В чем разница между уровнями?

Давайте попробуем разобраться, в чём разница между уровнями и по каким критериям определяют тот или иной уровень на международных языковых экзаменах и на собеседованиях.

Как вы понимаете изъясниться на любую тему можно по-разному – как ученик начальной школы, как старшеклассник, как выпускник ВУЗа, можно кратко, можно очень детально и объёмно. Если очень коротко, то в рамках одной короткой встречи вас всегда оценивают по используемой грамматике, активному словарному запасу, темпу речи и логике изложения.

Если демонстрировать визуально, то вот так можно показать разницу между уровнями с точки зрения изучаемых грамматических времен.

Beginner

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках начального уровня. Максимально просто. Буквально несколько предложений в каждом времени, но в корректных формах.

When I was a child we didn’t have a car. We used public transport. My father was a driver but he worked in a hospital and he never used hospital cars.

Today I have a car and it’s very simple and cheap because it’s my first car. It’s Volkswagen Polo and I like it. I hardly ever use public transport and I usually drive every day.

In the future I would buy a Volkswagen too because I like this brand.

I am going to buy Tiguan in two or three years.

Elementary

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках элементарного уровня. Предложений может быть уже больше, но это всё ещё максимально просто.

We have never had a car. When I was a child my father was a driver and he worked in a hospital. It was more interesting for me to go to his garage, where I could play with different car parts and broken cars.

When I was in upper-classes I went to a driving school and I got my first driving license at the age of sixteen. It was really cool and I was very happy. I could drive cars and ride motorcycles.

Today I live in Moscow and I drive a very simple car. It’s Volkswagen Polo. It’s very simple to park and it’s very cheap to service. In Moscow there are a lot of crazy drivers and it’s very useful to practice in heavy traffic of a big city and in motorways.

In the future would buy a little bit bigger car. It would be something like Tiguan.

Unfortunately I’m not going to do this quickly. I’m going to wait for a couple of years.

Pre-Intermediate

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках уровня, который ниже среднего. Детализация выше, грамматических времён больше, рисуемая картинка интереснее.

When I was a child I used to live in my grandmother’s village and it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life. Although my father was a driver, we didn’t have our own car. He worked in a hospital and he was busy all the time. I used to come to his garage very often because I really liked the atmosphere there. My father’s colleagues were very good to me and I was allowed to play with different car parts and I could sit in every car which was broken-down.

I remember the first time behind the wheel. I was six years old, It was summer and as always I came to the garage. There were a couple of men, who were standing in front of one of the cars. They were in the middle of a conversation and they were laughing. Once they saw me they said hallo and my father invited me to join him.

It turned out he had just repaired the car and he needed to test it. As you understand I was too little and I couldn’t see anything from the front seat. I just couldn’t push the pedals and control the speed so I had to sit on my father’s lap. I was controlling the wheel and he was controlling the rest of the car. That way we drove twenty kilometers and for me it was just unforgettable!

I was very lucky to get to a driving school when I was in upper-classes. It was really exiting to learn how to drive small cars and big trucks. I also had a chance to learn how to ride motorbikes. Getting my first driving license just after school at the age of sixteen was a little torture for me because I couldn’t use it. After becoming a student I didn’t have any money and of course I didn’t have any time.

Nowadays I live in Moscow and I’ve been driving my own car since 2017. It’s a very simple car, which is really easy to park, which is very simple to service and whose insurance is not exorbitant. I’m talking about Volkswagen Polo. It’s not the first car I drive but it’s the first car I own. Now I know the difference between being able to drive a car and being responsible for driving a car.

Now I know the difference between buying a car and possessing a car which means that I have to service it on time, I have to prepare it to winter and summer conditions on time, I have to pay for my insurance on time, I have to choose correct petrol on time and I have to repair it in case of an accident, if I want to keep driving.

I think I have already had enough time of driving a simple car. So in the future I would be really happy to buy a bigger and more powerful car.

I’m not going to do this immediately because of two reasons. First of all, my current car is in a very good condition and second of all, there are so many new cars on the market nowadays that I need some time to get some more information about them all. I will probably have to wait for a while. A couple of years, not longer. But I’m thinking about Tiguan. And if I decide to buy I a new car, I will definitely start with test drives and if I like something, I will try to do my best to buy it for cash.

Of course if I didn’t have any financial limitations, it would be Lexus NX because it has always been my dream. But I shouldn’t get crazy and I should definitely buy a car, which I could enjoy while driving and which could be not so expensive for me at the same time.

