IELTS Speaking Cue Card

There is a famous saying that goes ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’ and I absolutely believe that. I am helpful and like to lend a helping hand to my friends when there is a need. Here, I would like to talk about a situation where I helped my best friend who was in dire need of financial assistance.

My best friend Jane recently had some trouble paying her student loan amount for a month. Two months ago, she lost her job because of layoffs at her company owing to losses. Although she did not let me know about her situation, I caught on to it as I noticed her being very distressed. On asking her what happened, she told me that her loan amount was due and she was not in a situation to pay it.

It gave me flashbacks to one such situation I faced when we were in college. I vividly remember, when we were in the final semester of college, I had trouble paying my fees because of money issues. Without even asking, she stepped up and helped arrange the required money. I knew it was my time to help her when she was in trouble. I immediately transferred the amount needed to pay for two months due and told her not to worry about it.

I was sad that she was in such a distressed state and thought the best I could do was to pay her bills. I felt happy to support her even though she said she could manage it as she did not want to trouble me. It was not a problem at all for me. I was happy to stand by her in times of need and show my gratitude towards her.

 

Vocabulary:

1. Dire - urgent
2. Layoff - dismissal
3. Vividly - clearly
4. Distressed - upset

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Part 3 Follow Up - Questions & Answers

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1. How do people usually help each other?

People help each other in numerous ways. For instance, people help tourists that visit their cities by giving them directions. People also help others financially by lending them some money during tough times. Some students who do well in studies help others with their homework by tutoring them after school hours.

2. How is online help different from real-life help?

Online help works by grabbing the attention of a lot of people to the problem at hand and collecting funds, providing information or signing petitions to make something happen. For instance, if someone has met with an accident and needs funds to go through surgery, someone can put up a donation post and collect funds for them. There is no restriction for online help as there is in real life in case of geographical location.

3. Should schools be responsible for teaching students how to cooperate?

I think the responsibility to teach kids about cooperation falls on both schools and parents. Parents should teach their kids at home to help them or their siblings in some work. At school, teachers should assign group projects to teach kids the importance of cooperation and helping each other.

4. What are the differences between help from friends and help from family?

The main difference is that when we receive help from friends, we feel obligated to return it in some way as it feels like a give and take. However, when family helps us, we feel it is normal and don’t really feel that we should do something in return for them for the help we received.