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Lesson planB285 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
B2 First Unit 2: Travel and Journeys
Students build travel vocabulary and use narrative tenses, including the past perfect, through B2 First open cloze, transformation, reading and article tasks.
Travel · Narrative tenses · Reading · Writing
B2 First preparationTopic unit
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Plan at a glance
Aims
- Use narrative tenses, especially the past perfect, to tell a travel story
- Learn and use 17 words and phrases in 2 sets: Journeys and travel, Places and landscapes
- Practise B2 First Reading and Use of English Parts 2, 4 and 5
- Write a B2 First article about a memorable journey
Stages · 85 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs tell each other about the best or worst journey they have been on. Elicit a few stories and the tenses used.
- 10 minVocabulary: Ex. 1–2
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes on narrative tenses and the past perfect; check the order of events in two example sentences.
- 5 minControlled practice: Ex. 3
- 10 minExam practice: open cloze: Ex. 4
- 10 minExam practice: transformations: Ex. 5
- 15 minExam practice: reading: Ex. 6
- 5 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 7
- 20 minWriting: Ex. 8
Printables
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Download all (ZIP, 2 PDFs)Grammar notes
Narrative tenses
- Past simple for the main events of a story: We set off at six and reached the coast at noon.
- Past continuous for the background or an action in progress: It was raining and the wind was blowing.
- Past perfect (had + past participle) for something that happened before another past moment: When we arrived, the ferry had already left.
Past perfect: useful patterns
- by the time + past simple, past perfect: By the time we found a hotel, it had got dark.
- had never … before: I had never seen such breathtaking scenery before.
- Passive: Our bags had been stolen while we were asleep.
Study tips
- In the open cloze, most answers are short grammar words. Read the whole sentence, including the words after the gap.
- In a story, check the order of events: if one past action happened before another, you probably need the past perfect.
Glossary
- Journeys and travel9 items
- Places and landscapes8 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
Travel words
Match each word with its meaning. There is one extra meaning.
Tap an item…
…then its match
2
Choose the right word
Choose the word that fits each sentence.
- a
My company sent me on a business ___ to Madrid last week.
- b
If we don't leave now, we'll ___ the last ferry to the island.
- c
We drove along the ___ for hours, stopping at small fishing villages on the way.
- d
We had so much ___ that it didn't fit in the boot of the car.
- e
Our ___ was delayed, so we left Rome three hours later than planned.
- f
It was a long ___ across the mountains, and we were exhausted when we arrived.
3
Telling a travel story
Choose the correct verb form to complete each sentence.
- a
When we got to the airport, our flight ___, so we had to wait for the next one.
- b
I ___ along the beach when I noticed a small boat in trouble.
- c
By the time we reached the top, the fog ___ so thick that we couldn't see anything.
- d
She ___ to Asia before, so she knew what to expect on the trip.
- e
While we ___ dinner on the terrace, the lights suddenly went out.
- f
I recognised the café immediately: we ___ there on our first trip, ten years earlier.
4
The night train
Read the text and think of the word that best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.
Exam task: Reading and Use of English, Part 2
Tip: Read the whole text first. Most gaps need a grammar word: a preposition, a pronoun, an auxiliary verb or a linking word.
I had always wanted to take a night train, and last summer I finally got the chance. My friend Leo and I set off from Paris 1 a warm evening in July. We had booked a tiny cabin, 2 had two narrow beds and a window that wouldn't open. There was hardly 3 room for our luggage, so one bag stayed in the corridor all night.
I couldn't sleep at first because the train kept stopping, but by the 4 we crossed the border, I was fast asleep. When I woke up, the sun 5 already risen over the mountains. Leo was standing at the window, staring at the scenery 6 if he had never seen mountains before.
We hardly said a word 7 the train pulled into the station at our destination. It was the most memorable journey 8 our lives.
5
Key word transformations
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first. Use the word given and do not change it. Use between two and five words, including the word given.
Exam task: Reading and Use of English, Part 4
Tip: Don't change the key word, and count your words: contractions such as hadn't count as two.
- a
The train left before we arrived at the station.
ALREADY
When we arrived at the station, the train .
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- b
It was my first time in a hostel.
NEVER
I in a hostel before.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- c
I didn't recognise the town because it had changed a lot.
SO
The town that I didn't recognise it.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- d
The last time I travelled abroad was three years ago.
FOR
I three years.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- e
We set off early so that we wouldn't miss the ferry.
AVOID
We set off early to the ferry.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- f
Someone had stolen our bags while we were asleep.
BEEN
Our bags while we were asleep.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
6
The wrong ferry
Read the story. For each question, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Exam task: Reading and Use of English, Part 5
Tip: The questions follow the order of the text. Find the part that answers each question before you read the options.
