Describe a time when you were looking at the sky

Band 8 Sample

Looking at the sky seems like the sort of thing we might do every day without actually having any awareness of doing it. But today I want to share with you the time when I had an opportunity to look up into the sky from a city on the other side of the planet.

A couple of years ago I had a great opportunity to escape from the scorching hotsummer in Hanoi to one of the most stunning cities in Europe, London. Usually the weather in London is pretty much day after day of overcast clouds and dreariness with high levels of rainfall throughout the year. However when I arrived in London, I guess I must have caught a lucky break in the clouds as the city was lit up in sunlight.

But while I was travelling from the airport to my hotel in the west part of London with my mother, I opened the car window to glance around and feel the wind on my skin and in my hair. By this point, the sun had disappeared and the sky was overcast and grey with loads of thick clouds. There were many people on the street walking in a hurry to avoid the rain, while others were too absorbed with their phones to even notice the coming rain.

I was so excited and curious about this huge city that I decided not to let the rain ruin my first day, even though I got soaking wet in the heavy downpour as I got out of the cab and moved my luggage. For the rest of the day, I spent my time looking at the sky from my hotel room’s window while the rain kept pouring down. I love London, without a doubt, but that kind of weather totally made me feel depressed.

Vocabulary highlights:

1. awareness – knowledge or understanding of something
2. scorching hot – very hot
3. stunning – beautiful
4. overcast clouds – grey clouds covering the entire sky
5. dreariness – dark, dull and depressing
6. break in the clouds – a gap in the clouds
7. loads – a lot of
8. absorbed – very interested in something and not paying attention to anything else
9. soaking wet – completely wet
10. heavy downpour – heavy rain
11. cab – taxi
12. pouring down – raining heavily
13. depressed – feeling very sad and unhappy