C1 Advanced · Speaking · Part 2
Choose two of three photos, compare them and answer a two-part question in a minute.
You get three pictures, choose two, and speak for a minute about them while answering a question printed above them. Then a short question about your partner's pictures. The choice is part of the task: pick the two you have most to say about, not the two you find most interesting.
The instruction is *compare*, and this is where marks go missing: candidates describe each picture in turn and never put them side by side. Comparison language is the skill being tested — whereas, both, unlike, the main difference. And the minute is longer than it feels. Practise it against a clock, because the sensation of a minute alone is the part you cannot rehearse in your head.
No — and trying to is the classic mistake. You are comparing them and answering the question above them, not inventorying their contents. Detail matters only where it supports the point you are making.
Speculate. Why might these people be doing this, how might they be feeling, what might happen next — the task is designed to be extendable that way, and speculation language is explicitly rewarded. Stopping early costs more than a slightly loose sentence.
