Best Use Of Time

Here's a fact worth sitting with: every student in Sri Lanka gets exactly the same 168 hours a week. Not one minute more for the nine-A student, not one minute less for the one who struggles. So why the huge gap in results? Almost never raw cleverness — it's what each of them does with those identical hours. This unit gives you the English to talk about time: to discuss it, apologise when you've wasted someone else's, and describe how a day is split up.

The grammar that fits is time clauses — when, as soon as, by the time, before, after — the little hinge-words that pin one action to another, plus the polite shape of an apology and the phrases for describing a pie chart. You'll write an apology dialogue, a pie-chart description, and a 200-word essay on managing time.

Keep one of these in your back pocket. An essay that opens with a sharp quotation sounds like it knows where it's going from the first line — and the examiner notices. Don't just drop it and run, though: quote it, then answer it. "Franklin called time money. He was wrong — it's worse than money, because you can earn money back."

This little table from the textbook does something clever: it teaches the value of time by changing who is counting it. A year is nothing to most of us — but to the student who just failed a final, a whole year is everything. A millisecond is invisible — until you're the heart surgeon whose hand slips. The lesson hiding inside the table is that time isn't measured in clocks; it's measured in what each person stands to lose. Read it slowly and feel each one.

A time clause ties one action to another in time — it answers "when does the main thing happen?" "I will call you as soon as I reach home." The first half is the plan; the time clause pins it to a moment. These little hinge-words — when, as soon as, by the time, while, before, after — are everywhere in everyday speech.

But here is the one rule that catches almost everyone, so let it sink in. After a time word, the verb stays in the present even when the meaning is clearly future. We say "I will call you as soon as I reach home" — not "as soon as I will reach". Think of it this way: English only lets you put one "will" in the sentence — it goes in the main half (the plan), and the time clause is already understood to be future, so it doesn't need its own "will". One future marker per sentence; the time clause travels in the present.

Saying sorry well is a skill, and the exam rewards a particular four-step shape because it's how a sincere apology actually works in real life. A mumbled "sorry sir" earns little; an apology that owns the lateness, explains it honestly, promises better, and accepts the cost sounds genuinely mature. Picture walking in late to your master-in-charge — the four moves carry you through it without fumbling.

1. Open with sorry — and mean it: "I'm very sorry sir, for being late this morning."
2. Give an honest reason (not an excuse): "Our train was delayed by 40 minutes due to a signal failure."
3. Promise it won't repeat: "It will not happen again."
4. Accept the consequence: "I am ready to take any punishment you give us."

And notice the other half of the exchange, because the exam often asks for the teacher's reply too. It almost always carries advice plus a warning: "You should leave home earlier from now on. Otherwise you will be marked absent." That should/otherwise pair is your signal the reply is doing its job.

Describing a pie chart isn't about listing every slice — it's about comparing them, and the examiner is literally hunting for five comparison phrases. Think of yourself as a tour guide walking the reader round the chart: start at the biggest slice, swing down to the smallest, point out any two that are equal, and pick out a "more than / less than" pair. Hit those phrases and the marks are yours; just reciting numbers without comparing them is what loses them.

• The highest percentage goes to Studying at 34%. (start big)
• The lowest percentage goes to Relaxing at 4%. (then smallest)
• An equal amount of time is spent on Classes and Eating (8% each).
• More time is spent on Sleeping (29%) than on Travelling (17%).
• Less time is spent on Relaxing than on any other activity.

The finishing touch that lifts a description from "fine" to "very good": after the comparisons, add one line of meaning — "in short, almost two-thirds of the day goes to studying and sleeping". The examiner wants to see you understood the chart, not just read it.