Step 90: Checkpoint B2 — Boss Level
Level review — Review: conditionals, passive, reported speech
📖 Read — At the Summit of the High Mountains
The wind is thin and clean at the top of the High Mountains. Ethan plants a small flag: B2. “When I started climbing,” he says, “I could only describe what I saw. Now I can argue, persuade, report, and regret beautifully in English. I have been challenged by conditionals that mix time itself — and I have survived every single one.”
“Above the clouds, I can see the next world: the Castle of Mastery — C1. Stories will grow subtler there, and words will carry double meanings. If you've climbed this far beside me, you know the secret by now: there is no elevator. There are only steps — and the best is yet to come.”
🧩 Grammar — Review — Your B2 Toolbox
Your B2 toolbox is a professional kit: perfect continuous tenses (present and past) · future perfect & continuous · third and mixed conditionals · wish / if only in three tenses · reported questions and orders · passive in all tenses + causative have/get · although / however / in spite of · emphatic do and deep so/such · collocations, debate markers, register switching, and shelves of idioms. This boss test crosses the whole mountain range — climb well, champion!
- She had been working for hours when I arrived.
- If I had known, I wouldn't be here now.
- The car is being repaired, and I had my hair cut yesterday.
- Although it rained, we did enjoy the day — nevertheless, we went home early.
🏗️ Key structures
- ___ had been ___-ing for ___ when ___ — They had been climbing for hours when the storm came.
- If I had ___, I would ___ now — If I had moved abroad, I would live in two languages now.
- Although / In spite of ___, ___ . Nevertheless, ___ — In spite of the cost, we went. Nevertheless, we saved on food.
⭐ Idiom & natural phrases
You finished B2 — and the best is yet to come!
🔤 New words
the top of a mountain; also the highest point of anything
We reached the peak at sunrise.
how high something is above the sea
At high altitude, the air is thin.
win control of something difficult (a mountain, a fear, a problem)
She conquered her fear of flying.
the line where the land meets the sky in the distance
The sun set on the horizon.
complete skill and control over something
C1 is the Castle of Mastery.
speaking beautifully and powerfully
Her eloquence won the debate.
deep knowledge and good judgment that come from experience
Grandma Rose speaks with wisdom.
what you leave behind for the people who come after you
The teacher's legacy is her students.
🎧 Say it with me
I have been climbing for months, and I’ve reached the B2 summit! If I hadn’t kept going, I wouldn’t be here now — and the best is yet to come.
🎤 Your turn to speak
Your B2 summit speech: one perfect-continuous sentence about your journey, one mixed conditional about your life, and one promise for C1.
Say it out loud three times. Even better: record it on your phone and listen — your ear is your best teacher.
✍️ Your turn to write
Write your B2 report in 5–6 sentences: use the past perfect continuous, a third or mixed conditional, a causative, and a contrast marker.
See a model answer
I had been studying quietly for months before I dared to speak in the debate club. If I hadn't joined that club, I wouldn't be this confident now. Last month, I had my first article printed in the school magazine — a real B2 moment. Although the climb was steep, every step made me stronger. Nevertheless, I know the Castle of C1 is waiting — and I can't wait to climb it.
Self-check: capital letters? Full stops? Did you use the grammar of this step?
📝 Quick check
🎉 Saved in your progress!