Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

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

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

  • sentence stress.

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

  • and listening to birds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Margaret is talking about the time she spends watching birds.

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

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

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

  • the 'ing' form of the verb.

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

  • Let's begin with the present continuous tense.

  • The present continuous tense describes things that are in progress.

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

  • tense.

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

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

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

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

  • now.

  • We can use the present continuous tense in 3 ways.

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

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

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

  • aspect.

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

  • or at the same time.

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

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

  • is being used.

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

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

  • things that are happening soon.

  • "The birds are singing while they are flying."

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

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

  • It's a good idea to practice recognising these.

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

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

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

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

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

  • area that you're surveying.

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

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

  • Can you identify which one applies to Margaret?

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

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

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

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

  • Here's another sentence.

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

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

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

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

  • And the second clause takes the simple past tense.

  • Look at our sentences again.

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

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

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

  • and past continuous tenses.

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

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

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

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

  • the species that are in it.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Today's clip is about bird watching.

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

  • lots of other uses too.

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

  • they can act as gerunds.

  • A gerund is a verb that acts as a noun.

  • Let's look at an example.

  • Here's the sentence "I love swimming."

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

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

  • So the word 'swimming' is called a gerund.

  • Listen for a gerund in the clip.

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

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

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

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

  • For example, we say:

  • 'go swimming';

  • 'go bird watching';

  • 'go dancing'.

  • "On the weekend, I usually go swimming."

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

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

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

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

  • in a sentence.

  • Some words usually have a strong stress.

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

  • stressed and carry the rhythm.

  • Then there are the words that have a weak stress.

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

  • quickly between the strongly stressed words.

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

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

  • what is secondary information.

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

  • Notice how I can read the numbers:

  • 1 2 3 4

  • or

  • 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

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

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

  • they become.

  • 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4

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

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

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

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

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

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋

A2 初級 澳洲腔

學習英語 - 第1系列,第21集:看小鳥 (Study English - Series 1, Episode 21: Watching birds)

  • 98 2
    大呆危 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
影片單字