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Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Speaking Test # 63

Part 1 - Introduction & Interview

[This part of the test begins with the examiner introducing himself or herself and checking the candidate’s identification. It then continues as an interview. In the interview, the examiner asks the candidate about his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]

Q. What is your name?
Answer: My full name is Dimitri Andrich. Please call me "Andrich".

Q. Where do you live?
Answer: I live in the port city of Odessa which is situated on the Black Sea in Southern Ukraine.

Q. What are you studying?
Answer: I am studying computer science as a post-graduate student at one of the leading universities in my country.

Q. What do you like about your studies?
Answer: What I like most about my studies is that I get to know the computer every day and the language it uses to process data and commands. Computer science is all about problem-solving and I like to take the challenges. Once I can solve a problem related to the computer, it gives me immense joy and satisfaction. Computers solve our day to day problems to serve people by developing the business and organizational processes and I am happy to learn how all these works so that I can contribute in the future.

Q. What do you like about learning English?
Answer: What I really like about learning English is that I can pretty much communicate with anybody from any part of the world with this language because English is spoken widely all over the world. Besides, I find English to be one of the easiest languages to learn with its rather limited alphabets and straightforward grammatical rules.

Q. How often do you use English?
Answer: I use English very often in my studies and class because the linguistic instruction for my class and studies is in English. Besides, every day I watch English news on TV as well as read English newspapers now and then.

Now let's move on to a different topic and talk about "music"...

Q. Do you like music?

Answer: Yes, I like music a lot. Whenever I get free time, I love to listen to my favourite music. Besides, music helps me ease my stress and anxiety. I have more than two hundred MP3 music stored on my smartphone memory and I like to listen to them whenever I drive my car or take a train to go somewhere.

Q. Do you think music is important?

Answer: Of course, I think that music is important in our life. Music is essentially delightful and motivating. It helps us feel relaxed and refreshed. Sometimes music is inspirational and helps us overcome difficult situation and stress. Personally, I find music to be the food for my soul, as they say!

Q. What kind of music do you enjoy most?

Answer: I enjoy music composed by some famous music bands in the 90's that have profoundly deep meanings and messages. And then classical and instrumental music is also my favourites. Music that has good lyrics is okay with me as I love to explore the music of different genres in my free time. My favourites bands are "The Beatles" and "Pink Floyd" as they have a great collection of songs and harmonious compositions.

Q. How long do you listen to music every day?

Answer: On average, I listen to music for over an hour each day. But I must say, this duration varies to a great extent. Sometimes I spent more than three hours on the road and mostly listen to music the whole time, and on some other days, I remain quite busy with my office and business and can hardly manage time to listen to any music.

Part 2 - Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

[The topic for your talk will be written on a card which the examiner will hand you. Read it carefully and then make some brief notes.]

Describe a city you have visited.

You should say:

• where it is
• when and when you visited this city
• what you did there

 and say what you liked/disliked about visiting this city.

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

Model Answer:
If someone wants to describe the city of “Venice” in Italy, one has to have some exceptional “poetic” abilities, but, I am anything but a ‘poet’. So, no matter how hard I try to describe the city, it wouldn’t "come out" right. But, I will still try my best to provide a good picture of the city where I have been to a few months ago. So, please bear with me.

Venice, the capital city of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is uniquely built on more than 100 small islands like a “piece of dreamland” in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. I was lucky enough to visit the city (some people call it “the queen of Adriatic” while others call it “the floating city”) about a few months ago. The city has no roads, just canals – especially the Grand Canal – and a collection of domes and spires rising out of the Sea, waiting to offer you the “dreamscape” of your life as a traveller. It's hard to believe, but there are many buildings in Venice, one of the most extraordinary cities of the world because of its setting, architecture and artworks, today that are still standing on 1000-year-old piles of wood!

