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Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Speaking Test # 93

Part 1 Topic: 'Dancing'.
Part 2 Topic: 'Describe someone in your family who you like'.
Part 3 Topic: 'Family similarities' & 'Genetic research'.

Part One - Introduction

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

Dancing:

Q.  Do you enjoy dancing? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Unfortunately, I don’t really enjoy dancing mainly because I have never really been good at it. Besides, I was never really interested to learn dancing either. But, most importantly, I have always felt that “dancing” is such a “domain” which should be dominated and ruled by those who really enjoy this art.

Q.  Has anyone ever taught you to dance? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Actually, nobody has ever taught me how to dance simply because I was never really interested in learning to dance. Besides, learning Japanese traditional dancing is not really that easy since they usually require a strong back and strong legs, neither of which I possess, to perform, in my opinion.

Q.  Tell me about any traditional dancing in your country.
Answer: Most Japanese traditional or folk dancing is related to food-producing activities such as planting rice and fishing. One such traditional dance (neither slow nor fast) is called “Noh Mai” which is done to the tune of music, made by flutes and small hand drums. A woman usually performs this dance.

Q.  Do you think that traditional dancing will be popular in the future? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I do think that traditional dancing will be popular in the future since more and more people all over the world are becoming interested to learn about their “national heritage” in order to revive some of their old traditions and cultural aspects as a symbol of their “national pride”.

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 someone in your family who you like.

You should say:

• how this person is related to you
• what this person looks like
• what kind of person he/she is

and explain why you like this person.

[ 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.]

[Examiner: All right? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the time is up. Can you start speaking now, please?]

The answer to this Cue Card Topic:

Part 3 - Two-way Discussion:

Discussion topics: Family similarities:

Q.  In what ways can people in a family be similar to each other?
Answer: Similarities among family members are a common phenomenon in pretty much every family. While these similarities can be evident in many physical features, including eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, nails and physical builds, they are more noticeable in facial features such as nose, eyes and the shapes of the faces. People can be also similar in their behavioural patterns, such as tempers and other human emotions, and talents when they belong to the same family tree. Even some “medical conditions”, like blood pressure and diabetes, can be carried on to the gene structures of people as well if they belong to the same family tree.

Q.  Do you think that daughters are always more similar to mothers than to male relatives? What about sons and fathers?
Answer: No, I don’t really like to subscribe to the “conventional thoughts” which suggest that daughters are always more similar to mothers than to male relatives nor do I think that fathers and sons are more alike. If contrary to what I just told holds true, we wouldn’t exactly be able to see sisters in a family look and behave differently from each other just as brothers in the same family who are completely different from each other. In fact, children can look like either parent or other relatives in their family tree. Many children can even look completely different from any of the existing family members.

Q.  In terms of personality, are people more influenced by their family or by their friends? In what ways?
Answer: In my opinion, people generally are more influenced by their families than friends primarily because a family is where a person spends most of his or her time, especially, when growing up as a child. And, whatever people learn from their families, as children, remain with them one way or another for the rest of their lives. As a primary caregiver to children, it is the family who teaches children how to talk, and how to behave with others. Sometimes, children just naturally tend to pick up the behavioural patterns and personality traits, such as talking, humouring and criticizing, of their family members just by watching them from up close.

Discussion Topic: Genetic research:

Q.  Where can people in your country get information about genetic research?
Answer: Japan started its Human Genome Research in 1989 to lead the International Human Genome Project, an initiative taken by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), in order to uncover the role of the human gene in human health and diseases. So, apart from NHGRI, people also can get genetic research related information from the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Shizuoka in my country. Besides, some leading universities in Japan like the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University can also help people with genetic research related information.

Q.  How do people in your country feel about genetic research?
Answer: People in our Japanese society, in general, are very much in favour of scientific and technological advancements. And, as a result, when we see that DNA home testing is gaining popularity, since more and more people seeking answers to their “risk” of diseases, we, Japanese, are not really that surprised. However, we are also in favour of following scientific ethics at the same time, and that’s exactly why our government has strictly forbidden any kind of genetic editing in fertilized human eggs in order to give childbirth.

Q.  Should this research be funded by governments or private companies? Why?
Answer: I like to think that genetic research, or any other research for that matter, should be run and funded by the governments only mainly because the governments will be able to have better oversight and control of the research programs than private companies. Besides, if private companies are allowed to fund such types of researches, they will most likely “abuse” the research findings by doing something totally “unethical” for the “profiteering” purposes, just as it has happened on many occasions in the past with other research programmes.

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