Professor
Emanuel Costa

IELTS Speaking Part 3

Questions: Recording the past

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Let's talk about past events in general.

Do you think photographs are the best way to record and remember special events in our lives?

Why do you think that is?

What about written records, can they also encourage us to remember things?

Which do you think is better, recording important moments by taking photographs or writing them down?

Some people think it's more important to be concerned about events in the future than the events in the past. Would you agree with that?

Tapescript. 

IELTS Speaking Part 3

Band 9 Sample Answer:

Recording the past 

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Do you think photographs are the best way to record and remember special events in our lives?

Well, I don’t know about the best way, I think it depends on the kind of person you are because there are other ways to record events, for example video, OK. But I really like taking photographs, I think it’s a very easy and efficient way of recording the moment, I always take a lot of pictures when I go on holiday, I take them on my phone or on my gopro and then I pass them to my computer, so I have them backed up. I organise them into the different holidays, I enjoy going back and looking at my photos and remembering what I did and how I was feeling at those specific moments I think it’s a really nice way… umm, and it’s nice because when you look at the photo you are transported back immediately to that moment. We are very visual creatures, so just seeing that has an immediate effect on our minds, we remember, oh  my god yeah that’s how it was, you know, oh my god I miss it so much, that’s the kind of thing we think right. And also the picture is so quick, a video for example, a video takes a long time to go through, you know, you can spend two minutes per video you have an album of 100 videos, you’re gonna take forever to go through all those videos, but pictures no you can just quickly click through pictures and in no time at all you’ve seen all the pictures from a holiday. You know, so it’s very quick and it transports you so well to that moment.

 
What about written records, can they also encourage us to remember things?

Yeah, written records can encourage us, can help us to remember things. I don’t make written records I’ve never written a diary in my life, I’ve never written a poem about an event in my life. I think these are the two best ways to record a memory either to write a poem about it or to write down how you were feeling in a diary. But I think one of the interesting things about a written record is that you can use a lot of descriptive words you know, really describe, especially feelings you know, cus in a picture you get to see how it was but you don’t, I imagine you can remember better by reading a written record a written account, and reading about how you were feeling I think perhaps that’s what’s missing in pictures, is that you don’t get a sense of how you were feeling, I think the written record describes the feeling better than the picture. 

Which do you think is better, recording important moments by taking photographs or writing them down?
 

Well, like I said, I don’t make written records but I think taking pictures is better, it’s just so easy you click it takes one second and you have that snapshot forever, you don’t have to worry about the paper… about losing the paper or something like that I know you can make a written record on your phone, but if you’re gonna make a written record it’s probably nicer to write it down, more personal perhaps, I don’t know. So, yeah, the picture it’s just so quick, one second, and when you look through it’s also quick to look through umm takes you back immediately. The written record has got some advantages that you get to describe the feelings, and it would be interesting I think to do a balance, you know, having pictures and having a couple of written records I think a written record like every day is too much, who has time to through and read all that information. But maybe like writing one written record about the whole holiday could be interesting. But I still prefer the pictures. 

Some people think it's more important to be concerned about events in the future than the events in the past. Would you agree with that?

No, definitely not. I think we need to look at past events, we need to look at our history so we can learn from our mistakes, you know, learn about the consequences of actions. How can we prevent war, how can we prevent disease, famine, unemployment how can we stimulate a country, how can we improve the quality of life of people. We can do that I believe best by looking at the past and seeing what led to certain outcomes, you know, and we can get that and apply that to the future so we can try and have the best future possible. 
 

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