Part 1

What makes a person famous?

What kinds of people were famous in your grandparents time?
In your opinion, is being well known easy to live with?
What kinds of people will be famous in the future?
What responsibility to society do famous people have?
Do you think that the children of famous people have an easy time?
Would you like to be famous?
Would being famous change you?
And should the media be able to invade the privacy of famous people?

Part 2
A famous person you know in your country.

Who the person is?

Why he is famous?
What makes you mention specifically him/ her?
and describe what positive changes this person has brought for your country?
Follow-up Questions:
What makes people famous?
What are the differences between a famous person and an ordinary/normal person?
Tell about one internationally famous person in your country.
Tips for answering this Cue card topic:
Talk about a famous person from your country. S/he can be a famous person from any profession and
you should be able to gives some statistics on her/ his life and achievements and successes. Not
necessarily you have to describe a famous person who is still alive. You can talk about a famous
deceased/dead person who is famous and is from your country. Usually we know more details about
famous writers, politicians, movie personnel and sportsmen than other famous persons. Pick someone
about someone you would be able to give some details.
Part 3
1.What kind of people become famous people these days?
2.Is this different from the kind of achievement that made people famous in the past? In what
way?

3. How do you think people will become famous in the future?

4. What are the good things about being famous? Are there any disadvantages?
5. How does the media in your country treat famous people?
6. Why do you think ordinary people are interested in the lives of famous people?
Part 1
What makes a person famous?
Mm I think there are different ways to see what makes a person famous. One is the machinery behind
the publicity and the marketing around the person, but I dont think thats a real honest way to be
famous. I think if I have to choose Id rather be famous for being honest, for being kind, and for trying
to help and solve conflicts or problems in the world instead of being in a magazine, in the cover of a
magazineso my characteristics for a famous person I would go for honesty and kindness.
What kinds of people were famous in your grandparents time?
In my home country we had different, mainly two political parties and the heads of those political
parties were very famous. Especially one guy called [inaudible] and he made a lot of changes in
Ecuador during my grandparents time because he gave the vote to women and he also made it
compulsory, the vote for all the citizens in my home country. And he worked for the Liberal education,
not ties with the religious or anything like that but very open to everyone.
In your opinion, is being well known easy to live with?
No I dont think so. I think well known. ItsIt can be hard. I think to be famous sometimes you pay
a price for it. So Id rather be anonymous I think.
What kinds of people will be famous in the future?
Mm. Ah its hard to say, but I guess the famous people are the ones that people create. And you know
the media has so much impact on that, and it has so much influence on who is famous or who is not
famous, who is good or who is bad. The media made us see- makes us see the world and the people in
different ways. So I guess, yeh, if you have machinery behind, you will be famous.
What responsibility to society do famous people have?
They have a huge responsibility because people really look up on them. You know they look upon and
they want to copy models. I think we are a very sensitive society and we would like just to copy. And if
someone is famous they should have- they should use this power to give things back to the community.
Like you know, like for example, the Tsunami Disaster or things like that you to use this power to
call for people to stop children detention, things like that you know, they should use that in order to
make people aware of whats going on. Not just to be part of entertainment, but I think they should
have a political voice in the community.
Do you think that the children of famous people have an easy time?
No, I dont think so. It must be very very hard. Ahyou know, to live in, in my home country I know a
lot of famous people, and they always have to have bodyguards, or they have to live behind bars, you
know or behind big walls.