Intermediate

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках среднего уровня. Детализация ещё выше из-за нового словарного запаса, который касается конкретно транспорта, но новых грамматических структур не так уж и много по сравнению с предыдущим уровнем.

My father has been an ambulance driver since I remember myself but he has never had his own car. That’s why when I was a child I used to spend really a lot of time in his garage at work. I was allowed to play with all the car parts I could find and physically move and I could also do whatever I wanted to do with every car which wasn’t in working order. Of course except damaging any of them.

I used to play inside coming up with different games and discovering every part of every car. But just because of the fact that I was alone I also really liked going through instruction manuals. Turning over pages with technical drawings really fascinated me.

I wasn’t able to read at that time, so I used to ask really a lot of questions about cars. My father and his colleagues were really patient with me. They were always very good to me, they were really happy to see me every single time and they were over the moon answering questions about their working routine.

I remember one summer when I was six years old. It was my last free summer before going to school. I came to the garage during the lunch break and I saw my father standing in front of one of the cars with some colleagues. They were having a conversation about the time they had spent repairing that car. Everyone looked quite happy and once they realized that I was there everyone said hallo and smiled at me. My father gave me a hug and he invited me to join him for a test drive.

It took me five seconds to get into the car, which made everyone laugh. After a couple of minutes we were driving along the village, where we used to live at the time. The village wasn’t really small but it was’t very big either. There were a couple of dozens of streets with a couple of thousands of residents and of course there were a lot of children running around.

We left the village and we drove onto the nearest motorway. Five minutes later we finally got to a real agricultural field where there weren’t any other cars, any pedestrians and any speed limits. My father stopped the car and I changed my seat. As you understand I was too little to be able to push the the pedals and I was also too weak to be able to manipulate the gear stick of a car with manual transmission, so I had to sit on his lap.

We set off. I was looking ahead and I was steering the wheel and he was changing gears and controlling our speed. That way we drove twenty kilometers, which I’ll never be able to forget.

In upper classes I got lucky to get a place in a driving school where I could learn to ride motorbikes and drive cars and trucks. It was a quite intense period of life for an ordinary pupil like me because I had to go there at weekends and on some days during the week – but after school. On the one hand it was very interesting, on the other hand I was exhausted and I didn’t have any free time at all. But after a couple of years of theoretical classes and practical drills I passed all the exams and I got my first driving license, which I didn’t even celebrate because I also turned into a poor student without any time and money.

At the moment I live in one of the coolest and most beautiful places I’ve ever visited, which is Moscow. And it’s also one of the biggest and craziest cities I’ve ever seen in my life, which means that you have to be whether a skilled driver to feel safe behind the wheel or rich to be able to solve any problem which you can potentially get on the road.

Since 2017 I’ve been driving a very simple and affordable car because honestly I’ve still been practicing to follow all the road rules in such heavy traffic of this giant city. In spite of the fact that you have to know and follow all the local road rules you have to learn to predict other people’s actions on the road.

It may sound funny and even stupid but it’s a multinational place which means that there might be really a lot of people from really a lot of different places who don’t respect any local rules.

My Volkswagen Polo is a very simple car, which is really easy to park. But every time I park it I should occupy a parking space really carefully without leaving some extra little space for bikers, who can easily scratch it, trying to push their motorbikes between my car and somebody else’s car. And I don’t have to occupy too much space in order no to be fined or in order to avoid tow trucks in action.

My Polo is a very simple car but every time I have to service it I have to be really careful, choosing a car repair shop because in some places there are good mechanics with all needed skills and in some places there are good marketing managers with really basic mechanical skills. Some shops charge for their services and some chops charge for their location. It takes time to find real professionals, who care.

Polo is a very simple car but if I’m stuck in a traffic jam there might be a chance to meet some really tired and emotionally unstable people with unpredictable outlook on life who can easily cause an accident and damage my car. Even if it’s not my fault, I just have to be ready to get a higher bill from my insurance company next year.

Polo is a very simple car, which helps me to develop paranormal abilities, like reading people’s minds and planning my budget without having a decent business.

In the future I would be really happy to buy a bigger and more powerful car. I would need it not only to be able to get around, but to be able to get around with my instrument. The thing is that I play drums and it would be more convenient to have a car with more space for my instrument and for my bandmates and more horses to be able to drive safely with more weight and with more passengers.

