Describe a time you found something that someone lost
You should say:
- What it was;
- When and where you found it;
- What you did after you found it;
- And explain how you felt about finding it.
Sample Answer
Off the top of my head, the first thing that comes to mind is the time I found a smartphone, an iPhone 4. Honestly, it might be the most expensive item I’ve ever found.
If memory serves correctly, it was about two years ago. At the time, I was on a bus that was so crowded, people were practically packed in like sardines. When I was about to get off the bus, I found a cellphone on the seat next to me. And the guy who sat there had just gotten off the bus at the previous stop. So I guess he forgot to keep an eye on his stuff, and the cellphone must’ve slipped out of his pocket.
Anyway, I thought the guy must have been a nervous wreck without his phone. So I gave the cellphone to the bus driver right away. He said he would put it in the lost and found of a police station. Since I still had a tight schedule to follow, I just let the driver handle it.
I don’t know if the cellphone has been returned to its owner or not, but I hope everything turned out for the best. After all, losing an iPhone is basically like throwing 5000 yuan down the drain. Besides, I was kind of happy that I was the one who found it. You know, not every finder would return it or submit it to the lost and found.
Vocab Highlights
off the top of one’s head: if you say something off the top of your head, you say it without thinking about it much before you speak, especially because you do not have enough time.
if my memory serves me (well/right/correctly): used for saying that you think you have remembered something correctly
packed/squashed like sardines: if you say that a crowd of people is packed like sardines, you are emphasizing that they are sitting or standing so close together that they cannot move easily.
get off: to leave a bus, plane, or train
keep an eye on someone/something (also keep your eye on someone/something): to watch someone or something or stay informed about the person’s behavior, esp. to keep someone out of trouble
a nervous wreck (phrase): someone very upset and worried.
tight schedule: a small amount of time to do something
turn out for the best: to yield the most favorable, most positive, or most beneficial possible outcome
go down the drain definition: if you say that something is going down the drain, you mean that it is being destroyed or wasted.
Sample Answer 2
I am not exactly one of those persons who find the “lost” things of other people randomly, simply because I never really like to pick up anything from any place under the sky unless, of course, it is laying at my own place. And, I had been practising this important “rule” of mine like a religion for as long as I could remember. I even loved “preaching” about my rule to others, only to have it “broken” by myself suddenly, one day.
Even to this date, sometimes I just wish that I didn’t pick up that shopping bag, with a very expensive watch inside it, which was left by a lady sitting just next to me at a restaurant, eating her saucy spaghetti with macaroni and cheese on top.
Of course, I could have just called her from behind when she was “leaving” the food place, but I chose not to, because, I assumed that she was only going to a “washroom” and that she would be soon back to pick her bag. But, she didn’t come back as long as I was present there, eating my food. I could have simply left it as it was, but I informed the restaurant manager. The manager told me that he wouldn’t to be any part of it and that I should have kept the bag with me since I was the first person to see her leaving the bag. I tried to convince the manager otherwise, but it was just a waste of my time and energy as he just wouldn’t “budge” even for a second.
So, anyway, I took the expensive watch in my possession and waited at the restaurant as long as I could, but the lady just never came back. I felt like it was my fault that the lady left her shopping bag since I could have stopped her, but assumed wrongly that she would be back, instead. However, after waiting for an hour, just before the closing of the restaurant, I decided to leave the food place after leaving my phone number and contact address to the manager.
The following day, the first thing I did was to inform the police about the incident, and the police gladly accepted the watch after handing over me a written document. The police assured me that he would call me if he needed any other information. Then I went back to the restaurant from where I picked up the bag to know if she ever contacted them or not. But the response was “no”. Finally, I just told the manager that I had left the watch at the local police station to be picked up by its rightful owner. After that, I promised to myself that I would never pick up anything from anywhere unless it was mine and only mine.