Describe a Time When You had to Wait in a Long Line Cue Card

Nov 3, 2022

Describe a time when you had to wait in a long line cue card is the topic for the IELTS Speaking Part 2. There are three model answers given below. The model answers are framed based on four key points- When was it, What was it about, How long the queue/line was, and How you felt about waiting in this long queue or line.

What is a Cue Card: IELTS Speaking Part 2 includes cue cards containing topics on which candidates are to speak. Candidates get 2-3 minutes of time to speak and 1 minute for note-taking. In IELTS Speaking part 2, candidates' proficiency in grammar and vocabulary is assessed along with their confidence to speak in English.

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Topic: Describe a Time When you had to Wait in a Long Line.

You should say:

When was it?
What was it about?
How long the queue/line was?
How you felt about waiting in this long queue or line?

Model Answer 1

When was it?

I am sure that no one is a fan of waiting in queue. There are people who wait the whole night in the queue to get train or bus tickets. The highest I have waited in a queue was in a shopping mall. This was in the year 2020 when Covid was at its peak. I went to get groceries when I had to wait for three hours to enter the mall.

What was it about?

The government had shut down all the public places. Only the essentials like groceries and medicines were open for a specific time. I remember everyone rushed to the stores to grab the essentials. The shops were open from 8 A.M to 12 P.M. Since it was just for 4 hours, the crowd was more. So the authorities allowed only 50 percent of the capacity at a time. This made others wait.

How long the queue/line was?

The queue extended almost more than 100 meters. I went there at 8:30 which was just 30 minutes since the store opened. I came to know that people came at 6 A.M in the morning. I was surprised to know that. The problem with the queue was that people also needed to maintain social distancing. Everyone was standing two hands apart from each other. In usual times people would have gossiped about everything. But this time it was different. Everyone was standing silently with their masks on. This made me realize the seriousness of the situation.

How you felt about waiting in this long queue or line?

It was summer and I felt that I was boiled. However, I could not leave the queue or take off my mask. I had to wait for 2 hours before I got a chance to shop. I got my groceries and was comming out of the store. I heard the security saying the rest of the people to return as the time was over. It was a very unfortunate but hard fact of the situation. Overall, it was an experience that I will remember for my lifetime.

Model Answer 2

When was it?

I feel no one likes to stand and wait in long lines as it is a waste of time and productivity. But there was a time that I had to wait in a long queue. I am going to share one such experience. Once I was waiting in a long queue to buy train tickets.

What was it about?

It happened about three years ago. During puja vacations, my family made a plan to go to Puri. I went to the railway station to book the tickets because the online portal was not working.

We all were very excited about the trip. We also packed the essential things.

How long the queue/line was?

The trip idea was exciting. As the online portal did not work I had to go to the station to book our tickets. I need four tickets. My father, my sister and I were going for this trip. When I reached the station, I saw 50 people already standing in a long queue, and I was in the 51st position. The exhausting part was that the officer who was booking the tickets was very slow. He took 10 to 12 minutes to book every ticket. I had to stand there for more than two and a half hours for my turn to come. The wait in the queue seemed to be forever at that time as the officer even took a break in between the ticket booking.

How you felt about waiting in this long queue or line?

I felt forlorn, hungry, and extremely tired. I just felt that the railways had poor management. There was only one person booking so many tickets. It was naturally tiring for a single person to do it all. At Least two or three officers would have made the most time-saving. As there were so many people waiting after me as well. Respecting their time would have been more convenient.

Model Answer 3

When was it?

There were numerous times when I waited in long queues. Waiting in a queue is pretty normal in India because of the enormous population. I had to stand in a queue for everything. For instance in the bank, in the ATM, in the supermarket, and whatnot. But I had the experience of being in a long queue during the demonetization. Back in 2017, the Indian PM declared a ban on INR 500 and INR 1000 notes. It was a strategy to tackle the flow of black money.

He declared it on the news channel and mentioned that the notes will not work right from the next day.

What was it about?

Due to this, there was a chaotic situation everywhere. There was a severe shortage of notes in banks for the next few weeks. Everyone stood in long lines to get their old notes replaced.

Every day, people were allowed to replace only up to INR 2000.

How long the queue/line was?

The lines to get the notes exchanged were huge. I remember I reached the bank at eight o'clock and there was still a queue of about 50 people. My turn came after nearly three hours. It was very annoying to stand in such a long queue. I understood the reason why the government took such a step. But standing in line could have been avoided if the government had taken better initiatives for local citizens. Unfortunately, I had to do this 2 to 3 times every week for two months.

How you felt about waiting in this long queue or line?

On the first day, I didn’t imagine that it would take so long. But the next day I was prepared, I took a water bottle and my headphones. I listened to music while I waited to pass the time. Otherwise, the long queue would have been frustrating and tiring for me.

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