Describe a time when you saw an interesting animal

Band 8 Sample

Well, I’m going to talk about an occasion on which I got to see a group of small monkeys. As we all know, monkeys are one of the funniest animals in nature. They are full of curiosity, adventure and mischief, and have great intelligence. They often live in the jungle, mostly in tropical rain forests, and jump from tree to tree to seek out food and play. The diet of a monkey includes nuts, berries, fruits, anything that smells good, and not to mention, bananas, which is always at the top of their list.

Anyway, back to the main point, the first time I saw a ‘real’ monkey was a long time ago, when I was in secondary school. My friends and I travelled to a mountain located somewhere on the outskirts of Hanoi, and when we were climbing the mountain, suddenly a group of small monkeys appeared in the middle of the road ahead in the distance. They were jumping up and down from trees before they approached us. Then the monkeys stared at me and my friends as though they wanted to communicate and ask for food, so I decided to give them some of our snacks. They were really cute creatures, you know, their hands are like a mini version of ours, which makes them look like little kids.

However, although I’m quite into monkeys, I have to admit that they are unexpectedly sneaky. In some tourist attractions around Vietnam, you can easily spot a troop of monkeys stealing food from street vendors, and other unsuspecting tourists. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do but watch them run off into the jungle with our food as they are way faster and smarter than you may think.

Anyway, the trip was truly a once-in-a-life-time experience for me as I got to touch and feed wild monkeys. Seeing them first hand also made me realize that they share more common features with humans than I’d previously thought, which really evoked my curiosity about the theory of how people evolved from apes over millions of years.

Vocabulary highlights:

1. curiosity – a strong interest in something
2. mischief – behaviour that is slightly bad or causes trouble but not intended to cause harm
3. seek out – to find
4. outskirts – on the edge of a town or city
5. approached – to come near or closer
6. sneaky – to be secretive or dishonest
7. troop – a group of
8. street vendors – someone who sells something on the street eg. food, drinks or clothes
9. unsuspecting – not aware of any danger or harm
10. once-in-a-life-time – a unique or very special opportunity
11. first hand – personal experience
12. evoked – brought into your mind