IELTS Speaking Practice Test 08 - Garden/Park and Pets

Part 1

Garden/Park

Do you have a garden?

Well, I’m currently living in an apartment in a condo near the heart of Hanoi, so as you can imagine, there is no space for a garden in my living place. However, I do have a lovely garden where I grow all kinds of favourite flowers and plants in my parents’ house.

Is there any park near your house?

Fortunately yes, my house is located near a large park with a wide variety of flowers and big trees, so it is an ideal place for me to stroll around and blow off some steam every weekend.

Do you want to change anything about the park?

The park itself is really nice, but it would be better if there were more lights around the park to make it slightly brighter. To be honest, I find it a bit scary when jogging in this park at night, so I only go there during the day.

Pets

Do you have a pet?

Well, back in the day when I was in high school, I did raise a dog named Andy in my house and he was my best companion ever. But then he died in an accident, which left a deep scar in my heart, so I haven’t got any new pet since then.

What kinds of pets are common in Vietnam? Why?

I guess dogs and cats are the most common pets in Vietnam. This is simply because they are often considered to be cute, smart and loyal friends. On top of that, dogs and cats are affordable and easy to find everywhere in my country.

If you have children in the future, will you allow them to raise a pet?

Of course, I used to read an article somewhere on the Internet about the benefits of children playing with pets in which the author says that pets can be good companions for children especially those with special needs or special medical conditions such as autism. Well, raising a pet can be troublesome sometimes but I believe they are real good partners in our lives.

Part 2

Alright let me tell you about the time that I helped my girlfriend learn IELTS.

So this happened about a couple of months ago when she was about to retake her IELTS test after an unsuccessful attempt earlier. She failed at speaking (only 6.5), so she asked me to communicate in English for a week prior to her exam to practice. I thought it was silly at first, but went along anyway.

I struggled a lot during our first conversations as talking in another language makes me feel distant, even though I’m an English teacher. How ironic! Finally, I came to my senses and decided to treat her as one of my students. Things started to get better and I was able to detect her biggest issue in speaking: her fluency. Similar to other Vietnamese English teachers, she focuses too much on perfecting her speech: adding “big” words and avoiding grammatical mistakes, which eventually leads to a loss of fluency. I gave her few tips, one of which was to stop worrying about speaking the first things off the top of her head because speaking is a test of your communication skills, not your vocabulary bank. Fortunately, she began to speak more fluently and achieved 8.5 in her speaking test.

I feel pretty proud of myself as a teacher and also pretty happy for my girlfriend as she was able to speak her mind and got the score she deserved !

Part 3

Is this necessary to ask for advice?

Yes, we are not Mr. Know-it-all, I mean, there are always limits in our knowledge and experience about things in life, so I think it’s really vital for us to ask for advice from other people when we’re going to experience something new, taking up a new hobby, for example.

Do young people nowadays like to receive advice?

It’s hard to tell, to be honest, I mean, it really depends. Some of them are very open to advice but some don’t. They think they are always right and refuse all kinds of help from others.

Do they always follow the advice they receive?

Well, again it really depends. For instance, if they find the advice valuable, they will definitely act on it, but if they consider it to be something wrong, they will not follow it. Still there are some cases when they pretend to take the advice to please others but then never follow it.

Should people ask for advice only on their personal matters or even important decisions?

I think it doesn’t matter what the problem is, the important thing is whether they can sort it out themselves or not. If they can’t think of any solution then I think they definitely need advice.