IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Describe an old person you admire

: You should say

who this person is
how long you have known him/ her
what qualities he/ she has
and say why you admire him/ her

: Sample Answer

This is an easy topic for me as I know exactly who I want to tell you about! I’ll say who she is, how long I have known her, a bit about her special qualities and why I admire her so much

I don’t think of this person as old, but I suppose she is because she will be 90 next year, and that’s certainly a good age. She is a distant cousin of mine, she now lives in a residential nursing home, which makes me sad, but she has had a full and interesting life and done many amazing, brave and brilliant things

I think I have known her about twenty one years, but the story of how we came to be friends is a little strange. I was about to go travelling to Australia, and was staying with my parents in London overnight before catching a plane from Heathrow the following day. Whilst I was there my parents told me about this distant cousin who had been in a road accident and was in a hospital. She was/is a very well educated woman with many academic and cultural interests, and they were wondering what to take her to read during her stay. I offered some of my collection of short story books. I wasn’t sure they would be to her taste, they dealt with political issues and were not by any means what I would have expected an elderly sick relative to be interested in. The volumes were by Alice Walker, Susan Hill and other such writers

My cousin loved them! She wrote to me whilst I was in Australia to tell me, and also mentioned that she herself had worked in Australia for many years. She had a very illustrious career as a paediatric pathologist, but also did research on things like mammalian hearts which took her all over the world. She asked me to look up an old friend of hers whilst I was there, which I did with some reluctance as I wasn’t sure what I’d find. I met another amazing woman who lived in the middle of a beautiful rainforest and was passionate about conservation. When I came back to England a year later, I visited my cousin to tell her all about my travels, and that was the beginning of an ongoing friendship. We have always corresponded with one another and I find her wise and a great role model. We have shared interests and I think our personalities are also rather alike – for better or worse! Opinionated and stubborn at times, but also caring very much about the world and those around us and constantly curious and restless. Endlessly wanting to go and explore and experience new things. We share a wanderlust at least

My cousin is intelligent, well-travelled and very independent. She has insight and great skill in academic writing. Over the years I’ve shared with her my own writing efforts, looked to her for advice on what to do when facing certain decisions, and gained inspiration from her lifestyle. She is very good at setting herself goals and getting on with things – it would be fair to say she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so she is certainly someone who will put you straight on things. I think of her as a ‘critical friend’ I know she cares about me a lot, as I do her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll indulge me at all if she feels I’m being foolish in any way. She never married, and I too am on my own, so I think we sort of understand one another, and we both like our own space, which can be confusing for some people at times

I admire her hugely, her health is frail now, and that makes me sad, but she has achieved so much in her career, life and network of friends. If I can do half as well in the time I have I’ll be very content with that