This unit covers the first seven Core English lessons: What are you like? Customs and traditions. Looking ahead. Into the wild. Health matters. Would you believe it? Traces of the past. Each lesson pairs a theme with the vocabulary and grammar it needs, so read each section below as words plus the sentence patterns that carry them. In the patterns, V1 means the base verb, V2 the past form, and V3 the past participle.
Words for people, customs, nature, and health
What are you like? Character adjectives work best in precise pairs: conscientious, easygoing, hot tempered, level headed. Learn each adjective with its preposition: good at, keen on, proud of, responsible for. The past-question bank tests exactly this habit with preposition completions such as self-conscious about and committed to.
Customs and traditions. Festivals, rituals, and hospitality run on verb plus noun collocations: observe a custom, pay respects, host guests, exchange greetings.
Looking ahead. Plans and predictions need future forms: will for promises and instant decisions, going to for intentions, and the present continuous for fixed arrangements. Add speculation verbs: expect, predict, doubt, assume.
Into the wild. Name habitats and creatures exactly: predator, prey, habitat, sanctuary. Replace vague modifiers with strong ones: vast grassland, dense forest, remote valley, endangered species.
Health matters. Body and lifestyle words repay precision: symptom, dose, hygiene, stamina, relapse. Keep the set phrases: balanced diet, regular checkup, break a habit.
Would you believe it? Mystery and surprise stories run on narrative tenses and reporting verbs: claim, insist, admit, reveal. The tense section below carries this lesson’s grammar.
Traces of the past. Objects and eras need concrete nouns: artifact, inscription, reign, excavation. Pair dates with the past simple: The manuscript was copied in 1890.
Telling stories about the past
Use the past simple for finished time: She audited the ledgers yesterday. Use the past continuous for the background around it: The crowd was gathering when he reached the field. Use the past perfect when one past event came earlier than another: The elephant had calmed down before Orwell arrived.
Use the present perfect when the past still touches the present: She has audited ten branches this year. Its time words are already, yet, just, ever, never, since, and so far. Finished time words force the past simple instead: yesterday, ago, last month, in 2021.
| Question to ask | Past simple | Present perfect |
|---|---|---|
| Is the time finished? | Yes, and often named. | No, or still open. |
| Link to now | Detached. | Result or experience continues. |
| Example | She audited the ledgers yesterday. | She has audited ten branches this year. |
Saying what would happen: conditionals
Zero, for general truths. Pattern: If plus present, plus present. If water reaches 100 degrees Celsius, it boils.
First, for real future possibilities. Pattern: If plus present, plus will plus V1. If the firm launches the campaign, sales will rise.
Second, for unreal present or future. Pattern: If plus V2, plus would plus V1. If I owned an airline, I would expand the mountain flights.
Third, for an unreal past. Pattern: If plus past perfect, plus would have plus V3. If management had hedged fuel prices, the airline would not have collapsed.
Mixed, past condition with present result. Pattern: If plus past perfect, plus would plus V1. If our firm had listened to the auditor, we would not be in debt today.
Mixed, present condition with past result. Pattern: If plus V2, plus would have plus V3. If she spoke French, she would have got the Geneva posting last year.
The past-question bank asks 5 mark mixed conditional completions, so read the time markers before choosing verbs. In the firm example above, today in the result clause calls for would plus V1, while last year in the French example calls for would have plus V3.
Guessing about the past: modal verbs
After evidence, judge a past action with a modal plus have plus V3. Confident it happened: must have. Possible: might have. Confident it did not happen: cannot have. Two guided examples: The numbers do not balance, so someone must have miscopied a ledger. The safe was locked, so the clerk cannot have taken the cash.
Building new words: word formation
Formal English turns verbs and adjectives into nouns. This move is called nominalization: decide becomes decision, fail becomes failure, hazardous becomes hazard. Adjectives and adverbs shift the same way: fortune becomes fortunate, misery becomes miserably. Note that expert serves as its own adjective, as in expert advice.
The past-question bank asks 2 mark part of speech changes on this set: fortune to an adjective, misery to an adverb, expert to an adjective, hazardous to a noun.
Guided practice with answers
Complete each sentence with the verbs in brackets.
a. Our firm ____ (not / be) in debt today if we ____ (listen) to our accountant’s past warnings. b. If she ____ (speak) French, she ____ (get) the Geneva posting last year.
Change each word as directed: fortune (adjective), misery (adverb), expert (adjective), hazardous (noun).
Answers. a. would not be, had listened. b. spoke, would have got. Word formation: fortunate, miserably, expert, hazard. Both exercises mirror items in the past-question bank.
Independent writing: describe a person
Write a 150 to 200 word profile of someone you know. Use at least six precise personality adjectives with correct prepositions, and include one mixed conditional about a choice the person made.
Check your draft against four questions. Does every adjective suit its noun? Does every preposition match its adjective? Do finished times use the past simple and open times the present perfect? Does each paragraph hold one idea?