What is the best present you ve ever received

What is the best present you ve ever received

You have 30 minutes to do this task. You have received an email message from your English-speaking pen-friend Ben:

Write a message to Ben and answer his 3 questions. Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Thanks for your last letter. Your grandmother is so cool! I love my granny, but she always gives me boring presents like socks or something else which doesn’t match my wishes at all.

In my family we celebrate many holidays together, such as Easter, Christmas, Birthdays of each of us, but my favorite holiday is New Year, because since I was little it is related for me with some kind of magic. I love to make a wish in the last seconds of the old year, and I’m sure that those wishes are coming true! The best present I ever received was a bike from my parents. I was dreaming about it for ages!

IELTS Mentor «IELTS Preparation & Sample Answer»

Nav view search

Navigation

Search

IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe the best gift/ present you have ever received.

and explain why it is the best gift/ present you have ever received.

Follow-up Questions:

Q. Do you think that gift-giving will play an important role in daily life in the future? Why?
Q. Compare the gifts which people have received 10 years ago to the gifts that people now are receiving? What’s the difference between them?
Q. Do you think that the brand name is very important for sales?

Model Answer 1:
I have heard many times that ‘money just can’t buy everything’, but it certainly can buy some exceptional “gifts”, and I figured it out when I took a vacation to Europe (courtesy to the unexpected tax refunds in a check, which I received from the US government last year. Now, you may wonder what kind of gift I am talking about.

Well, I am jealous of Europe and its people for two reasons. First, they work fewer hours and enjoy more vacation time than us “American” people. Secondly (I know, if I say this, many of my American compatriot citizens are going to “hate” me), they are arguably more “smart” than American people in general, and Sean Jeffry, my long-time British friend, has proved it by offering me such a gift which has put an American like me to shame. It’s a collection of some of the “American all-time movie hits”, a gift idea, I think that only a very few American people could come up with, even on the best of the occasions. At least, I have never heard of any of my own American friends or family members offering this kind of gifts to anybody. After receiving such a gift, which also included some of my favourite movies, I felt like I couldn’t possibly receive any better gifts than this from a “foreigner friend” who lives in a different continent in another part of the world.

Anyway, I feel like this was the best gift I have ever received because my friend used a lot of his time and efforts to actually be able in order to find and make the list of all the movies in Hollywood movie history. Besides, it also takes a special friend and person to learn and remember about the preference, whatever that may be, of his friend, and my friend Sean proved that he is just that kind of friend and person. Finally, I consider this to be the best gift I have ever received because I received it when I expected it in the least.

After being promoted to grade six in my school, I got admitted to a computer training centre and learned some basic computing. Whenever I visited a friend or a classmate who had a computer, I felt fascinated being there- especially when I could play games, learn how to operate a new software, browse the Internet, edit a picture and so on. I sometimes visited some of my friends’ houses more often than usual only because they had computers. Thus this phenomenon machine became the only dream of my life. As I knew my father was not in a financial condition to buy me a brand new computer, I did not ask for one. I made a dummy computer using papers, boards and other materials and played with it- something unusual for a boy at my age! One day I bought a piggy bank and started saving coins and notes with the sole intention to buy a computer someday. After one month or so, I found that I saved only ten dollars in total and that was somewhat frustrating!

With time, and I would say with a little maturity, I got busy with other stuff and could hardly find time to visit friends’ houses to use their computers, but at a hidden corner of my heart, I felt the same fascination for owning a computer. On my 14th birthday, my father told me that he wants to take me to the computer shop and purchase a brand new computer for me. I could not believe what I heard! That night it was tough for me to sleep. In the morning I wake up earlier than usual and went to a computer shop with my father. He bought a Dell Laptop that was a Pentium 4 machine. While returning home, I found myself on cloud nine. I opened the box after returning home and showed it to my mother and other relatives.

Cue Card Answer 3:
First of all, I would like to thank you for this nice topic. The best gift or present that I have ever received is a digital dictionary that my mother bought me on my 18th birthday. I was a college student at that time and my parents celebrated my birthday at home. Few friends and relatives were invited and it was a kind of family celebration. I was quite thrilled to open the gift boxes that my friends and family members gave to me and there were some books, chocolate boxes and other gift items. Out of these gifts, an electronic dictionary was something truly amazing. As soon as I opened it, I knew it was a gift from my mother.

It was a white and small digital dictionary, not more than 4 by 6 inches in dimension, but was one of the latest models. It was quite handy for me and having this dictionary encouraged me to learn more words, their synonyms and their origins.

