Should a city preserve old buildings or build modern ones? Explain.
A strong Task 1 answer states the choice immediately, gives two supports or one support with an example, and lands its last word around forty seconds. Fifteen seconds of preparation is enough for the plan, not for the wording.
The prompt and the clock
Should a city preserve old buildings or build modern ones? Explain.
15 seconds to prepare, up to 45 seconds to speak
A model answer at the right length
110 words — what 45 seconds actually holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record yours first. A memorised TOEFL answer is audible in the rhythm, and raters mark delivery, which is exactly what memorisation damages. Read this afterwards for the shape and the vocabulary.Preserve, with a strong preference for reuse rather than preservation as a museum piece. The decisive argument for me is that demolition is permanent. You can always tear something down in fifteen years if it proves unaffordable, and you can never put it back, so caution costs you an option and haste destroys one. What I would not defend is keeping a building empty because it is old. Find it a function, apartments, offices, anything, and it pays for its own roof and stays part of the city. And I would add the practical point that renovating an existing structure usually produces far less waste than building a new one.
The words that carry it
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- preserve
two syllables with the stress on the second
- decisive
three syllables with the stress on the second
- demolition
four syllables with the stress on the third
- unaffordable
five syllables with the stress on the third
- haste
a short, exact noun for acting too quickly
- renovating
four syllables with the stress on the first
How to build the 45 seconds
- 1Choose and refine what you mean by it.
- 2Give the argument from irreversibility.
- 3Say what version of your own side you reject.
- 4Add a practical supporting point.
Sounds to watch
Straight answers
How long should this answer be?
Forty-five seconds, which is roughly 110 to 130 words at a natural pace. The model below is 110. If your version runs past fifty seconds the recording cuts off, and raters hear an answer that stops mid-sentence.
Does it matter which side I take?
No. Raters mark delivery, language use and topic development, never which opinion you chose. Pick one in the first second and spend the preparation time on two supports rather than on deciding.
What does sayit score here?
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar. The transcript is shown in full, so you can judge your own wording and development yourself.
What the score on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.Drill it until the clock stops mattering
A free account keeps every take, so you can watch your pace settle and your filler count fall across a fortnight.