Part 1

Your Work or Your Studies

What do you do (in a typical day) at work?

Do you like your job?

Would you like to change your job?

Do you think you will need to receive any training in the future?

What job would you like to do in the future?

Why are you taking the IELTS test?

Do you think the first day at work is important?

What subjects are you studying?

Why did you choose that subject?

What school (or university) do you go to?

Why did you choose that university (or, school)?

How do you like your subject?

What's your favourite subject at school?

What's the most difficult part of your course?

What's the most interesting part of your course (your subject)?

For you, what's the most interesting part (or subject or class) of your course?

Do you think it will be easy to find that kind of work?

Did you like your first day at university?

Do you think the first day at university is important?

Your Home& Your Accommodation

Do you live in a house or a flat?

How long have you lived there?

Do you plan to live there for a long time?

Please describe your home a little.

What are the benefits (or, advantages) of living in a flat/house?

What's your favourite room in your home? (Why?)

How do you think your home (your house or your flat) could be improved?

What is the environment like around your flat/house?

Is it easy to travel to and from your home?

Would you say it's a good place to live?

Where do you come from?

Where do you live at the moment?

Does your whole family live there?

Tell me something about your hometown.

What would you recommend a tourist see in your hometown?

Do you prefer to live in a big city or in the countryside?

Would you say it's a good place to grow up?

Would you say that's a good place to live?

Do you plan to live there/here for a long time?

What (other) city would you like to live in (in the future)?

What's the traffic situation like in your hometown (or, where you are living now)?

Neighbours

Do you know your neighbours?

How often do you talk to (or, see) your neighbours?

Do you prefer to have young people as your neighbours, or old people?

Do you think it's important to have a good relationship with your neighbours?

What sorts of problems (conflicts) can people have with their neighbours?

In what ways can neighbours help each other?

Travelling

Have you ever been on a long trip? (If yes, say where you went!)

Do you like travelling? Why？

Which country would you like to travel to (in the future)?

Fruits and Vegetables

Do you like to eat fruit(s) and vegetables?

How often do you eat fruit and vegetables?

What fruit(s) (and /or vegetables) do you especially like to eat?

Did you like to vegetables when you were a child?

What are the benefits of eating fresh fruit (or, fresh fruits and vegetables)?

How much fruit and vegetables do you think a person needs to eat (everyday) to stay healthy?

Weather

What's the weather (usually) like in your hometown?

What changes are there between the different seasons in your country?

What's your favourite season? (Why?)

Do you usually pay attention to the weather forecasts?

Does the weather ever affect what you do?

Do you (or, do people in China) do the same things in the different seasons of the year?

Shopping

Do you like shopping? C

Do you prefer shopping alone or with others?

What time of the day do you prefer to go shopping?

When was the last time you went shopping? C

Do you prefer to buy things in small shops or in big shops such as supermarkets and department stores?

Is there anything you dislike about shopping?

Sport

Do you like (to play/to do) any sports?

What sports are most popular with young people today?

Did you take part in any (organized) sport in school?

Do you think sport is important?

Are there any sports facilities near where you live?

In the future, what sports would you like to play?

Cooking

Do you like cooking?

Who usually does the cooking in your family (or, in your home)?

When did you learn how to cook?

In the future, do you think you will be cooking more than you do now, or less? (Why?)

Sounds

Do you prefer a quiet environment or an environment with some sounds?

What natural sound do you like the most?

What sounds do you dislike?

What sounds remind you of your childhood?

Languages

What language do you usually speak?

Would you say it's a difficult language to learn?

What language would you like to learn in the future? (Why?)

Flowers

Do you like flowers?

Do flowers have special meaning in your culture?

On what occasions do people in China give flowers to other people?

When was the last time you gave flowers to someone?

Do Chinese people ever grow flowers at home?

Collecting

Did you collect anything when you were a child?

Do you still collect them now?

Why do you think people like collecting things?

If you had a lot of money, what would you like to collect?

Films

What types of films do you like?

Do you prefer to watch films at home or in a cinema?

Magazines and Newspapers

Do you like reading magazines and newspapers?