The gifts are always good gestures, tokens of appreciation and expression of love in our tradition. This gift was something even more special to me. I knew how much my mother has always loved me and her gift represented her love as well as sacrifices for me. In terms of utilisation, it was quite beneficial too. I could easily carry it in my pocket and I used it often to learn new words and that has helped me enhance my language skill. This is the only gift from my teenage time that I still have. I will always remember my mother’s love that was blended with this gift.

Tips for answering this Cue card question:

The gift can be something other than the conventional gift items like a piece of life-changing advice that you consider a gift. If you are a father or a mother, you can say your child is the best gift in your life.

For gifts like a cell phone, computer or such electronic device, mention that you have been wishing to own this but could not afford to buy it. And after you received that item, you felt overwhelmed. A gift from parents on your birthday can also be a good example of the best gift you have received. For such gifts, mention that you received it in your childhood and had been touched by the whole idea of this gift-giving.

For this cue card topic, the gift item is not itself important, be it an ordinary piece of gift or a luxurious item, so emphasise on your feelings rather than the gift item itself.

Q. Do you think that gift-giving will play an important role in daily life in the future? Why?
Answer: It seems to me that this is a bit ambiguous. More precisely, present giving is something that occurs in special events, for example, at birthdays, festivals, anniversaries, wedding, graduation day, on name days, when someone visits others and so on. I don’t think that there are many people around the world who give presents to their loved ones or to friends on a daily basis. Furthermore, with regards to the future, I am of the opinion that giving gifts won’t have a special role in everyday life either because, as I said earlier, presents are given when something important happens. However, there is no doubt that present giving plays an important role in our relationship and that will always remain the same.

Q. Compare the gifts which people have received 10 years ago to the gifts that people now are receiving? What’s the difference between them?
Answer: To answer this question we have to go back to the past and think of the types of presents we gave and received. Despite my young age, I have some memories of such presents that my family and relatives gave me. I would say that in the past, specifically 10 years ago, the types of gifts exchanged were primarily clothes, toys, household appliances and books. Apart from the fact that they weren’t related to technology, they were also significantly important, educational and in most cases and most of the time expensive. Nowadays, presents are more symbolic than substantial or useful. People these days often give and receive technology-related gifts which were quite rare in the past. To illustrate, the important gifts that I received on my last birthday were perfumes and a laptop. Of course, gifts items in all decades do not remain the same. It will change for sure after ten years. The love and good wishes behind a gift are more important than the item itself.

Q. Do you think that the brand name is very important for sales?
Answer: I believe that the brand name really matters and it affects the sales volume of a product. Most companies spend a huge amount of money on branding in order to make the product or service famous. We could say that branding is an enterprise itself because it constitutes an amazingly important part of the company and its viability. As branding is a core aspect of a company, brand managers try to acquire customers and maintain relationships with them. Moreover, through advertising, media exposure and celebrity endorsement sales are on the rise most of the time for popular brands.

Personally, I would spend more money to purchase a branded product. Hence I am quite positive that brand name is important for sales.

[Part 3 answers are written by Maria, UK ]

Postcrossing Blog

Blog > November Writing Prompt: The best present you ever received

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Gifts are on my mind lately, as I finally, gleefully begin to acquire the presents I’ll spoil my family with on Christmas Day. (No, Mum, I won’t be revealing it here, sorry!) So I was glad to notice one of the suggested prompts on the forum, from Eva (aka lauranalanthalasa)…

As usual, I’ll go first! My dad is famous, or infamous, for his gift for picking the right gift. Sometimes they’re useful, sometimes they just perfectly suit you, sometimes they’ve very silly… but he rarely misses the mark! So one Christmas a few years ago, I went downstairs to find a very mysterious wrapped shape. It was about 5 feet tall (1.5 metres), so only a little shorter than I was… and the shape just made no sense at all. I can’t remember if the other members of my family knew about it, or whether we were all equally befuddled, but my dad was definitely enjoying himself way too much.

Given the photo I’ve added, you all know where this is going. When I was eventually allowed to unwrap it, a beautiful carved wooden giraffe emerged! I’d admired it in a shop window about six months before, and I’d always been a big fan of giraffes… so my dad went back for him, kept him hidden somewhere, and produced him on Christmas Day when I’d forgotten all about him. He’s called Parker (after Detective-Inspector Charles Parker, in Dorothy L. Sayers’ books—I don’t remember why!) and he looms in the background of my Zoom calls to this day.

The next year, of course, there was another large and strangely shaped present, which he’d labelled prominently with the words “not a giraffe”.

