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When you felt surprised to meet someone

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 224 with Model Answer:

Describe a time when you felt surprised to meet someone.

You should say:
  • when this happened
  • who this person was
  • what did you do together on that day
and explain why you thought it was a surprise to meet this person.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer 1:
Samantha is my cousin and we live in the same town, Paris. Unfortunately, both of us cannot manage time to meet and when I met her last week at a social gathering; I was surprised to see her. She looked amazing and beautiful because she has lost her extra pounds.

Samantha is almost of my age and she is my paternal cousin. She lives with her parents in Bercy in Paris. Bercy is a residential area with the border of Bois de Vincennes while I am in Montparnasse with my parents. Since everyone is busy with their own works, it is difficult to manage time for social gathering here. Moreover, the residing locations of us are a bit distant. So, despite eagerness, we are unable to meet frequently and on some occasions. But this time, a birthday party of another cousin has brought us together. All of the family members were invited to the party of Andrew Simpson, one of my paternal cousins who just turned 15. I met with Samantha at the party and enjoyed it together.

Samantha Simpson is my cousin, and she was the daughter of my eldest uncle (the big brother of my dad). She looks pretty nice now and she is studying her graduation. She looks striking with her deep blue eyes, wide forehead and large black hairs. She is, in fact, proud of her hairs and takes regular care for that. She is 20 now but her growth looked like she was a bit more aged. In her early days, she was too much heavy that some of our cousins used to tease her for her overweight. But now she has removed the extra weights with hard work and exercise. When the family used to stay under the same roof, we had lots of fun. Strolling on the streets of Paris was our regular task. Besides, she was the leader for us and made different plans to make fun. Most of the time she used to move alone and when she succeeded in the plans, we followed her.

I met Samantha around nine months later and we did not have any formal communication excluding the SMS chats. She informed me that she is having some serious exercise to reduce her weight. I, in fact, did not care about the issue as she took such attempts earlier but each of them was a failure. But now she has done what she wanted I was totally surprised by her change. Earlier, she was fond of rich foods, which contributed to her weight gain, but now she did not take the foods in plenty. When I asked her to some more foods on the plate, she replied that she was selective in her foods. On the birthday party, she came wearing a neutral coloured jeans pant with the blue tops. She had boots on her feet and the look was splendid. So, I took some pictures with her to be used on the social networking site. Moreover, both of had long chats. She shared about the recent events of her life and about her new boyfriend as well.

Meeting with Samantha after the long nine months was a surprise for me. When I met last, she looked weighty and she had some weird habits. She tried to make fun of everyone irrespective of age and situations. I think her mental faculty was like the kids who do not know what to do or when to do. Besides, she was not attracted to boys. But now, she has a boyfriend. She was too smart in her speeches and talked faster than the other people. She has completely changed her former habits. She, now, speaks with a silent tone and tries to communicate effectively with everyone. Her parents are also happy with the changes. She told me that the changes have come after her relationship with John. He has taught her the best practices to be exercised in the society. So, she has started following the instructions from John and has changed herself. So, I was surprised after meeting her. Though we had some irregular connections on social networking sites, she never told me about the changes and that was also a surprising issue for me as well.



Sample Answer 2:
Meeting with Mr Johnson after many years was one of the interesting events in my life in last week. We had met last about five years ago in Russia (I was a student in a Russian university) and now meeting with him in my country was really fascinating. Thank you for this nice cue card topic and here I will describe the matters in brief.

It was last week. I went to the Bilbao airport in Spain to receive my uncle from the USA. And I met with Mr Johnson. He was set to leave the country for Russia in a flight that delayed for three hours. So, I passed the moments with him until my uncle landed. In fact, the flight that uncle was on board also made late. Hence, it was a nice reunion with him.

Mr Johnson was the supervisor for my thesis at Moscow State University. I have completed my graduation from the university and he was my mentor while preparing the thesis for completing my graduation. In fact, without his direct help, it would not have been possible for me to complete the work. Mr Johnson helped me a lot in gathering information and also showed the ways to prepare the thesis structure. He also took part in data collection process and prepared the data collection tools like questionnaires for me. I was grateful to him for many other reasons too. And suddenly meeting after many years was a great event to me.

We had spent around three hours. I wanted to pass the entire day with him but the situations did not allow us. Luckily the delayed flight made us together for a couple of hours. So, we went to the nearby restaurant and took some foods. We discussed the past days and he reminded me of the activities I did in the university. Actually, I was not too much interested in studying abroad but I had to go there for the pressure of my parents. So, I did not concentrate on the academic activities rather I preferred to participate in extracurricular activities more than any other thing. And he reminded me of the olden days.

It was a surprise for me for many reasons. I have never thought that I would meet someone from the university. I was the only foreign student in the class and the remaining students got settled in their respective regions in Russia. Though I have a virtual communication with them, I did not think that I could have the chances to meet them again. So, meeting Mr Johnson, who has been working with the university for past 15 years, was really a surprise to me. But I enjoyed the meeting and was really glad to have him in Spain.

Idea generation for this Cue Card topic:

"Describe a time when you felt surprised to meet someone."

Meeting with people is often interesting and exciting. But sometimes they could be surprising too. In fact, meeting after a long time change people and we are surprised by the changes. This cue card wants to know about such an event and here are some other sample introductions for them to generate their own answer.

1. I met with Harry after around 10 years. I was surprised to see him here in London. His physical shape has been changed to a great extent. I went to London for some business purposes and found him in his own shop. In fact, he has settled in London and runs a large superstore. I was happy to see him there. The man who had nothing in life now owns everything.

2. Leaving my college in 2004 was painful for me and when I met with Sam in a metro station in Spain, all my regrets had vanished. He was my best friend in college. I was surprised at his changes. He became thinner than before and got married too. He is the proud father of a daughter. We talked for about two hours and missed our trains.

3. While walking down the streets of New York City, I met Cinthia after a long time. She left the USA for some mysterious reasons and did not share anything about her disappearance. She lived in some Asian countries and returned this year, she described. I was surprised at her changes.

4. Sally is my cousin and I met her after four or five years. She lives in Sydney with her family and I live Canberra. I was quite surprised on some issues with her. She has changed a lot and the way of dealing with people also changed. She turned smarter. Later, I came to know that she was working at a multinational company and underwent an extensive grooming.

5. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Mr Nicholai. He is a man from Russia and used to teach us the Russian language at the local language school here in Istanbul. I was happy to see him after long days. I was surprised to know that he has shifted here with his family and will never go back to his own country.

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