Describe A Gift You Gave That Took A Long Time To Choose: IELTS Cue Card Sample 13

In the IELTS Speaking section, one of the most common question types is the Cue Card Speaking prompt. The IELTS Cue Card topics will prompt you to formulate a response and speak on the given topic. To attempt this question, you must narrow down the essential questions on the given topic to answer within the given time. Consider the sample Cue Card below. Study the types of questions that have been formulated based on the cue card and how to go about with your response:

Sample Answer 1

Gifts are a wonderful way of showing your love and gratitude to a dear person. A meaningful gift can make a lasting impression on a person and turn the act of receiving the gift into a cherished memory. I would like to talk about when I gave a set of handmade movie posters as a gift.

This gift was for my best friend Karan, a cinephile like myself, and both of us have a lot in common when it comes to our taste in films. Films and movies were the foundation of the friendship Karan and I share, and discussing our favourite movie scenes and dialogues is how we both became such great friends.

It was one of those gifts that took a substantial length of time to decide and finalize. Initially, I had planned to give my friend something generic like a t-shirt or perfume, but I realized that he might be receiving such gifts from others. Eventually, I decided to make him something special for his 21st birthday. That is when I came up with the idea of making posters of four of our favourite movies as a remembrance of the time we spent watching and discussing these movies together.

One of the main reasons for investing so much time and effort into creating something special for Karan is because he has always been a dear friend of mine. Karan had also helped me out of several difficult situations when other people had turned their backs on me. Besides, I wanted him to have a different and unique gift. I will never forget Karan’s face when he unwrapped the posters. In all the years that I have known him, I have never seen him as excited as back then. He gave me a tight hug and thanked me for the posters, which were immediately put up on his bedroom wall.

Sample Answer 2

One of the toughest tasks for me is to choose a gift for somebody as I am never so sure of the likelihood of the other person. On top of that, I want to ensure that the receiver likes and appreciates my choice. For this one reason, I end up spending hours altogether in choosing an appropriate gift by keeping the personality of the receiver in mind.

Here, I would like to share the incident when I spent five hours just to buy a gift for my best friend. Although it’s been only 5 years since we know each other, our bond grew profound with each passing day. So, knowing her persona, I knew she would not get enthralled with just another gift. One of her traits that helped me choose a gift was her voracious writing.

Finally, I zeroed down upon trendy, unique and attractive stationery set. A couple of days prior to her birthday I strolled through all of the shops in my town but couldn’t get anything. So, I referred to the internet. There, I found several sites that are offering customized stationery. So, I bought two sets of diaries, sketches, pens, pen stand, and a few other items with her name engraved on each one of them.

When I gifted it to my friend, she was extremely delighted and jumped with joy. She gave me a long, tight hug and thanked me profusely.

Sample Answer 3

Here is the sample for “describe a gift you gave that took a long time to choose” topic

Choosing a gift for someone is usually an arduous task because you want to make sure that the person who is receiving should like it. For that reason, I always spend a lot of time picking gifts for my relatives and friends. The longest I took to pick a gift was for my little sister. 

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It was her 5th birthday, and I wanted to give her something memorable and unique. I decided to go to a “Build-a-bear workshop” to buy her a stuffed bear. At this shop, you spend time picking materials to build your furry friend, from the cotton inside to the clothes outside. You also get to give this teddy bear a heart and a voice recorder, so that when you squeeze it, it would say whatever you recorded before. After building the stuffed toy, the store would give him or her a birth certificate with a name and birthday.

My little sister was so happy when she received the bear. Well, kids always love a furry friend anyway. However, what was special was that as she grew up, she understood how much love I had put in the bear when building it for her at the store, so she appreciated the gift even more.

Sample Audio

Click on the audio to listen to the sample answer above. Pay attention to the intonation and pronunciation of the words

Vocabulary

Here are the vocabularies for “describe a gift you gave that took a long time to choose” with examples:

• Pick:  To choose something from a group of things.
  Eg: The man picked a blue tie from the collection in the shop.
• Memorable: Something special, good or unusual and therefore easy to remember.
  Eg: I will never forget the memorable holiday that I had in Japan.
• Workshop: A place where you can do a practical activity to create something.
  Eg: As a student, I attended drama workshops, because I had always loved acting.
• Stuffed bear:  A toy in the shape of a bear, filled with cloth and made of some soft material.
  Eg: When I was a child, I had a stuffed bear, which I used to keep in my bedroom.
• Furry: Covered with fur – a soft thick mass of hair that grows on the body of some animals.
  Eg: People love pandas because they are so furry, with thick black and white fur all over their body.
• Get to:  To be allowed to do something.
  Eg: When we visited the football stadium, we got to meet some of the famous players.
• Teddy bear:  This is just another name for a stuffed toy bear.
  Eg: She gave the teddy bear as a gift to her child.
• Squeeze: To press something firmly, especially with your fingers.
  Eg: Every time you clean your teeth, you squeeze the tube of toothpaste.
• Appreciate: To recognize the good qualities in something or somebody.
  Eg: At school, I appreciated the help that I received from my teachers.

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