Details

Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Speaking Test # 78

Part 1 Topic: "Food and cooking".
Part 2 Topic: "Describe an interest or hobby that you enjoy".
Part 3 Topic: "The social benefits of hobbies" & "Leisure time".

Part 1 - Introduction & Interview

[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]

Food and cooking:

Q. What kinds of food do you like to eat?
Answer: I like any kinds of food as long as they don’t have too much spice and oil in them. However, some of my most favourite food items include chicken sandwiches, beef burgers, pizzas, pasta, freshly-baked French bread and some special kinds of seafood.  I also eat a lot of fruit and vegetable salads from time to time when I am not in a mood for any proteins.

Q. What kind of new food would you like to try? [Why?]
Answer: I just love to try any kind of new dishes from time to time whenever I get an opportunity. However, one particular kind of new food/dish, I would like to eat, is called “Paella”, a kind of seafood from “Spain”, because the dish looks just too “yummy” with shrimp, lobster, mussels, cuttlefish, white rice and various herbs in it.

Q. Do you like cooking? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes,  I just love to cook some of my favourite dishes every once in a while, by having complete control over my mother’s kitchen, as it allows me to relax and have some fun in my own terms while also experimenting on different “cooking combinations” at the same time.

Q. What was the last meal you cooked?
Answer: The last meal, that I cooked, was a special kind of “lamb stew”, made of thinly-sliced lamb, bell pepper/capsicum, mushrooms, tomatoes, ground black pepper, tasting salt, vinegar and, of course, plenty of sliced onions, in order to render the dish a very “savory taste” which is sure to stimulate your taste buds unlike anything else in this world! I enjoyed cooking this item for a few of my friends who visited my home all of a sudden.

Q. Do you prefer home-cooked food or food from restaurants? [Why?]
Answer: I mostly prefer to eat home-cooked food any time of the day over restaurant food primarily because I always have some sorts of doubts, be it fairly or unfairly, in my mind about the freshness and quality of the food made by the restaurants. Besides, dishes from restaurants are expensive and have less food value than home-made food.

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 an interest or hobby that you enjoy.

You should say:

• how you became interested in it
• how long you have been doing it
• why you enjoy it

and explain what benefits you get from this interest or hobby.

[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.]

Click here for the answer to this Cue Card Topic:

Part 3 - Two-way Discussion:

Discussion topics:

The social benefits of hobbies:

Q. Do you think having a hobby is good for people’s social life? In what way?
Answer: Of course, having any kind of hobbies is good for people’s social life as they, more often than not, tend to help us release our negative stress and enjoy our lives more meaningfully. Besides, it also helps us bring positivity in our minds and elevates our confidence levels. And, the more confident and positive we remain in our lives, the easier should it get for us to relate to other people around us. Finally, some hobbies, like playing football or soccer, help create a stronger bond among people by generally bringing them closer to each other.

Q. Are there any negative effects of a person spending too much time on their hobby? What are they?
Answer: Doing too much of anything is never really good either for our own lives as well as the lives of our loved ones. If a person is spending too much time in enjoying his/her hobby, the chances are that he/she is not taking care of other priorities in life effectively, such as going to a job and spending time with family, which may prove out to be crippling economically and socially. Besides, spending too much time enjoying hobbies, which are physically demanding, can “drain” one out of our energy that is necessary to do other important things in life.

Q. Why do you think people need to have an interest or hobby?
Answer: People should have an interest or hobby for various reasons. It helps us relieve our stress by keeping us engaged in something, which we really enjoy doing when we are going through a tough time. Having a hobby is also important if we want to enjoy a better social life and a stronger bond with the people around us, as it helps us approach our lives in a more positive manner. Finally, it also helps us get rid of our boredom in life – boredom, which absorbs our energy and spirit negatively, because of following the same daily, monotonous routine work schedule in our modern lives.

Leisure time:

Q. In your country, how much time do people spend on work and how much time on leisure? Is this a good balance, do you think?
Answer: The way I see it, it looks like people in my country spend most of their times in their works while leaving very little or almost no leisure time for them or their families. So, why do they still do it? Well, the answer is, they either don’t understand, for whatever reasons that may be, the benefits of maintaining a balanced work-social life or they are just not able to earn a decent living by working the regular hours only. Whatever is the case, the truth is their lifestyles, unfortunately, is not helping their causes to maintain a good and much-needed balance in their lives.

Q. Would you say the amount of free time has changed much in the last fifty years?
Answer: In my opinion, the amount of free time has certainly changed in the last fifty years or so as we have started to expect more from our lives. However, there is nothing wrong with such high expectation expect, of course, that we are spending more and more time in working and earning our livings while leaving a very little or almost no “free time” for ourselves and our families in the process. So, anyway, I would dare to say, this is probably the “curse” of our modern lifestyle, and it certainly doesn’t look very promising for the overall well-being of our entire human race.

Q. Do you think people will have 'more' or 'less' free time in the future? Why?
Answer: Well, it all depends on how people would choose to define “free time” in the future. But, if you are asking about the amount of “free time” outside of our “working and egocentric” lives, then the chances are that the answer will be anything but “encouraging” for the future well-being of our entire human race. On the other hand, if you are asking about the amount of “free time” in order to chase after the “materialistic gains” of this world, then you can bet all the money, you have, that there will be more “free time” than one could possibly even imagine! So, once again, it all depends on what kind of outlooks we have in our lives, and how we choose to “swing” with it.

• IELTS Speaking
• IELTS Speaking Mock Test

• Prev
• Next