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[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]
Traffic where you live:
Q. How do most people travel to work where you live?
Answer: Transportation in Iran is easy and accessible from almost every point since Iran has a long paved road system linking most of its towns and all of its cities. Anyway, where I live in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, most people travel to work by buses. However, a great many people travel to works by using the “Metro” or the Tehran subway system as well.
Q. What traffic problems are there in your area? [Why?]
Answer: Even though Iran has a long paved road system linking most of its towns and cities, the problem is that there isn’t just enough public transportation in the streets. As a result, a city like Tehran with almost 14 million populations suffers from bad traffic congestions pretty much all the times, but worse during the morning peak hours, as many people use their “automobiles”.
Q. How do traffic problems affect you?
Answer: Because of the really bad traffic situation in Tehran, I usually face a tough time in “managing” my time since I don’t know for sure how long it will take to go to my work or come back from there. Besides, because of spending long hours in the city traffic congestion most of the days, my social life has also been somewhat affected since I don’t get enough time to spend with my friends and cousins.
Q. How would you reduce the traffic problems in your area?
Answer: I would recommend updating and enhancing the existing roads and the introduction of a more robust metro rail system in the country. Besides, I will improve the public transportations so that people are discouraged to use their private cars, which is one of the main contributors to the unbearable traffic congestion in my city.
[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 game or sport you enjoy playing.
You should say:
and explain why you enjoy playing it.
[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?]
Model Answer 1:
We love to get involved in different kinds of spectators and individual sports in Myanmar. In fact, our government also encourages us to play sports. Anyway, today I would like to talk about a sport, which I enjoy playing the most like millions of others in my country.
The name of this sport is football. In fact, football by far is the most popular sport in my country, followed by Golf, especially after the modern Myanmar national football league was formed in the year of 2009. Besides, football has a long and rich tradition in my country as used to be one of the best Asian teams along with Iran and South Korea, winning Asian Games football tournaments twice, in 1966 and 1970, as well as being runner up in the 1968 Asian Cup, after the champion and host Iran. Myanmar youth team had also crowned Asian youth championship titles seven times.
Anyway, when I was younger, I could play this sport anywhere in our streets, where I lived, with my friends and neighbours because back then, the streets were not really that busy. But, as I’ve grown up now, I only play this great sport in the field by dividing ourselves, including my friends and neighbors, in two teams, with 11 players in each, and we play like true professionals. In fact, we even organize a “friendly cup” football tournament for our wards (“ward” is a local city authority in my country) in our town every year where the champion team receives an award.
In fact, when our “ward” team plays in this friendly cup football tournament, we support our own teams by chanting and screaming for them so that they become spirited and energized to score goals.
Anyway, I enjoy this sport because it allows me to socialize and mingle with my friends and neighbours while also having fun in the field. The game helps me recuperate from the fatigue and tiredness of my busy working life. Finally, the sport also allows me to remain physically fit and healthy like no other game.
Sample Answer 2:
I’ve played several games throughout my young age, both indoor and outdoor games, and I try to play whenever I get time. Among those games, I enjoyed playing chess more than others. Chess is an indoor game where two players participate. This game does not involve any major physical movements like other outdoor games but a chess player has to use his/her brain and make game plans to defeat the opponent.
I mostly play this game with my friends and cousins. Sometimes I play it with my father and senior relatives. Since playing chess requires only placing the board on a surface and sitting position of the two participating players, it is convenient to play chess almost anywhere. I mostly play it at our veranda, garden or bedroom. I enjoy this game because I have a fascination for this game from my childhood and I really like the overall theme and barnstorming involved in this game. It’s a thought-provoking game that gives the participating players to use their brains. A player can apply his/her strategy, and then allure the opponent to fall into a trap which is much like a real battlefield.
It’s not a game where someone would only use the physical movements rather the game requires a perfect game plan, finding weaknesses of the opponent and a battle strategy. This game gives you a feel of being the King of a regime where you decide your country men’s fate. For all those reasons this is a very interesting and enjoyable game for me.
