SPEAKING TOPICS

1.)TALK ABOUT YOUR HOBBY:Today I am going to talk about a hobby I particularly enjoy when I am at home in the UK. I will tell you what
the hobby is; how long I have been doing it; who I do it with and why it is important to me.My hobby is running!
I know I do not really look like a runner, and it is true I am not very fast, but this is still the activity that I like to do
in my spare time.I have not been running for very long. I started running just 18 months ago, as I decided I
needed to get fit, and I thought it would be a cheap way to exercise. I did not expect to enjoy myself. Near to
where I live, there is a park. It is very beautiful with trees and streams. Each Saturday a large group of about
500 people meet at 9.00 a.m. in the morning and go for a 5 km run together. This event is called Parkrun, and it
happens in over 300 different places in the UK each week. I was nervous when I first went but found the group
was friendly and encouraging. Now I go every week, and I even have trained for some longer races 10 km and
my longest was 20 k.m.!I have made lots of friends through running. However, the best surprise was that when
I went to my local Parkrun, I met someone I had not seen for over 30 years! We had been at school together
but did not keep in touch. We had both moved to the new city of Sheffield and did not realise we lived so close
to each other. Now I run with this friend every week, and we go for breakfast each Saturday after our
run.Running is important to me because it keeps me fit, has helped me make new friends, and it has shown me
that I am not too old to try new things! I hope you all find activities that you enjoy doing in your spare time!

2.)DESCRIBE THE BEST FILM YOU SAW THIS YEAR:-

Its quite hard to say what my favourite movie is because there are quite a
few to choose from! But I would say that the one that made the strongest
impression on me isa German film called The Lives of Others.
This film is set incommunist East Germany, shortly before the fall of the Berlin
Wall. At that time, the Stasi, the East German secret police, used to spy on all kinds of
people. The two main characters in the film are a playwright called Dreyman and a
Stasi spy called Weisler, whose job it is to keep Dreyman under 24 hour surveillance.
Weisler is supposed to be reporting back to his superiors at the Stasi in order to
discredit the playwright. However, he develops a strong sympathy for the playwright
and his girlfriend, and determines to protect them by not reporting anything
significant. The scenes in the film where it cuts from the colourful and interesting
lives of Dreyman and his friends to the lonely attic where Weisler is sitting really show
the contrast between the two men. The film is shot in such a way that it makes
you believe you are also spying on Dreyman, it even made me feel a bit guilty!
I like this film because it has fascinating, 3-dimensional characters, and also the
plot has plenty of twists. Right up until the end of the film, we are left
guessing how it could possibly end. It is also very thought-provoking because it
makes you wonder how many people working for the Stasi actually did protect the
people they were spying on.
As for the message it gives, I would say the main message isthat we can find
kindness and humanity in the most unexpected of places. The film makes us realise
that nothing is ever black and white! The film also serves as a warning about the
dangers ofan oppressive, paranoid regime and is perhaps quite pertinent in this
current age of mass surveillance.

3.)DESCRIBE THE JOURNEY YOU MADE RECENTLY:-

I like visiting famous places and whenever I get a vacation, I try to visit new places or places that I have
heard about. One such trip that I took with one of my friends was a journey to Holland. I would like to talk about
this tour to Holland that we took 2 years age.
Both of us (me and my friend) wanted to visit Holland and specifically Amsterdam, Hague and Rotterdam very
much because we saw pictures and heard stories from friends about how beautiful and wonderful the place is.
So finally we applied for the visa, bought plane tickets, booked a hotel, packed our bags and our trip began.
We spent a lot of time before our holiday, researching of all the interesting places to visit and all the sights to
see. So we went to Rijks museum, Van Gogh museum, Amstell Beer museum, took a romantic sunset cruise in
the water channels, drove to Volendam, a small prettiest fisherman village, visited a cheese farm. We went to
Rotterdam, which is the architecture city of Holland that stimulates innovation. We enjoyed the architectures
and building there as much as we did walking in the neat roads and besides the beaches. Visiting the famous
Anne Frank house was an exciting moment for me. I've read the Anne Frank's Diary in my early childhood and
witnessing the place was very much exciting.

Every evening we took long walks along the channels, resting in small gardens, which Amsterdam has a lot of.
Street artists were performing everywhere and a lot of people came to watch their show.
We enjoyed very much everything we did and especially in such a beautiful country. Having my friend by my
side on this trip made it even more fun. Since we have never been to Holland, everything we saw and did
seemed interesting and completely new to us. The people, their way of interpreting their culture attracted us
very much. Before leaving the place, both of us agreed that the place is worth visiting and someday we would
come back to re-explore it.

4.)TALK ABOUT THE PROJECT WORK YOU ARE RECENTLY DOING:-

Just last month we finished a project at the university, it was a research project which
involved various entities both here in India and abroad and communication was one of
the most challenging aspects of it.
I think there were about 15 people in total in the team. It was coordinated from France
by an academic research foundation based there. We were investigating various
aspects of environmentally friendly air transport; looking at ways to reduce noise and
fuel consumption, and the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The project dealt with researching possible methods of improving current engine
technology and involved an indepth study of flight physics as applied to most
commercial airliners nowadays, mainly based on lightweight structures and possible
changes or improvements which could be made.
The long term aim of the project was to evaluate and then test some completely new
types of aircraft structures and concepts.I think it helped me develop on a professional
level more than on a personal level, although I did get a lot of opportunity to interact
with different people from various different countries and practice my English a lot. But
professionally it was very challenging and very interesting for me. It is the first
international research project I have been involved in so it was quite exciting as well. As
I said, there were people from France, Germany, the UK, the USA and some other
countries. We used to have regular teleconferences to discuss the progress of the
project and any problems we encountered, share research results and information,
and discuss possible solutions and areas of further investigation. I was working closely
with one of my senior professors here at the university who is very experienced in this
field of engineering.

