Please note that the following questions are not only for those sitting the IELTS examination. Teachers, students or anyone who wants to improve their spoken English can use them to practice speaking. All you have to do is practice with a tutor or speaking partner, or even by yourself. Use a stopwatch to time your answers -- a reasonable answer should last 2-5 minutes.  For IELTS test takers, this is the fifth list of cue card questions, so if you haven't seen the previous lists, here are the links:  10 More IELTS Cue Card Questions (part 1) 10 More IELTS Cue Card Questions (part 2) 10 More IELTS Cue Card Questions (part 3) 10 More IELTS Cue Card Questions (part 4) Remember to limit your answers to 2 minutes. IELTS candidates should also read the tips for Part 2 of the Speaking section here: IELTS Speaking: Part 2 Sample Questions (List 1) & Tips.

Please note that the following questions are not only for those sitting the IELTS examination. Teachers, students or anyone who wants to improve their spoken English can use them to practice speaking. All you have to do is practice with a tutor or speaking partner, or even by yourself. Use a stopwatch to time your answers -- a reasonable answer should last 2-5 minutes.  For IELTS test takers, this is the fourth list of cue card questions, so if you haven't seen the previous lists, you can find them here (part 1) , here (part 2) and here (part 3) . Remember to limit your answers to 2 minutes. IELTS candidates should also read the tips for Part 2 of the Speaking section here: IELTS Speaking: Part 2 Sample Questions (List 1) & Tips.

Please note that the following questions can be used by teachers and students or anyone who wants to improve their spoken English. All you have to do is talk about the topic with your speaking partner or tutor or even practice with the help of a stopwatch by timing your answer. A reasonable answer should last about 2-5 minutes. For those preparing for the IELTS exam, this is the third list of cue card questions for Part 2 of the Speaking component. You can find the first list here and the second one here . Practice these questions by timing yourself and sticking to 2 minutes for each topic.

Relationships between parents and their children are never easy. All families have their ups and downs, their moments of crisis, periods of serenity, intervals of strife and discord. Children's development sees to it that nothing remains static for too long. In My Oedipus Complex , O'Connor portrays precisely such a moment in a child's life when awareness grows and the canvas of life begins to acquire dabs of disappointment . P oor Larry realizes he has a father and a baby brother to contend with.  Unlike what one might expect from a coming-of-age tale, t he maturity of the story is not found in its characters but in O'Connor's ability to leave aside his traumatic childhood and focus on a constructive message. He could have easily depicted the father as the drunk in his life who couldn't keep a job but was supported by a wife who cleaned houses so the family would not starve. He could have idolized the mother or fashioned her after his own, suffering in...

Shirley Jackson is a genius. She had many problems to deal with  throughout her life and it is possibly these very same problems that made her the writer of great stories, memorable stories. Snubbed by her mother who wanted a slender, socialite, comme il faut daughter, she struggled with her own demons as well as those her community nourished in her. Instead of your average American of the day, Jackson married Stanley Edgar Hyman in 1940, an American Jew whom the FBI had been investigating in the late 1940s -1950s, suspecting him of being a Communist. In an era of antisemitism and fear of the Reds (cf. House Un-American Activities Committee and McCarthyism), Jackson managed to push all the wrong buttons in her New England community . S he sm o ked and drank heavily, was interested in witchcraft and voodoo, and a ccording to accounts , yelled at her children 's teachers . Such a n unconventional woman was unwelcome in a small provincial town with everything that this mi...

The short story "Tuesday of the Other June" written by Norma Fox Mazer has been included in high school syllabi around the world, mainly because of the relevance it bears to students and the academic environment as a whole.  Teens who are instructed to read this story are told to do so in order to become aware of the difficulties they either experience or the pain they inflict on one another at that age. Ultimately, teachers hope that the messages this story conveys will sink in with their students and enable the latter to become more aware of each others' feelings, particularities and sensibilities, changing in this way their perception of their peers and their behavior towards them.