The job that changed my life: Past tenses (narratives)

Students explore the story of Jeff Bezos leaving a secure finance career to launch Amazon — and use it to master narrative past tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous.

Career vocabulary in context

Learners work with two vocabulary sets: career and recruitment phrases (career prospects, to climb the career ladder, a stepping stone, to land a job, to be shortlisted, transferable skills, networking, cover letter) and success-and-challenge expressions (entrepreneurial spirit, a leap of faith, to take initiative, to overcome setbacks, to make a breakthrough, legacy). Practice includes collocation tasks, gap-fills and sentence matching.

Reading: the job that changed Jeff Bezos's life

Students read an extended narrative about Bezos's decision to quit Wall Street in 1994, discuss the turning points in pairs, and debate in two groups whether his story is about vision or privilege and timing.

Narrative tenses in practice

A guided discovery section leads students from example sentences to a full rules recap, followed by gap-fills and error correction contrasting all four past tenses.

Speaking and homework

In groups, students build a chain story about a life-changing job, switching tenses as they go. Built-in homework covers vocabulary matching, word formation and a short written narrative with AI-assisted assessment.