Intermediate 3 Unit 4 (Interchange 3) Writing assignment Prompt: Think of a time when something involving one of the following happened to you: coincidence, dilemma, disaster, emergency, lucky break, misfortune, mystery, or triumph. Think also about the details of the event including, what happened during the event? who was there? What were the people present doing? What were the events that led to the experience? Example: Two tourists from Germany were traveling separately in China when they met outside of a restaurant in Shanghai. They both lived in the same medium sized town in Germany their whole lives and had even studied in the same high school, but they had never met before. They were walking down a crowded street and they were taking pictures when they ran into each other. (coincidence) Target language: headline, tripped, scored, accidentally, species, carjacker, highway, slogan, shipwreck, divers, revolving door, run into, hurrying, triumph, lucky break, mystery, trapped, shouted, weakened, foggy, break down, hiking, promotion, resign, remarkably, moving on Grammar Focus: Use the past continuous for an ongoing action in the past. Use the simple past for an event that interrupts that action. Past continuous and the simple past While he was escaping from the bank, the robber got caught in the revolving door. As Jake was running toward the ball, he tripped and kicked it into the wrong goal. The planets were performing a song when the lights went out. Suggested practice: After you have completed your writing, give your writing to a classmate and have him or her identify at least three sentences in your writing that include the simple past and the past continuous. Have your classmate make a timeline for each of the sentences that include the simple past and the past continuous.