I’m going to test a couple of cars in the nearest future. It will probably be very difficult to choose something because every car company produces new makes so quickly that you don’t have enough time to think. Of course if I find something I like, I’ll start saving money to buy it. If I can make it without any loan programs, I’ll be the happiest person on the planet.

If I were able to afford Lexus NX, I would definitely buy it because I really like this car. But even they change this car so fast, that I would prefer some previous generations that modern ones.

Anyway I should stay sane and I should buy an affordable car, which I’ll be able to maintain.

Actually I should have bought Lexus NX as my first car. If I had done this in 2017, I would have saved really a lot of money and I would have been able to enjoy driving my favorite car.

Upper-Intermediate

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках уровня, который выше среднего. Новые грамматические времена, новые конструкции, новый уровень детализации.

Being a child before going to school was one of the best periods of my life and recalling it makes my happy every single time. I used to live in my grandmother’s village, which had been built after the second world war. I remember living among very good people in a very beautiful place being surrounded by four hundred hectares of different gardens.

We didn’t have a car because we didn’t need it at that time. Traveling around the world wasn’t popular yet and traveling around the country was predominantly planned by organizations, where people worked. And people used to go on their holidays by busses and trains. That is why walking and riding a bike was completely enough when you lived in a small village like mine.

My father has been an ambulance driver since I remember myself and when I was a child I used to spent really a lot of time in his garage, where I was always welcomed, even if he wasn’t there. I would usually come there in the second part of the day, when it wasn’t so hot and I was allowed to play with all the filthy car parts, which I was able to to move.

By the way, there were some safety rules. I couldn’t touch any electrical tools, I had to wear a uniform with gloves and I had to keep every car clean.

But in general my father’s colleagues treated me like a pal, although they threatened me every time somebody mentioned alcohol or cigarettes. They just didn’t want me to start.

One day I came to the garage and saw my father talking to some colleagues. He had just repaired one old car and he was waiting for me so we could test it together. I got into the car and we sett off. We had been driving for about ten minutes, when we finally got to a real agricultural field.

There weren’t any pedestrian arias, any cycle lanes, any traffic lights, any speed limits and of course there weren’t any people around. It was a perfect place for an unpredictable test drive.

My father got out of the car, checked every wheel, opened the hood and checked the engine and the exhaust system. Everything was ok with the ignition but he checked the handbrake again. And he also wanted to make sure, that everything was ok with the clutch pedal.

After that he invited me to the driver’s seat. I had to sit on his lap, because I was too little and it was quite a long distance between my feet and any of the pedals. So he took control over the pedals and the gear stick and I was responsible for steering the wheel.

That way we drove twenty kilometers and it was my first experience of driving a car and it happened two months before I learnt how to ride a two-wheeler.

In upper-classes I got lucky and I got a chance to apply for a place in a driving school. I was enrolled after a very short interview, which I hadn’t actually expected. The school was absolutely free, it was incredibly interesting to attend theoretical lessons as well as practical ones. But it was also really exhausting. I had to go there on some days after school and at weekends, so I didn’t have any free time. Eventually they taught me how to ride bikes and how to drive manual vehicles like cars, minivans and trucks. By the year 2030 I will have been driving for thirty years.

I must have been very impressed by all those vehicles and I got little bit addicted to bikes and cars in general. And today I am pretty sure that my parents should have bought me a motorbike when I got to university. If I had had enough real practice in different places, it would have been much easier and even safer to be able to switch between a car and a motorbike today.

Nowadays I live in Moscow and I have been living here for more than ten years. It’s a very big city with a lot of crazy drivers from different regions and even countries. We don’t have any rush hours here. It sometimes feels as if we have rush days.

I’ve been driving Volkswagen Polo since 2017 but unfortunately I haven’t been riding a bike for more the twenty years. It sometimes really helps to have a car here. Even a small one. But not always. I’m used to driving every day but if I need to get to the city center in the middle of a working week, it’s much more convenient to use public transport. The local underground is just the fastest way to get around during the day. Instead of being stuck in a traffic jam for the half of the day it can only take you thirty or forty minutes to get to your destination.

I’m often asked about this city and existing here. It may sound quite strange but I’m still getting used to living in a such cosmopolitan place like Moscow, because for example the idea of commuting pops up more often than it used to happen it the past. At one age you need some action and one day you also realize that it would be really cool to get some more fresh air as well.

