Goal: describe a sport in factual prose, write a match report, use past perfect continuous, avoid repetition with helping verbs, write a 200-word speech on the value of sport. Examined in Test 12 (verb forms), Test 15 (comprehension on sport), Test 16 (sports essay).
📐 Past perfect continuous
- Recipe: had been + V-ing.
- An action stretching up to a point in the past.
- Same form for all subjects.
- Stative verbs (know, believe, own) → plain past perfect.
They had been playing for only a few minutes.
He had been trying to find you all morning.
I had known her since 2018. (NOT "had been knowing")
📐 Avoiding repetition
- "I love cricket and so does Nisal."
- "Our team didn\'t win and neither did theirs."
- "Have you met him?" → "No, I haven\'t."
- "Did you win?" → "No, we didn\'t."
- Carry the helping verb forward; drop the rest.
🏏 Sports vocabulary
- People: player · captain · umpire · referee · coach · spectator · sponsor.
- Verbs: throw · catch · hit · run · score · pass · dribble · serve · bowl · field.
- Results: win · lose · draw · tie · abandon · forfeit · postpone.
- Values: fair play · team spirit · sportsmanship · discipline · leadership.
🇱🇰 Sri Lankan sport facts
- Volleyball — the national sport.
- Cricket — most popular spectator sport; World Cup winners 1996.
- Elle — a traditional bat-and-ball game.
- Susanthika Jayasinghe — Olympic silver (200 m) 2000.
- Lasith Malinga — Sri Lankan fast bowler, three hat-tricks at Cricket World Cup.
✍️ Writing — match report & speech
- Match report (Test 14): ~100 words. Date · venue · teams → key moment → final score → outstanding player → forward line.
- Sports speech / essay (Test 16): ~200 words. Sensory hook → 3 benefits with concrete examples → call to action.
- Word counts: notice 40–50 · paragraph 50–60 · report / letter ~100 · speech / essay ~200.
- Use plural forms in cricket: 5 wickets, 76 runs.