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Simone Braverman

Simone Braverman is the founder of IELTS-Blog.com and the author of several renowned IELTS preparation books, including Ace the IELTS, Target Band 7, the High Scorer's Choice practice test series, and IELTS Success Formula. Since 2005, Simone has been committed to making IELTS preparation accessible and effective through her books and online resources. Her work has helped 100,000's of students worldwide achieve their target scores and live their dream lives. When Simone isn't working on her next IELTS book, video lesson, or coaching, she enjoys playing the guitar or rollerblading.

IELTS test in the USA – October 2022 (Academic Module)

Our kind friend S. recently took IELTS in the USA and remembered the following questions:

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a report)

The charts below show the average hours worked last year by full time and part time employees in 3 countries.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

IELTS Writing Task 1 Bar Charts of Hours Worked By Men and Women in 3 Countries

* Note: these aren’t the actual charts given in the test, they were recreated for demonstration purposes.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

Even though experts believe that walking is a great way to improve one’s health, very few people walk nowadays. Why aren’t people walking? What can be done to encourage them to walk more?

Speaking test

Part 1 (Interview)

– What is your full name?
– Where are you from?
– Did you learn geography as a child?
– Would you visit a country just because of its geographical location?
– Did you solve puzzles as a child?
– What kind, word or number puzzles?
– Do you think elderly people should be encouraged to solve puzzles?
– Do you solve number puzzles while commuting?

Part 2 (Cue Card)

Describe a photo you took that you are proud of. You should say
– When you took it
– Why you took it
– What is on the photo
– And explain why you are proud of this photo.

Part 3 (Discussion)

– Do you take selfies? Why?
– Is it a good way to capture some magical moments?
– Why do people take photos?
– Do you think old photos help us learn about history?
– Do you think that pictures from ancient time periods would be helpful enough to learn about the past?
– What would be more helpful, pictures or written eyewitness accounts, and why?

IELTS essay, topic: The best way to solve environmental problems is to increase the price of fuel (agree/disagree)

This essay topic was seen in a recent IELTS test in Taiwan

Some people believe that the best way to solve environmental problems is to increase the price of fuel.Do you agree or disagree?

Sample Band 8 Essay

Raising the price of car fuel is believed by some people to be an excellent method to solve the growing number of environmental issues. However, I strongly disagree with this idea, as doing so would make life difficult for lower-income households. While making fuel more expensive wouldn’t change the habits of wealthy families, switching to fossil fuel alternatives could prove to be much more beneficial for the environment.

The most compelling reason against raising the cost of fuel is that the upper classes of society will hardly be affected by rising fuel costs, as this only makes up a minor proportion of their expenditure. They will continue to use their personal vehicles as they wish without a thought for the environment or the higher fuel prices, even if their country has state-of-the-art public transportation.

Those who will feel the crunch of this decision are the middle-class and lower-income households, since travelling is a major part of most people’s routine, be it to work, school or shopping. Driving is almost unavoidable in many instances; therefore, raising the price of petrol would only serve to widen the gap between the rich and poor, and serve as an inadvertent form of discrimination.

Another reason why increasing the cost of fuel is far from the best way to deal with environmental pollution is that now there are much more viable alternatives. Due to the rapid advances in technology, scientists and engineers have been able to develop several alternatives to fossil fuel, such as cars powered by electricity or naturally produced biofuel. The move to adopt clean energy sources instead of fossil fuels is a much more promising alternative compared to simply making fuel more expensive.

In conclusion, I believe that governments of the world should invest more time and money in finding alternatives to fossil fuels that are more environmentally friendly, rather than simply raising the cost of petrol.

Click here to see more IELTS essays of Band 8