This is your topic card. You have ten minutes to prepare, then you should speak for about two minutes. Try to say something about all four points. Meals at ...
Question 1 Report
This is your topic card. You have ten minutes to prepare, then you should speak for about two minutes. Try to say something about all four points.
Meals at home
- who usually prepares the food where you live
- a meal you enjoyed with other people
- what you like and dislike about eating with others
- whether you would like to learn to cook more
Answer Details
What a strong answer covers.
A strong response covers all four bullets and holds them together as one connected talk rather than four separate answers. Bullet one needs the present simple and some detail about who cooks and what they cook. Bullet two must be told in a past tense, with a place, the people present and what was eaten, and it is where past simple and past continuous should appear. Bullet three needs at least one thing liked and one thing disliked, each with a reason. Bullet four needs a future form such as would like to, going to or will. Expect simple connectors linking the points, and enough material to fill close to two minutes without long silences.
Model response.
In my home it is usually my grandmother who prepares the food, because she has more time than my mother. She cooks rice and stew almost every day, and on Sundays she makes something special. Sometimes I help her, mostly with washing and cutting the vegetables.
The meal I remember best was last December, at my aunt's house. About fifteen of us were there. My aunt cooked rice and fried plantain, and my uncle brought a very big cake. We ate outside because the kitchen was too hot, and we stayed at the table for hours, talking and laughing. It was a happy day and I still think about it.
What I like about eating together is that everybody stops working for a while. It is the only time we really talk. What I do not like is that we have to wait for everyone, so sometimes the food is cold by the time we start. My brother also argues about who gets the biggest piece.
In the future I would like to learn to cook properly, because at the moment I can only make eggs and noodles. I am going to ask my grandmother to teach me her stew, since nobody else knows how she makes it.
Mark this turn whole. The bands describe getting the message across, the language used to do it, and how it sounds.
Speaking, out of 10
| Marks | Band | Descriptor |
|---|---|---|
| 9-10 | Band 5 | Speaks readily and keeps going, with only natural hesitation. The point comes across first time. Draws on a good spread of words and structures, handles more than one tense, and links ideas rather than listing them. Slips are few and never hide the meaning. Sounds are clear and the voice rises and falls in a way that carries attitude. |
| 7-8 | Band 4 | Speaks at a steady pace with some pausing to think. Nearly everything is understood on first hearing. Uses a fair spread of language and joins ideas with simple connectors. Errors show up in the more ambitious stretches but the listener follows. Generally clear to listen to. |
| 5-6 | Band 3 | Keeps going with noticeable pauses and some repetition. The main idea arrives, though the listener works for parts of it. Relies on everyday words and mostly simple sentences. Errors are frequent but meaning is usually recoverable. Some sounds need effort to catch. |
| 3-4 | Band 2 | Manages short stretches and then stalls. Only parts of the response can be followed. Vocabulary is narrow and the same few structures repeat. Errors often block the meaning. Delivery is flat or hard to catch. |
| 1-2 | Band 1 | Says very little, or repeats the wording of the prompt. Almost nothing can be followed. Little evidence of the language the task needs. |
| 0 | Band 0 | No response, or nothing that relates to the prompt. |
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