I like the city because there are just so many things to do and see there!  The first thing to do in “the city of canals, of course, is to enjoy the “gondola” ride, a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, during the sunset in order to enjoy the spectacular beauty of Venice with the beautiful colour of its water and sky as one can see in the pictures!  Then, of course, I visited its café and restaurants where I couldn’t taste anything else except the mouth-watering fresh and local foods – especially the “seafood”, pastries and croissants- the “taste” of which remained in my mouth for a long time even after finishing my journey! Finally, I was lucky to experience Venice’s culture by visiting, more like visiting history anew, some of its century-old museums and churches which are simply stunning with their artworks and collections.

Rounding off Questions:

[At the end of your talk, the examiner will ask one or two brief questions to signal that it is time to stop talking.]

Q. Do you like cities generally?
Answer: Yes, generally speaking, I do like cities primarily because I have lived in the cities for the most part of my life. Besides, there are so many things to do and enjoy in a city, like visiting a well-maintained garden park, or top-class restaurants in order to enjoy some unique food and international cuisines. Besides, cities offer better education, treatment and job facilities.

Q. Would you like to live in the city you spoke about?
Answer: I sure would love to live in the city, I spoke about above- “Venice” in Italy, because of its stunning beauties and location. After all, living on a “floating city”, where many of its architectures are literally a thousand years old, is not something one gets to do everywhere and every day.

Part 3 - Details Discussion:

Now let’s talk about travelling.

Q. What kinds of place people like to visit the most? Why?
Answer: People would like to visit only those kinds of places the most where they can stay close to Mother Nature such as the ocean, mountain sites, lakes and green valleys. Sometimes, people also like to visit some new lands or countries the most because of their diverse and unique cultures, lifestyles and traditions in order to learn and experience something new. Then some people also like the visit museums, art galleries and historical sites the most because of their unique historical values.

Q. What international tourists are interested about in your country? Why?
Answer: My country, Ukraine, is an interesting country with many beautiful places to visit such as the gold-domed St. Sophia's Cathedral, which people just love to visit because it has the 11th-century mosaics and frescoes in it as well as because it is also a UNESCO world heritage site. International tourists are also interested in visiting the Black Sea (in the major port city of Odessa) because it has one of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the world where the water is very comfortably warm and inviting.

Q. Some people think governments should promote tourism to attract more international tourists? What do you think?
Answer: I think that government should do everything to promote tourism to attract more international tourists because today more than 1.2 billion tourists visit different parts of the world. And, with such a huge number of international tourists, tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world from which countries are earning huge revenues. With the help of increasing tourism, many countries around the world have managed to create a lot of employment opportunities for their citizens also. Besides, international tourism helps develop a better understanding among the people of different countries by learning each other’s cultures and traditions.

Now let’s talk about city life.

Q. What are the advantages of living in a big city?
Answer: There are several advantages of living in a big city where people usually have plenty of things to do and enjoy. Besides, big cities have all the basic necessities of life such as improved roads and infrastructure as well as uninterrupted water and electricity supply which make life comfortable for living.  Then, big cities have more employments and educational opportunities also than in rural areas. Finally, one of the greatest advantages of living in a big city is that one can meet many different kinds of interesting people with many new ideas.

Q. Why so many people migrate to cities each year? What are the negative consequences of this trend?
Answer: There are some negative consequences when people migrate to cities each year. For example, it strains the capacity of local and national government to provide urban residents with even the most basic services of housing, water supply, sewerage and solid waste disposal. Besides, it has negative environmental consequences as well because more lands are required to build houses and residences, and as a result, trees are being cut indiscriminately, causing ecological imbalance. On top of that, it also results in poor health because of the poor environment, housing and living conditions. Finally, it also causes water contamination which, in turn, can cause epidemics of waterborne disease.

Q. What governments can do to discourage rural people not to migrate to cities?
Answer: First, governments need to find out exactly why people migrate to the cities and address the issues accordingly. However, it can be said that people, more often than not, migrate to cities for better employment opportunities. So the government certainly would need to create more employment opportunities in the rural areas in order to discourage the rural people from moving to cities. The government can also offer additional incentives, such as tax break and other kinds of subsidies, to rural people so that they feel that it is better to live in the rural areas than moving to the cities.

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