CUE CARD: AN UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATION

Đề: Describe a situation that made you feel uncomfortable.

You should say:

• when it was

• what made you feel uncomfortable

• what you did then

and explain how you felt about it.

Sample answer

I am usually a level-headed person and not the one to easily feel uncomfortable. And, I am saying this about not feeling uncomfortable easily because I usually have some valid excuses or ways to get out of any uncomfortable situation most of the time. But, unfortunately, that’s not happen when I couldn’t return a book to my university library.

Well, the story goes like this - when I was a university student about 8 years ago, I used to borrow a lot of books from my university library and returned them all on time after reading them. But, once I borrowed a very interesting book, and it was so interesting that I had to read it at least half-a-dozen times! So, I kept extending the returning date for this book again and again and kept reading until suddenly I lost it one day.

I think I lost the book because I carried it with me to all kinds of places. After all, I wanted to utilize my free time in reading this book, but little did I know that one day I would leave that book by mistake either at one of those places, I visited, or in a bus while visiting those places.

Anyway, finally, the time arrived for me to return that book to my university library except, of course, I didn’t have any book to return. So, seeing no way out, I described what had exactly happened to the librarian, but as soon as I finished telling the incident to that librarian gentleman, he started to yell at me in a loud voice, telling how irresponsible I really was. However, I just kept quiet as long as he yelled at me, knowing that it was my fault.

Needless to say, I felt very awkward and uncomfortable in that situation even though I must say that I wasn’t exactly expecting that kind of harsh reaction from that librarian. But, then I told myself that I deserved that kind of tough talk and behaviour to some extent as I wasn’t careful enough to keep that book safe.

PHÂN TÍCH TỪ VỰNG

• Level-headed /ˌlev.əlˈhed.ɪd/ (adj): bình tĩnh (calm and able to deal easily with difficult situations)

• Excuse /ɪkˈskjuːs/ (n): lời bào chữa (a reason that you give to explain why you did something wrong)

• Extend /ɪkˈstend/ (v): kéo dài (to add to something in order to make it bigger or longer)

• Utilize /ˈjuː.t̬əl.aɪz/ (v): tận dụng (to use something in an effective way)

• Incident /ˈɪn.sɪ.dənt/ (n): sự cố (an event that is either unpleasant or unusual)

• Harsh /hɑːrʃ/ (adj): khắc nghiệt (unpleasant, unkind, cruel, or more severe than is necessary)