IELTS Preparation Series 1, Episode 21: Watching birds
(Bấm vào đây để xem/nghe bài kế tiếp)
Xem lời thoại bên dưới:
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.
