Page 23 - ielts speaking actual tests

As a frequent moviegoer, I watch a lot of films. One of the movies that I enjoyed

the most recently was The Martian.

The movie was based on a novel of the same title by Andy Weir. Just like many
other sci-fi films, it was about man travelling in space, however, this time, our main
character was stuck on Mars due to a dust storm which nearly killed him. All of
the crewmates thought that he was dead, so they went back to Earth without him.
But fortunately he was still alive, thus two and a half hours of the movie told the
story of how he fought for his life in the brutal environment of Mars, until NASA

devised a plan to rescue him.

My best friend is a big fan of astronomy, so she had read [2] the novel before.
That’s why she insisted on me going to see the movie with her. After watching the
trailer and reading the plot, I was hooked. It was maybe the best two and a half
hours of my week so far.

After watching the movie, I was amazed at how ingenious and strong humans can
be when it comes to a life and death situation. Mark Watney, the hero of the movie,
was a perfect portrayal of a young, humorous, brilliant and skillful engineer cum

botanist. Although the hostile environment of Mars threatened his existence many
times, he relentlessly refused to quit. Instead, he overcame one problem at a time
until he was successfully rescued. The message that I learned from the film is never
to give up, however hopeless things seem to be.

VOCABULARY:

 moviegoer: [noun] a person who goes to the cinema.

 sci-fi: [noun] science fiction; based on imagined scientific discoveries of the future,
such as space travel or life on other planets.

Example: Sci-fi movies have become more popular since space travel has become
possible.

 stuck on Mars: the man was unable to escape from the planet.

Example: we were stuck in traffic and so we arrived late for work.

 dust storm: [noun] a storm that carries clouds of dust in the wind over a wide area.

Example: a lot of plants die after a dust storm passes through an area.

 crewmates: [noun] all the people working on a ship or, in this case, a spacecraft.

 fought for his life: [verb phrase] he made a great effort to stay alive.