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Unit 2: What to wear
Present Simple and Present Continuous

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  1. 1 Nice to meet you!
  2. 2 What to wear
  3. 3 Like this, like that
  4. 4 The daily grind
  5. 5 Christmas every day
  6. 6 Great achievers
  7. 7 The Titanic
  8. 8 Travel
  9. 9 The big wedding
  10. 10 Sunny's job hunt
  11. 11 The bucket list
  12. 12 Moving and migration
  13. 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
  14. 14 New Year, New Project
  15. 15 From Handel to Hendrix
  16. 16 What's the weather like?
  17. 17 The Digital Revolution
  18. 18 A detective story
  19. 19 A place to live
  20. 20 The Cult of Celebrity
  21. 21 Welcome to your new job
  22. 22 Beyond the planets
  23. 23 Great expectations!
  24. 24 Eco-tourism
  25. 25 Moving house
  26. 26 It must be love
  27. 27 Job hunting success... and failure
  28. 28 Speeding into the future
  29. 29 Lost arts
  30. 30 Tales of survival

Session 3

In this unit we're going to watch an interview with one of the world's most successful fashion designers, Tom Ford. And you get the chance to practise the present simple and continuous tense by doing two quizzes.

Sessions in this unit

12345

Session 3 score

0 / 9

  • 0 / 4
    Activity 1
  • 0 / 5
    Activity 2
  1. Activity 1
  2. Activity 2

Activity 1

Meet Tom Ford

Fashion designer Tom Ford was interviewed by the BBC's Talking Business programme at London Fashion Week in 2014.

He talks about the ideas behind his 'collection'. A collection is a group of new clothes made by a designer.

Tom Ford uses the present simple and present continuous in the video. Do the activity to see how much you understand and to test your knowledge of the grammar.

Remember, if you need help you can look at the Session Vocabulary box.

 

Watch the video and do the activity

Show transcript Hide transcript

Linda Yueh

Tom it's delightful to talk to you. Talk to me a little bit about the inspiration for your collection.

Tom Ford 

Well last fall I think I went right to the edge really with beads, sequins, embroidery, over-the-top colour. And last spring I pulled back a little bit but still it was quite over-the-top. And I think the natural thing as a fashion designer, or at least for me, is always to think: what am I tired of, what do I want to see more of, how am I feeling now? And the natural reaction is to kind of pull back to maybe a quieter luxury that's really all about the shape, all about the line, all about the fabrics, the workmanship. And a little bit modest luxury. I'm not saying that we're seeing any sort of change in the luxury market because our business is great, but I think that maybe it's time just to be a little less ostentatious with it.

How much did you understand?

4 Questions

Answer these questions about the Tom Ford interview

Congratulations you completed the Quiz
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
x / y

Next

How did you do? Now watch the second Tom Ford video, this time about his London life. There's also another activity to test your grammar.

Session Grammar

View full grammar reference

Session Vocabulary

  • beads – small pieces of wood, glass or other material with holes in them, often used in jewellery

    sequins – small, bright bits of plastic sewn onto clothes

    embroidery – patterns made by sewing into cloth

    over-the-top – very extreme

    to pull back – to move away from (something)

    luxury – very pleasant, good quality and often beautiful

    fabric – material for clothes

    workmanship – (here) skill that someone uses to make things

    modest – (here) looking plain or simple, not expensive

    ostentatious – clearly showing wealth or power

View full vocabulary reference

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