Category: IELTS Speaking Part 3 Model Answer

The topic of beauty has come up in recent IELTS speaking tests with some very difficult questions. This post will tell you how you can talk about beauty and beautiful things to get a great score in the IELTS speaking test.

The following are the latest questions from the IELTS speaking test. I will give model answers for the highlighted questions and discuss some vocabulary you can use in your answer.

• What does human beauty mean to you?
• Do you think the idea of human beauty now differs from the past?
• Do you think there are more beautiful things now than in the past? Why?
• What beautiful scenery spots are there in your country?
• Where do you think people usually come into contact with beautiful things?
• Why do you think people create beautiful things?

The questions ask about beauty and beautiful things but I want to try to paraphrase these words to show the IELTS examiner how great my language is. Additionally, I am unlikely to score many marks for lexical resource, if I just repeat the same words that are used in the question.

Words for beautiful

Eye-catching (idiom) – That shirt you’re wearing is very eye-catching.

Stunning (adj) – What a stunning pair of shoes.

Attractive (adj) – James isn’t handsome but he is attractive.

Good looking (adj)- What a good-looking car you are driving.

Striking (adj) – The painting of the girl is incredibly striking.

Gorgeous (adj) – Isn’t that the most gorgeous sunset?

I will now give some model answers for the IELTS speaking part 3 questions about the topic of beauty. Make sure to look out for the vocabulary that I discussed above.

What does human beauty mean to you?

In my mind, it’s all to do with being the best human being you can be. We all come in a myriad of shapes and sizes but truly stunning people are true to themselves and kind to those around them.

If you see a really attractive person in a cafe, initially you may be attracted to them. But if they started racially abusing the waiter, they are likely to look rather ugly and unappealing.

Truly beautiful people treat all people with respect and kindness regardless of their occupation or social class.

Vocabulary

In my mind (idiom) – From my point of view

Stunning (adj) – Very beautiful

Attractive (adj) – A pleasing appearance

Attracted (adj) – Have a liking for something

Ugly (adj) – Repulsive or bad to look at

Unappealing (adj) – Physically unattractive

Do you think the idea of human beauty now differs from the past?

(Compare and contrast question)

To stop confusing yourself and your audience, try talking about the past and then about the present. If you want, you could do a conclusion sentence at the end.

The model answer

Many centuries ago a fuller figure was celebrated, as it meant that you had enough to eat which indicated wealth. You can see this in the art of the time showing rotund nudes, which decorate many religious buildings of the time. Being slightly plump was incredibly attractive.

These days society, love handles and bingo wings as unsightly and unattractive. Skinny seems to be the epitome of beauty and unfortunately, many people get eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia trying to achieve it. If you aren’t a size zero, you are not attractive and are classed as fat.

Vocabulary

Love handles (idiom) – Extra fat on the hips

Bing wings (idiom) – Loose skin on the back of the arm

Unsightly (adv) – Unpleasant to look at

Celebrated (adj) – Admired

Skinny (adj) – A very thin person

Anorexia (n) – Illness where the person doesn’t want to eat to stay slim

Bulimia (n) – Illness where the person makes themself sick after eating

Epitome (n) – A perfect example

Where do you think people usually come into contact with beautiful things?

In my mind nature shows us the largest degree of beauty. Looking out at a stunning and picturesque landscape is one of the most breathtaking things that you can witness.

It could be rolling hills, fields, dramatic mountains or a gorgeous seascape. Our natural world is the epitome of beauty and is far more attractive than anything man-made.

Vocabulary

Largest degree (phrase) – The biggest amount

Stunning (adj) – Very beautiful

Picturesque (adj) – Pretty like a picture

Breathtaking (adj) – Astonishing

Gorgeous (adj) – Very beautiful

Seascape (n) – Picture of the sea

Attractive (adj) – Pleasing to look at

These were my model answers and I showed you some great vocabulary that you can use instead of beauty or beautiful.

Even if a question doesn’t ask about beauty, if you want to describe something beautiful, you can use some of this vocabulary to make sure you give a descriptive and detailed answer.

If you want to know a great way to structure your IELTS speaking part 2 answers, have a look at this post.

One of the latest IELTS speaking part 3 topics asks you to speak about customer service and online shopping. This can be pretty tricky.

When answering questions like this I always try to think of a time that I have experienced what the question is asking about. That way making an answer should be much easier than making something up.

This post talks about 2 IELTS speaking part 3 questions, I will discuss vocabulary and give you 2 model answers to see how the vocabulary can be used.

The first question is:

What kind of service do you think is good? (Opinion)

This is an opinion essay, say what you think, and why. Then maybe give an example. The following is the vocabulary that I will use in the answer.