For years my grandmother had talked about the island where she had grown up. She described the white houses, the harbour full of fishing boats and the hill where she used to pick wild herbs. So when I finally had a week off work last spring, I decided to see it for myself. I had never travelled abroad on my own before, and my parents were worried, but I had made up my mind. The journey started well. I took an early train to the coast and arrived at the port with two hours to spare. The café by the ticket office sold the strongest coffee I had ever tasted, so I bought a cup and a sandwich for the crossing. The departure board was entirely in the local language, which I could barely read, but a woman at the ticket office pointed me towards a white ferry with a blue stripe. Relieved, I climbed on board, found a seat on the deck and watched the mainland disappear. It was only after an hour, when an announcement mentioned a name I didn't recognise, that I began to feel uneasy. I showed my ticket to a member of the crew. He studied it for a moment, smiled kindly and explained that my ferry had left from the next quay twenty minutes earlier. This one was going to a different island altogether, and it would not sail back until the following morning. I stepped off the boat into a small, remote village with one café, one shop and no hotel. My first reaction was panic. I had no booking, my phone battery was almost dead and the sun was already going down. I must have looked as lost as I felt, because an elderly man who was mending nets on the harbour wall asked me, in slow, careful English, where I was trying to go. When I told him my grandmother's name, his face lit up. He had known her family when he was a boy. That evening I ate grilled fish with him and his wife, and they told me stories about my grandmother that even my mother had never heard. Their grandson, who was visiting from the city, translated whenever his grandparents couldn't find the right English words. They insisted on giving me their spare room, and the next morning the old man took me across to the right island in his own small boat. The crossing took less than an hour, and the sea was so calm that it looked like glass. I spent four wonderful days on the island, and I even found the house where my grandmother had been born. But when people ask me about the trip, it isn't her island that I talk about first. It's the evening I spent on the wrong one. I had planned every detail of that journey, and the best part was the one thing I hadn't planned at all.
- a
Why did the writer decide to make the journey?
- b
At the port, the writer chose the white ferry because
- c
What does the writer mean by "I began to feel uneasy" in paragraph 3?
- d
In paragraph 3, what does "This one" refer to?
- e
How did the writer feel when she first arrived in the village?
- f
What point does the writer make in the final paragraph?
7
Find and correct the mistake
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the correction.
- a
The travel takes two hours.
- b
I did a trip to Italy last year.
- c
I have three luggages.
- d
When we got to the station, the train already left.
- e
By the time we arrived, they have eaten all the food.
- f
I had never saw such breathtaking scenery before.
8
Write an article
Write your article in 140–190 words.
Exam task: Writing, Part 2
Tip: Give your article a title and talk to the reader directly. Use narrative tenses to tell the story, and finish by saying why it matters to you.
You see this announcement on an English-language travel website. ARTICLES WANTED: A journey I'll never forget Tell us about a journey that didn't go to plan. What happened, and why do you still remember it? The best articles will be published on our website. Write your article. Try to use some of these words: set off, destination, remote, supplies, luggage, scenery, breathtaking, expedition, departure.
Suggested minimum: 140 words
Before you hand it in
- My article has an interesting title.
- The first sentence makes the reader want to read on.
- I ask the reader at least one direct question.
- I use the past simple, past continuous and past perfect to tell the story.
- The ending says why the journey still matters to me.
0 words · aim for at least 140
Show a model answer
Stuck in the Snow Have you ever spent a night somewhere you never meant to visit? I have, and it turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. Two winters ago, my sister and I set off by coach to visit friends in the mountains. We had checked the weather forecast, but nobody had warned us about the storm. Halfway up the valley, the snow was falling so heavily that the driver had to stop in a remote village. At first everyone was furious. We had no supplies apart from a packet of biscuits, and our luggage was still under the coach. Then the owner of the village café opened her doors, made hot soup for forty strangers and lit a huge fire. By midnight, passengers who had been complaining an hour earlier were singing together. We reached our destination the next afternoon, tired but happy. I've forgotten most of that holiday, but I'll never forget the journey. So next time your plans go wrong, why not enjoy the adventure?
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Fix ItFind the mistake in each sentence, then correct it.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 17 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in 2 sets.
Journeys and travel
- journey
- the act of travelling from one place to another, especially a long way
- trip
- a short visit to a place and back again
- expedition
- an organised journey to a distant or difficult place, often for a special purpose
- set off
- to start a journey
- departure
- the act of leaving a place, especially at the start of a journey
- destination
- the place that someone is travelling to
- miss
- to arrive too late to get on a train, bus, plane or boat
- luggage
- the bags and cases that you take with you when you travel
- supplies
- food, fuel and equipment that you need for a period of time
Places and landscapes
- remote
- far away from towns and other people
- coast
- the land next to the sea
- scenery
- the natural features of an area, such as mountains and forests, especially when they are beautiful
- breathtaking
- extremely beautiful or impressive
- mountains
- very high hills, often with rocky tops
- valley
- low land between hills or mountains, often with a river
- island
- a piece of land with water all around it
- harbour
- an area of water by the coast where boats can stay safely
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