Books
Describe a book that you would like to read again.
You should say:
- What the book was about
- Why you read it the first place
- What you learned from this book
- And explain why you would like to read it again.
Model Answer
Okay so I would like to tell you about the book called Harry Potter, which is a fantasy novel, written by the British author J. K. Rowling. It’s one that I can reread time and time again.
The book describes the life of a young wizard named Harry Potter and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione. Harry has to struggle to kill the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aim is to become immortal and destroy all those who stand in his way of ruling the world.
The reason why this book comes to mind is that it is a reminder of my childhood. It was a gift for my birthday from my parents to reward my high score in an exam at school. Up until now, I can still remember clearly how fascinated I was when I received it.
Thanks to this book, I realized that determination and effort play essential roles in achieving my goals. Since then, I have always worked hard to overcome all obstacles and challenges in my life.
Harry Potter will always be on my to-read list for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have always been a great admirer of science fiction books so I love the way that the author describes the whole magical world with the magic school, Hogwarts, and the flying brooms. Secondly, reading this book not only helps me to relax after a long day of work or study but also cheers me up whenever I am feeling blue.
Vocabulary Highlights
- fantasy novel – a book that involves magic or imaginary worlds
- author – someone who writes a book, story or article
- time and time again – on many occasions, many times
- immortal – to never die
- comes to mind – an idea or thought that appears in your mind
- fascinated – to be very interested
- determination and effort – to focus your attention and use a lot of energy to do something
- play essential roles – are important parts of something
- overcome all obstacles – to get through any problems
- to-read list – a list of books that you want to read
- admirer – to like something
- cheers me up – makes me feel better or happier
- feeling blue – feeling down or sad
Describe a book you liked to read in your childhood.
You should say:
- who wrote this book
- what it is about
- when you read it
- and explain why you liked it.
Model Answer
Well, I’m going to share with you the book that I was really fond of reading when I was a little girl, which is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It’s a fantasy novel written by the British author J. K. Rowling, and she has become really popular all over the world now thanks to this fantastic series of books.
The book illustrates the school life of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his two best friends Ron and Hermione. Harry had a powerful enemy, the Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort, who longed for immortality and to rule the magic world.
I started reading this book when I was about 8 years old I think. At that time, I was only beginning to improve my reading skills, and Harry Potter was quite a thick book so it took me ages to get through it.
As a little girl, I didn’t understand all the details in the book but I truly admired the story of Harry’s friendship with Ron and Hermione. And I think it helped me to feel more confident to make friends with my classmates, some of whom I still keep in touch with now. And I guess that is the main reason why I appreciate this book so much.
Vocabulary Highlights
- fond of – to like
- fantasy novel – a book that involves magic or imaginary worlds
- author – someone who writes a book, story or article
- longed for – really wanted
- immortality – the ability to keep on living, and never die
- to rule – to control something
- took me ages – took a long time
- get through it – to read it
- keep in touch with – to stay in communication with someone, through email, message or phone
- appreciate – to be thankful
Describe an article you read about healthy life.
You should say:
- where you read it from
- when you read it
- what the article was about
- And explain what you thought about this article.
Model Answer
Today I want to share with you one of my most favourite articles of all time named “Ten ways to live longer”, which was published in the Guardian – a very famous British magazine, and is, in my opinion, a must-read article about human health and well-being.
I believe that the more people become wiser, the more they will care about their health. The first surprising thing I noticed about this article was about the country with the longest life expectancy, which was Japan, for both men and women. The question is, how do they do it? Well, apparently Japanese people simply have regular health check-ups and pay close attention to hygiene in every aspect of their lives. Avoiding a
sedentary lifestyle is one of the golden rules of good health, yet this is still a major problem in many countries around the world. In other words, get your running shoes on and never just sit around all day. Another major point I learnt was that you should get your blood pressure checked regularly because high blood pressure is the number one factor that leads to early death and years of poor health.
According to the article, the ten things to do or avoid included some things like, not smoking, eating seeds and not junk, drinking in moderation, staying out of hospital, and not getting stressed, which all seem quite obvious but can certainly change your life if you follow these rules. You don’t need to do strenuous or vigorous exercise in order to have better health. Simply drink a little bit less each day, add a little bit more vegetables to your diet and do something as simple as carrying your heavy shopping bags instead of using the trolley to improve your muscle strength at least two days a week. Sounds easy, right?
Vocabulary Highlights
- articles – a piece of writing in a newspaper or magazine
- published – to make something available to the public by printing it eg. a book, magazine etc
- must-read – something that is highly recommended to read
- wiser – smarter
- life expectancy – a prediction of how long something or someone will live
- health check-ups – visiting the doctor to check your health
- pay close attention – to look or do something in detail
- hygiene – keeping yourself and your environment clean in order to avoid sickness and disease
- sedentary lifestyle – a lazy lifestyle with little or no exercise or physical activity
- golden rules – the most important rules
- get your running shoes on – put your shoes on to prepare for some exercise
- number one factor – the number one cause of
- obvious – easily seen or understood
- strenuous – needing or using a lot of energy or effort
- vigorous – very energetic
- trolley – shopping cart