And children are always protected and they dont have the freedom, its a big price to pay, I dont
know why.
W-Would you like to be famous?
No, not really no.
Would- would being famous change you?
Yeah Im sure it will. But I like to be popular, but I dont like to be famous. And I think thats good.
You know, I can be popular with my students, with my actors, you know, thats what Im like, and Im
happy with that.
And should the media be able to invade the privacy of famous people?
No, I think there should be a very strong and tough code that they shouldnt allowed to interfere in
other peoples lives, even if they are famous.
Topic: Id like you to describe someone you admire very much.
I have a person who I really admire and shes an ex-teacher from university. Her name is Tram.
Shes a wonderful, talented lady. Shes around 40. Shes married and has two kids. What I
admire about her is that she has time to look after her family and at the same time to teach kids
at school as well as teach at university. And I had the privilege(n) = opportunity to meet her
when I was twenty I went to uni and she really encouraged me to write. She opened a lot of
windows for me through the literature and she taught me how to analyze texts and she made me
love literature- thats something really hard. Because when you are at the school, you dont
really want to learn a lot about literature, you just want to play around with your friends. But she
was a teacher that really really kept us captivated by all these stories and all these composers
and songwriters, and writers in general. And she played us some music and she read poems for
us, and we watched films and we discussed. And I think it was so important to have her as a
teacher because she really made us see the world in a different way. We were studying mainly in
a catholic school and we couldnt analyse things but once we had our literature teacher, we were
able to expand our whole world. And I think what she really brought us its these differences in
life. Literature and life, in a way they are very similar but in a way are very different. So we
interpreted life in a different way from that point.

There are many famous leaders I look up to in the world but I guess I would have to choose Steve Jobs.
In my opinion he was the best CEO of Apple and of course the most famous. As you know he is no
longer alive, however his accomplishments are still remembered by people worldwide.
In fact Jobs was not an easy person to work for by that I mean he had a temper and many people
found it hard to work with the guy, but they still did! This was because he was an absolute genius and
his subordinates knew that he would make the company thrive. Many people, including me don't
really care about his attitude problems since his inventions are fantastic. He is my hero and without
him I would never have been able to play games with the touch screen, listen to music, take photos and
make phone calls on the same device.

There are some leaders who are great because of their charisma while others are famous for their
intelligence. Steve jobs is a perfect example of this It is a shame he died at such a young age, I think he
could have helped society much more with his inventions but I guess that was his fate.
PART 2: Describe a well-known person you like or admire.
Well, I am going to talk about my mathematical idol who has been recently honored at the International
Congress of Mathematicians 2010 held in India. The person that I am mentioning is Professor Ngo Bao
Chau. He was born in 1972 in the capital city of Ha Noi in a studious family. He had showed a special
aptitude for mathematics right from the time he was high school student at the Gifted High School of
Ha Noi National University of Natural Sciences. After graduating from high school, he constantly
improved his talent with the help of many math professors in Viet Nam as well as all around the world.
The result of that occurred on August 19, 2010 with the fact that he won the Fields Metal for his work
of proving the basic result called the fundamental lemma in the Langland program that was thought
as an ambitious and revolutionary theory a long time ago. He gained the greatest prize that many
countries desire and he is the first Vietnamese to earn the honor prize. It is really easy to say that he is a
credit to Viet Nam. For that reason, he earned the respect and admiration of me as well as everyone
living in Viet Nam.
Part 2: Describe a well-known person you like or admire
Bill Gates was an American business magnate, author and chairman of Microsoft, a software
corporation which he founded with Paul Allen. Financial Times puts him at the top of list not just
because his Microsoft helped to revolutionize the use of PCs and made Bill Gates the worlds richest
man but because he used his wealth to become the worlds greatest philanthropist.
He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. His products are
widespread and user-friendly, such as: Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Windows, etc which have
helped millions of PC users to do office jobs as well as to manage their businesses everyday. His
Microsoft has created grandiose and durable empire in the software industry. Ask folks to pick one
word to describe Microsofts technology roadmap in the 1990s and you will commonly get CAIRO
in response.
In 2000, he formed Bill & Mellinda Gates Foundation which is dedicated to bringing innovation in
health, development and learning to the global community. In 2006, he gradually transferred his duties
in Microsoft to his colleagues and has taken full-time work at this foundation. It has an endowment of
33.5 billion from Bill Gates as of December 31, 2009. A huge contribution in charity has taken him to
the leader of the worlds greatest philanthropist.
Being famous and rich is a dream of many one of us, however, rarely do we think for the others once
we have a fulfillment of our dream. It is very difficult to convince someone to donate the majority of
their wealth, but Bill Gate is going on different way. He is using his wealth to help unlucky people, to
make a better life for global community. That makes him the greatest man ever!
Part 3
Famous people in your country
What kind of people become famous people these days?

