C1 Advanced Speaking Part 2: Speculating

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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.

When talking about the photos, it’s easy to say something definite, such as ‘There is a father and his son’ whereas you don’t really know if that’s who they are. As a result, you need to use less definite language, which is often called ‘speculative language’ to talk about what you see.

Prepare your phrases to compare and contrast using speculative language. Think about how many times you are going to talk about each picture (usually two or three), then learn the phrases you need to include.

Speculative Phrase	Example
They could/might/may be…	They could be waiting on a friend.
They could/might/may have just…	They might have just arrived and don’t know where to go.
I’m pretty sure that they’re feeling…	I’m pretty sure they are feeling delighted to be going on a trip together.
I’d guess that they are…	I’d guess that they are watching some kind of sport. Maybe football.
It looks like they could be … / are at a … / are doing ……	It looks like they are at a shopping mall at Christmas time.
It’s quite hard to tell, but I think they may be ……….	It’s quite hard to tell, but I think they may be a group of tourists on a guided tour.
Perhaps he’s a ………	Perhaps he’s a businessman who is going on a business trip but didn’t want to leave his family.
He doesn’t look like a ……. but…	He doesn’t look like a teacher to me, but he could be a businessman.
They look like they’re a ……. family.	They look like they’re a close-knit family.
It looks like she’s ….	It looks like she’s teaching him to cook.
I’m pretty sure they’re ….. because they’re …..	I’m pretty sure they’re happy because they’re smiling.
Maybe they’ve been …..	Maybe they’ve been working all night, but still can’t come up with the right idea.
I imagine they are ….	I imagine they are a married couple had an argument last night, and he wants to make up.
I guess they are ……	I guess they are cycling in the mountains to get out of the city and get some exercise.

Using phrases such as these makes your answers much more accurate because you are saying what you see, not what you don’t know. This is similar in a way to avoiding making sweeping statements, although that’s really about specifics.

As ever, practice makes perfect. One way to improve your practice for C1 Advanced Speaking Part 2 is to calculate how many times you can talk about each picture in one minute, so you know how many speculative phrases you need and how much contrasting language you need. Good Luck!