way2go! 5, Schulbuch

23 How does Hannah do these things? Look for examples in the story above. Then prepare notes to tell your own story about something that has happened to you/a friend. Tell your stories in pairs. b Find reasons why Hannah is using the tenses you have underlined in her story. He had never tried punting before. Used to refer to a time further in the past than the story. Now listen to Hannah and Adam telling Hannah’s mum about the boat trip. While listening, find the three differences between Hannah’s and Adam’s version of the story. b LISTENING 7 03 Telling a story or an anecdote When preparing to tell a story, keep the following things in mind: STRATEGIES 8 a My school is in Cambridge, which is about 80 km north of London and is one of the most cultural places in the UK. Cambridge is on the River Cam, and I spend a lot of my free time messing about 2 on the river. I must tell you a funny story! On a beautiful, sunny day we were punting on the river with some visitors: five of us all together. One of the visitors, my cousin Adam from the States, said he had never tried punting before and wanted to have a go. Punting is a popular activity, but, like all beginners, Adam was finding it hard. The punt wasn’t really going straight, but we were relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and the view. Several tourists had stopped to watch us go by and were taking photographs. Suddenly, the pole got stuck in the mud on the bottom of the river. Instead of letting go of the pole, Adam held on, and he was left hanging onto the pole while the punt went down the river. He was shouting and the tourists were pointing at him. There was a paddle in the punt, so we used that to go back and rescue Adam. I even tried to help with my hands, but the trouble was, we were laughing so much that we couldn’t paddle fast enough. By the time we reached him, poor Adam had slid so far down the pole that his legs were in the air and his bottom was in the water! It’s not very healthy to swim in the river, so we quickly helped him back into the punt. After we had got Adam, we stopped by the river bank and he went behind some trees to take off his wet jeans. He wrapped a big towel around himself that we found in the punt and we tried to dry his trousers in the sunshine. He was lucky it was such a warm day. Naturally, he was embarrassed, but in the end, Adam also laughed about it. It was a day I’ll never forget! Language box: Narrative tenses Simple past He started quite well. Past continuous We were punting on the river. Past perfect He had never tried punting before.  Get the listener’s attention: Guess what happened to me last week …  Give details: What happened? Where? When? How? Why?  Put the events in the right order: First, then, some time later, after that, finally, in the end, …  Give your story a personal touch by telling how you felt about something: I was really shocked, I was surprised, I was angry, I felt (un)happy, …  End your story with a conclusion: How was the problem solved? 2 to mess about: sich die Zeit vertreiben, rumwursteln, herumgammeln Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv