This is the unit that lets you laugh โ drama, music, comedy, the buzz of booking tickets for a Friday-night show. But it sneaks in some serious work while you're enjoying yourself, because "a moment of fun" is exactly the kind of thing we describe using the present tenses โ and those are the tenses students mix up most. "I am taking the costumes" (right now), "I have read that play" (sometime before), "they have been practising since eight" (started earlier, still going). Three close cousins, three different jobs.
So the grammar focus is the three present tenses โ present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous โ plus the slippery little family of noun endings -tion ยท -sion ยท -ssion ยท -cian. You will write a telephone booking, a drama or film review, and a 200-word humour article.
Rizna is carrying costumes for the Inter-House Drama Competition when Mimuri stops her. Their chat is a perfect showcase of all three tenses doing their real jobs, so use it as your reference. "I'm taking some costumes" and "We are preparing" โ actions happening right now, so present continuous. "I have read that play" โ Mimuri doesn't say when; the point is that the reading is done and she knows the story now, so present perfect. And "the others have been practising since 8 o'clock" โ started in the past, still going at this moment, so present perfect continuous, flagged by that giveaway word since. Three tenses, three time-shapes, all in one ordinary conversation.
Along the way the conversation names real details worth remembering for comprehension: Rizna's house is performing "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, and she plays Grusha, one of the main characters. Other houses are performing "The Christmas Carol", "The Merchant of Venice" and "Everyman".
These three tenses confuse students because they all touch "now" โ but each touches it differently, and the trick is to picture the shape of time behind each one. Think of a single point, a finished arrow, and a stretching line. Present continuous is the single point of NOW โ a snapshot of what's happening this very moment: "I am taking the costumes." Present perfect is a finished arrow that landed in the present โ the action is over, but its result matters now and you don't say exactly when it happened: "I have read that play" (so I know the story). Present perfect continuous is a line still being drawn โ it began in the past and the pen hasn't lifted yet: "they have been practising since 8 o'clock" (and they're still at it).
| Tense | Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present continuous | am/is/are + V-ing | action NOW or these days | I am taking some costumes for the actors. |
| Present perfect | have/has + V3 | past action with present result; exact time not given | I have read that play. |
| Present perfect continuous | have/has + been + V-ing | action started in the past, still continuing | The others have been practising since 8 o'clock. |
The fastest way to choose in the exam is to hunt for the trigger word, because each tense travels with its own signals: now / right now / this week / these days โ present continuous. just / already / yet / ever / never / so far โ present perfect. since + a point in time ยท for + a length โ present perfect continuous.
Four endings, almost the same "shun" sound, and students guess between them and lose easy spelling marks. The good news is there are patterns, not chaos. The one to anchor first is the easiest: -cian almost always names a person โ a job. A magician, an electrician, a musician, a politician: if it's a someone, it's usually -cian. That single rule clears a quarter of the confusion at once.
For the other three, listen to the sound. -sion is the soft, buzzy one โ say "television", "decision", and feel it hum like a /zh/. -ssion and -tion both make a sharper "sh", and -ssion tends to come from roots that already have a double-s feel (discuss โ discussion, permission). When in doubt, -tion is the default โ it's by far the commonest, so a blind guess of -tion is your best odds.
| Ending | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -tion | /-shษn/ | education, nation, addition, profession, description, promotion, condition |
| -sion | /-zhษn/ | television, decision, illusion, occasion, vision, explosion |
| -ssion | /-shษn/ | expression, discussion, permission, passion, commission, session, admission |
| -cian | /-shษn/ (person) | musician, magician, politician, optician, technician, mathematician, electrician |
A booking call is really a small checklist wearing the clothes of a conversation, and the model call for four theatre tickets quietly ticks every box: a greeting, a clear request (how many tickets, what price, which show), the caller's name spelt out โ G-a-n-e-s-h-a-n, examiners love this detail because real clerks really do ask โ the payment method, the collection deadline, and a courteous close. Notice the register stays warm but efficient โ nobody waffles.
| Telephone-booking shape |
|---|
| Greeting: "Sir Sumangala Theatre. May I help you?" โ Request: "I'd like to book โฆ" โ Name spelt letter by letter โ Payment: cash / card โ Collection deadline โ "Thank you. Have a nice day!" |
When the task asks for a booking, run down the same checklist in order; the marks are literally awarded for including each step, so leaving one out is leaving marks on the table.
A good review does two jobs at once: it reports the event and it makes the reader wish they'd been there. The model review of Blue House's production of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" earns its life through specific, sensory detail โ not "the set was nice" but "the simple bedsheet curtain, the chalk circle painted on the stage and the live tabla in the corner". Those concrete pictures are what a marker rewards. It also names names (the playwright, the director, the lead actor and her class), which gives it the ring of real journalism. And the grammar of the unit surfaces naturally โ "Blue House have just earned" is a present perfect carrying that "just" trigger.
| Task | Official word count |
|---|---|
| Notice (Test 6) | 40โ50 words |
| Short paragraph (Test 8) | 50โ60 words |
| Telephone booking | ~80 words |
| Telephone / review (Test 14) | ~100 words |
| Dialogue / article (Test 16) | ~200 words โ six turns minimum, use all three present tenses, end with a clear plan or punch line |
The three present tenses are a permanent fixture of the verb-form and word-box passages, and the -tion / -sion / -cian endings show up in nearly every Test 11 spelling task โ easy marks if you've drilled them. The booking-call shape and the review/article are common writing tasks. Entertainment and TV essays come round often too.
| Past-paper test | What was tested |
|---|---|
| 2017 Test 12, 2018 Test 12 | Verb-form passage testing present perfect / continuous |
| Every Test 11 | Word-box fill-in with -sion / -tion noun forms |
| 2016 Test 16 (d) | Dialogue completion (Ruwini and Migara) |
| 2017 Test 16 (a) | Article on 'Watching TV: advantages and disadvantages' |
| 2019 Test 16 (a) | Article on lifestyle and entertainment choices |