C1 The Tide Doesn't Wait - The Past: Habitual Events and Specific Incidents

C1 GRAMMAR · PAST TIME

The Tide Doesn't Wait

PICTURE

(you add this)

Every August, the same rituals. Then one borrowed dinghy and one turning tide.

narrative tenses · used to + infinitive · would + infinitive · always + past continuous

Listening

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

Summers that don't exist any more

1. Where did you spend your childhood summers? What did a typical day look like?

2. Think of a place from your childhood that no longer exists - or has completely changed. What was it?

PICTURE

(you add this)

B · BEFORE YOU LISTEN

Every August, the boatyard

You'll hear Sam, now in his forties, telling the story of his childhood summers - and of one particular evening he has never forgotten.

LISTEN FOR

1. Where did Sam spend every August, and with whom?

2. What did he do one evening when he was twelve - and what went wrong?

3. How does he feel about the place today?

AUDIO

(you add this)

B · BEFORE YOU LISTEN

GLOSSARY

Many of the terms will be new / tricky for you. Check some of them out here.

boatyard – a place where boats are kept, repaired and stored

estuary – the wide part of a river where it meets the sea; the tide flows in and out

the tide – the rise and fall of the sea, twice a day; when it "turns", the water starts moving the other way

moorings – the places (and ropes/buoys) where boats are tied up on the water;

mooring lines are the ropes

pontoons – floating walkways you walk along to reach the boats

hull – the body of a boat; the part that sits in the water

dinghy – a small open sailing boat, usually for one or two people

tender – a small rowing boat used to get out to bigger boats

the launch – the boatyard's small motorboat

slipway – a ramp that slopes down into the water, for moving boats in and out

mudflats – flat areas of soft mud that appear when the tide goes out

to haul somebody aboard – to pull somebody up into a boat

to eye something up – to look at something you want, again and again

C · COMPREHENSION

Every summer - or that one evening?

Listen again. These are lines from Sam's story. Which describe E - what happened every summer - and which describe T - that one evening and its backstory?

a "We'd be up at six, whatever the weather."

b "He was always quoting tide times at me."

c "It had been sitting there untouched for weeks."

d "The tide had already turned."

e "The current was carrying me past the last of the moorings."

f "Afternoons, he'd let me row the little tender around the moorings."

g "I used to think it was one, too."

h "He'd been watching me from the house the whole time."

i "Davey came out in the launch and hauled me aboard."

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

Two kinds of past

1. The incident. Look at the T sentences (c, d, e, h, i). Match each to its job in the story - one job matches two sentences.

a main event, in sequence

an action in progress at that moment (the scene)

something completed before that moment

a longer activity running in the background before that moment

2. The rituals. Look at the E sentences (a, b, f, g). Underline the verb structures. How many different structures does Sam use for his habitual past? Name them if you can.

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

What changes - and what breaks?

Discuss, then vote in the chat.

1. Sam says "We'd be up at six" but "I used to think it was one". Could he say "I'd think it was one, too"? Why, or why not?

2. "He was always quoting tide times at me" vs "He always quoted tide times at me". Same facts - so what does Sam's version add?

3. "The tide had already turned" vs "The tide was already turning". How does the danger change? And why "It had been sitting there for weeks" rather than "It had sat there"?

4. At the end Sam says "I still can't get used to it." Is he talking about a past habit? What does get used to actually mean?

D · THE RULES

The past, mapped

Complete the rules with: past perfect simple · past perfect continuous · past simple · past continuous · would · always · used to

• SPECIFIC INCIDENTS - NARRATIVE TENSES. Main events, in sequence: ______ (...came out... hauled me aboard.)

• Scene-setting, an action in progress: ______ (The current was carrying me...)

• Completed before the main events: ______ (The tide had already turned.)

• Longer background activity before the main events: ______ (He'd been watching me the whole time.)

• HABITUAL EVENTS. Repeated actions and past states: ______ + infinitive (I used to think...)

• Repeated actions only - needs a time reference, never with stative verbs: ______ + infinitive (We'd be up at six.)

• Repeated behaviour + the speaker's attitude, often irritation: ______ + past continuous (He was always quoting...)

CAREFUL

She'd be terrified of dogs as a child - She used to be terrified... (would doesn't do past states), and would without a time frame sounds unanchored. Don't confuse used to + infinitive (past habit) with be/get used to + -ing (= become familiar with, any tense): I used to get up at six vs I never got used to getting up at six.

E · PRACTICE

Choose your past

Circle the correct option. In two sentences both options are possible - mark them and be ready to justify the difference.

1. Our street would have / used to have a little cinema on the corner; it's a supermarket now.

2. By the time we woke up, the river had risen / was rising half a metre - our boots were floating.

3. Every Friday without fail, Dad would bring / was bringing home fish and chips wrapped in paper.

4. As teenagers, we spent / used to spend entire weekends at the skate park.

5. I didn't hear the doorbell because I listened / was listening to music at full volume.

6. My sister would be / used to be terrified of thunderstorms - now she photographs them.

7. My grandfather would always tell / always used to tell the same three jokes at dinner.

8. Davey knew every sandbank in the estuary: he had been repairing / repaired boats there for forty years by the time I arrived.

E · PRACTICE

The summer after

Sam's story continues. Put each verb into a suitable form - narrative tenses, used to / would, or always + past continuous. Sometimes more than one answer is possible: be ready to justify your choice.

