Cue Card # 155: When an important journey was delayed

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 155

Describe a time when an important journey was delayed.

You should say:

• when it was
• where you were travelling
• who was with you

and explain how you felt about the delay.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

Thank you for this great cue card topic, and I would be more than happy to share my experience here about an important journey that was delayed.

This important journey took place about a year ago when I was travelling to a new city with my family in order to attend a wedding ceremony of one of my very favourite cousins. My cousin very much wanted us to arrive well ahead of the planned wedding ceremony, but I just couldn’t do that as my manager at work didn’t approve an early leave for me due to some heavy workload at the office.

So, despite my best effort and intention, I had to leave for the wedding ceremony at the eleventh hour and that too in a train. By the way, I wanted to fly in order to arrive early, as per the insistence of my cousin, but my wife and younger sister suggested that we rather took a train journey so that they could enjoy the sceneries along the train route. So, I had no other choice but to respect the wishes of the ladies except, of course, our train had no intention to respect our wishes because, after arriving at the train station, we came to know that the train was going to be late by at least two hours because there apparently was some kind of technical glitches in the train engine.

This kind of delay was the last thing that any of us had expected or planned for. So, I ran to the railway staffs and wanted to confirm the news, but, again, to my utmost disappointment, they also confirmed the delay.

Anyway, after learning the news of the delay, I wasn’t only disappointed but also very nervous, primarily because arriving late the wedding ceremony would certainly make my cousin sad. Besides, I was also scolding myself then because we didn’t fly in an aeroplane even though it was certainly a better and safer option if I really wanted to reach my cousin’s wedding programme early.