 In my opinion, there are two kinds of people who become famous people these days. First of all,
people are famous because of their real talents. They are scientists, inventors, singers, actors,
rich and successful people. The second kind of famous people is people who are known by their
scandals. They do anything to be famous. They do not concern about things they do right or not.
Personally, I think nowadays every kind of people can all become famous even they are farmers
or normal workers in factories. However, in my point of view, people who work as a singer
would be the easiest ones to become celebrities because they serve a wide cycle of audience on a
regular basis with their emotive voice as well as their good-looking appearance. Thus, it will be
easy for them to earn the respect and admiration of everyone.
Is this different from the kind of achievement that made people famous in the past? In what way?
To be a famous person, I think there are ways galore and nowadays, these ways are usually
different from those in the past. As you see, many years ago, a famous person was usually a
hero, a heroin, a king and so on but now, you do not have to fight the aggressors or rule a
country to become famous. To be famous, I think people nowadays can choose many ways such
as inventing new things, or showing their talents by becoming singers or actors and so on.
As far as I am concerned, the kind of accomplishment that made people well-known in the past
is different from the one these days. You know, people in the modern age are much more
intelligent than the ones in the past. Therefore, if the modern age people want to become
celebrities they have to accomplish much more than what people did in the past. For instance, in
the past, Isaac Newton became famous for his three laws of motion; but nowadays most people
all know and apply the three laws of motion but they do not become renowned at all.
How do you think people will become famous in the future?
I think that people will become famous or not depends on the way that people want to be famous
or not. Some people do not want to be famous; they just want to be a civilian and live a normal
life. On the other hand, many people want to achieve fame. They want everyone to know them,
so they will try to do things by hook or by crook to become famous.
In my opinion, whether or not people can become well-known in the future is all dependent
upon themselves. If they want to be famous in the future, right now they have to do something
that is useful to build and improve their skills. As they are proficient at their skills, it will be
really easy for them to become celebrities.
Being in the public eye
What are the good things about being famous? Are there any disadvantages?
Of course, every thing has two aspects. Being famous can help you have the adherence,
everyone will know and praise you and your name can appear on many newspapers. Moreover,
because you want to be famous, you have to try yourself to achieve it. It helps you show your
ability. However, being famous also brings many disadvantages. You may become a selfish
person, you have no time for your family, and especially you do not know friends around you
are good friends or they just take advantage of you. You may be under fire.
To my knowledge, there are many advantages for being celebrities. The first thing will be
money. When people become well-known, they tend to be much richer than before because they
have a wide effect on public that leads to the publics support for what they do. The second is

that being famous people would have a great opportunity to make advance in career and do
charity. On the other hand, being famous also has a bad thing. Celebrities have to be careful
when being interviewed; they have to live an unpleasant life because something that they show
the public can cause the trouble for their promotion in the future.
How does the media in your country treat famous people?
Like everywhere else, I think the media in my country also do things that the media in any
country do to treat famous people. When you are famous, they will praise you on their
newspaper and they want to know every thing about you. Even they can follow you every time,
every where.
You know, the media is a double edged sword. On one hand, thanks to the media, people can
become well known throughout the country even cross the world. However, media is also a
major factor that causes celebrities to forfeit their fans for something such as a sober error in a
performance.
Why do you think ordinary people are interested in the lives of famous people?
I think there are many reasons to explain why ordinary people are interested in the lives of
famous people. The first reason is they are not famous, so they want to know about lives of the
famous people. The second reason is they concern about if famous people commit crimes or
harm others lives.
In my point of view, most civilians often have an interest in the celebrities lives because they
want to know what celebrities lifestyle is, how they are living they start considering that
whether these things are useful for being famous people. Yet, sometimes, people are interested
in the lives of celebrities with the evil eye. They want to find something wrong in the celebrities
lives and inform the media in order to topple celebrities.