The next summer, I half expected to be turned away, but Davey (1) __________ (put) me to work on the water instead. Every morning that August, we (2) __________ (sail) out on the first of the tide, and he (3) __________ (make) me read the chart aloud as we went. He never mentioned the dinghy - though for years afterwards he (4) __________ (always / introduce) me to customers as "my nephew, the mud pilot". At his retirement party, decades later, he finally (5) __________ (tell) the whole story to a room full of strangers. By then I (6) __________ (hear) it a hundred times, but one detail was new: the dinghy's owner (7) __________ (sit) in the pub across the water that entire evening, and when Davey towed me in, he (8) __________ (laugh) so hard he bought the whole bar a drink. Last spring, I (9) __________ (clear) out the old workshop when I came across a photograph. Someone (10) __________ (pin) it above the bench years before: a boy, a borrowed dinghy, and an awful lot of mud.

F · SPEAKING

Rituals, then the day it all went wrong

Prepare (4 min). Choose one: a place from your childhood that's gone - or utterly changed - or the day a summer went wrong. Plan a 60-90 second story in two movements.

• The rituals - what you'd do, what you used to think, what someone was always doing.

• The incident - one specific day: what had been going on, what was happening, what happened next.

• Tell it (in threes). Speakers, hold the floor for the full 60-90 seconds. Listeners, ask one follow-up question each when the story ends. Then re-tell it to a new partner - tighter version, best details only.

• TRY TO USE: Every summer, we'd... · I used to think... · was/were always ...-ing · had been ...-ing when...

PICTURE

(you add this)

H · TAPESCRIPT

The Tide Doesn't Wait

Sam, forties, telling it to camera

Every August - the whole month, every single year until I was about fifteen - I'd get shipped off to my uncle Davey's boatyard, down on the estuary. My parents used to call it a holiday. Funny thing is, I used to think it was one, too.

There were rituals. We'd be up at six, whatever the weather, and Davey would walk the pontoons with his mug of tea, checking the mooring lines, and I'd trot along behind with the toolbag, feeling tremendously important. Mornings, I'd scrape hulls or fetch things. Afternoons, he'd let me row the little tender around the moorings. And the whole time he was always quoting tide times at me - always. "Tide waits for no man, Sam." I was always rolling my eyes at that. I wish I'd listened.

So - the summer I was twelve. A customer had left this beautiful little sailing dinghy on the slipway - varnished hull, brand-new sails - and it had been sitting there untouched for weeks. I'd been eyeing it up for days, if I'm honest. One evening - Davey had gone up to the house to phone somebody - I told myself I was only borrowing it. Ten minutes. Round the moorings and back.

The light was going, the water was flat as glass, and for about five glorious minutes I was king of the estuary. What I hadn't noticed was that the tide had already turned. By the time I looked up, the current was carrying me past the last of the moorings, out towards the mudflats. I paddled - I'd been paddling furiously for, I don't know, twenty minutes - and I was getting precisely nowhere. Then the dinghy just stopped. Mud. Mud everywhere.

Davey came out in the launch and hauled me aboard, and he didn't say one single word all the way back. Which, believe me, was worse than shouting. I found out years later that he'd been watching me from the house the whole time - he'd let me get exactly far enough to be properly frightened.

They sold the yard when he retired. It's luxury flats now - there's a gym where the shed used to be. I've seen the photos, and honestly? I still can't get used to it. Because somewhere under all that glass there's a twelve-year-old boy, covered in mud, learning what the tide does to people who don't listen.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (1)

SLIDE 3 GIST 1 Every August at his uncle Davey's boatyard on an estuary. 2 He "borrowed" a customer's sailing dinghy at dusk; the tide had turned and the current carried him onto the mudflats, where he got stuck; Davey towed him back. 3 The yard is luxury flats now; he still can't get used to it - nostalgic, wry, a little sad.

SLIDE 4 E OR T a E · b E · c T · d T · e T · f E · g E · h T · i T

SLIDE 5 TWO KINDS OF PAST Task 1: main event = i (past simple) · in progress = e (past continuous) · completed before = d (past perfect simple) · background activity = c and h (past perfect continuous). Task 2: three structures - would + infinitive (a, f) · always + past continuous (b) · used to + infinitive (g).

SLIDE 6 CONCEPT 1 No - think is stative here; would only works for repeated actions and needs a time reference, while used to covers actions and states. 2 Always + past continuous adds the speaker's attitude - a habit frequent enough to get under his skin (here, affectionate exasperation). Always quoted is neutral fact. 3 Had turned = complete, too late; was turning = still in progress, a chance left. Had been sitting foregrounds the duration ("for weeks"); had sat states bare completion. 4 No - be/get used to + -ing/noun = become familiar with, usable in any tense; here it is about the present.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (2)

SLIDE 7 RULES past simple · past continuous · past perfect simple · past perfect continuous · used to · would · always

SLIDE 8 CHOOSE YOUR PAST 1 used to have (stative have) · 2 had risen ("half a metre" = completed amount) · 3 would bring · 4 both (spent = neutral fact; used to spend foregrounds that it is no longer true) · 5 was listening · 6 used to be (stative be) · 7 both (tell is dynamic and habitual; would leans more literary) · 8 had been repairing ("for forty years by the time..."; had repaired is grammatical but loses the duration focus - accept if justified)

SLIDE 9 THE SUMMER AFTER 1 put · 2 would sail / used to sail / sailed (all acceptable - ask which and why) · 3 would make / used to make / made · 4 was always introducing (always introduced acceptable but flat) · 5 told · 6 had heard (stative hear) · 7 had been sitting ("that entire evening"; had sat acceptable with justification) · 8 laughed · 9 was clearing (interrupted by came across) · 10 had pinned ("years before")

SLIDE 10 SPEAKING No key. Monitor for the habitual movement (would / used to / always + past continuous) and the incident movement (past simple sequence, past continuous scene, past perfect backstory).