22nd Jan, Today’s Task

Writing Task 2 (AC & GT)

Success comes to people because of hard work, not because of luck. How far do you agree to this statement? Give specific examples in support of your answer.

Main points….                                         

• Success comes with hard work, but sometimes luck also plays it’s part in achieving success.
• Hard work is the key to success

  – story of ’King Bruce and the Spider’.

  – examples of Columbus and captain cook

• But sometimes luck also helps in success.
• A student gets lucky by getting in question paper the only questions he has prepared.
• The student comes out with flying colors.
• Conclusion
• So both hard work and luck have a role in achieving success.

There are two contrasting theories about success. One is the success is achieved by hard work, by diligence, by perseverance. The other is that our destiny is controlled by our stars. Now both these views are extremes. My opinion is that truth lies between the two extremities. We do achieve success with hard work. But sometimes luck also plays its part in it.

Hard work, no doubt, is the key to success. There is the oft quoted story of ‘King Bruce and the Spider’. The King, disheartened after defeat at the hands of his enemies, learnt the lesson of perseverance from a spider. He took courage, fought back his enemies and tasted victory. Explorers like Columbus and Captain Cook were men of grit and determination. They fought all odds and difficulties and ultimately succeeded in their aims-Columbus discovering America and cook setting foot on Australia. Otherwise too modern civilization, we can say, is a handiwork of all men who worked hard in various fields.

But success cannot be credited to diligence alone luck also sometimes plays a part in it. There are people who succeed because Lady Luck smiles on them. We can quote here an example from day-to-day life of ordinary people. A student does not study all through the year. Near the exam, he prepares only a few expected questions. Luckily he finds all these questions in the question paper. He acquits himself well, and comes out with flying colors. Even many successful men in history owed a part of their success to favorable luck.

   To sum up, I can say that man, no doubt, is the architect of his own fate. But at times, our fate is determined by our luck which may be described as the unexpected occurrence of favorable circumstances.

Word meanings

• Contrasting                                         :   opposed to each other, extreme
• Diligence                                             :   hardwork, labour, industriousness
• Perseverance                                     :   constant hardwork; trying again and again
• Extremities                                         :   two opposed ends
• Explorers                                            :   discoverers
• Handiwork                                         :   product
• Come out with flying colours         :   gain a brilliant success
• Architect                                            :   builder

Academic Writing Task 1

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1/ Graph Writing – Bar Graph + Pie Charts:

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows the average monthly use of health club in Miami and Florida by all full-time members in 2017. The pie charts show the age profile of male and female members of this health club.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

You should write at least 150 words.

Sample  Answer:

The illustrations give the number of full-time male and female health-centre members in Miami and Florida throughout the year 2017 and outline the ratio of these members based on their gender and age. Overall, more male were active health centre members than that of females and just over half of them were between 21 to 45 years old.

As the bar chart implies, 500 females were active members of different fitness clubs in Florida and Miami in January 2017 while their male counterparts were slightly higher in number. The membership count to these gyms and health centres remained almost the same till April but afterwards increased rapidly between June and September. During this period, fitness centres in these two areas had more than 800 active male participants and slightly over 700 female members. The number of male health club members had always been higher than that of females. From October until the end of the year, these clubs retained a fewer number of members and this number varied from 500 to 700. 

According to the pie charts, more than half of the male members of these fitness clubs were between 21 to 45 years old while this was exactly 50% for women. Over 65 years old men accounted for one-quarter participants while it was 6% higher in the case of females. Remaining one-fifth fitness club members were from different other age groups

General Writing Task 1

Your neighbor’s children keep spoiling your garden.

Write a letter of complaint to the neighbor

• Tell him the cause of your complaint.
• What damage the children cause to your garden.
• What you expect him to do about it.

Dear Mr. Verma

It pains me to make a complaint to you. It pains me all the more since the complaint is about your children who – I must hasted to say – are very dear to me too.

Please do not mind if I say that your children keep spoiling my garden. I did allow the kids to play in my garden, but with the condition that they would not cause any damage to the plants there. But, I am sorry to say, they have forgotten that condition.

They dig holes in the grassy ground; break the branches of the plants. They take delight in plucking the flowers and buds. They have even broken down the fence around at certain places, with the result that vagabonds have started straying into my garden.

I would request you to please advice your children not to do all this. They are welcome to my garden, but please see that they desist from causing any damage to it.

Hope you don’t mind the complaint.

With regards.

Yours sincerely

…………………..

IELTS Speaking Full Interview

What is your full name?

My name is Sameera Reddy.

Can I see your ID please?

Yes, ofcourse. Here is my passport.

Where are you from?

I am from Hyderabad.

Do you work or study?

I am studying as well as working.

what do you do?

I work as a school librarian.

Do you like your job?

Yes, I simply enjoy my work as it helps gain a lot of knowledge sitting in one place. It gives me a chance to interact with several people.