I would be really happy to stay here, but I would rather try to live between my work and cultural life in the city and my health and my very loud hobby out of the city. I play drums and my instrument needs a very specific and soundproof place for practicing and rehearsing as well as appropriate means of transportation in case of concerts in the city or nearest towns.

A motorbike would be perfect to be able to get to work and a car would suffice to be able to get around with my instrument.

Next moth I’m booking a series of practical lessons in a specialized motorbike school which has been recommended to me by one of my students. I just need to learn to ride modern powerful motorbikes. I’m going to improve my riding skills because I’m going to buy a modern adventure motorbike to be able to commute and to be able to travel. It’s a three month course and I’ll have finished it by the end of October.

In the winter im going to test as many motorbikes as possible to get prepared for the next season. And I will probably have to buy some special clothes and some additional equipment to ride safely.

It will also be necessary to renew my current car next year or in a year. If I buy a motorbike next spring, I will be able to sell my car immediately. That way I could have some time to start saving money for a new one.

If everything was moving positively with my language school and my teaching career, I would be really happy to buy a little bit bigger and more powerful car. Nowadays there are so many new brands with so many new makes on the market, that it’s not possible to plan to buy one specific car. I’m thinking about a car, which resembles Volkswagen Tiguan or Audi Q3.

I wish I didn’t have any financial limitations to buy both of them and Lexus NX, which has always been my dream. But I had better stay sane. I should only spend my time and my money on something, which I’m going to use in my everyday life. I don’t need more.

I wish I had made these dreams come true ten years ago. I should have been more courageous. If had planned that, I would have chosen a decent residential area in the city, I would have built a detached house in a beautiful area with a lot of trees, I would have done all needed driving and riding courses to be able to drive and ride safely. And of course, if I had invested enough time and money in all of these things ten years ago, I would have saved really a lot of time and money.

Unfortunately I didn’t even have such thoughts at that time. I’d been taught to plan my work and today I realize that I’ve never been taught to plan my life. I have to fix it.

Advanced

Так может звучать рассказ на тему машина в рамках продвинутого уровня. Попробую целенаправленно добавить пассивные конструкции.

Having moved a lot and having been able to live in a couple of different countries helped me to realize, how cool my childhood was. I spent it in a very beautiful village, which was more like a small town. It was surrounded by four hundred hectares of different gardens, which had been planted by a canning factory. Everything revolved around the factory. It could only exist thanks to all those workers, who looked after the gardens, who did everything on time for a rich harvest and of course who distributed all the canned goods around a couple of regions.

Being a child in such a cool place with such a big variety of different kinds of vehicles definitely made a huge impact on me. There were always really a lot of harvesters, tractors, trucks, lorries and in addition to that my father got a place of driver in the local hospital.

He has been an ambulance driver since I remember myself and his garage, which was also a car repair shop, was one of my favorite playgrounds. At that time he used to drive old soviet minivans, which aren’t produced nowadays and can only be found in museums. The time of driving was equal to the time of repairing something and that’s why he was busy all the time.

Buying privately owned vehicles wasn’t popular at that time and all holiday destinations used to be planned by employers and not by employees. That’s why, on the one hand, what was the point of having a car, and on the other hand, it was just a vain dream for an ordinary person.

I would usually come to the garage in the second part of the day, when it wasn’t so hot and I was allowed to play with all the filthy car parts, which were scattered around the place. I was only asked not to touch any electrical tools and every time I was there I was wearing a kind of a uniform with gloves. But in general I was treated as an adult and as a part of a team.

I remember particularly one day. I was six. It was summer. When I came to the garage, my father was talking to some colleagues. I was standing in front of them and I was listening very carefully because they were having a conversation about cars. I was quiet, trying not to interrupt anyone with my endless questions and they were laughing and talking about booking some car parts. It turned out my father had just repaired one old car and he was waiting for me so we could test it together.

I got into the car and we sett off. We had been driving for about ten minutes, when we finally got to a real agricultural field. There weren’t any pedestrian arias, any cycle lanes, any traffic lights, any speed limits. It was a perfect place for an unpredictable test drive.

My father got out of the car and while I was still sitting there he was checking everything carefully. He checked every wheel, he opened the hood and checked the engine and the exhaust system. Everything was ok with the ignition but he checked the handbrake again. And he also wanted to make sure, that everything was ok with the clutch pedal.

After that I was invited to the driver’s seat but I had to sit on his lap. As you understand driving this car couldn’t be performed by me properly because I was too little and it was quite a long distance between my feet and any of the pedals. Control over the pedals and the gear stick was taken by him and I was responsible for steering the wheel.

