How to practice: This set collects only the Speaking Sample question type from the real DET (Duolingo English Test), covering DET Speaking questions. No grading and no timer, so solve it yourself, then tap each question to reveal the answer or model response.
Q1
If you could change one rule or one common habit in the place where you live, what would you change and why? Explain what problem it would solve and who might disagree with you.
30s to prepare · 3:00 to speak · 1 take only
Useful Expressions
If I could change one thing, it would be... · The problem right now is that... · Changing it would mean that... · Some people would disagree because... · Even so, I think...
Show Model Response
If I could change one habit in the place where I live, it would be the way almost everyone gets into a car for trips that take less than ten minutes. People drive to a shop that is four streets away, and then spend longer looking for somewhere to park than the walk would have taken.
The problem right now is that this one small habit creates a lot of problems at once. The roads near my home are busy and noisy at times of day when there is no real reason for them to be. The air is worse than it needs to be. And because the streets feel dangerous, parents drive their children to school, which puts even more cars on the road and makes it feel more dangerous still. It feeds itself.
Changing it would mean that short trips are made on foot or by bike by default, and that the street becomes something people use rather than something they cross quickly. I think the effect would be bigger than it sounds. Children could get themselves to school, which matters more than people realise, and older neighbours who cannot drive would stop being cut off from the shops that are technically within walking distance of their homes.
Some people would disagree, and not without reason. For anyone with limited mobility, a car is not a convenience, it is the only way to leave the house. Small shop owners often believe that if you take away the parking outside their door, their customers will simply go somewhere else. And people carrying heavy shopping or working to a tight schedule have a fair point too.
Even so, I think the answer is to make walking the easier choice rather than to ban driving. Wider pavements, safe crossings and a few streets closed to traffic near schools would do most of the work on their own. Nobody needs to be forced. In the cities I have visited where this was done properly, people did not resent it after the first year, and the shop owners who fought hardest against it usually ended up busier than before.
The problem right now is that this one small habit creates a lot of problems at once. The roads near my home are busy and noisy at times of day when there is no real reason for them to be. The air is worse than it needs to be. And because the streets feel dangerous, parents drive their children to school, which puts even more cars on the road and makes it feel more dangerous still. It feeds itself.
Changing it would mean that short trips are made on foot or by bike by default, and that the street becomes something people use rather than something they cross quickly. I think the effect would be bigger than it sounds. Children could get themselves to school, which matters more than people realise, and older neighbours who cannot drive would stop being cut off from the shops that are technically within walking distance of their homes.
Some people would disagree, and not without reason. For anyone with limited mobility, a car is not a convenience, it is the only way to leave the house. Small shop owners often believe that if you take away the parking outside their door, their customers will simply go somewhere else. And people carrying heavy shopping or working to a tight schedule have a fair point too.
Even so, I think the answer is to make walking the easier choice rather than to ban driving. Wider pavements, safe crossings and a few streets closed to traffic near schools would do most of the work on their own. Nobody needs to be forced. In the cities I have visited where this was done properly, people did not resent it after the first year, and the shop owners who fought hardest against it usually ended up busier than before.