Cue Card 2020 #6: Describe an interesting animal

Describe an interesting animal

You should say:

• What it looks like
• When you saw it
• Where you saw it
• Explain why it is interesting

Model Answer:

• India has a diverse animal life.
• We have wild animals, domestic animals and pet animals.
• Here, I am going to talk about an animal, which I find very interesting.
• This animal lives in water but is not a fish
• It is a mammal – it is the dolphin.
• I came to know first time about this animal from the National Geographic channel.
• In fact, this river dolphin is the national aquatic animal of India.
• It gives birth to its young one and suckles to feed it
• It cannot breathe under water so it has to come to the surface to breathe
• Even the little baby has to be pushed to the surface to breathe.
• Dolphins feed on most kinds of fish such as the snapper and the tuna. Dolphins are fast swimmers.
• They search their way through the sounds they produce, which is called echo-location.
• The dolphins’ sound waves hit an object and the echo bounces back.
• Most dolphins are peaceful and rather shy.
• So far humans have proven to be of greater danger to dolphins than the other way round.
• There are marine dolphins found in oceans and river dolphins found in rivers.
• Just like the tiger is our national animal and the peacock is our national bird, the Gangetic river dolphin is our national aquatic animal.
• The Indian river dolphin is blind.
• It is found in the river Ganges.
• The female is about 9 feet long and the male about 7 feet long.
• Unfortunately our river dolphin is on the verge of extinction.
• But now the government has started taking steps to save it under the ‘Project Dolphin’
• Dolphins are important for maintaining the ecosystem.
• Recently I saw a Hindi movie Ajooba in which Amitabh Bachan is rescued by a dolphin and he considers the dolphin as his mother.
• I came to know from that movie that dolphins are very intelligent and can be trained.
• So this is the aquatic animal, which I find very interesting.

Follow-ups

1. Why do people like to keep pets?
   Indian people like to keep pets because pets are wonderful companions. Pets, such as dogs give you unconditional love. They also provide security. Some people keep pets in their homes to teach responsibility to their children. People who suffer from depression are advised by their doctors to keep pets.
2. What should we do to protect endangered animals?
   We should help the governments and NGOs by contributing some funds, however small they may be. We should not do hunting and poaching of animals. We should aware those who are not aware about the importance of animals and the effects their extinction can have on us.
3. Do you support doing experiments on animals?
   I, do not support experimenting on animals, because nowadays, we can do computer simulated experiments to see the effects of drugs. We should realize that animals are not humans and so any effect on them may not be there on humans. Moreover, animals are sentient beings and should not be disturbed for our selfish motives.
4. Why do some people refuse to eat animals?
   Some people refuse to eat animals on religious grounds. Some people just don’t like unnecessary killing of animals. They feel that plant sources can also provide them enough nutrients.
5. What would happen when some species disappear on earth?
   It would disturb the ecological chain and would affect us directly or indirectly. We would also lose out on the diversity of nature.

Other Sample:

Describe an interesting animal. (Elephant)

You should say:

• What is it
• How you know about this animal
• Where they are found

and describe what facts about this animal do you find interesting.

Model Answer:

The elephant is the largest land animal and in my opinion, is a very interesting animal. In my childhood, I saw some of the elephants that their owners brought to show to the public and later on, I learned about this animal from different TV programmes and the Internet. 

The elephants are found in many countries in Asia and Africa including Thailand, Some parts of Australia, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They are wild animals and are found in forests and hill areas. There are many interesting facts about this animal and some of them are really unique. First of all this animal is the largest species alive who live in the land area. They are bigger in size and a baby elephant is usually 3 feet tall and weight almost 200 pounds or over 90 kg.  The largest elephant on record was more than 13 feet and was more than 10,000 kg which is significantly higher than any other land-living animal.   

Secondly, they are a very aborigines animal and there is evidence that there were 6-7 elephant species during the Ice Age in North America and Eurasia. The wrinkled skins of elephants help them regulate the temperature and humidity. It helps them retain 5-10 times more water than a smoothly skinned animal. This wrinkled skin also helps them cool down their body temperature by losing more heat. Another interesting fact about elephant is that the herd of the elephants is usually led by a female elephant. Interestingly the tie of the elephant herd is so strong that they mourn when a member dies.   

A matured elephant eats around 170 kg foods and 80 litres of water and this amount increases in the rainy season when an elephant eats more than 200 kg foods. Elephants can walk almost noiselessly because of the soft cushions they have under their foot. Finally, elephants are social animals and they live in a herd. They obey the rules and responsibilities of their society and the mother elephants teach the baby elephants about the rules and responsibilities much like the humans do.       

Part 3 – Two-way discussion:

• What kind of animals do people have in their home?
• Tell me about an animal you saw which is very rare in your hometown.
• Why do people have pets in their homes?
• Do you think people do not respect animals these days? What about 10 years ago?
• Earlier people used animals for their work. Now, what do people use to do their work?
• Researchers are being conducted on animals, is this a good idea?
• So many animals are extinct these days. What do you think about this? Why is it happening?