Part 2 – Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

[The topic for your talk will be written on a card which the examiner will hand over to you. Read it carefully and then make some brief notes.]

Describe a book that you enjoyed reading because you had to think a lot.

You should say:

• what this book was
• why you decided to read it
• what reading this book made you think about

and explain why you enjoyed reading this book.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

[Examiner: All right? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don’t worry if I stop you. I’ll tell you when the time is up. Can you start speaking now, please?]

Model Answer:
I have had the opportunity to read many books outside of my academic reading lists, which helped me learn every time something new and interesting. While some of these books make us happy, the others make us sad. However, there are some books which make us think at a different level which we were never used to do before, and today I would like to talk about one such book.

The name of this book was “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption”.  As the name suggests, this book is written on the story of World War II, written by an American author named “Laura Hillenbrand”.

In this book, the author has tried to tell us an unforgettable story of a man’s journey, whose name was Lieutenant Louis Zamperini, into extremity after crashing an American air force bomber in the Pacific Ocean. Then, the book also went on to describe the epic struggle of the young lieutenant who faced thousands of miles of open ocean ahead of him, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.

Driven to the limits of endurance, the book also goes on to reveal how Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering, hope, resolve, and humour, and brutality with rebellion.

Anyway, I decided to read this book because I wanted to learn a bit more about many untold stories about the most devastating war in human history.  After reading the book, I thought that the story on it was an ultimate testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit of a person who could see nothing but death ahead of him.  

Anyway, I enjoyed reading the book because it offered a very beautiful and vivid description of the events surrounding Louis Zamperini. I enjoyed reading it also because the book brought out a particular phase of the world war II in the light with a very well-researched story which only had got overlooked by the historians in the past. In fact, it is arguably the most inspirational war-related book, I have ever read.

Part 3 – Details discussion:

Discussion topic: “Children and reading”

Q.  What are the most popular types of children’s book in your country?
Answer: Well, different children like to read different types of books, depending on their ages and interests. It also depends largely on what kinds of languages are used to write those books. But, from my experience, I would say that comic, funny short stories, comedy books, detective stories and fairy tales are the most popular types of children’s book in my country, no matter what language pattern is used to write those books because all children, in general, like to laugh, get excited and be happy.  Books with funny and beautiful pictures, fantasy, fairy tales and rhymes are also popular among children in my country.

Q.  What are the benefits of parents reading books to their children?
Answer: There are several benefits of parents reading books to their children. One of those major benefits is that it helps their children grow interests in reading from an early age. Secondly, it also helps ensure the cognitive development of their children in a very safe environment, by teaching them about the world around them as well as improving their language skills and imagination. Finally, it would help create a very healthy and strong bond with their children which would ultimately help them become a very positive, resourceful and happy person as an adult.

Q.  Should parents always let children choose the books they read?
Answer: No, parents shouldn’t always let their children choose the books they read. Please understand that “always” is the operative adverb here. It is absolutely alright to let children choose what they like to read once in a while, but it shouldn’t be the case always because some books certainly are not appropriate for children because of their age-inappropriate languages, and other obscene contents like violence and graphic sex scenes. Besides, even if we think, for the sake of debate, that there is nothing wrong with a book, as far as its contents are concerned, the chances are that the children just wouldn’t be able to process the information in it in the same way as an adult would do, which could ultimately harm a child.

Discussion topic: “Electronic books”

Q.  How popular are electronic books in your country?
Answer: Well, as far as I know, I don’t really think that electronic books are that popular in my country as yet because I can see most people, professionals and students, around me today are still buying their books from their favourite book stores and reading them on a fairly regular basis instead of actually using electronic books. Of course, we all read a little electronic book here and there when working on the computers, but when it comes to serious reading, the majority of people in my country are still heavily reliant on printed books.

Q.  What are the advantages of parents reading electronic books (compared to printed books)?
Answer: I think there are some advantages of reading electronic books, compared to printed books, whether they are read by the parents or anybody else. The main advantage, of course, is that they are more convenient to store and carry as they can all be kept in a single computer, tablet or e-reader. Besides, reading electronic books can be more interactive in a sense that we can actually search any page or anything in a book almost instantaneously. Finally, getting an electronic book can be far less time-consuming as we can get it on our computer from the comfort of our home, without ever running to a book store, while also paying the same or less price for it as the price of a printed book.

Q.  Will electronic books ever completely replace printed books in the future?
Answer: I think that whether electronic books will completely replace the printed books in the future or not would largely depend on how easy it is for someone to have access to a computer or an e-reader. To tell the truth, there are still hundreds of millions of people in the world, who don’t have enough funds to pay for even a single meal or single printed book, and I don’t really see all of them having access to a computer or e-reader ever in the near future. So, the only option left for them is to read a printed book which is far less expensive than an e-reader or computer.  Moreover, the fascination of reading a printed book is something that we would not want to sacrifice that easily in the future.

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