You should say When it was? What you were doing? What you did about it? And how you felt about it?
Note: 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.
Model Answers and follow up questions to describe a time when your computer broke down IELTS cue card:
Model Answer 1:
When was it? This happened to me about a year ago. Actually, I have two computers. One is a desktop, and the other is a laptop. My desktop is very old, and a laptop is brand new.
What were you doing? It so happened that my cousin had to prepare an assignment, and he asked me for my laptop for a few hours. His computer was not working very smoothly. Initially, I hesitated to give him because I am very possessive about it. But then I thought of helping him. So I agreed to give him.
What you did about it? The next day when he came to pick up the computer, I tried to start it to show him some unique functions on my computer to make it easier for him to use. To my surprise, my laptop did not start. I was shocked and taken aback. I tried hard to restart it, but it was vain. My cousin was very upset, and first, he thought that I am doing it purposely.
I called the computer technician, and he said he will solve the problem, but it will take a week. I called my friend, who is a hardware engineer, and he said the same.
And how you felt about it? I was helpless because I could not do anything to repair it urgently. I was disappointed and confused as to what must have gone wrong with the machine. It was frustrating and irritating, and I also felt worried and anxious about losing important data and pictures.
Conclusion: I gave my laptop for repair and, I offered my cousin to use my desktop. He was thankful and happy. Later on, my computer got repaired, but it cost me a lot of time, money and energy. I learnt that such high gadgets are handy, but we should not rely on them entirely. Though I did not lose any of my data, I learnt a lesson to take back up in hard disks. After this episode, my computer broke down twice, but I took regular back up of data.
Model Answer 2:
Introduction:
With the rapid growth in the number of technological appliances we use everyday, there are lot of instances when something fails and we have to get it repaired.
Today, I would like to talk about my Apple laptop, which got damaged recently and I got it repaired from IT market in Delhi.
When it was? and What you were doing?
What happened was that I was working on an assignment late night and I was using the laptop while lying on the bed.
I didn’t realise when I fell asleep and when I got up in the morning I saw my laptop lying on the floor, probably it fell down when I was sleeping.
I immediately picked it up, only to realise that there was a huge crack in the screen of the laptop.
I tried to turn it on but it was not working.
I felt really bad at that time and was scared to tell my family about it.
What you did about it?
So, I decided to consult my friend and he told me to visit the nearest Apple store to figure out the damage.
I reached there immediately and the technician told me that the display had broken and needs to be replaced.
He told me the cost of screen replacement would be 40,000 Rs.
I was shocked to hear such a huge repair cost as I had already spent a hefty amount on the laptop.
how you felt about it?
So, I came back home disappointed.
Suddenly, it came to my mind that one of my other friend, who was in Delhi, had also faced the same problem.
So, I called him and explained the situation to him.
He told me that I can get it repaired from IT market in Delhi for just 5000 Rs and the technician will replace my screen with a used one.
After that, I decided to tell my family about it. Initially, they felt sad like me but then they suggested me to be careful about how I handle electronic gadgets in future and gave the money for repair.
Finally, I went to Delhi and got it repaired. The technician changed the display and luckily the used display looked like a new one and I was able to use my laptop again.
Conclusion:
Nowadays I am very careful about how I use the electronic equipment’s, I guess, I learnt the lesson, the hard way.
IELTS Speaking Part 3 : Follow up Questions
Here some examples of follow up questions that you may asked during your speaking part 3 by examiner related to cue card “Describe a time when your computer broke down”.
1. What do people use computers for? Well, these days the use of computers is limitless, especially in the last year people around the world are using computers as mini offices. We can store our pictures, we can study online with the help of computers and we can even watch movies. So, it depends on people’s personal preferences.
2. Should students be allowed to use computers at school? I am a strong supporter of the use of computers at school. The main reason why I think so is that they would help them to understand their lessons with illustrations and make learning more interesting. This will also make them fetch the data from anywhere in the world. They can share their knowledge with their teachers instantly by making use of a computer.
3. What do you think of people who are addicted to computers? Most of the people think that computer addiction is very bad, but my views are not the same. I think if you want to do anything in life you need passion and you need a certain amount of addiction. In the present scenario, we are working with the help of computers. We are locked down in our homes, so we entertain ourselves on computers, we communicate with the near and dear ones with the help of computers. But at the same time, we need to go out exercise and get up after every half an hour or one hour to give rest to eyes and to exercise or body.
4. Do you think computers make our life simpler or more complex? Computers make life simpler but these days we are performing many tasks and want all done faster so it seems that they have made our life complex. Imagine in the earlier times if we had to share any news, we had to write a letter to each person and to post it and wait for the reply for a week or so or sometimes even longer. As compared to it, now we have to just type it press a button and share with everyone, so I think they have made our everyday life simpler not complex.
Describe a time when your computer broke down IELTS cue card
When was it? This happened to me about a year ago. Actually, I have two computers. One is a desktop, and the other is a laptop. My desktop is very old, and a laptop is brand new. What were you doing? It so happened that my cousin had to prepare an assignment, and he asked me for my laptop for a few hours. His computer was not working very smoothly. Initially, I hesitated to give him because I am very possessive about it. But then I thought of helping him. So I agreed to give him. What you did about it? The next day when he came to pick up the computer, I tried to start it to show him some unique functions on my computer to make it easier for him to use. To my surprise, my laptop did not start. I was shocked and taken aback. I tried hard to restart it, but it was vain. My cousin was very upset, and first, he thought that I am doing it purposely.
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