When a Man Walked Into Patagonia
Grammar: Past Simple
A Level 3 English lesson exploring travel.
What's in this lesson
A Level 3 (intermediate) ESL lesson on travel, practising past simple. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Man Who Walked Into Patagonia
"I had never felt so free," Bruce Chatwin wrote after his first months in Patagonia. He had left London in 1974 without a proper plan. He was a young writer at the time, and he was searching for something he could not name. By the time he arrived in southern Argentina, he had already quit his job at a newspaper and had sold most of his books. He was ready to wander — to move without an itinerary, without a destination, without a schedule.
Vocabulary
- change your perspective
- feel overwhelmed
- follow an itinerary
- seek isolation
Grammar: Past Simple
- Past perfect — form
- By the time he arrived, he had already quit his job. — had + past participle; action before another past action
- Past perfect
- She had never seen snow before she visited Canada. — use to show what happened earlier in the story
Discussion questions
- Have you noticed how some travellers come back completely different people?
- Why do you think certain journeys feel more important than others?
- Have you ever been somewhere so unfamiliar it changed how you saw your own life?
When a Man Walked Into Patagonia
Grammar: Past Simple
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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