Shadowing Practice: IELTS Speaking Test questions 07 - Sample Answer - Learn English Speaking with Video

Les maken...
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Hi and welcome to this video which will introduce you to a range of IELTS test questions for you to practice.
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If you'd like you can click on the other video to see my answers
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which I will read and the text will also be available.
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So either way, vice versa as you prefer.
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Do you have a lot of furniture in your home?
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I try to have the right amount.
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I live a slightly minimalist lifestyle, so we try not to buy anything we don't need or won't use.
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I like having open space in my house, too, because it makes the space feel larger.
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Is there anyone who bought furniture for you?
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When we moved into my current apartment, my parents bought us a refrigerator.
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We also got a secondhand chest of drawers as a gift from a friend who was moving and buying all new furniture.
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Otherwise, we bought everything.
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What kind of furniture would you like to buy?
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Right now, we only have a washing machine, but having a dryer would be excellent.
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I like the soft, warm feel of clothes when they come out of a dryer rather than a drying rack.
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Which furniture do you like best in your home?
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A good bed is the most important.
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Not only do I use it more than any other item, as much as eight hours a day, but there's also a huge difference between a good bed and a bad bed.
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For this question, I'll talk about London, which is a city I would like to visit again.
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I've visited a few times, but both were around 10 years ago.
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On my first trip, I stayed only for two days, which is not nearly enough for a city so large.
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The following year I spent a whole week in the city
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and on this visit I was able to see many of the major attractions like the Tower of London and Tower Bridge,
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Big Bend, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, along with a few museums.
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I was there in the spring and thankfully the weather was excellent.
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I stayed with a few friends at a youth hostel in the city center.
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We woke up early every day and spent all day out
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and then somehow still had energy to enjoy some of London's nightlife.
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It was thrilling to navigate the winding roads and never -ending subway, or tube as they call it, and we got lost a few times.
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We always found our way in the end and getting lost was part of the fun.
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Each area we went to had a different feel.
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Some were modern with flashing lights and sleek steel surfaces
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while many others were much more traditional in terms of architecture some areas were primarily british
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and others had a more international feel
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for a major city it has amazing parks and greens where you can go to get away from the crowds
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at all hours of the day the city was bustling and alive with people from all walks of life
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I want to go back because a decade is a long time.
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I imagine that some things have changed while others have remained the same.
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I'd like to see if some of my favorite cafes, restaurants, and pubs are still there.
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It's also such a massive city that even though I've been there twice, I had hardly scratched the surface.
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You could probably live there for years and still not see it all.
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Hopefully I'll find time to visit again before too long.
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What's the difference between the city and the countryside?
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Cities and the countryside differ in their speed of life, attractions, and dining options.
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Life seems to happen faster in the city.
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People are always on the move somewhere, walking fast and talking fast, while the countryside allows people to slow down.
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People in cities might visit museums, theaters, historical sites, or shopping malls.
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The countryside offers more natural attractions such as parks, mountains, and lakes.
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Food is also quite different as cities tend to offer a wide selection of cuisine from around the world
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while options are much more limited in the countryside.
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Some people say that large cities are unsuitable for old people.
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What do you think?
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I think they can be unsuitable for old people.
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As I mentioned in my previous answer, life moves fast in the city, and I can imagine this pace is uncomfortable for older adults.
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People in cities generally have to walk a lot more, which at a certain age becomes impossible for the elderly.
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It would be nice for cities to be able to accommodate people of all ages
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and provide the services necessary to live comfortably, but I could understand why an older person might decide to leave a major city for a more rural area.
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Do you think it's possible that all the population moved to cities?
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Hmm, that's an interesting question that I've never considered.
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I would say that it's possible in theory that sometime in the distant future, everyone lives in urban areas, but I don't think it's likely anytime soon.
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Some people simply prefer less densely populated areas.
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Some people also need to be there because they have businesses or jobs that only exist in more rural areas.
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Do you think people in the countryside are friendlier than people in the city?
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Hmm, I hesitate to generalize,
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but around the world I do find that many people believe the stereotype that people are friendlier in the countryside?
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I would guess that this is because small town communities are smaller and everyone is likely to know their neighbor.
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This makes intuitive sense, but I'm not sure it's true across the board.

Practice Real-Life IELTS Speaking Scenarios

The video presents a realistic IELTS Speaking test setup, with questions covering daily life, personal preferences, and descriptive topics like cities. This mirrors the actual exam, where you’ll need to articulate thoughts clearly on diverse subjects—from furniture choices to comparing city and countryside life. By engaging with such dialogues, you’ll build confidence in structuring answers that are both natural and tailored to exam expectations.

Essential Chunks & Collocations to Master

  • Slightly minimalist lifestyle: A great phrase to describe intentional, clutter-free living, useful for talking about personal habits.
  • Bustling and alive with people from all walks of life: Perfect for painting a vivid picture of a city, showing range in vocabulary.
  • Hardly scratched the surface: Conveys that you’ve only experienced a small part of something, ideal for discussing travel or interests.
  • Speed of life: A concise way to compare pace between places, essential for contrast questions like city vs. countryside.
  • Soft, warm feel of clothes: Demonstrates sensory detail, which boosts speaking scores by adding depth to descriptions.

Your Shadowing Challenge: Improve Fluency Now

Shadowing is a proven technique to enhance pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. Here’s your task: Pick 3-5 sentences from the video—like the description of London or the furniture answers. Play a sentence, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the speaker’s tone and speed. Focus on matching stress and pauses. For best results, use a shadowing site to record yourself and compare. This “shadowspeak” practice trains your mouth to move like a native and builds muscle memory for natural speech. Do this daily for 10 minutes, and you’ll notice clearer, more confident speaking in weeks. Remember, consistent shadow speech practice is key to nailing the IELTS Speaking test.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →