Describe a Good Advice you recieved.You should say:what the advice wasin what situation you received this advicewho gave you the adviceand explain why you thought this advice was good.The most important advice I received in my life was: "Know yourself". Quite a simple one but, it means much more to me than it sounds.During a certain period in my early 20's, I was extremely arrogant. Every time I assumed I would be successful, I would get whatever I wanted. I didn't respect people aroun d me, and even my arrogance came out in every speech I made.Mom thought I was full of myself, irritating. She once told me to "know yourself"! Mom said it's inscribed on the front of the temple of Apollo. And entire quote is "know thyself, and you shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe." That's quite a mouthful. Her version is this. "Know yourself because what else is there to know?"As a child, we don't always realize that parents tell us what to do out of love. I discovered that she was right after awhile. To get a thorough understanding of oneself is to gain a correct view of oneself and be a sober realist -- aware of both one's strength and shortage. You may look forward hopefully to the future but be sure not to expect too much. I think feeling small is the first step to knowing yourself. Being silent is the second. I think we are afraid of silence because we don't want to be small. If we are too silent, we might slow down enough to recognize that something much deeper, much larger, and much more ancient than us is slowly trying to tell us something. And that's scary. But I think it's worth a try. Maybe it will tell us who we are. That's to way so long as you have a perfect knowledge of yourself there won't be difficulties you can't overcome, nor obstacles you can't surmount.A time you got incorrect informationwho this person ishow you know this personwhat interesting ideas/opinions he or she hasand explain why you think his/her ideas are interestingActually, about two years ago I was travelling to Hong Kong with my friend and we were due to take a morning flight around 10 o' clock or something like that. Anyway we were all packed and ready to go (and of course we were quite excited as you can imagine – because we were travelling without our parents), when we arrived at the airport we couldn’t find our flight anywhere on the departures screen, so we double checked and s till couldn’t find it anywhere, in the end we went to the information desk and they told us that our flight had been changed to 8am (we’d already missed it).As you can guess we were at first quite shocked and then pretty angry. The airline claimed that they had sent out messages informing all passengers of the time change –but we hadn’t received any notification. In the end we got the hold of the duty manager and luckily he was quite sympathetic, we were put on a later flight for no extra charge so everything worked out alright in the end.Describe an indoor game that you played when you were a child.You should say:what the game waswhere you played itwho you played it withand explain why you enjoyed this game.I think I’d have to go for puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles to be precise. I have a huge collection, although most of them are hidden in a cupboard somewhere in my parents’ house, these days.I used to have a special table exclusively for doing my puzzles on. Once I got into the groove, I would become immersed in the puzzle and get lost in a world of my own. Occasionally I would try to solve one with my grandmother, but this was more for her benefit as I much prefer doing it by myself. I know it sounds selfish, but it’s just not as much fun s haring the responsibility with someone else and the pay off isn’t as big at the end.I started when I was just a toddler, putting shapes into pre-cut holes, but slowly I graduated to more complex pictures. These days it’s not unusual to find me tackling a really complex puzzle, like an “Impossipuzzle” which are double-sided and feature a picture of something very small but in large quantities, like a plate of baked beans or loads of Brussels sprouts.In my opinion as well as being an enjoyable pastime, jigsaw puzzles are good for your mind. The brain is basically just a muscle and so it should be given a work out every now and then. Jigsaw puzzles are challenging and although they are time consuming, they provide great satisfaction once you’ve finished one.Describe a leisure activity you do with your familyYou should say:What it isWhen you do itHow you do itAnd explain how you feel about itWell, a leisure activity I do with my family is rockclimbing.It’s actually not a real rockclimbing on the mountain but an indoor one that is considered to be safer and sportive as well. The gym is just two blocks away from our family. I remember it was the during last September that we went there for the first time.I do this activity with all our family members during the winter bec ause we think it’s a perfect indoor sport that allows us to stay healthy by doing some physical exercises when it’s too cold to go outside.We usually go there without bringing any equipment because the gym can provide us some necessary amenities such as the locker, helmet, saf ety rope, rock climbing shoes and so on. All we need to do is learn the safety instructions from the professionals first, and climb! There are three levels of rock climbing, from the beginner level to the advanced one. I usually do the intermediate one, but I hope someday I could challenge the advanced level.Well, I definitely feel this leisure activity is awesome! You know, it not only gives us an opportunity to keep fit, but also enhances our family rel ationship through this activity. We helped each other by sharing our own strategies of climbing. I hope we could keep this activity on our list for leisure.Describe a time when you did not tell a friend the truthYou should say:When it wasWhere it happenedWhy you did not tell the truthAnd explain how you felt about itWell, I would like to share an experience while I was in elementary school for more than a decade ago.There was a semester during which we were supposed to buy an instrument to learn in our music class. I clearly remember that many classmates of mine brought some instruments that looked so fancy to me, for example, violin and saxophone. However, I didn’t bring anything in the first class because I wasn’t so sure what instrument I could learn. Then, a deskmate of mine named Wang Lei noticed my situation and lent me his accordion to me to have a try.Ifelt it was pretty easy to play, but I wasn’t so sure that I could play it well. So, I even borrowed his accordion for a week to experience. Well, you know, something awkward happened while I was practicing this little thing. This article is from Laokaoya website. A corner of the accordion was hit by the door while I was walking out of my bedroom. You know, my mind went blank while this incident happened.I didn’t know how much it would cost me to buy a new one. This made me feel so edgy. Thank God that I eventually got the same type from Taobao at a reasonable price.Well, I didn’t tell Wang what really happened to his accordion. I just gave him my newly bought one and expressed my appreciation for his help. The reason why I didn’t tell the truth was that I didn’t want to make him unhappy about the incident I made. It would make him feel sorry that I just bought him a new one.I felt guilty a little bit but still thought that I handled this thing in an appropriate way. You know, at least I managed to compensate for the loss of this broken instrument. I definitely hope this won’t happen again in the future.Describe a time you lost something important.You should say:What you lost;how you lost it;what you did after you lost it;and explain how you felt about losing it.I have never felt as frustrated and helpless as l did the time my mobile oh was stolen. It gave me a sense of shame and a feeling of being violated. I can also kick myself for being so careless and not more aware.I was a bit naive to leave my phone in a back pocket of my rucksack while l travelled on the bus. When I reached my stop and reached into the bag, it was nowhere to be seen and I immediately burst into tears, an old lady came up to me and tried to console me, but I was extremely emotional and not able to be rational.After I got over the shock, I went to a local police station to report the theft. The police couldn’t do a whole lot other than take my statement and file a report to this day the phone still hasn't materialized, so I have given up all hope of ever seeing it againI still feel sick to my stomach for losing the phone for a number of reasons. First, it's an invasion of privacy as my phone had lots of sensitive personal details on it. Also, it was jam-pocked with photos and videos that I hadn't backed up. They will be lost forever, which is a very sad and helpless thought.Describe a time you felt tired but had to keep awakeYou should sayWhy you felt tiredWhy you had to keep awakeWhat you had to do to keep awakeand explain how you felt about the experienceLast weekend, I went to Beijing to visit my bestie, Sammi. We haven't seen each other for a long time and I only had two-day spare time, so we cherished every second of being together.I spent about 5 hours by the high-speed train and my excitement was rising that I even prepared the topics to share with Sammi. The moment I saw her, I believed she did the same thing and had the same feeling because we just couldn't stop talking even during the supper.My enthusiasm was peaking until we were back to her home. Sammi is several years younger than me, and I have to admit that she indeed is much more vigorous because the light in her eyes never dimmed that day. It was about the midnight, I suggested that we probably should go to bed and she agreed, but it was not what I was thinking about—she insisted on telling me more about her life in Beijing and asked me to watch the live stream of her favorite vlogger, in bed.Honestly, my eyelids were so heavy and I even couldn't concentrate on her iPad screen. Sammi is really a strict girl, I mean, in a good way, that she required me to watch the video and make comments. So I gave up persuading her to let me sleep, and tried to sit straight in bed to be sober. It worked for some time, later I drunk a can of iced Coke and became totally awake.It was a great weekend. I found myself indulging in happiness when I recalled the time and browsed the photos taken with Sammi when I was back to Shanghai. I'm looking forward to having a catch-up with her again.Describe a special day that you remember wellYou should say:Where you wereWho you were withWhat you didAnd explain why you remember it wellThe special day that I am going to tell you is about three months ago when I just moved into a new apartment. It was located in the city center, with convenient transport. There were a supermarket and a shopping mall just across the street. The room was decorated in a concise, modern style, without complex ornaments.According to tradition, I should invite friends to have a small party to celebrate the movement. This article is from Laokaoya website. So I called my best friend, whom I have known from a very early age and other classmates, and set the party date on Saturday when everybody was free.Besides the normal eating and drinking, we also cook a kind of traditional Chinese food, Fagao, which was made of flour, sugar, and dates. This kind of food had a propitious name, where Fa means fortune in Chin ese and Gao means prosperous. It conveyed my friends’ best wishes to me.The party was wonderful. The food was delicious and the preparing process was hilarious. We had a good time. We talked about what happened to each other recently, and our dreams and futures. It provided a good opportunity to enhance our friendship.Describe a day that made you happyYou should sayWhere you wereWho you were withWhat you didAnd explain why it made you happyThe experience I am going to tell you is that I went surfing with my best friend. Although we have never gone to the same school or lived in the same community, we have known each other from a very early age. This is because our mothers are close friends and they often visit each other, which gives us plenty of opportunities to get familiar.It was nine months ago. We traveled to the Gold Coast in Australia, where the climate is mild and the temperature remains stable throughout the year. This article is from Laokaoya website. It is said to be thesurfer’s paradise with waves suitable for both beginners and experts. The moment we arrived at the beach, we bought surfing boards and tried to figure out how to surf.However, it was not that easy as it looked. We kept falling into the sea and got choked several times. Eventually, we gave up. We found a professional surfer from the training school to teach us. He showed us how to stand on the board and how to use our feet and waist to control the direction. After 20 minutes’ training, we could surf for a while by ourselves.It was a wonderful experience to ride on the wave, you know, feeling the wind against my face and enjoying the admiration of others on the beach. I really like this sport.Describe a gift you took a long time to prepare.You should say:what the gift waswho you prepare this gift forhow the person feel when receiving itand explain why it took you a long timeI have had many opportunities to buy gifts before, and to be honest I am really easy and often buy things in a flash. I never have any consideration or proper thought when buying things. But there was this one occasion that was very very difficult for me to choose a gift.It was a gift for my best friend's birthday 2 years ago now and I still remember clearly the details as if it just happened yesterday. At first I planned to go to the bookstore and buy him a very special book about the rules of life and how to live a meaningful life because that's what I hope he could achieve in the future. But the moment before I entered the bookstore I noticed a joke shop right next to the bookstore and it was so eye-catching with many novelties and other cool stuff. So I just decided to give it a go and see if there's anything interesting.After browsing through many hilarious toys, I came across a hello kitty bikini suit and a funny thought suddenly flashed across my mind. Yes, I thought about giving him a bikini suit for his 18 birthday as a twisted joke instead of a meaningful book that I first planned. I was torn between the book and the suit and I remember spending 30 minutes carefully thinking about which one I should buy. I thought of buying both of course but then I realised I could only afford one thing. After a while, I decided to purchase the bikini suit because I thought this is the only chance that I could give him a bikini suit as his 18th birthday gift. I could always buy him the book at a later time so, I gave it a shot.Later on at the party, when he opened the box that I gave him, we all burst out laughing and we were all really happy about the idea of giving him the bikini suit. So that is the best memory that I have ever had with my best friend and I think I could never ever forget about it.Describe something useful you borrowed from othersYou should say:What it wasWhen you borrowed itWho you borrowed it fromAnd explain why you borrowed itSomething useful I borrowed from others was actually an E-R99 Casio electronic dictionary.I remember I borrowed it from a classmate of mine while I was studying in the third year of my senior high school. At that time, I was busy preparing for the College Entrance Examination and wasn’t so confident with my English subject especially the vocabulary part. I always found it difficult reading through the English passages without looking at the dictionary.What made me feel bad was that flipping through the paper-edition was really a time-consuming thing. You know, this article is from Laokaoya website, my deskmate Wang Lei noticed my situation, and lent his e-dictionary to me. That was actually the first time that I borrowed something precious from others.Well, the reason why I borrowed it was that I thought I should try the electronic one at least for once to see if it could really boost my efficiency of study. Another reason why I borrowed it was that I was not so sure about an English item I was looking for at that time and wanted to check the definition out from another version of the dictionary. Well, the reality proved that it worked and I bought the same type of device a week later.Describe a picture or photograph in your homeYou should say:What does it showWhen you took itWhere the picture is in your homeAnd explain why you like it bestIf you ask me for an account of a picture in my home, a photo taken in an art gallery is definitely the first thing that comes to mind. Last October, I went to an oil painting gallery with my friends. We took so many pictures of all of the art works, but the most impressive one is the picture of Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge by Claude Monet. I am actually a big of Monet, and I believe this work could be called his masterpiece. I like it so much that I printed it out put it on my nightstand in bedroom.As you can tell from its title, the painting is a landscape of water lilies in a pond with a Japanese bridge as a central feature over the waters and trees and grasses behind. At first sight, it seems green allover, but if you look closer, you will find that it is so much more. In addition to the greens, Monet's palette consists of white, pink, purple, yellow, blue, brown and black. Different hues vividly represent the shadows and light, waters and leaves. A founder of French Impressionist painting, Monet adopted a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of seasons. This painting was inspired by his garden view. Monet started growing his own gardens in his forties with cool greens and calm, reflective waters, enhanced by exotic plants.I like this painting because it makes me feel calm, as if I am walking in the garden, breathing the fresh air and observing the flowers and trees with the painter himself. The painter captured the passing beauty of an ephemeral moment and created eternity out of it. His unique visual sensitivity and emotional response to nature are expressed in both the garden itself and his paintings. That is why people a hundred years later are still touched by the beauty of this painting. I really hope someday I can have the opportunity to see it in person. I'm sure it will be so much more impressive than what I saw in the book. Describe a beautiful sky you saw.You should say:Where it wasWho you were withWhat you sawAnd explain why it was beautifulOkay, I'd like to talk about the sky that I watched while I was travelling in New Zealand several years ago.I saw the sky at the Queenstown where there's a perfect spot for aurora observation. I went there with my best friend from high school in 2017. We started our journey in September, which was a perfect timing to appreciate the aurora.The entire sky in Queenstown was so gorgeous, you know, the ribbon-like aurora together with the stars scattered around was literally like an artistic masterpiece. We actually not only saw the breathtaking aurora but also countless shining stars that gave us a clear picture of what the Milky Way Galaxy looked like. Oh, I should mention that the sky was in different tones of green and blue, like bottle green, emerald green, sapphire blue, and light blue, all the fancy and romantic colors you could possibly imagine. The color combination was super eye-catching!I felt like that was the most impressive sky I have watched in my life. The reason why I thought it gave me such a deep impression was that the places where I grew up and studied at didn't allow me to see the natural beauties like this. I'm not exaggerating, it was absolutely the most beautiful sky that I have ever seen in my life. I really hope I could spend more days there to fully enjoy the feast to the eyes it brought to me. I mean, it was quite an eye opener for me.Describe a person who likes to travel by planeYou should say:Who this person isHow you know this personWhere this person travels toand explain why this person likes to travel by plane.I think this person would be my father who is an engineer. Due to his work, he has got loads of clients to the big cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, and even in other countries. And almost two-third of the time in a month, he is on business trip to meet clients, attend meetings and tackle some severe problems. That ’ s why he has travelled a lot especially by air to different places.I feel that as for a businessman, taking the airplane would save him much time and he is able to finish his work with high efficiency. Sometimes the price of a flight ticket can be negligible if he successfully make orders with clients. Also, the service on the plane is much better than that on the train. The flight attendance will offer various beverages and food, and the passengers can even ask for free blankets and back cushion. The passengers on the plane are not as many as that on the train, which makes the plane a cozy place for relaxation. My father always tells me that the quietness on the plane makes it possible for hi m to take a rest between the two cities. I think that ’ s the main reason why he insists on taking planes for business trip.Describe a place where you read and write (not your home).You should say:where it ishow often you go therewho you go there withand explain how you feel about this placeI don’t read very often these days, but there is one place I go to read sometimes. It is a cafe near to my home. It’s actually part of a modern hotel, but the cafe is public and popular with people having business meetings, travellers, and artistic types. That’s partly because it’s located right in the centre of a really nice area of town, and also has an art exhibition area. I often read on my kindle there but sometimes I take a physical book. Although the cafe is a bit expensive I don’t really mind because I order one pot of tea and they give you endless refills. So I sit there on the really comfortable sofas and read and study a little. I usually go there on my own but sometimes I meet my friend, Martyn, there, and I stop reading and we sit and chat together for a while. I feel good there. I like the decor, I like the fact that it is peaceful, the service is excellent and really polite, and it’s just a perfect place to read.。
