CREATIVE WRITING

Today you are going to write a short story. First, you will have to choose one of the following opening sentences:

 I felt nervous when the phone rang.

 Suddenly, icy fingers grabbed my arm as I walked through the darkness.
 When she looked at her mobile phone, she was shocked to see she had 10 missed calls.
 I will never forget the first time we met.
 At first, I thought it was only the dog making noise, but I quickly changed my mind.
 It was the most disastrous family picnic ever!
 It all started when I accidentally picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport.
 I’d been planning the perfect road trip for months, but then everything changed.
 The roller coaster had stopped and we were left upside down.
 When I walked into the living room, huge boxes were everywhere, but I had no idea how they got there.
 Time was running out and he only had 15 minutes left.
 A hilarious thing happened to me on my way home.

This is the situation you have to start your story from and everything you write has to be related to this beginning.
You can make your story funny, sad, full of action or fantasy, but remember to connect it to the first sentence.

NARRATIVE TENSES

Past simple, past continuous and past perfect are the three most important verb forms when you write a story.

 Past simple describes the main events of your story.

She opened her eyes, yawned and slowly got up.
She left the building, went to the shop and bought everything she needed.

 Past continuous describes what was happening (an action in progress) at a specific point in the past. This
action in progress is usually interrupted by an action in the past simple.
Tom was watching TV when he heard a strange noise in the basement.
While we were having dinner, the lights went off.

The past continuous can also be used to set the scene.

The wind was blowing, dark clouds were forming over his head and he was getting cold.

 Past perfect describes an action that happened before another event in the past.
She arrived after everyone had left.
Sarah had met Tom before the party.
I had forgotten it was his birthday!

Time expressions put the events of your story in a sequence. Some examples of time expressions that you can
use in almost every story are:
• when • before • after that
• as soon as • until • next (day/morning etc.)
• immediately • while • x months/days/years later

A. Complete this short story with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

END – ME – COULD – MYSELF – TO – UP – OF – OUT – TO – OR – WAS – AS

In free fall

It was dangerous, but I knew that I had 1_______ do it. It was a new challenge. Nobody thought I 2_______ do it,
and I wasn't sure 3_______. The wind was blowing furiously 4_______ I waited for my turn.
Finally, the door opened, and I took a deep breath. I stood 5_______ and moved closer to the door. I could hear the
instructor telling me 'to go'. I looked down. It was now 6_______ never.
Somehow, I had managed to jump 7_______ of the plane and I was in free fall. The feeling 8_______ being up in the
air was fantastic. I didn't want it to be over, but I knew it was time 9_______ pull the cord. I gave it a hard tug, then
another. Nothing happened!
I started to panic. The ground below 10_______ getting closer. Was this the 11_______? All of a sudden, I felt
something lifting 12_______ up. I wasn't alone!
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B. Read the following short story and find examples of:
 Past simple, past perfect and past continuous  Direct speech and reporting verbs
 Adverbs and adjectives  Linking words

An unforgettable evening

It was Katia's 20th birthday and she was looking forward to seeing her friends. They were meeting at her favourite
Italian restaurant for a special birthday dinner. Katia was excited and got to the restaurant at exactly 7 o'clock, the
time they had arranged to meet. She looked around for a familiar face, but no one had arrived yet. So, she decided
to wait outside and stood patiently in the warm evening sunshine.
The restaurant quickly filled up with customers, but none of them were Katia's friends. 'Where are they?' she
thought. At half past seven she was still waiting, so she called her best friend Isa. 'Why doesn't she answer her
phone?' Katia asked herself. Then she called James, Alex and Yoko, but they didn't answer either. 'What's going
on?" she wondered.
At 8 o'clock Katia went home. Her friends had forgotten her birthday and she felt lonely and miserable. She opened
the front door and walked into the dark house. The living room door was closed. 'How strange,' she thought because
she always left it open. Nervously, she opened the door. Suddenly the lights went on and all her friends jumped up
and shouted 'Surprise!' So they hadn't forgotten and in the end it was the best birthday ever.

TIME TO WRITE!

