A situation when you had to keep silent – Cue Card # 699
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IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.
Describe a situation when you had to keep silent.
You should say:
- when it was
- where it was
- why you needed to remain silent
and explain how you felt about it.
[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 Answer:
I have read the “please keep silent” sign at many places before, but I never really took it too seriously, perhaps because keeping silent isn’t exactly my nature. But, I still needed to maintain my silence once because the situation had just demanded it. Today, I would like to break that story and tell you what the situation really was.
It was about a couple of years ago when I took my little niece to take an admission test for grade-1 at an elementary school, which was a bit far away from where my niece’s family lived. My niece, a 4-years-old girl, was a bit nervous about being left alone at a completely strange place. So, I decided to stay close to my niece in a separate room, next to the place where my niece was taking the test.
Since the admission test would continue for one good hour, I thought that it would be better for me if I had just used my phone to inform my elder brother about how her little daughter was doing. But, as soon as I started to talk over my phone in a rather low voice, I was asked to keep silent. Understanding the situation, I then decided to pick up some newspapers from the desk and read them to pass my time. But, even that privilege was taken away from me, simply because I was making just a bit too much noise when I was turning the newspaper pages!
Apparently, the school authority didn’t want to distract the little children while they were taking the admission test. So, I just kept my silence at the test venue like a “good boy” until the test was over.
How did I feel about it? Well, initially, I felt a bit annoyed with such a strong rule about maintaining silence, but I eventually realized that so was done only to help the children to keep their maximum focus on the test. Besides, the practice also gave me an early impression that my little niece would learn the much-needed lessons on maintaining discipline in life from an early age if admitted to that school.