This lesson looks at how you can describe an adventurous person in part 2 IELTS speaking. Describing a person is perhaps one of the harder tasks in part 2 as there is a good chance that you run out of things to say. I suggest that you should think of trying to tell a story as this will help you with vocabulary and should give you plenty to say. To help you do this, you will find a sample answer to listen to with useful vocabulary.
The cue card
An adventurous person
Describe an adventurous person who you know.
You should say:
- who the person is
- how you know this person
- what this person does that is adventurous
and explain why you think this person likes to take risks.
Preparing your talk
Describing a person is sometimes quite challenging and you need to think carefully about what you want to say before you start speaking. If you are not careful, this is one of those tasks that you may find that you don’t speak enough about and so lose points for fluency. The “trick” here is to look at the cue card and decide how you can use it to make sure you have enough to say. Typically, with this type of task, you want to focus on telling a story rather than thinking of ideas and vocabulary.
The problem with ideas and vocabulary
If you spend your minute trying to think of words, you may end up with little or nothing. This is what I did in 1 minute:
- adventurous: daring: bold
- risks: take risks: risky
- excitement: danger: dangerous
- extreme sports: rock climbing
Look at the cue card: think of a story to tell
If you look at cue card, you see that it asks you to talk about how you met the person and what they do that is adventurous. If you stop and think, you should see that this is the beginning of a story. What you can do is:
- describe the circumstances when you met: the place/the time/how long ago it was/who introduced you etc
- a particular example of something adventurous they did: again with the time/place etc
The trick here is to add as many details as possible. These details are where you can show off your English by using precise and accurate vocabulary.
How to tell a story?
Some people are much more natural story tellers than others. One way you can help yourself is by asking yourself the WH questions:
- who
- what
- where
- when
- how
Listen to my story
This is my response to the cue card. I tell a story about one of my friends. It is a simple story but because I am thinking of detail, I get to use quite a lot of precise vocabulary:
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Read the story, see the language
Topic vocabulary
Telling a story can help with more topic vocabulary. Here I get to use words from school/university and law as well as “adventure” words
See the topic language
I’m going to talk to you about someone who I know who is adventurous. The person I’ve chosen is Peter, my best friend. I’ve known him I suppose since we were at primary school together and we first met aged 7. First day at school in our school uniforms. I was shaking of course but Peter was quite unconcerned, really quite untroubled and really just interested by the new experience.
And when I say that Peter is adventurous, he’s not someone who enjoys physical danger particularly. He doesn’t take part in extreme sports or anything like that. Rather he’s just prepared to go ahead and do things – even when he doesn’t know what the outcome is. An example here is we also went to university together and studied law there. I did the normal, conventional thing and went on to become a lawyer, a solicitor in the city. Peter, however, decided that that wasn’t for him. And he just took off, he went to Greece. he had no idea what he wanted to do there. He just thought that was the place to be. And to me this was very adventurous indeed – to go a foreign country, not knowing the language. Just because he felt like it.
What makes him like that? What makes him like to take risks. I’ve really no idea. I guess it’s in his nature.
Sentence structure and linking phrases
Telling a story is quite straightforward as it allows you to use short simple sentences connected by “and”. You just keeping adding detail. This is a sensible approach in part 2 speaking. You also want to use some other linking phrases though and I have highlighted the phrases I use.
See the sentence structure
I’m going to talk to you about someone who I know who is adventurous.
The person I’ve chosen is Peter, my best friend.
I’ve known him I suppose since we were at primary school together and we first met aged 7.
First day at school in our school uniforms.
I was shaking of course but Peter was quite unconcerned, really quite untroubled and really just interested by the new experience.
And when I say that Peter is adventurous, he’s not someone who enjoys physical danger particularly.
He doesn’t take part in extreme sports or anything like that.
Rather he’s just prepared to go ahead and do things – even when he doesn’t know what the outcome is.
An example here is we also went to university together and studied law there.
I did the normal, conventional thing and went on to become a lawyer, a solicitor in the city.
Peter, however, decided that that wasn’t for him.
And he just took off, he went to Greece.
He had no idea what he wanted to do there.
He just thought that was the place to be.
And to me this was very adventurous indeed – to go a foreign country, not knowing the language.
Just because he felt like it.
What makes him like that?
What makes him like to take risks.
I’ve really no idea.
I guess it’s in his nature.
Useful spoken phrases
This passage is full of good spoken phrases that you can borrow to help link your spoken language.
See the spoken phrases
I’m going to talk to you about someone who I know who is adventurous. The person I’ve chosen is Peter, my best friend. I’ve known him I suppose since we were at primary school together and we first met aged 7. First day at school in our school uniforms. I was shaking of course but Peter was quite unconcerned, really quite untroubled and really just interested by the new experience.
And when I say that Peter is adventurous, he’s not someone who enjoys physical danger particularly. He doesn’t take part in extreme sports or anything like that. Rather he’s just prepared to go ahead and do things – even when he doesn’t know what the outcome is. An example here is we also went to university together and studied law there. I did the normal, conventional thing and went on to become a lawyer, a solicitor in the city. Peter, however, decided that that wasn’t for him. And he just took off, he went to Greece. he had no idea what he wanted to do there. He just thought that was the place to be. And to me this was very adventurous indeed – to go a foreign country, not knowing the language. Just because he felt like it.
What makes him like that? What makes him like to take risks. I’ve really no idea. I guess it’s in his nature.
I’m going to talk to you about – a useful way to start
quite unconcerned, really quite untroubled - this use of “quite” and “really quite” to mean “very” and “very very” is excellent spoken English
And when I say that - a good spoken linking phrase
or anything like that - a useful spoken phrase meaning etc
An example here is - giving examples is always good practice. This is more idiomatic than “for example”
And he just took off … He just thought - this “just” is very idiomatic. It has little meaning but is good spoken English. (take off here means to go away)
And to me - a spoken phrase meaning “I think”
I’ve really no idea – another way of saying “I don’t know”. The “really’ adds emphasis and is stylish spoken English.
It’s in his nature – this is another way of saying that it is natural for him.
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