Remember that a good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Make sure that the ending is connected to
the topic and that it is interesting, funny or surprising.

Try to include examples of the vocabulary listed below in your short story. Write around 180 words.

PERSONALITY VERBS OF ADJECTIVES TO ADVERBS OF ADJECTIVES TO

ADJECTIVES MOVEMENT DESCRIBE THE MANNER DESCRIBE
(shy, confident, (run, sprint, walk, WEATHER (quickly, FEELINGS
outgoing, friendly, jog, stagger, leap, (sunny, foggy, surprisingly, (shocked,
easy-going, etc.) etc.) warm, freezing, slowly, suddenly, surprised, excited,
rainy, etc.) furiously, etc.) amazed, etc.)

PAST TENSES REVIEW

A. Complete the sentences with the PAST SIMPLE or the PAST CONTINUOUS.
1. The sun ____________ (shine) and the birds ____________ (sing) when I ____________ (leave) the house.
2. What ____________ you ____________ (do) when Joe ____________ (call) you?
3. While we ____________ (wait) for you, it ____________ (start) to rain.
4. She ____________ (walk) into the room, ____________ (sit) down and ____________ (order) a coffee.
5. At the time of the earthquake, I ____________ (live) in Tokyo. I ____________ (move) back to the UK shortly
afterwards.
6. Harry ____________ (play) football when he ____________ (break) his leg.
7. My brother ____________ (learn) to drive while he ____________ (study) at university.
8. I ____________ (walk) to the office when my phone ____________ (ring).
9. It ____________ (snow) all the time that we ____________ (drive) to Scotland.
10. I ____________ (grow) up in London, but when I was sixteen, we ____________ (move) to Edinburgh.
11. While my mum____________ (drive) to work there ____________ (be) a car accident.

B. Complete the sentences with the PAST SIMPLE or the PAST PERFECT.
1. She ____________ (be) late for work because she ____________ (get up) late.
2. I ____________ (meet) my best friend last night. I ____________ (not see) her for over a year!
3. I ____________ (not know) where she was because she ____________ (not tell) me where she was going.
4. I ____________ (not visit) Germany before I ____________ (start) to learn German.
5. If I ____________ (know) you were a vegetarian, I wouldn’t have cooked meat!
6. My sister ____________ (get) her first job a year after she ____________ (leave) university.
7. When I ____________ (see) him, I realised I ____________ (meet) him before.
8. The movie ____________ (start) when I ____________ (arrive) at the cinema.
9. I ____________ (not save) my document before the computer ____________ (crash).
10. We ____________ (not say) anything until she ____________ (finish) talking.

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 PAST TENSES REVISION

We use the PAST SIMPLE to talk about COMPLETED ACTIONS in the past.
We use the PAST CONTINUOUS to talk about ACTIONS IN PROGRESS at a certain time in the past.

We use the PAST PERFECT to talk about an action that happened BEFORE another action in the past.
We form the past perfect with HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE

LIFE EVENTS
Look at the list below and choose two things from your childhood to tell your partners about.
• your first day at school
• family holidays during the summer
• your first / most memorable birthday
• learning how to do something (e.g. playing a sport for the first time, riding a bike, taking dance lessons, etc.)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 PAST TENSES
A) B)

C) D)

USED TO

We use USED TO when we talk about things which were true in the past, but are not true now.

I USED TO READ my sister’s magazines. (I don’t read them anymore)

We DIDN’T USE TO WALK to school.
DID you USE TO PLAY with dolls when you were five?

A) B)

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 Listening Comprehension: Favourite Things
Listen to four speakers talking about their favourite possessions and write one word in each gap
to complete the descriptions.

affectionate – designer – noise – messages – sofa – college – films – terrible – independent –

careful – bed – fun – dinner – city – photos – fashion – music – space – machine – helmet –
lorries – metro – clothes – look – small – hand – friend – business – company – size – beautiful –
scooter – polite – creative – four

My favourite thing has to be my new tablet. It’s really light and quite _____________, so I take it
with me everywhere. I’m always writing _____________ to friends and it’s big enough to do college
work on it too. It takes really good _____________, and I play games and listen to _____________
on it as well, of course. I often download _____________ onto it, and watch them in
_____________. My mum says I’m addicted because I’m always on it. I even read things on it at
breakfast time. I’m not allowed to at _____________ time, though. I have to be _____________
and talk to people then. “Welcome back to real life,” my mum says.

