocks away from our house and as a friend, I know Emma for more than 15 years. They moved here some 16 years ago and they often visit our house, I would say at least once a week. Emma is a talented girl with an excellent academic record. The reason she is a very good friend of mine because of her tender nature and friendly attitude. The first time I met her, I found her very sociable, easygoing, gregarious and cordial. Since then we two are close friends.  

Her father, Mr Alex is an architect and would be around 48 years old. He is working in a large private company and stay out of the town most of the time. When he is not working, he remains busy in his garden. He is quite a devoted gardener and I must state that he has got the finest garden on our block. He does not speak much but I had few conversations with him and I found him quite intelligent and he has a sense of humour that makes him more friendly than he appears to be.

Emma's mother is a school teacher and she teaches English literature in grade 7. She is a beautiful woman who loves every living soul. She is also a great cook. She has a natural talent for cooking a variety of food items and this makes her very famous among our friends. Some dishes she made for us was completely unknown to us and she brought the opportunity for us to taste those for the first time in my life. Her father was a photographer and she travelled a lot in her early age in different parts of the world including Asia, Africa and Europe. She is more like her eldest daughter Paula than Emma.

I guess Emma is a fine mixture of both of her parents and that makes her an excellent person. She is my friend for a long and we two have a very close relationship as two close friends. I find her very curious and her amiable behaviour and polite way of speaking make her very cordial and affectionate.

Paula, Emma’s sister’ is a doctor and she is married to a doctor as well. She had two children who are both in their elementary schools. As Paula lives with her husband, I have met her only twice and know very little about her. She is beautiful and blunter than Emma.

Finally, Jonathan, the youngest member of the family, is in grade 5 and he is full of new ideas and joy. He always smiles, plays and talks and has a good relationship with me. I like him very much due to his frankness and his respect for anyone who is senior to him. As he stated he wants to become a great detective like Sherlock holmes someday.
 
This is a good family that anyone would expect as his neighbour. We often visit Emma's family and have family parties. Our family members have a close and friendly relationship with Emma's family and surprisingly Emma's father talks a lot when he is with my father. Probably they love to discuss things together and have common interests and topics to talk about.

Cue Card Answer 3:
Family life in Australia is a bit imperilled and the number of single-parent families is on the rise. But I think the family living the opposite direction to my apartment is luckier than the other ordinary Australian families.

I like the family of Mr Jonathon Smith. The family is just in the opposite direction of my apartment I am living in with my parents. Mr Smith is a lawyer while his wife, Mrs Smith, is a school teacher. Both of them are highly educated and thus they know the value of living together in a family. They also exercise all the other necessary customs for living peacefully in a family. In fact, I have never seen them getting engaged in a quarrel whereas almost all the other families have such events and unfortunately those are so frequent that play an influential role to be separated.

Mr Smith lives with his wife, two daughters and a son. The son is the younger member of the family and aged between 13 to 15. In fact, the boy is a junior friend to me and often comes to have chats with me in my leisure hours. One of the daughters, Martha is my classmate in college while the other one is junior to me. Besides, the family has a cook cum maid who looks after everything for the extreme business of both Mr and Mrs Smith. But they complete all of their activities during the daytime so that they could spend quality time with their kids. 

The family of Mr Smith is highly social which may appear unconventional to the strangers. They greet the new tenants of the apartment complex and on such an occasion, my family got familiar with them. The bond between the two families has been made stronger for internal communication. In fact, Mr Smith is very helpful in nature and a man of his words. Besides, his wife is also kind to others and be with them in every ‘situation’. So, they have gained popularity in the apartment complex and everyone rushes to them when they are in any sort of distress. Such really peace-loving families are numbered in the country.
   
I like Mr Smith and his family for few reasons. The first thing is their cordial love to others and adjustment with the situations. I have experienced some events where all the family members of Mr Smith had superb coordination among them, internally, which saved them from embarrassment. Besides, they are peace-loving and do not get engaged in any trouble with the other tenants of the complex, though they own the apartment they are living in. Parenting of their kids is the most impressive aspect of them. Both Mr and Mrs Smith spend enough time with their daughters and sons and share different things. They maintain a complete balance among everything that can impact their family life and living. For all such reasons, they appear to be a perfect family for me and I like them very much. 

More Ideas to talk about this Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card topic:

Topic: Describe a family not your own that you like.

1. Meeting with Mr Robert and his family was a new experience for me. He has a small family of three members – Mr Robert, his wife Isabella and their daughter Maria. Each of the members is a good fellow. And I like the family for their hospitality. I went to Britain for some academic tasks and stayed their home for a few days. They were highly cordial to me and honestly, they took great care of mine that I did never receive before at anywhere. So, they are on my favourite list.

2. I was impressed with the family of Richardo and its traditions. Richardo has a large family consisting of nine members. In fact, he has to care for a few relatives who live with him in his residence in a remote part of Spain. They appeared very good humans in all terms. I like this family because of the extensive number of family members. I have spent a very good time with all of them. In fact, they all loved to have fun with me. The family environment is cordial indeed.

3. My friend Salma has a nice family consisting of four members. She lives with her husband and two children here in Mexico City. The family environment and all the members are pleasant. I got to know them during an official occasion. I am in love with the family for their warm and friendly behaviour. All the persons were helpful even the youngest member as well. So, whenever I can manage time, I move to meet them. And they also love me much. In fact, invisible bondage has been created with the family.

4. I heard about the cordiality of Iranian people and had experienced in last month when I visited the country. I met with the family of Mr Adel Bin Ahmed. He has a moderate family with six members including his maidservant. All of them were nice people indeed. They supported me all the time during my stay at their home. I like the family for its abidance to religion and hospitality. I stayed with the family for three weeks and did not felt for a single moment that I was an outsider.

5. Rosy is my colleague and she has a nice family. She is single and lives with her parents here in New Jersey. She has two more family members. She lost her brother in a car accident back in 2010. That was sad indeed. Her parents are well-mannered and love to meet and greet people. When I first went to meet her at the home, I met with her parents and it was an interesting experience for me. They all greeted me warmly and were nice all the time I was there. So, I like the family.

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