Has the food you eat changed much in recent years?
A strong Part 1 answer puts the actual answer in the first clause, adds one reason or one example, and stops. Two or three sentences, roughly forty seconds.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Has the food you eat changed much in recent years?
no preparation, about 45 seconds to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 65 words at a natural pace — roughly what 45 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.Quite a lot, and mostly by accident rather than discipline. I eat far less meat than I used to, not for any noble reason but because the friends I cook with do not eat it. I also stopped buying anything that comes in a packet with a long list of ingredients, which sounds virtuous but really just means I got slower and started reading labels.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- discipline
abstract noun used to deny the obvious explanation
- noble
a sharper word than good, and self-aware
- packet
British noun, concrete and specific
- ingredients
four syllables with the stress on the second
- virtuous
high-register adjective used with a touch of irony
- labels
concrete evidence for the change
How a strong answer is built
- 1State the degree of change and its real cause.
- 2Give one measurable change.
- 3Give a second, different change.
- 4Undercut your own explanation honestly.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Has the food you eat changed much in recent years?” be?
About 45 seconds. Long enough for the answer plus a reason or an example, short enough that the examiner can get through the rest of the set.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.One question a day until your test
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