The day everything changed — Workbook
1. Vocabulary gap-fill
Complete each sentence with ONE word or short chunk from the box.
- I drop my old teacher at the supermarket last week — total surprise.
- We meant to go to Porto, but we drop in a tiny village outside Coimbra.
- The email arrived drop on a random Tuesday.
- Losing that job was actually a drop — it pushed me to change everything.
- drop , I should have said something sooner.
- When I drop on that summer, I still can't believe how young I was.
- She drop a very hard year and didn't want to talk about it.
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5. Find and fix the mistake
Each sentence has ONE mistake. Rewrite it.
- Yesterday I go to the gym after work.
- She didn't went to the meeting.
- When Ana she arrived, we started dinner.
- As soon I read the message, I called him.
- We eated pizza before we went to the cinema.
- Did you saw the message I sent yesterday?
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6. Combine with a contrast/sequence linker
Join the two ideas into ONE natural sentence using although / but / because / and.
- She said yes without asking why. That was her first mistake.
- He'd been her first boss. He had disappeared for eleven years.
- She didn't cry. She wanted to.
- The office felt smaller. The old boss had rearranged something inside her.
- I bumped into my teacher. I ended up talking to her for an hour.
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7. Listening — 'The day I bumped into…'
Three short past-simple stories. Notice how each speaker uses time linkers (when / while / as soon as / after) to organise events.
- Ravi: where and when did he meet his old teacher, and what happened as soon as she recognised him?
- Elena: what was she doing when the cat ruined her call, and how did her boss react?
- Tomás: what arrived from his mother, and what did he do BEFORE he called her back?
Show transcript
Ravi:You'll never guess who I bumped into last Saturday. I was in a small bookshop in central Manchester, killing time before dinner, when I turned around and my secondary-school English teacher was standing right there. Mrs. Osei. She still smelled of chalk and coffee, honestly, and I hadn't seen her in about twelve years. As soon as she recognised me, she said my name in exactly the same tone she used when I hadn't done my homework. We ended up talking for over an hour. In hindsight, that quiet afternoon was the highlight of the whole week.
Elena:So, last Tuesday I was on an important work call, unmuted, and I just started to speak, when my cat — who normally sleeps all afternoon — decided to jump onto my desk. While he was landing, he knocked my coffee straight onto the keyboard. As soon as I saw the brown liquid running under the keys, I panicked and shouted something my whole team heard very clearly. The funny thing is, my boss laughed and told everyone we'd stop for ten minutes so I could clean up.
Tomás:Two Sundays ago, a letter arrived from my mother. Not an email, an actual paper letter, which is very unusual for her. As soon as I opened it, I understood something was wrong, although the letter didn't say much, honestly. Before I called her back, I read it a second time, poured myself a glass of water and sat by the window for a few minutes.
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8. Writing — A small day that changed something
Write 90–110 words about a specific past day that changed something small for you (a decision, a friendship, a habit). Use the past simple throughout and at least FOUR different time linkers (when / while / as soon as / after / before / once). End with ONE reflective sentence starting with 'In hindsight,…' or 'Looking back,…'.
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9. Reflection (discursive)
Answer each in 2 full sentences.
- The narrator says Nadia's first mistake was saying yes 'without asking why'. Have YOU ever agreed to something too quickly and regretted it? Tell it briefly, using at least two linkers.
- 'I'm sorry it took me so long' — the old boss's line, eleven years late. Do you think a very late apology is still worth something? Explain honestly.
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