What kinds of (types of) magazines (or newspapers) do you usually read?

Have you ever read a foreign newspaper (or magazine)?

Clothes and Fashion

Do you like shopping for clothes?

Are you very interested in fashion (or, clothes fashions)?

Do many people (in China) follow fashion?

Television

Do you often watch television?

How much time do you spend watching television?

How do you feel about advertisements on TV?

Do you ever watch programs from other countries?

What benefits can people get from watching foreign TV programs?

Do you think watching TV can help students in their studies?

Animals

Do you like animals?

What's your favourite animal?

Are people in your country fond of animals?

Do you think cities are suitable places for keeping a pet?

Food

What food did you like to eat when you were a child?

Do you still like that food now?

Do you think it's good to (often) take children to restaurants?

Mobile Phones

Do you have a mobile phone?

What do you use it for?

Is there anything you dislike about using cell phones?

Part 2&3

Place

Describe a modern building that you think is interesting.

Do you prefer old buildings or modern buildings?

What do you think are the advantages of modern buildings over old buildings?

Do you think the (outside) appearance of a building is important?

Do you think government buildings should be more practical than attractive?

Do you think interesting modern buildings can be used to attract tourists?

What facilities do you think modern cities should have?

Describe a garden or park you visited and liked.

Do you think it's important to have gardens or green spaces in cities?

What role do these places have in the lives of city people?

What are some examples of outdoor activities that people like to do?

How do you think big cities affect the (rural) areas surrounding them?

Describe a school you enjoyed going to when you were a child.

Which do you think is better, students studying in big classes or studying in small classes?

Do you think teaching young children is important?

Do you think everybody is suitable for becoming a teacher?

What are the qualities of a good teacher?

Besides schools, what other places can people can learn something from?

Describe a place you have visited

Why many people want to live in this place?

There’s many problem in transportation in this place?

So why many people still wants to live in this place?

How this place affects people?

Why people like to live in the city?

Describe a small shop you often go

How do you look upon online shopping?

Are there any changes in the way people shop today and the past.

Is there any difference between the shopping habits of the old and young?

What is the difference between going to the shopping mall and going to a small shop?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping?

Why men don’t like shopping?

Do you often go shopping? Why do you like it?

Do you think that it is good for children to go shopping?

What type of shop is close to your house?

What type of shop do you usually go?

What is the difference between going to the supermarket and going to a small shop?

Object/ Thing

Describe a sport you would like to be good at

Do you think sport are necessary at school?

What do you think are the benefits of international sporting competitions?

Why do you think athletes from certain countries are better at some sports than athletes from other countries?

Describe a type of music that is popular in your country.

What is the importance of music in people's lives?

How do people's preferences in music change with age?

Describe a useful piece of (electrical) equipment that you often use at home

Are there any of those that you think are not very important?

What do you think are the benefits of using modern equipment and devices (in the home)?

Do you agree that older people have difficulties in using modern equipment?

How can we help elderly people to use these modern devices?

Describe a toy that was special to you when you were a child.

What are the most popular kinds of toys in China?

Do you think it's good if parents only buy "educational" toys for their children?

Describe a hobby you had when you were a child.

What hobbies do young people in your country have?

What hobbies for children do you think will be most useful for them when they grow up?

describe a favourite subject in high school or secondary school

Do you want to study this subject in the future?
what is the popular subject in high school, why
what is the interesting subject
how can teacher make class interesting
technologies and high school students’ study.

Describe something you bought recently but have never used

When people go shopping, do you think they are more concerned about price or quality?

When people go shopping, do you think they are more concerned about the appearance of the product or its quality?

Why do we have garbage collection services in our towns and cities?

What things can be recycled?

Describe a walk with a friend that you remember.

What are the benefits of walking?

How do you think people could be encouraged to walk more?

Describe a TV program that you watched but didn't like.

Have TV programs changed in the past few years? (If yes, how?)

Do you think there should be more educational TV programs?

What do you think can be the result if a person watches too much TV?

Do you think TV celebrities are good role models for children?

reasonable?

Describe a well-known story from your country.

Why do you think (little) kids like listening to stories?

