#33 - IELTS Speaking test in Saudi Arabia – June 2016

Test # 33

- What is your full name?

My name is Meera Sanghvi.

- Can I see your ID?

Sure!

- Where are you from?

I’m from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat in the Western part of India.

- Do you work or study?

I’m a Bachelor in Dental Surgery working as an apprentice in a private clinic in my city.

- Describe your job.

My job requires me to assist the head surgeon in any way he requires. I’m responsible for giving the patient anaesthesia and prepping him for surgery, and also other dental requirements like cleaning a cavity or extracting a tooth. I’m also responsible for counselling new patients and maintaining patient records.

- How important is this profession in your country?

People in my country honour the medical degree a lot. So I can say my profession is very much valued in my country.

- Do you prefer to work alone or in a team? Why?

I prefer to work alone but I don’t mind working in a team as well. After all, being an apprentice I have to work under orders and with other interns like me, so learning to work in a team is something I have to do anyways.

- Let’s talk about music.

Sure!

- Do you enjoy listening to or playing music? Why?

I enjoy listening to music because I don’t know how to play any musical instrument.

- In your childhood did you play any musical instrument?

I had joined coaching for keyboard lessons when I was 13 years old, but I left it as I couldn’t develop an interest for it. I just know a few basic melodies to play.

- What was it?

(modify according to the answer typed above)

- What type of music do you prefer? Why?

I like listening to Bollywood and Jazz music. Bollywood because that’s the most common kind that we hear in India…and someone introduces me to jazz just a couple of years ago, and I quite liked the genre for its trombones and trumpets.

- Do you think loud noise affects our hearing?

Yes of course! We have to strain ourselves to hear normal things in loud noises. In fact we hear so much of noise during the day that a lot of surveys have suggested that our hearing capacities have reduced greatly.

- What is the effect of noise in our cities?

Many surveys say that noises in the cities result in making people aggressive, impatient and intolerant. For example, we immediately get worked up if someone has a blaring horn or honks unnecessarily around us. We also suffer from headaches.

Cue Card

Describe an instance when you had to get up early for some reason. Please say

- What time did you get up?

- Where and when did you have to be?

- What was the reason for that?

I remember an occasion when I had to get up at 4:15 in the morning. It was my first cousin’s wedding and we had a traditional pre-wedding event early in the morning. All family members and friends were invited to it, plus being a close family member we had to get dressed really well to welcome everyone. It was supposed to start at 6 am, but I had to get up and get ready for the occasion with heavy ethnic clothes and jewellery and all. Since I had to wash my hair too, and that takes more time, I had to wake up at least half an hour early. There were a lot of relatives in the house so the bathroom would also get occupied as and when everyone would wake up, so I decided to take a bath before everyone else. I am really not comfortable doing things in a hurry with people waiting on me. This is why I had to get up at the crack of dawn that day.

Discussion

- What did you feel, when you got up early for this job?

I felt very tired to be honest, as I said I had slept late the previous night. Plus there was the tedious task of getting ready very elaborately which I dreaded.

- Why do people tend to get up early, in your opinion?

It’s a good habit generally. Many people who have healthy lifestyles believe in waking up early to exercise or meditate.

- Do you think people like to do their sports early? Why?

I can take the example of the summer season here to explain my agreement. In summers the mornings are usually cooler so people play sports in this time as it won’t affect much if they’re sweaty and worked up. They won’t feel as exhausted as they would do in the hotter evenings.

- Is there a problem, if people sleep long hours? Why?

Yes. There is a pre-decided quota of how many hours should one sleep for. For example, we adults should sleep for a maximum of 8 hours. That’s quite sufficient. Any more than that and you are more likely to become lazy and feel tired all the time. It eventually takes a toll on your health.

- Is it necessary to be on time for our appointments, in your opinion?

Of course…it never impresses the other person if we’re late for an appointment or a meeting. People nowadays value their time a lot and do not appreciate people who are not punctual.

- Is it a problem to be late for an appointment?

As I said, we don’t give out a good impression if we’re late. We come off as insincere people. Plus it is awkward for us to enter a place where everyone’s already settled down for the task that’s supposed to happen…you pose as an interruption.

- What is the difference between people who are always on time and those who are always late?

People who are punctual are always valued in society and respected for their word. On the other hand, people who aren’t on time are stereotyped after a few initial incidents. An example here can be if some people are to meet at 7 pm, the latecomers would be informed of the time as 6 pm so they reach on time. So their influence on people is very judgemental.