Three minutes, cold
Tell your teacher about the film you chose. What happens in it, and why you love it. Three minutes, no preparation.
They will not interrupt. They are writing down every tense you use and every adjective you use about how it made you feel.
Seven genre words. Match each to what it actually means — two of these are commonly misused.
Two people describe the same scene
Version A — all past simple
She walked home. It rained. She heard a noise behind her. She turned round. A man stood under the streetlight. He smoked a cigarette. She ran.
Version B — two tenses
She was walking home. It was raining. She heard a noise behind her, and she turned round. A man was standing under the streetlight, smoking a cigarette. She ran.
Both versions describe exactly the same scene. Answer from the difference.
1. Which version feels like a story rather than a list?
2. In B, which verbs are in the continuous — was walking, was raining, was standing?
3. And which are in the past simple — heard, turned, ran?
4. So what does the past continuous do in a story?
Background and event
The two tenses in a narrative
| Tense | Does what | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Past continuous | Background — already in progress | She was walking home. It was raining. |
| Past simple | Event — happens at a single moment | She heard a noise. She ran. |
| Both together | The event interrupts the background | She was walking home when she heard a noise. |
The word that joins them. When introduces the event; while introduces the background.
She was walking home when she heard a noise. ✓
While she was walking home, she heard a noise. ✓
Same meaning, different join. While is followed by the long thing; when by the short one.
Match each clause to what it is doing in the story.
Build the scene
Write the verb in brackets in the past simple or the past continuous. Ask of each one: background, or event?
It (be) about eleven at night and it (rain) hard. I (drive) back from my sister's when the engine (stop) — just like that, in the middle of the road. I (get) out and (look) at it, which was useless because I know nothing about cars. While I (stand) there, a van (pull) up behind me.
Put the parts in order to make one background-plus-event sentence.
One scene, properly
Task card · Speaking · Diagnostic
One scene from the film you chose — not the whole plot, one scene.
Ninety seconds. Set the scene in the past continuous, then let the events happen in the past simple.
- Start with what was already going on: the weather, the place, what the characters were doing.
- Then the events, one at a time, in the past simple.
- Use when or while at least twice.
- Finish by saying how the scene made you feel — and your teacher will listen very carefully to that adjective.
Two decisions.
1. The rain had already started before the scene began. Which?
2. The door opened, at one moment. Which?
What the log says
Your teacher logged both the three minutes and the ninety seconds.
1. In the three-minute warm-up, how many past continuous forms did you use?
2. What did that do to the story?
3. The adjective at the end of the ninety seconds — did you say bored or boring?
Before Lesson 2
One question.
1. What does the past continuous do in a story?
Informal input, before Lesson 2. One episode of The Rewatchables, or any podcast where people recommend a film. Note five sentences where somebody says whether it is worth watching.
Copy them exactly. Next lesson we look at how a recommendation is actually built — it is not it is very good.