Describe an animal or plant that is important in your country.
You should say:
where you can find it
whether people like or dislike it
what recent news there has been about it
and explain why this plant or animal is important.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Well. I’m going to talk about elephants, because they’re an integral part of Thai culture and history. In the past, every Thai king had white elephants. Also, they used to be on our national flag and on our coins and banknotes. So Thai people are very fond of elephants. We even have an Elephant Day on March 13! Um, what else? Um, some Thai Buddhist temples have been built on the spot where an elephant died and, er, these temples contain things like an elephant shrine and elephant statues. As you can tell, elephants are everywhere! You can find them in the wild in Thailand, but also in cities and although the elephants were in captivity, they used to be an important part of the workforce in the forests – that was their primary occupation – but as a result of conservation programmes, there’s less logging nowadays. Workers now bring them into the city, as this is the only v/ay they can make a living. Basically, elephant numbers are falling these days, and I think that’s why there’s been a lot of publicity about them recently Cities aren’t really the ideal environment for animals they’re full of pollution. On the other hand, elephants can damage roads and they can be dangerous for humans. So the government has cracked down on this, and some elephants have been moved out. In order to protect them, we now have an elephant conservation centre. Also, every year, there’s a special event to help raise awareness and money to look after our elephants because they are such important creatures to us.
Examiner: Have you always liked elephants?
D: Oh yes. they’re lovely creatures.