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IELTS Preparation Series 1, Episode 21: Watching birds


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0:14

Hello, I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

0:20

Today we're going to look at the continuous tense, and then we're going to practice some

0:25

sentence stress.

0:25

Our clip today is of a birdwatcher named Margaret. A birdwatcher is someone who loves watching

0:33

and listening to birds.

0:35

Let's start by listening to Margaret talk about watching birds.

0:38

Some people think it's a bit of a strange pleasure, but you know, it's always interesting.

0:43

It's interesting to see what they're doing. You know, we saw them sheltering under the

0:46

banks as we came round and so on, and they have to live in it, so why shouldn't we?

0:50

What I'm doing is looking to see what's outside this hide because I'm doing a sheet for the

0:56

'Bird Atlas' of a radius of 500 metres from here to see all the species that are in it.

1:01

I use my binoculars and I'm using a telescope, and I use my ears because I was recording

1:07

birds by call as I walked down the track here - wrens and little grass birds and stuff.

1:12

In fact, if you do a lot of bird watching in the bush, you do a lot by call.

1:15

A day like today's not much good, but normally you do a lot by call, and the idea is to make

1:20

sure you get all the species that are here in the area that you're surveying.

1:25

Margaret is talking about the time she spends watching birds.

1:30

When describing actions that happen for a continuous period of time, we need to use

1:35

a continuous tense. In English, there are several continuous tenses.

1:41

Continuous tenses are formed by using the verb 'to be' plus the present participle,

1:48

the 'ing' form of the verb.

1:52

Today we're going to look at the present and past continuous tenses.

1:56

Let's begin with the present continuous tense.

2:00

The present continuous tense describes things that are in progress.

2:04

Listen to Margaret again and see if you can hear some examples of the present continuous

2:11

tense.

2:12

What I'm doing is looking to see what's outside this hide because I'm doing a sheet for the

2:18

'Bird Atlas' of a radius of 500 metres from here to see all the species that are in it.

2:24

I use my binoculars and I'm using a telescope.

2:26

Margaret uses the phrases 'I'm doing' and 'I'm using' to describe things that are happening

2:32

now.

2:34

We can use the present continuous tense in 3 ways.

2:38

Firstly, we use it to describe actions that are happening now.

2:43

For example, Margaret says, "I'm using a telescope".

2:48

We also use this tense to refer to actions that are happening soon. This is the future

2:54

aspect.

2:55

Thirdly, the continuous tense can describe actions that are happening simultaneously,

3:02

or at the same time.

3:04

In this case, the continuous tense follows the words 'when', 'while' or 'as'.

3:10

Listen to the following sentences and see if you can identify which of these three rules

3:16

is being used.

3:19

"I'm going bird watching today. What are you doing?"

3:24

This is an example of 'rule 2'. Here, we use the present continuous tense to talk about

3:30

things that are happening soon.

3:32

"The birds are singing while they are flying."

3:38

This is an example of rule 3, because we are describing two things that are happening at

3:43

the same time - 'singing' and 'flying'.

3:48

It's a good idea to practice recognising these.

3:51

But now, let's take a look at the past continuous tense.

3:54

And I use my ears because I was recording birds by call as I walked down the track here

4:01

- wrens and little grass birds and stuff. In fact, if you do a lot of bird watching

4:05

in the bush, you do a lot by call. A day like today's not much good, but normally you do

4:09

a lot by call, and the idea is to make sure you get all the species that are here in the

4:14

area that you're surveying.

4:16

Margaret says that she 'was recording' birds as she walked down the track.

4:22

This is the past continuous tense. We can use it in 2 situations.

4:27

Can you identify which one applies to Margaret?

4:30

We use it to describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past,

4:36

or to describe a continuous action that was interrupted by something else.

4:41

So when Margaret says, "I was recording birds as I walked down the track", she is using

4:49

rule 1. She is talking about a continuous action that she was doing in the past.

