Hello everyone and welcome to another video about the speaking cue card questions
in the Duolingo English test. We will review some tips and information about the speaking cue card
questions and here I would strongly recommend you to watch other videos in the same playlist of
the Duolingo speaking test because I have included detailed information on how to attempt
this question in those videos. In this video we will be reviewing those tips a little bit and
then we will be taking a look at some of the cue card questions and their answers so let's start
Once again the cue card question means that you will be provided with
cues with the question and you will be required to follow those cues.
So there are three cue card questions in the Duolingo English test.There are two with written
prompts and one with oral or spoken prompt you will get 30 seconds to prepare and decide on
how to answer the question and then speak for 90 seconds or one and a half minutes.
Over here we have some more tips and information and the first thing is that we need to
focus on the use of tenses while answering the cue card questions. If the cues are in present tense,
you need to answer in the present tense and we will take a look at that in our examples.
Secondly, the topics of the cue cards questions are our own life experiences and observations
so let's not take our experiences and observations for granted because everything
happens for a reason and if something good or bad happens to you you will have that
experience in your mind and then you will be able to talk about it when you get a question
related to it. Another important thing is that if you cannot answer a question because you do
not have prior knowledge or experience of it, use your imagination and try to make up something.For
example, if you have not traveled by airplane ever and you come across a question in which you
are asked about relating your own experience of traveling by air; you can still make it up
because you will have some information about the air travels of course. You can use your
imagination and tell that it is an exciting experience and imagine yourself sitting in a
plane by the window and witnessing the sights and scenes of the world from the window. You can also
tell that you have to buy a ticket for air travel and then you have to book your luggage and stuff
like that. So you can use your common sense and your imagination to answer a lot of questions.
Having said that, it is advisable to increase your awareness of the events that happen around
you. Increase your knowledge and observation of things like books, animals, plants, art, movies,
outing, culture and celebrations etc. Last of all, practice writing your answers to questions
available online and practice speaking them so if you go online and look up the cue card questions
for the Duolingo English test you will find a list of questions on different websites and channels.
You can also join groups on facebook and then find out from other group members what they got
in their exam.Now let's take a look at some of the cue card questions and their answers.
Speaking cue card question number one... Talk about an occasion when you were forced to change
your plans because of the weather. Please say when did this happen? What kind of weather it was?
Explain why you had to change your plans?Now let's take a look at the answer.
Before speaking up the answer i would like to remind you that the cues were in the past tense
and we were required to relate our experience which happened in the past
so the answer should be in the past tense as well. Now let's read the answer... I remember
a time when I had to cancel my trip to my friend's house due to the bad weather conditions. I was at
home on a weekend and I planned to visit one of my high school friends who lived at an hour's drive.
Unfortunately, I believe it wasn't a well-planned visit and as soon as I started getting ready,
I realized that the sky was grey with clouds. It looked like there will be some intermittent
showers but soon heavy clouds started to build up. There was a strong hail storm with wild winds.
You won't believe how defeated I felt when I witnessed the rain falling ceaselessly.
Also, on that day, I felt the need to wash the weather forecast carefully before making
a plan for an outing. Anyways, I still waited for the rain to stop but it didn't happen
until the day was well advanced. Finally, I had to change my plan to visit my friend because there
was no point starting after half the day was gone. So I informed my friend of the change of plans.
She was a little upset too but she understood why I wasn't able to make it. That's how the
day ended and I promised myself to always look for the weather forecast before making my next plan.
Speaking cue card question number two ...Once again the question is in the past
tense. We are required to relate our own experience of helping someone in the past
and we need to follow the cues that are given with this question so the question is
...Describe a situation where you helped somebody.Please say who was the person you helped
when and where was it what kind of help did you offer.Now we will make sure that we
include the answers to these cues as well in our answer. Let's take a look at the answer.
It happened quite recently when I helped one of my co-workers. It was a cold day in
January when one of my co-workers Anna came late for work. As she arrived,
she told us that she had been walking from home since she couldn't find public transport.
I think it was not sensible on her part to have walked from home because it was not a good day
to walk with all that cold and snow. A few minutes later, she suddenly fell on the floor unconscious.
It created a panic because most of my colleagues did not know how to help an unconscious person.
