Finishing or ―Rounding Off‖ Part Two After your two-minute talk the examiner might ask you one or two very basic
questions about your Part Two content. Examiners call these questions ―rounding off‖
question.
For example, in Part Two your topic was ―Describe your favourite form of public
transport‖. Let’s say you described buses. After you have finished talking, the examiner
might ask questions like:
―Are the bus cheap in your country?‖
―Did you travel to the test today by bus?‖
The simple questions are used to close Part Two of the speaking test. You DON‖T
need to give a complex answer to these questions. This is the only time in the speaking test
when you should give simple answers. It would be fine to answer:
―Yes, about 2 yuan for a single journey.‖
―No, actually I came by taxi.‖
The examiner will want to move on Part Three as quickly as possible – so do not try
to give long responses to these questions.
In some situations the examiner will not ask these questions and will move straight to
Part Three.
Do not worry if the examiner does not ask these questions – it means that the total
timing for Part Two has reached 3 minutes. This is actually a positive thing because it means