Describe a child you know who is very curious about the world.
A card about a niece, a younger cousin, a neighbour's child or a pupil you know well. The child's actual questions are your best material, so remember two or three word for word.
The task card
Describe a child you know who is very curious about the world.
You should say:
- who the child is and how you know them
- what they are curious about
- how they show their curiosity
and explain how you feel when you spend time with them.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Say who the child is, their rough age and your connection in the first sentences: 'my nephew, who's six and lives two streets away'. Age matters here, because it sets up what is remarkable about their curiosity.
For 'what they are curious about' and 'how they show it', quote real questions and describe real behaviour — taking apart a torch, following ants across a garden, asking 'but why?' five times in a row. Reported questions keep the answer lively and naturally vary your grammar.
Include how you respond: whether you answer, look things up together or admit you don't know. This bridges naturally into the final bullet and stops the answer becoming a list of cute anecdotes.
For how you feel, go beyond 'she is very sweet'. Talk about what the child does to you — makes you more patient, shows you how much you have stopped noticing, sends you searching for answers late at night.
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The child I'd like to talk about is my niece, Mira, who's seven and lives with my sister about twenty minutes from me. I see her most weekends, usually because I've been recruited as the babysitter. Mira is curious about absolutely everything, but especially about how things work. The questions come in waves. Last month, in the car, she asked me how the moon could follow our car and everyone else's car at the same time — which, I have to admit, I'd never once thought about. Another time she wanted to know whether fish ever get thirsty. It isn't only questions, though; she investigates. She once took apart a broken alarm clock with a butter knife, laid every piece out on a tea towel in order, and then got genuinely upset when she couldn't put it back together. She also keeps what she calls her 'question book', a little notebook for anything nobody could answer. That notebook is partly my fault, actually. I got stumped so often that we made a deal: if I don't know, it goes in the book, and on Sunday afternoon we look things up together. So now I spend my Sundays reading about fish and the moon with a seven-year-old, which I didn't see coming. How do I feel when I'm with her? Tired, mostly! But also more awake. Adults stop noticing things — we take the moon for granted, we walk past things without asking why. Mira makes me look again. And she's made me far more comfortable saying 'I don't know', which is probably more useful than any answer I could give her.
Why this works: Real questions in the child's own words do the descriptive work and bring natural variety to the grammar. The 'question book' deal links the child's curiosity to the speaker's response, so the final bullet grows out of the story — and the closing reflection is about what the speaker has gained, not simply how sweet the child is.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- an inquisitive child
A precise, natural adjective for a child who asks a lot of questions.
- to bombard someone with questions
To ask many questions quickly; slightly humorous.
- to be stumped
To be unable to answer a question; honest and conversational.
- to take something for granted
To stop noticing something because it is familiar; perfect for the final bullet.
- a sense of wonder
The feeling of being amazed by ordinary things.
- at that age
Simple phrase for comparing life stages without repeating numbers.
- to see the world through someone's eyes
To understand another person's view; use it once, near the end.
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
- 1Why do children seem to ask fewer questions as they get older?
- 2Should parents always answer children's questions honestly?
- 3How can schools encourage curiosity rather than memorisation?
- 4Do screens and tablets make children more curious or less?
- 5Is it better for children to have lots of structured activities or plenty of free time?
- 6What role should adults outside the family play in a child's upbringing?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: People and relationships. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.