5.)DESCRIBE AN OBJECT YOU VALUE MOST IN YOUR POSSESSIONS:The desktop computer I have is very important to me. I spend almost 6-7 hours with this computer
which is even higher than the time I spend with my friends! My father bought me this computer 3 years
back when I got admitted to the university. I have done some parts upgrades of it but the main parts of the
computer remain almost the same as they were when I purchased it.
I use the internet with this computer and thus get lots of help related to my study and assignments. I
maintain the social networking, update my blogs, play video games, watch movies, listen to music, learn
and practice the graphics designing and programming and many more things in this computer. This
computer has become an inevitable part of my life and I can hardly think of a day without this computer.
The references and helps I get from the internet regarding my study are unmatched. This saves a lot of
time and helps me do better in the exams as well.
This computer is my main source of entertainment a source of knowledge to me. I send important emails
and check incoming emails which help me doing important communication. In short, this is the most
necessary thing that I own.

6.)DESCRIBE THE MOST UNUSUAL PERSON:Mr. Robert Neil (..or say a name you like...) is an interesting person whom I met few months ago. He lives a
few blocks away from our home and has recently moved to our locality from a different city. He has a family
with 4 members and he is an engineer graduate and has worked as a chief engineer in many reputed
organizations as he told me. In his early 40s he took self-retirement and now enjoys his time either in
developing some mysterious engineering and scientific tools or by travelling to different places of the world.
Its pretty tough to say whether he is planning to visit a new country or has recently came from one if someone
meets him. He mostly wears outdated clothes and has long beard with a strange look in his eyes. To my
surprise, I found my conversation with him very interesting as he likes to talk about his plan to invent something
very important to change the world. I am not sure what he is up to but it seems very thought-provoking to learn
that he really believes that. He travels to hills and forests mostly to stay close to nature as he describes this
habit to be helpful for idea generation. People often look at him very strangely and do some small talks about
his attitude but I find him to be an interesting person. To my surprise he is a very devoted and dotting father and
husband and has a good flow of money even though he does not have a full time job now.
I met him all of a sudden and that was interesting as well. One day he knocked at my door and I opened it. He
came to our house and asked whether I can give him some copper or not. I was pretty perplexed with his
sudden appearance and demand for the copper. He told me that he was doing an important experiment and he
needs this to carry out his test. I apologized that we do not have any copper to offer him and advised him to
visit the nearby shopping complex where he might find it. He returned back after an hour with some bags and
thanked me to let him know where he might find the copper he was looking for. He then offered to visit his
house and have dinner with him. The whole confrontation took me by surprise and I understood from that very
day that he was bit unusual and interesting in nature.

7.)TALK ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE TV CHANNEL:I do not watch TV that much but it is a great electronic and mass media for education and entertainment.
Sometimes I watch TV, mostly in my free time and among the channels I watch, 'Discovery Channel' is my
favourite one. Whenever I held the TV remote control in my hand, I look for either a news channel or Discovery
channel. This is the channel I watch more often than any other channels. I watch it for 4-8 hours per week. On
my day off, if I am in front of TV, I watch the great educational and recreational programs that this channel
broadcasts.
It broadcasts mainly documentary programs focusing on popular science, technology and history. But recently
they have started showing some other types of programs like reality shows and pseudo-technologies and
entertainments. There are some unique programs that they present to their audiences like Myth Busters,
Unsolved History, automobiles, and occupations etc. This channel started broadcasting from 1985 and has
become one the most popular TV channels in the world because of their emphasis on high-quality programs.

I like this TV channel because of the programs and documentaries they present. Most of the programmes are
thoroughly enjoyable and offer lots of information to the viewers. This is one of the great sources for me to
learn history, technology and other educational knowledge. The picture quality is really nice and this channel is
easily available via the cable service providers. I found this channel really interesting and I can learn many new
things watching it.

8.)TALK ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE SPORTSMAN:-

My favorite player is Shahid Afridi. He is a very popular player in my country and many
people around the world love and admire him. He is cricketer and I think he has been
playing cricket for the last 14 years. He started playing cricket at a very young age and in
the initial years of his career became very popular and was able to make place in the
Pakistan cricket team.
His playing style is completely different than those of other players. Whenever he is on
the crease one can expect fun and sixes. That is the reason he is often referred to as
boom boom Afridi. Recently he has not been performing well with the bat, but his bowling
is still outstanding and he is the leading wicket taker in every match he plays.
I had heard about the player a lot but I did not like him that much. I watched a match
and everything changed. It was a cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and he
scored a century in only 40 balls. I was really impressed by his batting style. He is not
only a good batsman, but also a very good bowler. Everyone around him regards him as
one of the best all-rounders in the world. He has helped the Pakistani team win a lot of
matches and he is considered to be an asset for the cricket game. Now I like him so much
that whenever he come to bat, my heart starts to beat very hardly and cannot remain on
the chair and I start walking to lessen my tension.

9.)TALK ABOUT THE CITY YOU LIVE IN:-