Describe a person who is well known in your local area.
A card about a shopkeeper, a coach, a street vendor or a local character everyone recognises. Fame on a small scale is easier to describe honestly than celebrity, and far easier to fill with detail.
The task card
Describe a person who is well known in your local area.
You should say:
- who the person is
- why they are well known locally
- how you first came across them
and explain what you think of this person.
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
Choose someone with a clear reason for being known: the man who has sold newspapers on the same corner for thirty years, the coach who has trained half the town's footballers. State the reason early, because the rest of the answer explains and illustrates it.
For 'how you first came across them', tell the first encounter as a short scene — buying something as a child, being sent to them by a parent. Then show how they are known: people greet them by name, they turn up at every local event, stories about them get passed around.
The final bullet invites a balanced opinion. You can admire someone and still notice a flaw — they talk too much, they are stubborn about change. A measured view sounds more mature than pure praise and gives you room for more complex sentences.
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
I'd like to talk about a man everyone in my town calls Gill Uncle, who has repaired shoes in a tiny kiosk outside the railway station for over thirty years. He's well known for two reasons. The first is just longevity — the kiosk is older than the station's new building, and half the town has had shoes, bags or umbrellas fixed by him at some point. The second reason is stranger: every morning he writes a short message on a little chalkboard propped against the kiosk. Sometimes it's a proverb, sometimes the cricket score, sometimes just a complaint about the weather. People actually photograph it on their way to the train, and the best ones get shared on local social media. I first came across him when I was about ten. My dad sent me with a pair of school shoes that had split along the side, and instead of letting me leave them, Gill Uncle made me sit on a stool and watch the whole repair. I remember him tapping the sole and saying, 'A shoe tells you how a person walks.' I had no idea what that meant, but I've never forgotten it. What do I think of him? Mostly admiration. He's a fixture of the station in the best sense — reliable, cheap and always there. That said, he's not a saint; he's famously grumpy before ten in the morning and refuses to take card payments, which drives younger customers mad. But last winter, when he was ill and the kiosk stayed shut for a month, people taped notes to the shutter asking if he was all right. That tells you what he is to the town — not a celebrity, but someone everybody noticed was missing.
Why this works: Two clear reasons for his local fame, a vivid first-meeting scene with one remembered line, and a balanced opinion that admits his flaws. The closing image — notes taped to the shutter — answers 'what you think of him' with evidence from the whole town, which is more convincing than any adjective.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- a local character
Someone well known in an area for their personality; affectionate rather than formal.
- everyone knows him by sight
People recognise him even if they have never spoken; useful for degrees of fame.
- to have a reputation for
Standard collocation for what someone is known for.
- a fixture of
Something always present in a place, as in 'a fixture of the high street'.
- an institution
Used humorously for a person who has been part of a place so long they seem permanent.
- word gets around
Information spreads informally from person to person.
- he's not a saint
Conversational way to introduce a flaw in someone you admire.
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 some ordinary people become well known in their communities?
- 2Are local figures more important to a community than national celebrities?
- 3How has social media changed who becomes famous?
- 4Should local media give more attention to people who serve the community?
- 5Do people today know less about the people in their area than previous generations did?
- 6What are the disadvantages of being well known in a small community?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: People and relationships. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.