Vocabulary

Incredible (adj) – Very good

Expectation (n) – What is expected to happen

Exceed (v) – Get more than expected 

If the stylist… (conditional)

Stylist (n) – Hairdresser/barber

Excellent (adj) – Very good

My model answer is as follows:

Incredible customer service is all about meeting expectations. If the customer’s expectations (what the customer expects) are met or exceeded, then this is great service. For instance, let us say someone goes for a haircut. If the stylist just cuts half of the hair, this would be poor service. However, if the hairdresser gives them a great haircut, a head massage and a glass of champagne, then maybe this would be excellent customer service.

Notice I’m using an example to illustrate my idea, this is a great idea for answering an IELTS speaking part 3 opinion question.

The second question I will answer is as follows:

What are the differences between shopping online and in stores? (compare)

I will use the following vocabulary in my model answer:

Vocabulary

In my mind (idiom) – I think

Convenient (adj) – Easy to do

Retailers (n) – Shops/sellers

At the touch of a button (idiom) –  With 1 click

Try (sth) on  (pv) – Wear something to see how it fits/looks

Drawback (n) – Disadvantage

Web-based/Cyber shopping (n) –  Internet shopping/online shopping

This is how I used this vocabulary in my answer.

In my mind, internet shopping is a fantastic option for purchasing most things. Not only is it often cheaper and more convenient, but it also allows you to compare many different prices and retailers at the touch of a button. A major drawback to web-based shopping is the fact you can’t try things on, which is especially important when buying clothes or shoes. However, on the whole, cyber shopping is pretty wonderful.

There are 2 idioms in this answer and instead of saying ‘buy’ I used the word ‘purchase.’ I hope this post has helped you to feel more confident to answer IELTS questions about customer service or online shopping.

The latest posts from Simple IELTS Solutions can be found here.

To see the latest IELTS speaking question click here.

Paraphrasing the question when giving your answer in IELTS speaking is a good idea. It lets you show that you have a varied range of vocabulary.

This is the reason that so many tutors will ask you to paraphrase the question. Just to encourage you to use some different vocabulary than what is used in the question.

For more information on why paraphrasing is important, follow this link.

This post will give you some hints and tips about how you can paraphrase in your answer. But remember, not all answers will require you to paraphrase the question and you can often just answer the question directly.

If we take the following question:

‘Will more people live in the countryside in future?’

We could answer this directly without any paraphrasing by saying, ‘Certainly not, in my mind urbanization is increasing rapidly so more and more people will be living in urban hubs.’

With IELTS speaking parts 2 and 3, paraphrasing is often less of a problem because it is easy for students to get straight into answering the question directly like in the above example.

How to paraphrase an IELTS speaking question

It is certainly not about repeating the question back to the examiner in different words. This would be time-consuming and wouldn’t answer the question.

It is about changing some or all of the key vocabulary in your answer to make sure you are not just repeating what the question has asked you.

Remember that your answer needs to be fluent, so only change what you can easily change without pausing or hesitating.

Let us take a common IELTS speaking part 1 question.

Do you like to sing?

With this question, there are two obvious things we can change, both of the verbs (like and sing).

Do you like to sing?

Like, could be changed to; love, keen on, fond of or a big fan of.

To sing could be changed from the verb to singing, which is a gerund.

Our answer to this could start as follows:

I am fond of singing…..

I love singing, I do it every day…

Some questions will ask about nouns. It is a good idea to paraphrase the noun using a synonym instead. But don’t take too long to think of this word as fluency is also important.

The question may ask:

Do you like to go to the cinema with your friends?

We have two nouns in this question, cinema and friends.

Do you like to go to the cinema with your friends?

All you need to do here is think of synonyms for these two nouns.

Instead of cinema, we could say movies, movie theatre, pictures or watch a film.

To replace friends, we may say chums, amigos, best friends or buddies.

So our new answer may be something like this:

I really like going to the movies with my chums, especially at the weekend.

What if I can’t think of any synonyms?

If you really can’t paraphrase the question, and with some vocabulary it can be very difficult, try changing the word order instead.

Let us imagine we are answering the following question:

Do you think it is helpful to plan your time?

Instead of answering something like, ‘I think it is helpful to plan my time…’

We could change the word order in the reply. Making it something like this:

I think planning my time is very helpful because…

When we are thinking of paraphrasing, using synonyms and changing word order, we are just doing this to show the examiner how great our vocabulary is.

Therefore, you will probably use a combination of all of these techniques when answering the questions.

But make sure that you don’t take too long to try to search out new vocabulary as fluency is also very important.

I wish you luck in your IELTS speaking test and hope you can show the IELTS examiner how good and varied your vocabulary is.

To find the latest IELTS speaking questions see this page.