Tips for answering this Cue Card Topic:
Since the cue card is about your favorite game or sport, you can talk about any indoor or outdoor game or sport you play or know about. Alternatively, you can talk about computer games as well. If this is an indoor game you want to talk about, pick chess, card games, table tennis, bowling, carom, computer game, gaming device game or any other game you prefer. For the indoor games, you can mention that you regularly play it with your family members or friends and enjoy it a lot. Generally, physical exercise is not involved in indoor games except table tennis and you should focus on “improvement” and “excitement” the indoor games offer. Indoor games are usually played inside homes and you should mention that you play it in your house, veranda, drawing room or in a guestroom. You should also mention that you play it in your relatives’ houses or friends’ houses as well.
If you pick an outdoor game, like cricket, football, badminton, rugby you should mention that you play it with your friends and some of the neighbors. Sometimes unknown people join in such games where more than 7-8 players are needed. Mention that these games are refreshing and a good way of keeping your health fit.
For the question why do you enjoy playing this game, you should mention that you have a great passion for this game or sport and you have been playing it for a long time. You can also mention that you are usually good at it and your percentage of winning the game is very good. If you talk about an indoor game, mention the excitement and brainstorming it offers and the way you enjoy playing it with your family members and friends. For the outdoor games mention the health benefits it offers and the way you enjoy playing it.
The follow-up question of this cue card might ask you the most common types of games and sports played in your country so you should prepare for that as well.
Discussion topics:
Children’s games:
Q. How have games changed from the time when you were a child?
Answer: Games have changed a lot from the time when I was a child. For example, there were very few or no computer, online or video games during the days of my early childhood. Nor there were many interesting game toys or puzzles to encourage children to play indoors, as we have today, with which we could play any games. In fact, during my childhood, the only way, we could play any sports was to hit the outdoors. But these days, more and more children are choosing to play their games inside their own homes.
Q. Do you think this has been a positive change? Why?
Answer: No, I wouldn’t really like to think that these kinds of changes affect children that positively. Children these days don’t become encouraged to go outside of their homes and become physically active which is absolutely important for children’s physical and cognitive growth. Besides, children are not getting enough chances to socialize with their friends and peers, and, as a result, not developing many good social and communication skills that are necessary to succeed in their lives as adults. Of course, by playing some of these online or video games, children do develop their “intelligence”, but they also make children “violent and aggressive” at the same time.
Q. Why do you think children like playing games?
Answer: Children just like to play, whether they are playing a certain sport alone or playing with their peers, primarily because it is just their nature to be “playful” as long as they remain young. But, if we want to be more precise, I would say that the children like playing games because they love challenges, and they “learn” new things as well as new skills by playing different kinds of games. But, above all, children have a lot of fun when playing any sports, and the studies show that there is no better way to teach children than having them play games which they really enjoy.
Games and competition:
Q. Do you think competitive games are good or bad for children? In what ways?
Answer: In my opinion, competitive games, depending on, of course, what kinds of competitive games they play, are good in general because they teach children how to become tough, careful, intelligent and positive when facing any difficult situation in life. Besides, playing competitive games usually help us identify what kinds of particular skill sets, talents or potentials the children have so that they can work even more on them in order to improve themselves even further. However, we will have to make sure that playing competitive games doesn’t make children competitive so much so that they develop “jealousy” and “hatred” for their “opponents”.
Q. How can games sometimes help to unite people?
Answer: Games do sometimes help unite people, from different countries and backgrounds, in some common causes such as when playing any game to raise funds in order to help some people during their time of distress. Even the little drinks, that we enjoy after finishing a game, help us share us some laughs and funs among each other, no matter how ‘different’ we are from each other. Besides, when playing any sports by inviting and bringing different kinds of people together, we usually develop a kind of social bond and friendly relations with each other that may prove out to be vital for the unity and benefits of our society as a whole.
Q. Why is competition often seen as important in today’s society?
Answer: We are living in a materialistic and capitalistic society where everybody is competing fiercely with each other in order to get his or her ‘fair share’ of the world. And, that’s exactly why our world is moving forward. In fact, as a result of this competition, we come up with better ideas, better products and better services which help improve our living standards even more. It is the “competition” which helps us hope to have even a better future for our children in this world. So, no wonder, “competition” is seen as important in today’s society.
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