The cue card
Describe a piece of technology, apart from your phone, that you find useful.
You should say:
- what it is
- when you started using it
- how often you use it
and explain why you find it so useful.
You have one minute to make notes, then speak for one to two minutes.
Band 8–9 sample answer
Written by Abroadway as a model of natural, high-band speaking (not an official IELTS sample).
Apart from my phone, the piece of technology I'd struggle to live without is a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. They're over-ear headphones, quite plain-looking and dark grey, and they have tiny microphones built into them that pick up the sound around you and produce an opposite sound wave to cancel it out. I don't fully understand the physics, but the effect is almost magical: you switch the feature on and the world suddenly goes quiet.
I started using them about eighteen months ago, when I was preparing for some important exams. Our flat is on the second floor, right next to a main road, and at the time there was also construction going on next door, so from early morning there'd be drilling, hammering and endless horns. I was getting so frustrated that I saved up my pocket money for several months and bought them second-hand from a friend's older brother, who was upgrading to a newer model.
These days I use them practically every day. I wear them for a couple of hours whenever I'm studying at home, and I always take them with me when I'm travelling by bus, because the engine noise on long journeys can be exhausting. Occasionally I just wear them without any music at all, purely for the silence.
I find them so useful mainly because they've transformed my ability to concentrate. Before I had them, I'd read the same paragraph three or four times without really taking it in; now I can work for long stretches without getting distracted. They've also made travelling far less tiring. I suppose the only downside is that I sometimes don't hear my mother calling me for dinner, which has got me into trouble more than once!
Useful phrases from this answer
- struggle to live without
- find it very hard to manage without something
- saved up
- kept money over a period of time to buy something
- taking it in
- understanding and remembering what you read or hear
- for long stretches
- for long periods without stopping
- got me into trouble
- caused problems for me with someone
- with young users in mind
- designed especially for young people
- grind to a halt
- slowly stop working completely
- spill over into
- spread into another area where it does not belong
Part 3 follow-up questions and answers
What kinds of technology do older people find difficult to use?
Generally speaking, it's anything that relies on touchscreens, apps and constant updates. Smartphones are the obvious example; many older people manage calls perfectly well, but things like mobile banking, online forms or video calls can be confusing, partly because the menus keep changing and the text is small. Self-service machines, like ticket kiosks, can be stressful too, since there's often no one around to ask for help. I'd argue the problem isn't that older people can't learn, but that a lot of technology is designed by young people with young users in mind. When devices are simple and consistent, older people often adapt surprisingly well.
Has technology made people's lives easier or more complicated?
I'd say it's done both, depending on which part of life you look at. In practical terms, things are undeniably easier: we can pay bills, send money to relatives or find information in seconds, tasks that once meant queuing for hours. In Bangladesh, for instance, mobile money services have made a big difference for people in rural areas. On the other hand, technology has introduced new complications, like endless passwords, online scams and the pressure to be reachable at all times. So overall, I think it has simplified individual tasks while making life as a whole feel busier and more demanding.
Do people rely too much on technology nowadays?
In some areas I think we do, yes. Many people can no longer find their way around their own city without a map app or do simple calculations without a phone, and when the internet goes down, entire offices grind to a halt. That kind of dependence makes us quite vulnerable. However, I'd be careful not to romanticise the past. Relying on technology isn't necessarily a problem in itself; people have always depended on tools of one kind or another. The real issue is whether we keep the basic skills and judgement to cope when technology fails, and whether we use it consciously rather than out of habit.
How has technology changed the way people work?
Enormously, and probably faster in recent years than ever before. The most visible change is flexibility: many office tasks can now be done from home or anywhere with a decent internet connection, so the idea of a fixed workplace has become less important for some jobs. Communication is also much faster, which is efficient but means that work tends to spill over into evenings and weekends. Meanwhile, automation is changing which skills are valued; routine tasks are increasingly handled by software, so employers are looking for people who can solve problems and adapt quickly. In factories and on farms, the change is slower but still noticeable.
What new technology do you think will be common in homes in twenty years' time?
It's hard to predict, but my guess is that homes will become far more automated and energy-aware. I can imagine household robots that do basic cleaning and tidying becoming fairly ordinary, in the same way that washing machines once seemed like a luxury and are now standard in many homes. Solar panels combined with home batteries might also be common, especially in hot countries with plenty of sunshine and unreliable electricity supplies. And voice assistants will probably be built into most appliances, so you might simply tell your kitchen what you want to cook. Whether all of this will be affordable for ordinary families, though, is another question entirely.
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