My favourite thing? Does my cat count as a thing? She’s not really a thing, but anyway. She’s a
really _____________ little cat. I’ve had her since she was _____________ months old. You know
how some cats are really _____________ and hardly talk to you? I know cats don’t really talk, but
you know what I mean. Well, she’s not like that at all. She’s really _____________ and comes up to
me as soon as I get home, purring away like mad. She makes a lot of _____________ for a tiny
thing. She loves being stroked and comes and curls up next to me when I’m on the _____________.
She’s great _____________.

My new scooter! It’s quite small, but _____________, and just what I needed for getting around the
_____________. I used to have quite a long walk to the _____________, then a longish walk at the
other end to get to _____________. But now I can just whiz there on my _____________. And there’s
no problem parking, there’s always _____________ for it. You have to be _____________ with the
cars and _____________ – they don’t always see you – and when it rains the surface of the road is
_____________, it gets really slippery. But in general it’s perfect for me, and I can fit a ____________
on the back too – I’ve got an extra _____________ for a friend. It’s great. Riding along makes me
feel so free.

This might sound a bit old-fashioned, but my sewing _____________ is my favourite thing. I’m
studying _____________ and love making things, as well as designing them. I also love
_____________ myself and often buy second-hand clothes – everyone loves the “vintage”
_____________ at the moment – and then I adapt them to my _____________. It’s much easier
using a machine to do that than doing it by _____________. I do alterations for my mum and my
sister too. If I don’t make it as a _____________, I suppose I can always set up my own alterations
and customising _____________. Customising clothes, by taking things off and adding things on, is
actually very _____________, so I wouldn’t mind that.

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 Final Task: “My Most Treasured Possession”
In this final activity you are going to prepare a presentation about your most treasured
possession. Answer the questions and use the examples below as a guide:

• What is your most treasured possession?

• What's it made of? How old is it?
• How long have you had it?
• Did somebody give it to you or did you buy it yourself?
• Did it belong to somebody else before?
• Where do you keep your treasured possession?
• Do you wear it, carry it around with you or does it have a special place in your home?
• Does it remind you of a particular person? Who?
• Does it remind you of an event in the past? What happened?
• How long do you think you will keep it?
• What you will do with it in the future? Will you give it away or will you leave it to somebody?
• Why is it special for you?

My most treasured possession is…

It’s made of (metal/wood/plastic).
It’s (ten) years old… / It’s brand new.
I’ve had it for (a long time/five) years.
My (parents/sister/friends) gave it to me. / It belonged to (my grandparents). / I bought it myself.
I keep my treasured possession in (a box / drawer / a special place). / I wear my treasured
possession. / I carry it with me.
It reminds me of my (friends/family). / It reminds me of (a birthday party).
I think I will keep it forever. / I will give it to my younger siblings. / One day I will give it away.
It’s special for me because…

Example:

My favourite possession is old, worn and cracked. It's my much-loved biker jacket. It's made of
thick black leather and it has a silver zip and a silky red lining. It's a real biker's jacket and it used
to belong to my mother when she was young, so it's very old now! Why do I love my jacket?
Because it was my mother's and because it is practical. You don't need to iron it and you never
need to get it cleaned. It keeps me warm and dry, so I wear it all the time, except in the summer.
Another thing is that leather jackets never go out of fashion and you can wear them with
jeans or with a skirt and dresses. A couple of months ago I was in a café and I left the jacket
on the back of my chair by accident. I realised what I had done when I was on the bus and I
thought I had lost it forever. At that moment, a young guy jumped onto the bus, holding my
jacket. He had chased me down the road with it! We started chatting and I made a new friend.
Now I think of it as my lucky jacket.

Write around 180 words. Remember to include the vocabulary seen throughout the unit.