4:55

Here's another sentence.

4:57

"I was walking down the track when the rain started."

5:00

This is rule 2. 'Walking down the track' was interrupted by the rain.

5:06

Notice that the second clause, is introduced by the word 'when' - 'when the rain started'.

5:14

Words like 'as', 'when' or 'while' are often used to begin the second clause.

5:22

And the second clause takes the simple past tense.

5:26

Look at our sentences again.

5:28

"I was recording birds as I walked down the track."

5:33

"I was walking down when the rain started."

5:36

OK, now let's have a look back at the clip, this time we'll highlight all the present

5:41

and past continuous tenses.

5:44

Some people think it's a bit of a strange pleasure, but you know, it's always interesting.

5:48

It's interesting to see what they're doing. You know, we saw them sheltering under the

5:51

banks as we came round and so on, and they have to live in it, so why shouldn't we?

5:55

I'm doing a sheet for the 'Bird Atlas' of a radius of 500 metres from here to see all

6:00

the species that are in it.

6:01

I use my binoculars and I'm using a telescope, and I use my ears because I was recording

6:08

birds by call as I walked down the track here - wrens and little grass birds and stuff.

6:13

In fact, if you do a lot of bird watching in the bush, you do a lot by call.

6:16

A day like today's not much good, but normally you do a lot by call, and the idea is to make

6:21

sure you get all the species that are here in the area that you're surveying.

6:27

Today's clip is about bird watching.

6:30

We've seen that the '-ing' can be used for continuous tenses, but '-ing' words can have

6:36

lots of other uses too.

6:39

'-ing' forms the present participle of a verb. Some 'ing words can also be adjectives, and

6:46

they can act as gerunds.

6:48

A gerund is a verb that acts as a noun.

6:52

Let's look at an example.

6:54

Here's the sentence "I love swimming."

6:58

The word 'swimming' is the present participle of the verb 'to swim'.

7:02

But in this sentence, 'swimming' is a noun.

7:07

So the word 'swimming' is called a gerund.

7:10

Listen for a gerund in the clip.

7:13

In fact, if you do a lot of bird watching in the bush, you do a lot by call.

7:17

'Bird watching'. 'Watching' is a gerund. It is a verb that's used as a noun.

7:24

There are many phrases that use gerunds with the verb 'to go'.

7:27

They are mainly used with recreational activities, or things you do for fun.

7:33

For example, we say:

7:35

'go swimming';

7:36

'go bird watching';

7:38

'go dancing'.

7:40

"On the weekend, I usually go swimming."

7:42

"This weekend, I'd like to go dancing."

7:47

Finally today, we're going to look at some sentence stress and rhythm.

7:54

When we talk about rhythm in English, we mean the 'beat of the language'.

7:58

The beat of the language comes from the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables or words

8:04

in a sentence.

8:06

Some words usually have a strong stress.

8:09

These are 'content words', the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They're usually strongly

8:15

stressed and carry the rhythm.

8:17

Then there are the words that have a weak stress.

8:21

These are usually the articles, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. They're spoken

8:27

quickly between the strongly stressed words.

8:29

As well as the different stress on words, the number of pauses you make in your speech

8:35

will affect the rhythm of your language. It helps listeners tell what is important and

8:40

what is secondary information.

8:43

You should practice reading using different beats, and see how this affects the meaning.

8:49

Notice how I can read the numbers:

8:51

1 2 3 4

8:54

or

8:55

1 and 2 and 3 and 4

9:00

Here, the words I'm stressing are the numbers - 1,2,3,4.

9:06

The less important words are squeezed in between the beats. The more squeezed in, the shorter

9:12

they become.

9:13

1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4

9:17

1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

9:21

And that's all for Study English today. Make sure that you listen out for the rhythm of

9:25

people's speech. Copying native speakers is the best way to learn the stress and the beat.

9:31

And I'll see you next time on Study English. Bye.

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