Describe a book you read when you were a child.

What kinds of books are (young) children most attracted to?

What do you think is a suitable age for children to start to learn to read?

How do you think children could be encouraged to read more?

Do you think children who like computers could be encouraged to read on the computer?

Do you think the internet has changed people's reading habits?

A Healthy Lifestyle

What do you think are the differences between healthy food and 'junk food'?

What things do you think people in China need to do in order to improve their health?

Do you think modern people do enough regular exercise?

Do you think it's important for children to learn about a healthy lifestyle?

Do you think the media can play a role in educating people about health?

Do you think it's a good idea for employers to encourage their employees to live a healthy life?

How can employers do that?

Describe a film you have recently seen.

What kind of movie is popular in China? Why?

What is the difference between Chinese movie and foreign movies?

What do you learn from watching movies?

Do you think it is important for a movie to be advertised?

If foreign movies without advertisement, will it still be so success?

Do you think a movie will be success without advertisement? If yes, why?

What kind of people prefer to watch foreign movies than Chinese Movies in China? Why?

What is the difference between Chinese and Foreign movies?

Describe an interesting wild animal from your country

What kind of relationship do people and animal have?

What is the difference between having a pet now and having a pet in the past?

Is it better to have a dog in city or rural area?

Is vegetarian conducive to protect animals?

Do you think animals should be killed? Why?

Why do people raise pets?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of raising pets?

Why is it popular to raise pets?

What can we use animals for?
Are you a vegetarian?

Should animals be kept in cities or countryside?

What are some of the problems related to raising pets?

Describe something you made yourself (either alone or with others)

In China, do many people make things themselves?

What are some reasons why (some) people make things themselves?

In order to make something, what qualities does a person need to have?

Which group is better at making things by hand, men or women?

What are some differences between hand-made things and things made by machine?

Do you think there are any differences concerning the quality of hand-made and factory-made products？

Event

Describe a memorable meal or dinner you had.

Do you think there should be cooking classes in school?

What do you think would be the advantages of having cooking classes in school?

What are the different places where people can go to buy food?

Why do you think supermarkets are becoming more popular in China?

When did supermarkets start to become popular in China?

Do you think the growing number of supermarkets will have any negative effects on society?

Describe some recent changes to your hometown.

What are some differences between young people in the past and at present?

Among people, what differences in attitudes are there about change?

What kinds of people like change and what kinds of people dislike change?

When governments make changes to society, who usually benefits the most?

Describe a relaxing day you had once after a period of hard work.

Where do people go nowadays when they want to relax?

Is there much difference between the way old people relax and the way young people relax? (Why?)

Do you think sleeping is a good (or, an effective) way to relax?

In your country (China), how many days of leave (vacation from work) do most working people get (or, have)?

How many days per year do you think a working person should have for holidays?

Describe what you did last weekend.

For most people, what are differences between their lives on the weekends, compared to their lives during the work week?

Would you like the weekend (or weekends) to be longer?

Can you give me some examples of people who have to do shift work?

What benefits do you think the community would get from having people working at different times of the day?

Person

Describe a TV or radio presenter

What skills does a person need to be a TV or radio presenter?

What are some differences between a radio presenter and a TV presenter?

Describe a long journey that you have been on.

What are the different forms of transport that people use for long journeys?

How can (or, could) (long distance) transportation be improved?

Describe a friend you admire.

What kinds of people do young people (teenagers or children) admire?

Describe a famous artist you admire

Do you think art (or, the arts) is (are) important?

How has art changed (in China) in the past few years (or, decades)?

How important do you think it is for children to have art classes in school?

What are some good ways to teach art to children?

Do you think art and literature (or, the arts) should be taught in universities?

Describe a family (not your own) you enjoyed spending time with.

Can you think of any activities that younger family members and older family members (usually/often/sometimes) do together?

Describe an elder person you know and admire

Do people like to be old?

Do elder people need to be educated?

Is there any lesson for elder people?

Describe a famous person you would like to meet

Why would people want to be famous?

How does fame influence them?

How would they change after being famous?

Describe a person who helped you on an important occasion

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a strong family relationship?