178 UNIT 15
GRAMMAR
Past continuous
1
Books closed. Introduce the past continuous by drawing
a timeline on the board:
Today
Ask the students ‘What did the explorers see in the
Himalayas?’ (
footprints in the snow
) and write it on the
timeline:
Today
footprints in the snow
Then, ask the students to describe the explorers’ activity
at this time and write it on the timeline:
← They were walking through deep snow →
Today
footprints in the snow
Finally, ask the students some concept check questions:
‘When did they start walking?’ ‘When did they see the
footprints?’ ‘Did they continue walking afterwards?’ Elicit
when we use the past continuous.
Books open. As a class, ask the students to look at the
table and say what kind of words are missing in 1–4 (
the
verb
) before they complete the table.
Answers
1 climbing 2 walking 3 exploring 4 climbing
GRAMMAR REFERENCE AND PRACTICE ANSWER KEY TB PAGE 249
2
Point out that the students should use the past
continuous in all these sentences. Remind them to check
their spelling, in particular sentence 1
running
(double
n
). In 4, they will need to add the subject pronoun for the
short answer.
MIXED ABILITY
Allow the stronger students to do the exercise on their
own. Invite the weaker students to the board, write the
gapped sentences on the board, and complete them
together step by step. Encourage the weaker students to
look at the table in Exercise 1 as they do this.
FAST FINISHERS
Fast finishers use the table in Exercise 1 to write questions
about Eric Shipton and the explorers. When the others are
ready, organise the class into small groups with at least
one fast finisher in each group. The fast finisher reads
their questions and the others answer. If appropriate, the
fast finisher can award points for correct answers.