What about you? What’s the best present you’ve ever received? Is it something you still have now, an experience you had, something you remember from childhood…? We’d love to hear about it in the comments here and on your postcards this month!

What are the best and worst holiday presents you’ve ever received?

If this is his holiday shopping, Santa’s going to disappoint a lot of children this year. Photograph: Jim Holden/Alamy Photograph: Jim Holden / Alamy/Alamy

If this is his holiday shopping, Santa’s going to disappoint a lot of children this year. Photograph: Jim Holden/Alamy Photograph: Jim Holden / Alamy/Alamy

A t some point—usually very early in life – everyone learns that when it comes to giving holiday presents, some people just don’t get it. Take the uncle who always buys you socks, or the coworker who re-gifts a used coffee thermos at the office grab-bag (trust me, it’s happened).

Author/blogger/superwoman Jenny Lawson had a great holiday post on her site The Bloggess, where she shared the tale of her worst present ever:

During a long stretch in high school when everything I wore was black and gothy and emo, my (estranged) grandfather gave me a pink children’s sweater from K-mart. It was a size kid’s 6X and might have fit over my left calf if I was into one-legged, pink, leg warmers with sleeves. I took the voucher and traded it in for kitty litter, which I had to pay an extra dollar for myself to make up the difference. So that’s my worst present ever. Owing a dollar for kitty litter.

But each of us has also been the recipient of some thoughtful, amazing and adorable presents from people who seem to know exactly what to get year after year. This made us curious to hear from our readers about their own experiences with gifting.

What’s the best holiday present you’ve ever gotten? What’s the worst? Tell us about them in the comments below!

Be sure to include both kinds of presents in your response, and to give a detailed description of what they were. Format your responses as follows:

Worst gift:

And feel free to share your replies with @GuardianUS using the hashtags #bestgift or #worstgift.

Our commenters have already told us about their most memorable presents:

My best pressie ever? In 1952 the 4 year old KSurin was given a magnificent carpentry set by a doting aunt. A hammer that really drove in nails, a saw that really cut. While his parents were preparing Christmas dinner in the kitchen, the young boy decided to test his tools. When the parents came back to the living room, the coffee table had nails in it, and several chairs had their legs sawn off. He never saw the carpentry set again.

Bad gift = Socks
Good gift = Brewdog

Bad gift = Shite jumper
Goog gift = Whiskey

Bad gift = assorted Hankies
Good gift = Jagermeister

There is a pattern here
Drink = Good
Other stuff = Bad

The worst Christmas present I ever got was the meal in Spain with which my ex’s family intended to treat me, which was marked initially by a raging row between her mother and her brother’s girlfriend, then another between her father and her brother, another between her father and her, another between her and me, and to cap the day off, another between her brother and his girlfriend.

Best gift: At age 11, a brand new bicycle.

Worst gift: At age 11, a brand new bicycle that wasn’t a Raleigh Chopper.

Our Twitter followers have been sending us responses as well:

@GuardianUS best gift was a iPod on to which my partner had put hours of carefully selected audio books and music #goodgifts

@GuardianUS worst was a voucher for a v good meal: at a hotel we wd have needed a car to get to & a room to stay over. ££s to use. #badgifts

Spotlight 9 Unit 1e

Курс повышения квалификации

Педагогические основы деятельности учителя общеобразовательного учреждения в условиях ФГОС

Курс повышения квалификации

Современные методы развития навыков эффективного и уверенного общения на английском языке у старших школьников

Курс повышения квалификации

Особенности подготовки к сдаче ЕГЭ по английскому языку в условиях реализации ФГОС СОО

«Эффективное обучение иностранным языкам дошкольников: занятия с детьми»

Учебные задания в аспекте функциональной грамотности школьников в новом учебном году

Открытая сессия для педагогов и родителей

Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:

Spotlight 9
Module 1. Exam practice | Writing about events
Lesson 1e

Spotlight 9
Task 1. Can you guess the holiday buy the description?
This special occasion is the most massive and well-known public event during the White Nights Festival every summer. It takes place in Saint Petersburg only, though the date is widely celebrated all over the country. It takes place in the end of June. At night, all school graduates, dressed up in smart dresses and suits, gather in the city centre to celebrate finishing school. First, they have a great party at the Palace square, then they move to the Palace bridge and the embankment to watch fireworks and the famous ship moving down the Neva River. Many people book tables at roof cafes and restaurants in advance to take awesome pictures and to watch the celebration in a comfortable way.

