When you did not tell a friend the whole truth

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 498 with Model Answer:

Describe a time when you did not tell a friend the whole truth.

You should say:

• when it was
• who this friend was
• why you did not tell this friend the whole truth

and explain how you felt about it.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

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Model Answer 1:

Well, I am not sure about others, but I have sometimes avoided telling the truth, be it the whole truth or just the partial truth, to my friends. As I look back now, sometimes I had a good reason for that, and sometimes I did not. Today, I would like to share the story of one such occasion with you.

To be honest with you, during my high school years, when I was just a young kid, I was not aware of the virtue of telling the truth no matter what. Sometimes telling “lies”, to my family or my friends, as long as it wasn’t hurting anybody’s interest, seemed like the better option. But I now think quite differently.

Of course, my parents, in their defence, had taught me to always tell the truth, no matter how awkward the situation could get. But, still, I took the liberty to avoid telling the truth to this friend of mine after visiting his garden – a flower garden which he had managed to grow after working on it tirelessly for days and nights.

So, why exactly couldn’t I tell him the whole truth? Well, the reason was that I was kind of jealous of his achievement in being able to grow such a nice flower garden within such a short period of time.

To make the long story short, both I and my friend had started growing our own flower gardens, separately, at the same time. We both worked very hard and spent a considerable amount of money to see our gardening projects succeed. But when the time finally arrived to compare which garden looked better, the truth is, my garden didn’t even remotely look as good as that of my friend. But, instead of actually admitting it to him, I just told him that his garden looked good but certainly not as good as my garden.

Anyway, right after failing to reveal the whole truth to my friend about his garden, I felt a bit guilty since I didn’t quite respect his efforts and hard work. Besides, I also felt ashamed of myself and my abilities as I was trying to give myself a “false sense of superiority” over my friends, by hiding the truth from him.

Sample Answer 2:

Introduction:
Honesty is the best policy, but there are times when we need to withhold the truth for the sake of others. In this cue card, I will talk about a time when I did not tell a friend the whole truth, and I did so intentionally for a good reason. Thank you for the opportunity to let me talk about the event and explain what really happened that day.

When it was:
It was a few years ago, perhaps in June 2019, when I received a call from one of my closest friends' sisters. She told me that their mother was rushed to a hospital after a car accident. At that time my friend was in his office and couldn't take the call from her sister. Later when he called me, I was in the hospital with his sister and mom. The doctors, by that time, took his mom to the operation theatre, but I did not tell my friend the whole truth.

Who this friend was:
The friend I am talking about was Alex. We have known each other for over a decade and have been through a lot together. I consider him one of my closest buddies in my life.

Why you did not tell this friend the whole truth:
When Alex called me, he was desperate to know what had happened. He told me that he heard from his cousin that his mother had been in a car accident and was taken to a hospital. I was at the hospital and I assured him that things were okay and he needed to get to the hospital as early as possible. I could have told him the truth about his mother's condition, but I was afraid that it would make him too anxious to drive safely. I decided to reveal everything once he safely drive to the hospital. I did not want a second accident on that day!

And explain how you felt about it:
I knew I was not being entirely truthful, but I felt like it was the best decision at that time. As soon as Alex arrived at the hospital, I took him to the emergency room where he saw his mother. I felt relieved that by that time the operation was successful and his mom was conscious. When I saw him hugging his mother, I felt great relief. Fortunately, the operation was successful, and his mother survived without any major problems. I knew that I had made the right decision by withholding the truth from him. After everything was settled, I told Alex the whole truth, and he thanked me for being there for him during that tough time.