That way we drove twenty kilometers and it was my first experience of driving a car and it happened two months before I was taught how to ride a two-wheeler.

When I was in upper-classes I was told that there was a chance to apply for a free place in a driving school and I did this immediately without thinking. There was a short interview, which was conducted by my future driving instructor and his secretary and after being enrolled I started to attend all theoretical lessons as well as practical ones.

The whole course was extremely interesting but it was also really exhausting. I had to go there on some days after school and at weekends. All my free time was taken up by studying as much as possible about different means of transport. Eventually we were taught how to ride bikes and how to drive manual vehicles like cars, minivans and trucks. By the year 2030 I will have been driving for thirty years.

I must have been very impressed by all those vehicles and as a result a kind of an addiction to bikes and cars was successfully developed. And today I am pretty sure that I should have got a motorbike from my parents when I got to university. If there had been enough real practice in different places, it would have been much easier and even safer to be able to switch between a car and a motorbike today.

Nowadays I live in Moscow and I have been living here for more than ten years. It’s a very big city which is also occupied by a lot of crazy drivers from different regions and even countries. Although the local road rules are published on a lot of governmental and private online platforms for free, they are hardly ever respected.

On many streets there are even CCTV-cameras, which are installed every five hundred meters and there are also some people and a lot of silver-spooners, who enjoy breaking the rules in front of them because they have a budget for paying fines. That’s why it sometimes feels, as if we don’t have any rush hours here. We only have rush days.

I’ve been driving Volkswagen Polo since 2017. Volkswagen used to have a factory here and this car was produced in a town, which is just a couple of hours away from Moscow. Besides that they always had good financial programs and they had a reputation of a car company, which was able to provide good services on every stage of buying and maintaining any of their cars. It must have impressed me, so it was quite affordable and I bought it in cash. It’s a pity they have left the market.

I’m used to driving every day but I wish I had a bike to be able to go to the city center every time I need to do this in the middle of a working week. It’s a torture to be stuck in a traffic jam during the day, especially in the summer. Such a time waste! The underground is usually preferred in such cases and it’s just the fastest way to get around during the day. Unfortunately I don’t have a motorbike at the moment and I haven’t been riding motorbikes for more than ten years.

I’m often asked about this city and living here. It may sound quite strange but I’m still getting used to existing in a such cosmopolitan place like Moscow, because for example the idea of commuting pops up more often than it used to happen it the past. At one age you need some action and one day you also realize that it would be really cool to get some more fresh air as well.

A totally new infrastructure is being developed here so everyone could make this dream come true. Old roads are being made wider, old bridges are being reconstructed and even old highways are being rebuilt. New residential areas appear in different districts every season, old factories are being replaced by new beautifully designed blocks of flats with a lot of green pedestrian areas and new houses are being built non-stop in the suburbs and on the outskirts of the city.

I think in twenty years time we will be living in a completely new place, where pedestrians and drivers will be separated. Any kind of cars will be banned from the city center and all overcrowded residential areas. We’ll only be cycling or riding bikes and scooters there.

So being able to commute by a bike is not such a bad idea. A motorbike would be perfect to be able to get to work and a car would suffice to be able to get around with my instrument.

In the winter im going to test as many motorbikes as possible to get prepared for the next season. And to ride safely I will probably have to buy some special clothes and some additional equipment, which is sold in every bike store and even online. It can be delivered but I’m used to trying everything on before buying, so I think I’ll be discovering a lot of new places over the next year.

But honestly, if had a chance to choose a car, I wouldn’t buy none of those which are being advertised and can be bought everywhere. Nowadays they are being produced with a lot of electronic pars that fail too often. It’s crazy to have an electronic dashboard in our weather conditions. Their touch screens don’t react on cold or wet hands and it’s quite dangerous to look for a needed option wile driving. If I had a chance to choose, I would totally customize a car for me and there would be as many manual things as possible so I could really control it. And this car would be really reliable.

I wish I had made these dreams come true ten years ago. I should have been more courageous. If had planned that, I would have chosen a decent residential area in the city and a beautiful flat has already been bought, I would have built a detached house in a beautiful area with a lot of trees and a cool music studio would have been designed, I would have done all needed driving and riding courses to be able to drive and ride safely. And of course, if I had invested enough time and money in all of these things ten years ago, a lot of time and money would have been saved.