Describing a Park Without the Word 'Pond'
In the speaking test, the examiner shows a picture card and says, 'Please look at the picture and tell me what you see.' The card shows a park on a sunny Sunday. A boy on a red bicycle is riding past a bench. On the bench, an old man is reading a newspaper, and a blue bag is next to him. Two children are playing catch with a white ball. A woman is walking a small brown dog near the pond. The examiner then asks two questions: 'What is the boy doing?' and 'Do you think parks are important for people in cities? Why?' The candidate has 30 seconds to prepare for the picture, and must speak for about 30 seconds. The candidate can say 'bicycle', 'ball', 'dog' and 'read', but cannot remember the word for the small lake in the park, and she is afraid of stopping.
1. Plan the 30-second description. Which four things should the candidate say first, and why is it a mistake to try to name every object in the card?
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Start wide, then narrow:
- Set the scene: 'This is a park on a sunny Sunday.'
- Give the biggest action: 'A boy is riding a red bicycle.'
- Add one group: 'Two children are playing catch with a white ball.'
- Add one more person: 'An old man is reading a newspaper on a bench.'
Four sentences of six to eight words each take about 25 to 30 seconds at a careful speaking speed. That fills the time without rushing.
Trying to name everything (the bag, the dog, the water, the newspaper) is a mistake for two reasons. First, there is not enough time, so the candidate will speak faster than the examiner can follow. Second, one forgotten word can stop the whole description, and the test rewards keeping the message moving, not producing a complete list. If time remains after the four sentences, the woman and the dog can be added as a final sentence.
2. The candidate cannot remember the word 'pond'. What should she say instead, and why is that better than stopping?
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She should paraphrase: 'There is a small lake in the park' or 'There is water, and a woman is walking her dog near it.' She can also say plainly, 'I do not know the English word, but it is the water in the park.'
This is better than stopping because the examiner is judging whether she can communicate about the picture, not whether she has a perfect word list. A simple description keeps the sentence alive and shows the strategy of working around a gap, which is a real speaking skill. Silence gives the examiner nothing to assess and wastes the limited speaking time. The same trick works for other missing words: describe the shape, the colour, the use, or the place where the object is.
3. Give a model answer to the examiner's question, 'Do you think parks are important for people in cities? Why?' with a clear reason and an example.
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'Yes, I think parks are very important. In a big city, there are many buildings and people are busy, so a park gives them a quiet place to walk and relax. For example, in my town, families go to the park on Sundays, and children can run and play safely there. Also, old people can sit on a bench and talk with their friends, so parks help people feel less lonely.'
Why this answer works:
- It answers the yes/no question in the first three words, so the examiner knows the position immediately.
- It gives one main reason, then a concrete example ('in my town, families go...'), then a second reason about old people.
- The vocabulary stays within reach: buildings, busy, quiet, safely, lonely. There is no need for difficult words if the reasons are clear.