1

Preparing for IELTS

Instructor: Enrico
Lesson Two
Todays Grammar Theme Common Past Tenses
Part A: Context Listening
i) You will hear a man giving a talk on the radio about protecting homes from burglaries. Before you listen, look
at the pictures below and make a list with the instructor of what you see.

ii) Listen once and answer the following questions.

iii) Good. Listen again and complete the following sentences.

iv) Look at sentences 1-7 above and answer the following questions.

You should notice two new tenses that werent covered during the first lesson of this course. These tenses are
the Simple Past Tense and the Past Continuous tense, the most basic tenses used to talk about the past.

Part B: Focus on Grammar

Simple Past Tense

Note that there are many irregular verbs that do NOT follow this pattern.
Examples include: went (go) came (come) wrote (write) and all forms of the verb to be

Past Continuous

You should also learn how to use used to and would. Those can be used to talk about past repeated actions.
EXAMPLE: - She would / used to keep the front door locked (she later stopped doing this).

i)

Fill in the gaps in the paragraph below with words from the box.
allow
mean

be
own

be
receive

be
replace

invent
ride

increase
take

lay
walk

The pace of change in the world of technology is amazing. It wasnt (not) long ago that the postal service
________ our only way to communicate over any distance. It ________ days and sometimes weeks to receive
letters from within the same country. As a result, the news in the letters ______ already out of date when people
____________ them. In the workplace, this ___________ that business was mostly conducted locally, over
relatively short distances.
When Alexander Graham Bell __________ the telephone in 1876 it _______ the foundation for todays
communications systems. It ___________ two people to communicate instantly across a great distance.
Eventually computers ____________ typewriters and dramatically _____________ the speed of our daily work
life.
However, it is not just communications that have changed. Only 50 years ago most people _________ (not) a car.
People _________ to work or _________ bicycles. Changes in travel as well as the increased speed of
communications have led to the global business world of today.

ii)

Now, try to fill in the blanks with the past simple or past continuous form of the bracketed verbs.

iii)

Heres another. This time, use would and used to where possible

Part C: Speaking Practice

The task below is a real IELTS Speaking exam prompt. How would you answer it? Try to plan and your
answer and practice with the instructor.
KEEP IN MIND:
- The prompt clearly requires you to use past tense in your answer. Try your best!
- In a real exam, you would have one minute to plan your answer, and one to two minutes to deliver
your answer.
- Feel free to make notes on paper as that is what you should do in the exam. Only write down key
words or phrases, dont try and write down your whole answer as you wont have enough time.
- Prepare your answer in a logical order.

iv)

Good job on your first Speaking prompt attempt. Take a look at how another student responded
below. Put a tick on the side for verbs she used correctly and correct the verbs she used wrongly.

In an IELTS Speaking exam, there are 3 parts that last a total of between 11 to 14 minutes.

Topics will vary widely, and range from recounting past experiences (as in the above task) to giving
general opinions. In all cases, you should try your best to use as wide a variety of tenses and vocabulary
as possible. Speak slowly and clearly and dont be afraid to ask questions if clarification is required.
Lets now practice some general questions that usually appear on Part 1 of the Speaking exam. They
may look easy, but the challenge is to answer them in a concise and clear manner. You can try and
write down your answers first.

Part D: Test Practice

i.
Academic Reading

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Academic IELTS questions cover a wide range of general interest topics, from astrology to zoology.
There is no way of preparing yourself for exactly what you will see on your test. However, you can
improve your chances of being able to approach whatever topic is given by:
Reading as much as you can in English and keeping a notebook of new words
Learning words in context and not just from a word list
Familiarize yourself with questions types and information sought on the IELTS test
Know how to skim and scan, look quickly for information

Good job! Below you will find some guidelines that will help you perform better in reading task.

- Read the title and any headings first. Make predictions about the topic.
Look over the questions (on the next page) quickly. Make predictions about content and organization.
- Read the passage at a normal speed. Dont get stuck on parts you dont understand.

When you answer the questions, dont spend too much time on ones you feel uncertain about.
- Dont spend more than 20 minutes on each passage you are given.

Part E: Time for Writing

In todays writing section we will build upon the topics covered in Lesson 1. Our theme will remain the same:
Living Abroad. We will now focus on exam skills that are essential to ensuring a good body of content
between your introduction and conclusion.
i.
Topic sentences
When you write, you always need to think about the reader (in the exam, the reader is the examiner). That
means you need to introduce your ideas clearly.
To do this you need to practice writing clear topic sentences. Topic sentences help the reader to follow the
plan of your essay. They are like signposts for a driver.
1. Rearrange these useful chunks of language for writing clear topic sentences.

2. Use the chunks of language from Exercise 1 to write complete topic sentences for this essay.

3. Complete these topic sentences with your own ideas. Decide if they introduce positive or negative
ideas.

4. Use each of these words to replace another in Exercise 4 to avoid repetition.

TASK:
5. Imagine one of the subjects in Exercise 4 above (e.g. changing career/living in a large city) is the topic
in the exam.
a) Note down two advantages and two disadvantages to form the main ideas of your essay.
b) Write clear topic sentences for your four main ideas, using language studied in the last lesson.
c) Using your outline plan, write the complete essay.
Depending on how ready you feel for this task, you can ask the teacher to plan it out together with you or
attempt it on your own. No matter what, remember to place topic sentences in each paragraph to help the
reader understand the direction in which you essay is going.

10

ii.
Avoiding generalizations in your writing
Good academic writers are careful that they dont make statements which are too general. This is
important in a piece of academic writing.
1) Rewrite these sentences so that they sound less general.

2) Rewrite three of the sentences from Exercise 2, using the expressions in the box above.

3) Complete the sentences below with your own ideas.

4) Write a paragraph on one of these topics. Talk about the positive and the negative aspects. Use the
expressions and grammar studied in this and last lesson.

TASK: You should now have more experience writing advantage/disadvantage essays.
Now attempt an essay on this topic: What are the pros and cons of using public transport.
Next lesson we will compare your essay to that of a sample answer.