Page 6 - ielts speaking actual tests

2. Describe a person you were friendly to, although you did not really like them (him or

her)/Describe an experience you had as a member of a team.

SAMPLE ANSWER

I would like to describe a person who I had to be friendly to, although I did not really

like her. I think this situation is quite common in our lives, especially when we have
to act as part of a team.

A couple of months ago, I was assigned to a team at my workplace in order to tackle
a big project. As part of the team, I had to cooperate closely with this person.
However, we had never really liked each other for several reasons. Firstly, she is
much older than I am, so she always thinks she is right and disregards the opinions
of others. I would describe her as both bossy and officious, although she did not

have a more senior position than I did in the company. Secondly, I considered her
irresponsible because she did not appear to me to pay serious attention to the
project. So, although it was supposedly a group project, I ended up working all on
my own as much as possible in order to see the task through.

As the work was vital for our company, we had to be successful. I therefore had no
choice except to collaborate with her in order to finish the job. I would rather have
done all the work alone, but if I had refused to work with her as part of the team,
then the evaluation of my job performance would have been affected at the end of

the year. So, knowing her personality as I did, I swallowed my pride and tried to be
patient.

Despite our many arguments, we completed the task on time. I learned that
sometimes people can work together, even though they don‟t get on with each other.
It just needs a little bit of time and patience to work things out, and each person has
to compromise to achieve a common goal.

VOCABULARY

 disregard = to pay no attention to something or someone.

 bossy = a bossy person is someone who is always telling other people what to do.

 officious = an officious person is someone who uses their authority or position to
give orders to others - another word would be domineering.

 irresponsible = an irresponsible person has no feeling of responsibility for
something.