Tool or game
Lesson
Speaking Part 2: Describe a place you would like to visit again
Make a place come alive with sensory details, a range of past tenses and "would" for the future. Plan, practise with the timer, and compare with a model talk.
Make the examiner see it
Band 6 speakers say a place was nice and beautiful. Band 7 speakers describe what they saw, heard and felt:
The streets were narrow and winding, there was a constant smell of fried fish from the stalls, and in the evening the whole harbour lit up.
Useful description language
| Sense | Phrases |
|---|---|
| Sight | breathtaking views, crowded with, lined with, stretching as far as you could see |
| Sound | the sound of…, it was surprisingly quiet, you could hear… |
| Feeling | it felt…, there was a relaxed atmosphere, I felt completely at ease |
Tenses in this card
- Past simple for the trip: We went in December.
- Past continuous for background: While we were walking along the beach…
- Would for the future: I'd love to go back because…
Practise freely
Questions 1–3
Choose the best answer.
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Which sentence would score highest for Lexical Resource?
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Which sentence uses tenses correctly?
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Which sentence best answers "explain why you would like to go there again"?
Questions 4–7
Complete the description with a phrase from the box.
lined witha relaxed atmosphereas far as you could seethe sound of
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From the top of the hill, the forest stretched .
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The main street was small cafés and bookshops.
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At night, all you could hear was the waves.
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Nobody was in a hurry. There was everywhere.
Your turn: the cue card
Describe a place you visited that you would like to visit again.
You should say:
- where it is
- when you went there and who with
- what you did there
and explain why you would like to visit it again.
Preparation
1:00
Your recording stays on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
Check your answer
Model answer
The place I'd like to talk about is Sreemangal, a small town in the north-east of Bangladesh that's famous for its tea gardens.
I went there about two years ago with three of my college friends, during the winter holidays. We took an early train from Dhaka, and I remember the journey itself was part of the fun, because as we got closer the countryside became greener and hillier.
We stayed for two nights in a small guesthouse on the edge of town. During the day we walked through the tea estates, where the hills were covered in neat rows of tea bushes stretching as far as you could see. One morning, while we were walking through the forest nearby, we heard a group of monkeys calling to each other, which was quite an experience. In the evenings we sat in a little roadside café trying the famous seven-layer tea.
What I loved most was the atmosphere. Compared with Dhaka, it was incredibly peaceful, and the air felt much cleaner.
I'd really like to go back, mainly because we only had two days and there was so much we didn't see. Next time I'd like to visit the lake, and maybe stay a little longer to just relax and read.
