IELTS Speaking Test 1

Part 1 - Introduction & Interview

Topic - "Your neighbourhood"

Q.  Do you like the neighbourhood you live in? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: Yes, I do like the neighbourhood, in which I live, mainly because I have lived in this neighbourhood
for a long, long time where everything is so familiar to me. Besides, this is a rather clean neighbourhood
where houses and homes are built in a planned manner. I like my neighbourhood also because people
here are mostly very friendly.

Q.  What do you do in your neighbourhood in your free time? [Why/Why not?]

Answer: To tell the truth, these days, I don’t really get much free time to do anything much because of
spending too much time at work. However, whenever I get some free time, I try to exchange greetings with
good neighbours I know. I also try to take part in social events like birthday parties or picnics in my
neighbourhood when I have free time. I also sometimes join some voluntary works that aim to help others
or make our neighbourhood clean and green.

Q.  What new things would you like to have in your neighbourhood [Why/Why not?]
Answer: No doubt, my neighbourhood is a nice one which has pretty much everything from nice/wide
streets to clean ponds and lakes. However, it would be always nice to have new things, like a large
swimming pool and a large playground for the children, to make my neighbourhood even a better place for
living.

Q.  Would you like to live in another neighbourhood in your town or city? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: No, I wouldn’t exactly like to live in another neighbourhood in my city, primarily because, I have
spent a very significant part of my childhood and life in this place, and as such, I am too much emotionally
attached to this place. Besides, my work is very closed to my neighbourhood which makes it even a more
convenient place for me to live.

 
 Part 2 - Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card
Describe a website you have bought something from.
You should say:

 what the website is

 what you bought from this website
 how satisfied you were with what you bought
and explain what you liked and disliked about using this website.

[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:
I am not really much of an online shopper, primarily because I have some trust issues with their products
and business ethics. Of course, the same can’t be said about all the websites, which are selling products
online, because some of those e-commerce websites are really serious about their business. Today, I
would like to talk about one such website, from which, I have recently bought a pair of shoes.

The name of this website is amazon.com. Now, there is no need for an introduction of this website because
we all know that Amazon holds the title of as the world’s largest (and one of the best also) online retailer
and shopping website which started its operation in the year of 1995 in the garage of a person called “Jeff
Bezos” (the current owner and CEO) as online book store in the USA.

Since then, it didn’t really have the time to look back. Today, with almost 200,000 employees, amazon.com
is just as exotic and different as the Amazon River and rainforest which sells virtually all kinds of products
from books to gourmet food and from lawn mowing tools to pieces of jewellery. Anyway, I used
amazon.com in the past to buy things, and recently I've bought that pair of shoes. But, every time, I
browsed the website, I asked myself how big it could possibly become as far as its reach and operation
was concerned. In fact, after buying that pair of shoes from there, I felt like the website knew everything
about the taste and preferences of its customers, no matter where they lived.

Anyway, I liked a number of features of the website. For example, the check-out, while purchasing the
product, was really easy. In fact, it probably took me just 3 clicks to finish the purchasing process with my
credit card. Besides, for each of its products, the website published literally thousands of serious reviews
which certainly made it easy to decide on whether to buy the product or not. So, it was indeed an amazingly
satisfying experience for me to buy something from amazon.com.

 
Part 3 - Details discussion:
Discussion topic: "Shopping online"

Q.  What kinds of things do people in your country often buy from online shops?
Answer: Online shopping has both become a fashion and a real thing in my country. In fact, people in my
country these days visit online shops first before thinking about going outside to buy anything, as they can
pretty much buy anything from the online shops. Anyway, to be a bit more specific, things like clothing
items, perfume, cosmetics, footwear, grocery items, sunglasses, electronic appliances, home appliances,
TV, mobile phone, smartphones, and fashionable items, among many other things, are usually bought from
the online shops by the people in my country.

Q.  Why has online shopping become so popular in many countries?

Answer: Online shopping has become so popular in many countries because of several reasons. The main
reason, of course, is being the convenience. After all, buying something, which you really like, from the
comfort of your home is almost always preferable to going outside and wasting valuable time on the road.
Besides, shopping online has become popular also because it can help people save a significant amount of
money as many websites constantly offer and sell their products at a discounted price. Finally, it has
become so popular because people can check and compare the prices of their products of choices
relatively quickly and easily before making a decision.

Q.  What are some possible disadvantages of buying things from online shops?
Answer: Just as there are advantages to buying things from online shops, there are some disadvantages
too. For example, when we are buying something from online shops, the chances are that we are not
actually getting all the right information about the quality of the products. In fact, in my opinion, without
touching and feeling the products, by remaining physically present in a shop, is an experience we will
always miss when shopping online. Besides, when shopping online, there always is a chance that the
products on online shops are over-priced and do not look like the images that we see to decide to buy an
item. Data breach and credit card fraud are two other disadvantages of shopping online.
 

Discussion topic: "Online retail businesses"

Q.  Do you agree that the prices of all goods should be lower on internet shopping sites than in
shops?
Answer: No, I can’t possibly think of many good reasons to agree with the suggestion that the prices of all
goods should be lower on e-commerce sites than in shops. Of course, the companies can always offer their
products at a discounted price online in order to increase their online sales from time to time. But, if they
keep doing it on a regular basis, then the chances are that the people and customers, who don’t have any
access to computer or internet (and trust me, still there are billions of such customers in this world), will
certainly be on the losing side, apparently, because they won’t be able to buy anything from online.
Moreover, despite no requirement for brick and mortar shops and no salesperson, e-commerce businesses
spend a huge amount of money for advertisement and online marketing. So if they offer lower prices for all
goods, it would be hard for them to run a profitable business in the long run.

Alternative Answer: Yes, I agree that the product prices of all online shops should be lower than the
physical shops. This is because e-commerce business owners can run an online shop without renting a
store, paying for utility bills, and without even having a salesperson. Moreover, they can reach a huge
number of customers who live far away and all these aspects make running an e-commerce store less
expensive. So they can offer a discounted price for everything they sell online even though many of those
products are sourced from third parties.

Q.  Will large shopping malls continue to be popular, despite the growth of internet shopping?
Answer:  Yes, in my humble opinion, large shopping malls will still continue to be popular, despite the
growth of internet shopping. After all, internet shopping doesn’t offer the opportunity to check and feel the
products of our choices in real-time. Besides, internet shopping also lacks the opportunity for entertainment
and socialization (ie. sitting at a food court and enjoying some good food items while having fun with friends
and families) among the people, apart from getting out to enjoy some fresh air, which would always
motivate people to visit large shopping malls every now and then.

Q.  Do you think that some businesses (e.g. banks and travel agents) will only operate online in the
future?
Answer: Well, unless all the businesses, shops and companies in the world start to use ‘virtual money’,
and unless all people in the world have access to a computer and the internet, businesses like banks and
travel agents won’t be able to operate online only. But, realistically speaking, the possibility of all people
and all businesses in this world, getting access to computer and internet in the future because of extreme
poverty in many parts of the world, is rather very slim, and therefore, some businesses would still need to
operate offline to run their operation. But, I do agree that more and more banks would operate online,
besides having their physical branches, to let people do banking transactions online, especially in cities.