IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 680 with Model Answer

Describe an indoor game that you played in your childhood

: You should say

what it was
who you played it with
how you played it
and explain why you liked to play it in your childhood

: Model Answer

Indoor games are always exciting if you have the right partner with you. If the partner is unable to play the game, often the games appear boring. I used to play cards with my cousins in my childhood and all of them were skilled at the game. So, I enjoyed the games much

Playing card is a kind of fascination to me. I like to play cards and also skilled in different types of games with the cards. When I was a child, I used to live with my parents and the family was a joint family living in Mysore in India. So, I had some cousins who also lived with their parents in the large family. Since the number of small children was more and all of them were causing troubles to the older people, my father invented the idea to teach us to play cards. This idea from my father was one of the effective ones in his entire life. In association with my paternal uncles and grandpas, my father taught us to play cards. Initially, he introduced all the cards to us, explained the functions and importance of the card numbers and characters and finally coached how to play them

Usually, I played the cards with my cousins and at times my father asked me to accompany him on occasionally. But I have played most of the time with the cousins and we formed three groups. Each of the groups had four members and we used to play different local and international types. We used to play rummy, blackjack, spades, twenty-nine, poker (without any money), contract bridge etc. My father was strict about one issue that he did not allow anyone to play the cards with money. He was strict against gambling and wanted us to remain away from that. All of us followed his orders and never tried to go beyond the directives. Sometimes I have played cards with my local friends when they arrived at my home to pass their leisure. Then I used to form another group to play cards outside of my family members

Playing card was a form of entertainment. Since I was born and brought up in an extended family in India, we had a large house to share, made by great grandpa. There was a recreation room in the house on the third floor, in fact on the roof of the house. A couple of tables, chairs and other unused furniture were kept at the room. The room was spacious enough to accommodate all of my cousins including me (we were 16 in number). We got divided into three of four groups and distributed the card packets accordingly. As my father and uncles also used to play cards, there were enough packets for us to share during the play. After the card packet distribution, we start paying after our preference. I used to play blackjack with the cousins but all of our sisters preferred playing spades only. We could not pursue them to play the other types. In fact, they might have found the type easier for them

A saying goes that habit causes love. Playing card turned into a habit for all of us and at last we fell in love with the game. Initially, my father did not want to teach us playing cards as it may lead us to ashtray but considering the urges from the other family members, he agreed to teach us. So, whenever we managed time, we used to deal with the cards. The eldest uncle of mine had shown us few amazing tricks and sometimes we tried to perform those tricks but failed. Gradually, love for the cards appeared on our mind. Some of my cousins were obsessed with cards and even they started keeping a packet with their pockets always. Moreover, playing cards became our preferable pastime as we did not have any outdoor space to move on. We had a large garden before the house which was well maintained and thus we were not allowed to enter into the garden premise. So, to prevent our mischievous activities inside the home, the seniors arranged for the cards. Now almost all of my cousins, including me, are skilled card players