Describe a stranger who helped you when you needed it.
A card about a short encounter with someone you never saw again. The problem has to be clear before the help can matter, so set up the situation quickly and precisely.
The task card
Describe a stranger who helped you when you needed it.
You should say:
- where you were and what had happened
- who the stranger was
- what they did to help you
and explain why you still remember 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
Start with the situation, because the stranger only makes sense once the listener knows what had gone wrong: a dead phone in an unfamiliar city, a flat tyre at night, the wrong train. Keep it to three or four sentences and include the moment you realised you were in trouble.
Describe the stranger with two or three observable details — age, what they were carrying, how they spoke — rather than guessing at their character. You knew them for minutes, and being honest about what you could not know sounds natural.
Narrate what they did in sequence, with one line of what they said. Then, for the final bullet, explain why the memory has lasted: the help went further than it needed to, it changed how you treat strangers, or you never got to thank them properly.
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
This happened about two years ago, on a very hot morning in June. I was on my way to work on the metro, it was completely packed, and I'd skipped breakfast. About halfway there I started feeling light-headed. The carriage went sort of grey at the edges, and I remember thinking, quite calmly, 'I'm going to faint in front of all these people.' That's when a woman standing next to me, maybe in her fifties, in a dark blue uniform and carrying a big flask, took one look at me and said, 'Sit down. Now.' She got someone to give me their seat and made me put my head down. What she did next is what I really remember. At the next stop she got off with me, even though it obviously wasn't hers, and sat me on a bench on the platform. She bought me a juice from the kiosk and wouldn't let me pay. Then she stayed for about twenty minutes, chatting about nothing, until my colour came back. She turned out to be a nurse on her way home from a night shift. When I thanked her, she just shrugged and said, 'You'd be amazed how many people skip breakfast and then stand on a hot train.' I never caught her name, which still bothers me a bit. But I remember her because she went so far beyond what was necessary. She'd just worked all night, and she gave up part of her journey home for a stranger. These days I always eat before I leave. And last summer, when an elderly man looked unsteady on the same line, I was the one who found him a seat and got off with him. So in a small way, I passed it on.
Why this works: The problem is set up in a few sentences — the heat, the skipped breakfast, the carriage going grey — so the help has weight when it arrives. The stranger is described only by what could be seen and heard in twenty minutes, which is honest, and the ending shows the memory still shaping the speaker's behaviour rather than simply being recalled.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- to be in a bit of a state
To be upset or not coping well; informal and natural for setting up the problem.
- out of nowhere
Unexpectedly; useful for the stranger's arrival.
- a good Samaritan
A stranger who helps someone in trouble; widely used and natural.
- to go out of their way
To make a special effort that was not necessary.
- I never caught her name
Honest detail that fits a brief encounter.
- to pay it forward
To repay kindness by helping someone else; strong for the final bullet.
- to restore your faith in people
To make you believe again that people are generally good.
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 are some people more willing than others to help strangers?
- 2Are people in cities less helpful than people in the countryside?
- 3Should schools teach students how to help in an emergency?
- 4Has technology made people less dependent on help from strangers?
- 5Is it always wise to accept help from people you do not know?
- 6Do acts of kindness tend to spread through a community?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: People and relationships. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.