A recent progress that your country has witnessed – Cue Card # 624
- Details
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 February 2021 14:58
- Written by IELTS Mentor
- Hits: 9663
IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.
Describe a recent progress/development that your country has witnessed.
You should say:
- what it is
- how long it took to finish or if it is still ongoing
- how you feel about it
and explain how it is beneficial to your country.
[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.]
Sample Answer 1:
Malaysia has made tremendous progress over the last few decades in various sectors. In fact, with just over 30 million population, my country has become the 26th richest country in the world in terms of total GDP. Besides, Malaysia is the 9th most popular tourist destination, ahead of countries like Germany. However, the progress, I want to talk about today as far as my country is concerned, is the progress in the education sector, especially in tertiary educational level.
There was a growing sense of discomfort and concerns among fresh graduates up until recently who were unable to gain employment upon graduation because of not having the relevant skills, as well as opportunity to strike out on their own. To deal with these concerns, the Malaysian Ministry of Education has already incorporated very sophisticated technology and translational research” (translating academic research into practical solutions to benefit the industry, academia, government and society) into our educational system to change the concept of teaching and learning at the higher education level.
The ministry of education has also implemented a “Gap Year Programme” at eight public universities to give their students one year of break from studies or work to pursue other interests, to volunteer at government agencies so that they can pursue some important on-the-job experiences. As for technology, the existing Malaysian Research and Education Network’s (Myren) online ecosystem to Myren-X – a 100-gigabit high-speed broadband infrastructure has been put in place in order to increases bandwidth capacity at public universities to a maximum of 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) to enable big data research and experimentations. On top of that, our education ministry has also introduced the Malaysia English Assessment (MEA) scheme, embedded in the Ecosystem for English Language Learning and Assessment in Higher Education, to nurture holistic, entrepreneurial and “balanced” graduates into our work pools.
It all started in 2015, and it will continue for some times. But the progress is already benefitting my country. I certainly feel good about the progress our education system has made so far as it is already on its way to becoming the regional educational hub. But the best thing about our new educational approach is that it has already managed to boost the reputation of some of our colleges and universities by raising the public’s confidence in our nation’s ability to provide quality higher education just like any other “developed” nations even though we are not quite there yet.
Model Answer 2:
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you for the chance you have given me to talk about one of the contemporary advancements in our country. The development work that I am going to talk about was much anticipated and highly desired, and I believe it will be enormously positive for the country and the citizens.
Progress, in my opinion, is a meaningful improvement or development in an area or sector to have something better than it is used to be. When a country progresses, it ensures better living standard to its citizens.
My country (…say your country’s name…), has recently completed a highly ambitious project known as Kankas Super Highway. This project has taken almost two decades, and now it ensures better inland communication and transportation throughout the country. It has connected several districts with the capital city and people are already getting benefits from this grand project. Many experts believe that it will dramatically change the trade and transport facilities in our country, especially for people from rural areas.
The scheme was initiated in 1998 and took almost 22 years to finish. However, I have heard that some works are still going on, perhaps those were planned at a later phase, and the ministry of rural transportation has allocated more budget to add diversity to this development work.
It makes me sad that the development works didn’t come without a price we were not ready to pay. We had to sacrifice two small forests, vast agricultural lands and a few hilly areas- the natural habitat of the flora and fauna, not to mention the overwhelming number of trees that had been cut down to carry on the project. I hope we would be able to take some initiatives to cover the loss, at least a portion of it.
Considering the advantages, I am quite positive this progress will bring tremendous benefits. The old highway didn’t connect all parts of the country to the capital city and couldn’t cope with the number of increasing vehicles running on the roads. Now that the development works are almost done, people from any part of the country have better access to the capital city and that would improve our overall trade facilities, and as a result, people will get better access to education, treatment, and employment.