C1 Advanced Speaking Part 2: People Vocabulary

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In C1 Advanced Speaking Part 2, you need to choose two pictures from a set of three, then compare and contrast them while answering the two questions. You need to do all this in one minute. It’s not a long time, so you need to practice. Here are some practice pictures and sample answers. Practicing vocabulary for people is particularly relevant to this part of the test.

Most of the pictures you have to contrast and compare are to do with people, so learn vocabulary and collocations about people. I also use the vocabulary app Quizlet and have many great sets for the Cambridge exams and IELTS. Go here to get some ideas of words about people you would like to use. After that, search for vocabulary lists for occupations, actions, and so on. With Quizlet, you can practice your vocabulary on their website or on your phone. That way, you can learn vocabulary when you are on the bus, or even eating your dinner!

As your C1 Speaking Part 2 answers improve, you’ll realise that some ‘people’ vocabulary’ is more useful than others in this test. As you practice, think about what you think about comparing. Is it where the people are? Is it what they are doing? Is it what they are wearing? or ……?

As you practice, you will naturally choose ways of saying these things, and although it is simple to use the same phrasing for each one, it is much better if you vary it. So, if you talk about who, what, where and when, think about four ways to do that rather than repeat yourself.

As we mentioned above, a minute is NOT a long time, so you just have to do your best. If you do repeat yourself, don’t worry. If you do use the same sentence structure each time, remember to speak fluently.

So, we know we need to talk about people, but what can you say? Let’s start with a list of who, what, when, where, and why.

You can say:

Who they are

What they are doing

When the picture was taken

Where the picture was taken

Why the people are there.

In this post, I talk about how to talk about this accurately using speculative phrases rather than assuming we know everything about the people in the pictures.

Let’s talk about this picture (we won’t compare and contrast pictures in this post).

We can say:	Example
Who they are	She’s a young woman
What they are doing	She’s speaking to someone on her mobile phone.
When the picture was taken	It is spring or summer.
Where the picture was taken	She’s in the countryside.
Why the people are there	Her car has broken down.

If you have the chance, you can talk about other things. You could compare or contrast clothes, haircut, body language, facial expression and so on.

You can also use these to support what you say about someone. Here are some examples of doing that for the picture above.

Weather – The weather must be quite warm going by the clothes she is wearing.

Feelings – From her posture, I would say she was quite upset.

Skills – She must be quite practical if she has opened the car bonnet.

Here’s another picture

Weather – It’s obviously hot, because most of the spectators are wearing hats and sunglasses.

Feelings – Although he is having a break, his body language shows he is having a really hard time.

Fame – I imagine he is a bit famous going by his haircut, tanned skin and the number of spectators watching him.

As ever, practice makes perfect, so rather than just attending your test expecting to do well, practice and get a better score to set you up for the next level, which is Cambridge Proficiency.