This item type is one of the most important types in Listening. The score is integrated in both Listening and Writing. Check this post for solved samples.
Sample 1
Allergies seem to be increasing these days especially in more hygienic societies where children are less exposed to harmful situations at an early age. They are a result of the body’s immune system reacting to something it believes is harmful and producing histamines to rid the body of this. Sufferers are advised to avoid the trigger for their allergy and, when this is impossible, are prescribed anti-histamines.
Sample 2
The speaker was discussing ageism. She talked about discrimination based on a person’s age. She mentioned rejecting a haircut or relationship because it was age inappropriate. She discussed how Hollywood has about 12% of named characters over the age of 60. She suggested that no-one is born ageist, and quipping about a senior moment didn’t explain why if she had a “junior moment” she never passed comment on it.
Sample 3
The speaker was discussing the three most important things that people carry. He mentioned that keys, money and a mobile phone are important for survival. He talked about how these relate to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: shelter (keys), food (money) and connectivity (phone). He suggested that three billion people use a phone and we can be connected across time and space.
Sample 4
The speaker was discussing crowdsourcing news reports of crisis. He mentioned that the first three hours can be unclear and overloaded. He talked about how we can create a crowdsourced filter. He mentioned that people can rate comments to better indicate the probability of true reports. He suggested that it is amazing that this innovation is coming out of Africa.
Sample 5
The speaker argues that although Western economies have expanded since the 1950’s, there has been no parallel growth in happiness. Surveys indicate that rich people generally say they are happier than poor people, but it appears that although individuals may become happier society as a whole does not. One possible answer is that people soon become accustomed to improvements and so do not appreciate them.
Sample 6
The speaker talks about human language, which is different with animals’. Animals only can repeat utterances without meaning, but human beings could say various new contents. However, the evolution of human language is slow and laborious according to the evidence from the early human’s brain fossil. Similarly, brain’s hemisphere is bigger than the right side, which can partly prove human’s strong language ability.
Sample 7
The speaker explains why Latin writing was so outstanding, especially as compared to the other arts. The main reason was the nature of the language itself, which is capable of great compression. Another factor was the Roman educational system, which concentrated on language and literature. One drawback was that, as education was only available to the rich, the subject matter of Latin literature is fairly limited.
Sample 8
The author referred to in the discussion has a particular way of bringing unexpected beauty and newness to everyday subjects and situations in his work. An example of that is his famous radio play about the people of a small town. The way he has written the play, he has transformed their everyday situations into something very special-funny, beautiful and moving.
Sample 9
MDGs have pulled a large number of people out of extreme poverty and drastically decrease child mortality and infant mortality in the world.Though India has 100 percent primary school enrollment, it is needed to improve the quality of primary education and focus on girl child education, which has a multiplier effect on society. To conclude, India needs to promote property rights for women.
Sample 10
The lecture is about black holes and escape velocity which is a very important concept related to black holes. Lecturer defines escape velocity as the speed with which something will have to go to escape the gravitational field of an object, such as Earth, escaping here means going out and not falling back on the surface.