A2 Key · Writing Part 7: the three-picture story
A2 Key and B1 Preliminary (KET, PET) · Cambridge English · A2 Key (KET) Topic 4 4:32 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
Chapters
Transcript
Part seven: write a short story of at least thirty-five words from three pictures — a beginning, a middle and an end. Look at all three pictures before writing; the story is already there, and you are narrating it, not inventing it. The memory hook: the pictures are a comic with no speech bubbles. You are the bubbles. The marks reward coverage, past tenses, and connectors that move time forward.
The story machine. First, name the pictures: a rainy street, a broken umbrella, a warm shop; three nouns are your skeleton. Then one or two sentences per picture, past simple, in order. Add one feeling per picture: cold, worried, happy. And add the connectors: suddenly, then, luckily, finally. The skeleton holds the story; the feelings and connectors move the time forward.
Read the model. It was raining hard, and Tom was walking to school: the background, the film camera. Suddenly, his umbrella broke in the wind; he was cold and wet: the event and the feeling. Luckily, a small café was open, so he went in and had a hot chocolate; he arrived at school late, but happy. Five sentences, three pictures, forty-four words, safely over thirty-five.
Pause and choose. He was cold, so he went into the café. The story lives in the past, and a drift into the present loses the mark and the plot. Goes is the present sneaking in; went is the story holding together.
The tense toolkit. The past simple carries the events: his umbrella broke. The past continuous carries the background: it was raining. A feeling adjective per picture: cold, wet, worried, happy. And the connectors: suddenly, then, luckily, finally. The B2 narrative cameras work at A2 too; one line of weather upgrades the story from a police report to a film.
Pause and choose. They spent too long on picture one, and picture three gets one sad sentence. The fix is the budget: roughly equal lines per picture, because the ending carries marks. Picture three is not optional, and the future tense has no business inside a finished story.
Narrate, don't describe. There is a boy; he has an umbrella is a photograph with words. It was raining; his umbrella broke; he found a café is a story that moves. And the sixty-second check: re-read once, checking only the verbs; every event in the past simple. And learn the spellings of suddenly, finally and luckily, because they appear in every story you will ever write.
Try it. Look at the three pictures: a boy asleep in bed while the clock says eight thirty; the boy running to the bus stop while the bus drives away; a neighbour waving from her car. Name each picture first — bed, bus stop, car — because the story is already there and you are narrating it, not inventing it. Pause the video and write your thirty-five words before the model appears.
The model. Jack woke up late and felt terrible. He ran to the bus stop, but the bus had already left. Luckily, his neighbour saw him and drove him to school. Jack was on time, and very grateful. Notice the flashback: the bus had already left. The past perfect works at A2 too, when the bus leaves before you arrive. Count your words: the model is thirty-six, just over the minimum; add one more detail to be safe.
Pause for four checks. Thirty-five words minimum, and the model is thirty-six, just over — add one detail to be safe. The story lives in the past: went, broke, found. It was raining: one background line upgrades the story. And equal lines per picture, because the ending carries marks. Next topic: the Key listening, parts one to three — pictures, notes and conversations, in your ears.