Since I was trained in first aid and CPR, I immediately offered help.The first thing
I did was putting a warm blanket around her and turned her on one side. Secondly,
I called the ambulance. I also checked her pulse and breathing. Her blood pressure was low too.
At the same time, I rubbed her hands a little bit. After a while, she opened her eyes.
One of our colleagues brought hot coffee for her. She got better with it. Finally the ambulance
arrived. The paramedics did a checkup on her. She was feeling fine but a little bit weak.
She was given a day off. At that point, I dropped her home in my car.
I will add that it was one incident when I used my first aid training that went quite well.
Speaking cue card question number three... Talk about a place that is full of color.
Please say what place this is .where it is located. What people do there. How we
learned about this place. so we are going to answer all these cue in our response.
Now you must already know that the cues are in the present tense so the answer is also going to be in
the present tense. Another thing is that talking about a place which is full of color... might be
confusing for some of us. Over here, I have used my imagination and talked about a clothing store.
You can make up a similar answer for this question so let's take a look at the answer.
Well, I can remember many places which can be called full of colors. There can be shopping
malls, parks and buildings but I will talk about a clothing store called the wheels of colors it is
an international brand of clothing and is located in Toronto. It has other branches as well people
go there to shop for formal occasions and also for fun and here I will tell you why. One reason
why people like to go there is that it's a place with a lot of brilliant and eye-catching colors.
The store is also decorated brilliantly with many beautiful and artistic samples of fancy clothing
from around the world. The dresses in the shops are heavily embellished
with beads and colorful embroidery. The variety of fabrics used in the clothes is amazing.
The exterior of the store is not just like any other store. It's also very colorful and decorated
according to the modern trends. I must say that this place is a huge investment.
Finally, I learned about the store from one of my friends and she is a big fan of the store. It
was with her that I visited this store for the first time. I would say that this is absolutely
impressive. Speaking cue card question number four ...Talk about a place where
you go to read or write please say what place this is where is it located how often you
visit this place as you can see there are a lot of questions which are about the places
you will be asked about different places different buildings vacation sports parks your school
so there are a lot of topics related to places so now let's see the answer and once again
this is going to be in the present tense because the cubes are in the present
tense
the place that would immediately pop up in my mind would be my local library. It's only five
minutes walk from my house the exact location of the library is 130 Dominic street southwest.
Usually I go there on the weekdays as it is closed on the weekends. I go there to read or write my
assignments. I think it's a mandatory place for students to spend some time because it's quite
mostly the students or readers who want some quiet time visit the library the
main reason why people prefer to visit it is that it has an air of discipline.
The administration makes sure that the visitors work quietly and do not cause disturbance
for anyone. Since it's just a few steps from my house I go there to study at least twice a week.
If I need to do more challenging assignments I might visit the library more often since I need
a quiet environment. Another good thing I would say is its prolonged hours of operation. Moreover,
it has the latest computers internet and most of the reference books for all subjects.
Lastly, it provides me with the environment I need to work quietly on my own without interruptions.
So that can be one answer for this type of question. Now let's move on to question number
five speaking you've got question number five
I believe all of us have experience wearing a uniform in our schools so we can all refer to
it let's read the question... Talk about the uniform that you wore in the past.
Please say ,describe it.. where and when was it ....how did you feel about wearing a uniform....
In this answer, I have used a little bit of my experience and a little bit of my imagination.
So you can make up an answer like this the same way. Let's take a look at the answer
As I can remember, the uniform I wore in the past was my school uniform.The uniforms changed
over time from kindergarten to high school.In the junior grades, it was a white uniform with a blue
sweater for the winter. In the higher grades, it was a long white shirt with full sleeves and black
trousers. I wore it every day of my school life until I got promoted to college after high school.
I would say that wearing the uniform was a good experience it gave me a feeling of being a part
of a group with a common goal. It also meant that other students and I belonged to one educational
institution. Moreover, it gave me a sense of pride to be a part of my school community.
In addition to that, I never felt better than or worse than any of my class fellows since we all
almost looked the same. I believe that wearing a uniform was also cost effective for the students
and their families since they never had to worry about spending on a variety of clothes
Thanks for watching this video. I hope you liked it and it will be useful for you. If you like the
video, please like subscribe and share. Join me on Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram.There
are more links to the videos related to this video in the description box.
Thanks for watching the video again and good luck for your Duolingo English Test!