The celebrations is called ‘Scarlet Sails’

Spotlight 9
Task 2. What does this text lack? Right it is…

Spotlight 9
Task 3. Let’s listen and check example from our textbook (p. 18). What info is given in each paragraph?
In Scotland, the New Year’s Eve celebration is called Hogmanay which means ‘new morning’ in Celtic. It is surely the most exciting celebration of the year.
Preparations for the celebrations start early on December 31st. People clean their houses and throw out old unwanted things. They also bake special shortbread biscuits and a rich fruit cake called ‘Black Bun’, to share with family and friends on the big day.
On the night of Hogmanay there are live concerts and fabulous carnivals in the streets of all Scottish towns. A lot of excited people get dressed up in colourful costumes. In some cities there is also a long torchlight procession through the streets that crowds watch excitedly. As soon as the bells chime twelve, everyone kisses and heartily wishes each other a Happy New Year. Then people join hands and proudly sing the traditional song Auld Lang Syne’. After that, there is a stunning fireworks display which is the icing on the cake. On 1 st January people visit friends and neighbours to wish them luck for the New Year.
Hogmanay is certainly a great celebration. People feel happy to be with friends and family and look forward to a good year full of success.

Spotlight 9
Task 4. This descriptive article describing an event has 4 paragraphs:
An introduction (paragraph 1) where you mention name/type, time, place of the celebration, and the reason why it is celebrated.
A main body where you describe activities before the event (paragraph 2) and the actual event (paragraph 3).
A conclusion (paragraph 4) where you describe people’s feelings and give final comments on the event.
Still, it’s not an ideal example to prepare for the State Exam.
Any guesses why?

Right!
IT’S TOO LONG!
204 words (you need only 100-120 words)

Learning this structure is useless. We’ll do it in an Exam-like way!
Check the next slide =>

There’s no sense to follow the instructions from the textbook. Our aim is to learn and practice writing answers to friends’ letters.

Task 5. Check the info:

Example of the task # 35:

You have 30 minutes to do this task. You have received an letter from your English-speaking pen-friend Ben:
…My granny is such a kind person. She always brings us presents for everything we celebrate. And I love all her presents! For example, at Christmas she gave me the coolest computer game, it was something I had been dreaming of …
…What holidays do you celebrate with your family? What is your favourite holiday and why? What is the best present you’ve ever received?
Write a letter to Ben and answer his 3 questions. Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Task 6. Let’s start with formalities:

Первая часть письма по шаблону (21 слово без доп.предложения):
(1)Адрес в правом верхнем углу (если город и страна на одной строчке, пишем через запятую; если на разных – без знаков!)
(2) Под адресом – дата (считается как 1 слово, формат или 20th September 2021, или 20/09/2021)
(3) Обращение (здесь только запятая, поставить ‘!’ – ошибка)
(4) Благодарим адресата за письмо и даем ссылку на предыдущие контакты
(5) *Дополнительно: можно упомянуть факт из полученного письма): I’m also glad you’ve received such a nice Christmas present from your Granny)!

Khimki
Russia
20th September 2021
Dear Ben,
Thanks for your letter. It was really great to hear from you. I miss you greatly!

Now move to the main part:

Основная часть (70-90 слов, в примере 80 слов)
Развернуто отвечаем на все 3 вопроса!
Обязательно считаем слова, чтобы проконтролировать соблюдение лимита.

You’ve asked me about holidays and presents. Well, we usually celebrate practically all holidays with your family. Well, my favourite holiday is New Year because we usually travel somewhere abroad for our winter holidays, and we enjoy our time at picturesque resorts. Last December we travelled to the Alps and had a wonderful skiing practice there. As for presents, the best one I’ve ever received is a mobile phone. My parents gifted it to me for the last New Year.

That’s all for now. Write back soon!
Best wishes,
Elvira

Khimki
Russia
20th September 2021
Dear Ben,
Thanks for your letter. It was really great to hear from you. I miss you greatly!

You’ve asked me about holidays and presents. Well, we usually celebrate practically all holidays with your family. Well, my favourite holiday is New Year because we usually travel somewhere abroad for our winter holidays, and we enjoy our time at picturesque resorts. Last December we travelled to the Alps and had a wonderful skiing practice there. As for presents, the best one I’ve ever received is a mobile phone. My parents gifted it to me for the last New Year.

That’s all for now. Write back soon!
Best wishes,
Elvira

Spotlight 9
HOMETASK
Write your own answer to Ben (slide 11)
following all the rules of letter writing

• ← счет вчерашнего футбола италия испания
• квартира до 4000000 в москве однокомнатная →