Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering

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English DGHT

Credits 2 Academic year: 2011-2012

Practical lesson 5 The1^st term

Intermediate level

Lexical theme: Changing your life. Grammar: “Present Perfect Continuous”.

Assistant of Professor Nussipaliev Nuzhan Serikovich

What vocabulary do you associate with birth, marriage and death?

Write a list of words for each group of picture.

1. Present Perfect Continuous ● We use the Present perfect continuous to talk about recent activities. It answers the question ‘How have you been spending your time?’:

I’ve been writing letters.

I haven’t been working very hard.

● Like the present perfect simple, this tense cannot be used with past time expressions, but we can use it with expressions such us recently, this week, over the last few days:

I’ve been writing a lot of letters recently.

I haven’t been working very hard this week.

● Forms of the present perfect continuous:

I’ve She’s	been working hard
Have you Has she	been working hard?

2011-2012 KasGASA English Nussipalyiev N.S

Present perfect continuous and simple tenses

Present perfect continuous and simple tenses are often used together. We use the continuous form to talk about activities, and the simple form to talk about individual actions:

I’ve been getting ready for my trip. I’ve packed my case, I’ve collected my tickets I’ve changed some money.

I’ve been writing an essay. I’ve written it in rough but I haven’t typed it out yet.

2. Complete with a verb from the list in the present perfect continuous.

bark cry do eat play shop not sleep watch

A Your sister’s lost a lot of weight!

B Yes. She’s been eating a lot less recently.

1. A Your eyes are red.___________ you __________?

B Yes. I ______________ a sad film.

2. A It’s very late. Why aren’t you in bed?

B I can’t sleep. That dog _____________ for the last to hours.

3. A You look tired.

B I know. I ____________ well recently.

4. A Wow! You bought a lot of things!

B Yes, we __________ all day.

5. A You look hot! What _________ you__________?

B I ____________ in the garden with the children.

3. What have you been doing?

Well, this month I’ve been serving customers as one of the staff is ill. I’ve also been doing the accounts, writing letters, ordering new stock. And I’ve bought a new delivery van.

Basically, I’ve been learning my lines. I suppose I’ve learnt about half of them now. I play an American, so I’ve also been taking lessons in American English.

I’ve been doing all the usual things-driving around, visiting clients, giving out free samples. One thing I haven’t done yet is fill in this month’s expenses claim. I must do that.

1 a Read these texts. What do you think the people’s jobs are?

b What is the difference between the Present perfect simple (I’ve done) and the Present perfect continuous (I’ve been doing)

2 Work in pairs. Find out whether your partner has been doing any of these things recently.

• going out a lot - spending a lot of money

• working hard - watching TV a lot

• going to bed late - travelling a lot

Example:

A Have you been going out a lot recently?

B Yes, I have. I’ve been out four times this week.

No, I haven’t. I’ve been painting my flat.

No, I only went out once last week.

2011-2012 KasGASA English Nussipalyiev N.S

Look at the pictures. What do you think the people have (or haven’t) been doing?

Example:

Picture A He’s been watching the late movie.

He hasn’t been sleeping well. He’s been working very hard.

Read the conversations. What are the conversations about? Imagine what the people have or (haven’t) been doing?

1 A We’ve just got to do something. I mean she came home again after midnight last night.

B I know, she hasn’t looked at a book for weeks. She’s never going to pass her exam at this rate.

2 A I bet you’ll be glad to see them go, wont’ you?

B Yeah, it’s exhausting, I mean it’s nice to see them because they live so far away, but, well it is hard work.

3 A He’s so different. He used to be so shy and quit.

B I know it really is incredible. I think he’s changed since his divorce, don’t you?

Control test

1. Choose the right variant

I'm exhauted! I ______ all day.

1. have working

2. have been working

3. has been working

4. were working

1. Choose the right variant

I _______ to the music for an hour.

1. listening

2. am listening

3. listened

4. have been listening

3. Choose the right variant

I don't believe it! Somebody ______ my chocolates. They are nearly all gone.

1. eaten

2. has been eaten

3. has been eating

4. was eaten

4. Choose the right word

Тоnу Russell has had his ______ mobile phone for only three months.