HISTORICAL PHOTOS

DESCRIBING PHOTOS 3: SAMPLE RESPONSE FOR AN EXAM

https://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/ets-toeic-practice-speaking.htm

Sample response 
This is an image of a busy street in an Asian country. As well as bicycles there are motor vehicles on this street, so it is obviously a high traffic area. A few of the cyclists have bicycles attached to their baskets. This suggests that bicycles may be their primary source of transportation. From the architecture it appears to be a tourist or shopping district. In the background we can see two tall buildings in the distance, which is likely where the business district is located. In the foreground there are cyclists. There seems to be some confusion about direction of traffic flow. The cyclists are travelling on both sides of the centre line and are going in the same direction. The cars, on the other hand, are going two different ways.

DESCRIBING PHOTOS 2: AN EXAMPLE

The photo is in black and white. 
In the centre of the photo there is a couple kissing.
In the bottom left hand corner there is a man sitting down outside a cafe. 
In the background there is a very grand building. 
We can see part of a car behind the people walking around. It looks an old, classic car. 
It looks like an old photo because of the clothes the people are wearing. 
It might be winter because in the distance there are trees without leaves and people are wearing winter clothes: coats, hats, scarves. 
There is a contrast between the romantic scene in the foreground and the daily life in the background. 
The background is blurry whereas the foreground is very clear, which makes the viewer focus on the couple that are kissing in the centre. 

DESCRIBING PHOTOS 1

Talking about a photo is not just describing. We can also compare, contrast, speculate about the situation, react, give our opinion, imagine what happened before and after, who took the photo and why it was taken. 

Read this information and try to describe Elvis' photo again.

MODULE 1.UNDERSTANDING THE PAST PERFECT

Today we are going to concentrate on verb tenses, especially on the PAST PERFECT TENSE.  

 The past perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past. This is the past in the past. For example:

• The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9.15am. When we arrived, the train had left.

The train had left when we arrived.
past	present	future
Train left at 9am.
We arrived at 9.15am.

Look at some more examples:

• I wasn't hungry. I had just eaten.
• They were hungry. They had not eaten for five hours.
• I didn't know who he was. I had never seen him before.
• "Mary wasn't at home when I arrived."
  "Really? Where had she gone?"

You can sometimes think of the past perfect tense like the present perfect tense, but instead of the time being now the time is past.

past perfect tense				present perfect tense
had | done | > |					have | done | > |
past	now	future		past	now	future

For example, imagine that you arrive at the station at 9.15am. The stationmaster says to you:

• "You are too late. The train has left."

Later, you tell your friends:

• "We were too late. The train had left."

We often use the past perfect tense in reported speech after verbs like said, told, asked, thought, wondered:

Look at these examples:

• He told us that the train had left.
• I thought I had met her before, but I was wrong.
• He explained that he had closed the window because of the rain.
• I wondered if I had been there before.
• I asked them why they had not finished.

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past-perfect_u.htm

3 TASKS

(www.perfect-english-grammar.com) 

A.-Complete with the past perfect or the past simple: 

1. We ____________(already eat) when John ___________ (come) home. 

2. Last year Juan ____________ (pass) all his exams after he _______________ (study) a lot. 

3. When I ________________________________ (get) to the airport I discovered I ____________(forget) my passport. 

4. I went to the library, then I_____________ (buy) some milk and finally I ________ (go) home. 

5. I __________(open) my handbag to find that I _________ 

(lose) my credit card. 

6. When we ____________ (arrive) at the station, the train ____________(already/leave). 

7. We __________(get) home to find that someone _____________ (break) into the house. 

8. I ________ (open) the fridge to find someone ___________ (eat) all my chocolate. 

9. I ___________ (know) my husband for three years when we 

_____________ (get) married. 

10. Julie was very pleased to see that John __________ (clean) the kitchen when she __________ (arrive). 

B.-Rephrase using the past perfect, past continuous, used to. CLICK HERE

C.-VERB TENSES REVISION. Click HERE to revise verb tenses rewriting sentences.