Is mobile-phone use as antisocial as smoking?
The question
Some people say that using a mobile phone in public is as antisocial as smoking. Should mobile phones be banned in certain places, as smoking is?
How to answer it
The analogy is the whole essay, so test it rather than accepting it. Smoking was banned because it physically harms bystanders; phone use is annoying, which is a different category — and that distinction is the strongest argument you can make. Then answer the actual question with a limited yes: named places where it is already normal to ask, such as cinemas, quiet carriages and hospital wards.
What moves the band
- Interrogating a prompt's assumption is a Band 8 move when it is done in one clean sentence, not a whole paragraph.
- Be careful to answer the question asked (should they be banned?), not the comparison alone.
These are candidate recalls. These are questions reported by test-takers after their exams, not official or leaked IELTS material. Wording varies by test version, location and memory. Use them for timed practice — never as a prediction of what you will be asked.
Practise these next
Know the number. Now move it.
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