Describe the city or town you live in

這張題卡的準備方式

和「a city you’d like to live in」不同，這張題卡（cue card）問的是你已經住著的地方，所以最有力的回答靠的是真實的日常了解，而不是查來的資料：你實際會走過的商店、實際搭乘的交通工具、這個地方真正讓你煩心或高興的事。如果你好好運用，這種熟悉感就是優勢，因為描述你每天生活的地方，比描述只在書上讀過的地方，更容易聽起來自然。

這張題卡的四個部分，依序是基本的地理位置、整體特色、實際有什麼可以做，以及你自己的看法。所以簡單的結構是：用一兩句話說明位置，描述這個地方的整體感覺，提到一兩件人們在那裡可以做的具體事，最後以誠實、有理由的看法收尾，而不是籠統的「I love my city」。

如果你對自己居住的地方確實有複雜的感受，說出來也沒關係：一個在優點之外提到一個真實缺點的平衡回答，通常比一味讚美聽起來更可信，而且考官評分的是你的語言，不是你對家鄉的忠誠度。

讓回答更出色的詞彙

1分鐘準備計畫

在1分鐘的準備時間裡，可以寫下：

• location: country or region, size
• character: general feel or atmosphere
• what people can do: two or three concrete examples
• opinion: honest, balanced view

範例回答

以下是這張題卡完整回答的一種寫法，用來示範結構和程度，不是要你照背。

I live in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, which sits roughly in the east of the country, in a fairly green, relatively flat part of the region. It’s a big, fairly bustling city by local standards, though it doesn’t feel overwhelming the way some capitals do, partly because a lot of the older neighbourhoods still have quite a relaxed, close-knit feel even though the newer parts of the city keep expanding outward. In terms of what people can actually do here, there’s a decent mix — plenty of parks and open squares if you want somewhere calm, a fairly lively café and restaurant scene that’s grown a lot over the last decade, and reasonable public transport, including a metro system that makes getting around the centre much easier than relying on cars. What I like most is probably that balance: it’s developed enough that you’re rarely bored, but it hasn’t lost every trace of the slower, more community-minded atmosphere that older residents talk about from years ago. If I’m honest, the traffic can get genuinely congested during rush hour, and some areas still don’t have enough green spaces considering how quickly they’ve been built up, so it isn’t perfect. But overall I’d say it’s a pretty liveable city, and I probably wouldn’t swap it for somewhere else at this stage of my life, mainly because my whole support network — family, friends, familiar routines — is here, which matters more to me day to day than any single feature the city itself offers.

這張題卡的常見錯誤

• 純粹從觀光角度描述這座城市，而不是描述它對實際住在那裡的人是怎麼運作的。
• 只有讚美，沒有真正具體的看法，聽起來像排練過，而不夠真誠。
• 在地理位置上花太多時間，結果沒時間說「what people can do」這個要點。
• 把這張題卡和「a city you’d like to live in」混淆，描述了一個你並沒有住的地方。