Keeping in touch & Following the news

C1 Advanced · Speaking Long Turn · Cambridge Ready original exercise

Choose two of your three photographs, compare them and answer both printed questions in about a minute. After that, you get around 30 seconds to respond to one quick question on your partner's photographs.

Choose two of the photographs and compare them. Say what might have made the people keep in touch like this, and how they might feel about it.

Let's begin with you. These photographs show people keeping in touch with others.

Keeping in touch

A teenage girl recording a voice message on her phone on a bus

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/ebab13116faff6c61037364b81947891d14b8cc11c4a0a9a5938a2bd19129a2d.avif

candid documentary photograph, a teenage girl sitting by the window on a city bus, holding her phone up near her mouth in one hand, the screen facing her, talking into the bottom of the phone to record a voice message, mouth open mid-word, smiling as she talks, wearing a plain grey hoodie, the street outside a soft blur of trees, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

An older man writing a letter by hand at a kitchen table

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/c835f4e06a5d1af12e219267af7bd8c0890cf9c9bc0d6cf7a4a9b58ae4143da6.avif

candid documentary photograph, an older man with reading glasses writing a letter by hand with a fountain pen at a wooden kitchen table, a cup of tea beside him, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

Two friends embracing as they meet at a café after a long time apart

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/bb054ac9aa5e0531b657baf52ae8caa8b7fdef9f948ee2549798a81fcda1c2b1.avif

candid documentary photograph, two women in their thirties, one Black and one East Asian, embracing warmly as they meet at a café table after a long time apart, other customers in soft focus, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

Which of these ways of keeping in touch do you use most? (Why?)

What might have made the people keep in touch like this?

How might the people feel about keeping in touch like this?

Choose two of the photographs and compare them. Say why the people might be following the news in this way, and how reliable the information they are getting might be.

Now it's your turn. Here you can see people following the news in different ways.

Following the news

A man reading a printed newspaper at a café table in the morning

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/65c1587e2dfbb82f36a2fe0ed41fa855b7cbf1f80a426a27adeec00639183a4b.avif

candid documentary photograph, a man in his sixties reading a newspaper at a pavement café table on a sunny morning, coffee cup beside him, seen from the side at a distance with his calm profile in sharp focus, the open newspaper turned away from the camera so we see only the plain grey back of its outer page edge-on, very shallow depth of field, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

A young woman scrolling through news on her phone on a train platform

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/2827df13d497b80fc308c8c176146fd31adae6137dbd9c123c587d04d24e2728.avif

candid documentary photograph, a close shot of a young woman scrolling through news on her phone while waiting on a busy train platform, the phone screen facing her and away from the camera, behind her only blurred commuters in plain dark coats and a plain white tiled wall, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

A family watching the news on television in their living room

https://cdn.cambridgeready.com/images/632bd2d38cdd9ee277665cc89a25e0aa81f0be59e1918148c16496a36257852d.avif

candid documentary photograph, a family of four sitting together on a sofa watching the evening news in their living room, seen from beside the television so we look at their attentive faces, the television's dark back edge just in the corner of the frame, its blue glow on their faces, natural light, shot on 35mm film, no print, logos or writing on anyone's clothes, no signs or labels with readable text, no text, no watermark

Which of these ways of getting the news do you trust most? (Why?)

Why might the people be following the news in this way?

How reliable might the information they are getting be?

In this next section, you'll each get three photographs. You'll pick two and talk about them by yourself for roughly a minute. Then I'll ask you a short question about your partner's photographs.

Answer this Speaking task out loud and an AI examiner marks it on the official Cambridge Speaking criteria, with what you did well and what to fix next.

Practise this Speaking task free online: solo with exam timers and a self-recorder, as a live mock Speaking test with a partner over a video call, or as a full three-person mock exam — a real examiner reads the official examiner script to Candidates A and B. Rooms are invite-by-link; partners can join without an account.

More C1 Advanced Speaking practice · All C1 Advanced practice