Listening for details and revising tenses
When you listen for details, read the questions first and guess what kind of word you need: a time, a place, a name or a thing. Then listen for those words, such as numbers and room names, and write short notes. A speaker often changes a plan, so listen for words like instead, but and because. After listening, check your notes once more. Now revise five tense patterns from earlier years. Use the present simple for habits and facts and the present continuous for now or for this week. Use the past simple for finished actions and the past continuous for an action in progress that another action interrupts: I was walking when it started to rain. Use the future continuous for an action that will be in progress at a time in the future: This time next week I will be sitting an exam. For comparisons with long adjectives use more … than and the most …. Your book has a listening task and five gaps on page 11; use these skills there.
| Tense | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | habits and facts | Rana swims every Friday. |
| Present continuous | happening now or this week | This week she is swimming in the school pool. |
| Past simple and past continuous | a short action interrupts a longer one | I was walking when it started to rain. |
| Future continuous | in progress at a future time | This time next week I will be sitting an exam. |
| Comparative and superlative | long adjectives: more … than, the most … | This book is more useful than that one. |
Hello, music club members. This is Mrs Heba with a short message. On Wednesday we will not meet at four o’clock, because the painters are working in the hall. Instead, we will meet at half past five in room 14, on the second floor. The new time is later than usual, so please tell your parents. Bring your folder and a pencil, but you do not need your instruments, because we are going to practise the new song with our voices only. This time next week we will be standing on the stage and singing for the whole school. If you cannot come, send me a message by Tuesday evening. That is the most important thing today. Thank you, and see you on Wednesday.
Notes game. Ask a grown-up to read a short announcement of six sentences about a school event. Write notes with the time, the place, what to bring and one reason. Then compare your notes with the text.