Part 2 stories: a trip that did not go to plan
You can plan a Part 2 story in a minute and tell it in order, from the scene to how you felt, for up to two minutes.
Think of a trip that went wrong. A missed bus or a lost bag is enough. The examiner is marking your English, so a small story works as well as a dramatic one.
Part 2 gives you a card, one minute to make notes and up to two minutes to talk. A story card helps you here: it comes with an order already in it, from the start of the trip to the end.
Warm-up
What counts as a story?
Before you see the card, one question about choosing what to talk about.
The card asks about a trip that did not go as planned. Which trip could you use?
How it works
Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes. Before you talk, you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes if you wish.
Describe a trip you went on that did not go as planned.
You should say:
- where you were going
- what went wrong
- what you did about it
and explain how you felt about the trip afterwards.
The minute to prepare comes with a pencil and paper. After your talk, the examiner may ask you one or two short questions.
Your minute of notes
- 1Choose fast
Take the first trip that comes to mind. Changing your mind costs seconds you need for notes.
- 2One line for each part
Scene, plan, problem, what you did, how you felt. A word or two on each line, and no full sentences.
- 3Add exact details
A time, a place, a number: 6 a.m. ferry, room above a café. Details make the story easy to picture and give you more to say.
- 4Mark the tense
Next to the scene, write was -ing. It reminds you to open with the past continuous.
The shape of the story
The parts, in order
When, where, who with, and why. The past continuous sets it: I was working in the capital at the time.
What was supposed to happen. We were going to catch the six o'clock ferry.
The events in the past simple, in order, each with a time phrase: then, an hour later, by the time we got there.
How you dealt with it, or tried to. We found a room above a café and waited.
The explain line on the card. How you felt at the time, and how you see it now: At the time I was furious. Now it's a family joke.
Watch me do one
My story is a trip to my cousin's wedding on an island, when the ferry was cancelled.
My notes, one line each: wedding, island. 6 a.m. ferry. storm, cancelled. room above café. 11 a.m. ferry, missed ceremony. furious, now funny.
That takes about forty seconds, which leaves time to plan the opening. The scene goes in the past continuous: At the time I was working in the capital, and my cousin was getting married on an island.
Then the plan, with were going to: We were going to catch the six o'clock ferry.
From there the notes carry me. Each line is one step, and the past simple moves the story on.
A model answer
Describe a trip you went on that did not go as planned.
I'm going to talk about a trip I made a couple of years ago, to my cousin's wedding. At the time I was working in the capital, and she was getting married on an island about three hours away by boat. The plan was simple. My parents and I were going to catch the six o'clock ferry on the Saturday morning, which would get us there well before the ceremony at twelve. Well, that's not how it went. When we got to the port, it was still dark and the wind was blowing really hard. We were queuing for tickets when a man came out and told us the ferry was cancelled because of the storm. The next one wasn't until eleven, so we knew we'd miss the ceremony. There wasn't much we could do. We found a room above a café by the harbour and waited, and my mum rang my cousin to apologise, which wasn't an easy call. In the end the eleven o'clock ferry did go, and we arrived just in time for the wedding lunch. How did I feel about it? At the time I was furious, mostly with the weather. But looking back, it's become one of our favourite family stories. My cousin still reminds me that I missed her wedding, and now we both laugh about it.
- GrammarThe past continuous sets the scene before anything happens.
- GrammarWere going to, for a plan that did not happen.
- CoherenceA short spoken turn that moves the story from the plan to the problem.
- GrammarA long action cut into by a short one, the pattern from the first lesson of this unit.
- VocabularyA short comment added with which. It sounds natural and adds feeling.
- CoherenceA time phrase that brings the events to a close.
- TaskThe explain line: how the speaker sees the trip now, as the card asks.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Four questions on planning and telling the story. Then you record the opening of your own story, and after that the whole talk.
Notes that help
You have one minute to prepare. Which of these will help you most while you talk?
Which notes are the most useful?
Which part is this?
Decide which part of the story this sentence comes from.
Looking back, I'm glad it happened, because we saw a part of the country I'd never have visited.
A slip into the present
One sentence in this story slips out of the past. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
Finished early
You reach the end of your story after about a minute and a quarter. The examiner has not stopped you.
What is the best thing to do?
Record: the opening
Use your own trip. Record only the first twenty seconds: the scene and the plan.
Set the scene of a trip that did not go as planned: where you were going, what was happening at the time, and what the plan was.
Record your answer (30s maximum)
0:00 / 0:30
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Record: the whole talk
Give yourself one minute with pen and paper, then speak for up to two minutes. Tell the whole story, then say how you felt.
Describe a trip you went on that did not go as planned. You should say: where you were going, what went wrong, what you did about it, and explain how you felt about the trip afterwards.
Record your answer (120s maximum)
0:00 / 2:00
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
For a plan in the past, often one that did not happen. We were going to catch the six o'clock ferry.
Should happen, according to a plan or a timetable. The ferry was supposed to leave at six.
Not going to happen after all. Add because of and a noun for the reason. The ferry was cancelled because of the storm.
Finally, after everything else. In the end we arrived just in time for the wedding lunch.
At the last possible moment. We reached the gate just in time, as they were closing it.
Thinking about it now, some time later. Looking back, it's one of our favourite family stories.
Before you go
Pick your story in the first few seconds, and write one line of notes for each part.
Open with the scene in the past continuous, then say what the plan was.
Tell what went wrong in the past simple, with a time phrase for each step.
Finish with the explain line: how you felt then, and how you see it now.
Next: Next is Writing Task 2: an essay question about holidays abroad that asks two things at once.