IELTS Cue Card Sample 10 – Topic: Ambition You Have Not Yet Achieved

IELTS Cue Card for IELTS Speaking Part 2:

Describe an ambition that you have not yet achieved.
You should say:
what your ambition is
when you first had this ambition (or, how long you have had this ambition)
how you plan to achieve it
(possibly) what you have done towards achieving this ambition
and explain why you have not achieved it yet

Band 9.0 Sample Answer:

One of my ambitions that I have not yet achieved is to be able to communicate in Japanese.

I just thought about this idea a year ago because I realized that nowadays, knowing more foreign languages is an advantage not only in our daily lives but also in work environments.

In order to achieve this, I registered for a Japanese class for beginners, twice a week. I also downloaded an application on my iPhone which helps people study foreign languages named Duolingo, so that I can study on my own at home. For the first two months, I did not skip any classes, and spent at least 30 minutes every night studying Japanese on Duolingo at home.

Unfortunately, I could not keep up with the schedule for long since I was working full time, not to mention that I had many other social activities that distracted me from studying. There were days when I was so busy that I had to work overtime to finish my job. As a result, I wasn’t able to go to class and I definitely didn’t have any time to study at home. Moreover, my friends complained that I had been ignoring them, so I needed to arrange time to hang out with them. Just like that, I gradually lost my ambition to study Japanese and until now, I can only remember one alphabet table, even though Japanese uses three types of alphabets.

USEFUL VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS:

 ambition – a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. “Her ambition to become CEO of the company amazes her boyfriend.”
 not yet achieved – to not yet reach a goal or to succeed in doing something that you really want to do. “He has not yet achieved his goal of getting an 8 on the IELTS writing exam.”
 to realize that – to become aware of something, to know or come to understand something for the first time. “His mom didn’t realize that she wouldn’t be able to visit him while he was studying in
Germany.”
 to be an advantage – something that offers you a better opportunity at something is an advantage or benefit to you. “As an employee, it is an advantage to be fluent in English these days.”
 to register for – to sign up for something like a class or workshop; to put your name on the list and pay your money. “He has only five days left to register for the conference.”
 to skip classes – to miss a class or not go to a class for some reason. “His teacher said that if he skipped any more classes, he wouldn’t receive any credit for the course.”
 to keep up with – to be able to perform at a certain level or to be able to continue to do something as planned. “She had a difficult time keeping up with all of the homework that her English professor gave her.”
 not to mention that – used to add additional information when you are explaining why something did or didn’t happen, used to introduce an additional fact or point that reinforces the point being made. “She can’t go to the meeting on Friday because she is ill, not to mention that she has already put in twice as much time as everybody else has this week.”
 distracted me from – used to talk about when you go off task or stop working on something because your attention goes elsewhere. “Her funny jokes distracted me from getting my homework done.”
 they complained – to complain means to tell someone that you don’t like something for some reason. His friends didn’t like that he wasn’t spending time with them, so they complained to him. “His wife complained that he was working too many hours.”
 to ignore someone – you ignore someone when you don’t respond to their phone calls, messages, emails, etc., you don’t pay attention to them. “He thought I was ignoring him because I didn’t answer his text, but I was just in a meeting and couldn’t text him back.”
 to arrange – to organize or to schedule something. “She needed to arrange a time to meet with the accountant.”
 to hang out with – to spend time with someone. “They liked to hang out with their friends on weekends.

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