The cue card
Describe a place near water that you enjoyed visiting.
You should say:
- where it is
- when you went there
- who you went with
- what you did there
and explain why you enjoyed being there.
You have one minute to make notes, then speak for one to two minutes.
Band 8–9 sample answer
Written by Abroadway as a model of natural, high-band speaking (not an official IELTS sample).
A place near water that I really enjoyed was Phewa Lake in Pokhara, a lakeside town in the middle of Nepal. It's a fairly large freshwater lake surrounded by forested hills, and on clear days you can see snow-capped Himalayan peaks rising behind it.
I went there about two years ago, in late December, just after I'd finished a particularly difficult semester. It was the dry season, so the sky was unusually clear, although the mornings were much colder than I'd expected, coming from Bangladesh.
I travelled with my older cousin and two of her friends from university. We'd been planning the trip for months, and we split all the costs between the four of us, so it turned out to be surprisingly affordable.
As for what we did, we spent most of our time either on the water or beside it. On the first morning we hired a small, brightly painted wooden boat and took turns rowing out to a tiny island in the middle of the lake, where there's a little temple. None of us were very skilled, so we went round in circles for a while, which had us all in fits of laughter. In the evenings we wandered along the lakeside path, ate grilled fish at simple open-air restaurants and watched paragliders drifting down from the hills.
What made it so enjoyable, I think, was the stillness. At sunrise the surface of the lake was so calm that it reflected the mountains almost perfectly, and for a few minutes nobody said a word. Coming from a city where there's always noise, that silence felt incredibly refreshing. It was also the first holiday I'd planned with people my own age rather than with my parents, so it gave me a real sense of independence.
Useful phrases from this answer
- snow-capped
- covered with snow at the top (used for mountains)
- split all the costs
- shared the money that had to be paid
- took turns
- did something one after another, not all at once
- in fits of laughter
- laughing so much that you can't stop
- a real sense of independence
- a strong feeling of being free to make your own decisions
- revolve around
- have something as the main focus or centre
- a double-edged sword
- something that has both good and bad effects
- exist only on paper
- officially exist but are not actually used or followed
Part 3 follow-up questions and answers
Why do many people enjoy spending time near water?
I think it's partly because water has a calming effect on most people. The sound of waves or a flowing river is gentle and repetitive, so it helps the mind slow down, and the open view across a lake or the sea gives a sense of space that's missing in crowded cities. There's also a practical side: places near water tend to be cooler on hot days, and they offer plenty to do, like swimming, fishing or boating. Perhaps there's something deeper too. Human settlements have always grown up beside rivers and coasts, so being near water might simply feel natural to us.
What water-based activities are popular in your country?
Given that Bangladesh is crossed by so many rivers, it's no surprise that a lot of activities revolve around water. In villages, swimming in ponds and rivers is something most children pick up naturally, and fishing is both a livelihood and a hobby. Traditional boat races are held in some areas, usually after the monsoon when the rivers are full, and they can draw huge, enthusiastic crowds. More recently, tourism has added newer activities, like surfing in Cox's Bazar or boat trips through the haor wetlands in the north-east. Still, for most people, I'd say simply taking a boat ride with the family is the most common way to enjoy the water.
Should all children be taught to swim at school?
Yes, I strongly believe they should, because swimming isn't just a sport; it's a life-saving skill. In a country with so many rivers, ponds and floods, children who can't swim are genuinely at risk, and drowning is a real danger for young children in many rural areas. The practical difficulty, of course, is that most schools don't have pools or trained instructors, so it can't happen overnight. But I'd argue schools could work with local communities to use safe ponds or shared facilities, and even basic lessons in floating and staying calm in the water could make a huge difference.
How important are rivers to the economy of a country?
It depends on the country, but somewhere like Bangladesh, rivers are absolutely central to the economy. They supply water for irrigating crops, they support a huge fishing sector that many families depend on, and they're still a cheap way of moving goods and passengers, particularly to areas that are poorly connected by road. However, rivers can be a double-edged sword economically. Floods and riverbank erosion destroy farmland and homes almost every year, so a great deal of money has to be spent on protection and recovery. In countries with fewer rivers or better road and rail networks, their role is probably smaller, though still significant for farming and energy.
What are the main causes of water pollution, and how can it be reduced?
The biggest causes, as far as I can see, are industrial waste, untreated sewage and plastic rubbish. In many developing countries, factories along riverbanks sometimes release chemicals and dyes straight into the water because proper treatment is expensive. Household waste, and farm chemicals that wash off fields during heavy rain, make the problem worse. Reducing it would require a combination of measures: stricter enforcement of environmental laws, so that polluting costs more than treating waste, investment in sewage systems, and public awareness campaigns about dumping rubbish. Ultimately, though, I think enforcement matters most, because rules that exist only on paper don't change anything.
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