Grammar Exercises

Exercise 1. Put the following sentences:

in the Past Simple tense; in the Past Simple tense, negative.

I break a cup. You cut your finger. Birds fly high. I lie on the bed. I know his name. You lie to me. It costs a lot of money. They drink tea every day.

I choose a book. He does his work well. Someone steals the money. You spend too much money. The little boy falls down. The sick man gets better. I eat my lunch quickly. We buy meat.

Exercise 2. Write the following:	as a question; b) as a negative question.
e.g.	She came here yesterday. Did she come here yesterday? Didn’t she come here yesterday?

A.

Jack went to a shop. He bought some eggs. He paid for them. He put them into a bag. He lost the bag. He left it in a tram. Somebody found it.

B.

Mr Emmons rang the bell. A young woman opened the door. She took his hat and stick. He sat down and waited. He tried to read a newspaper. The young woman came back. She led him into another room.

Exercise 3. Put questions to the following sentences.

1. He taught English in 1998.

2. They went to Italy on holiday last summer.

2. It began to rain 2 hours ago..

3. My watch stopped this morning.

4. Fred wanted coffee for breakfast.

Exercise 4. Make the following sentences negative. Then give the right

information. Use the words in the box.

e.g.	Shakespeare wrote songs. Shakespeare didn’t write songs. He wrote plays.

radium		The Eiffel Tower			John F.Kennedy		Detective stories
the radio	1962		America	the 20th century		fish	Italy	Germany

1. Christopher Columbus discovered India.

2. Beethoven came from France.

3. Leonardo da Vinci lived in Brazil.

4. The Americans landed on the moon in the nineteenth century.

5. Gustave Eiffel built the Statue of Liberty.

6. Marconi invented the telephone.

7. Marilyn Monroe died in 1990.

8. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered penicillin.

9. Lee Harvey Oswald Killed martin Luther King.

10. Agatha Christie wrote children’s stories.

11. Last night I had grass for dinner.

Exercise 5.

Do these sentences refer to the present or the past? Write «present» or «past». In a few cases both references are possible.

That shirt cost me £7.00. He often cuts himself. She hurt her arm. He let me drive his car. She reads a lot. I set the table every morning. I set the table an hour ago. She often hit him. He shut the door with a bang. I hurt my arm yesterday. I often let him drive my car. She always beat him at tennis.

..........(past).......... ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................. .............................

Exercise 6.

Supply the past forms of the irregular verbs.

1. I often see Harold. I ..... him again only yesterday.

2. As teenagers, we always ..... each other very well. We still understand each other now.

3. I hardly ..... Ray’s wife. Did you know her at all?

4. We always meet on Sunday. we ..... last Sunday as usual.

5. I often find things on the beach. I ..... this very old bottle yesterday.

6. Someone’s always leaving that window open. Who ..... it open this time?

7. I ..... a lot of letters when I was young. I hardly ever write letters now.

8. They sell all kinds of rubbish now, but they once ..... good handmade furniture.

9. She is very good at figures, you know. She ..... first in maths at school.

10. I have the same car now I ..... five years ago.

11. I don’t keep pets now, but I ..... a dog when I was a boy.

12. Where did you eat last night? - We ..... at a restaurant.

Exercise 7. Open the brackets.

1. What you (do) this morning? - I (enter) a telephone box.

2. You (know) how to phone? - No, I (study) the instructions.

3. What (be) the first thing you (do)? - I (lift) the receiver.

4. What number you (dial)? - I (dial) 235678.

5. What (happen) then? - I (listen) to the signals.

6. You (hear) anything else? - Yes, somebody (answer).

7. You (start) talking then? - No, first I (insert) 2p into the slot.

8. What you (do) then? - Then I (start) talking.

9. What you (say)? - I (say) I (be) sorry. I (have) the wrong number.

Exercise 8. Fill in the gaps with one of the words from the box.

Careful! Sometimes no word is necessary.

ago

last

in

for

at

when

on

1. I was born in Africa ..... 1970.

2. My parents moved back to England ..... I was five.

3. We lived in Bristol ..... three years.

4. I went to college three years ..... .

5. I found a flat on my own ..... last year.

6. They arrived ..... three o’clock ..... the afternoon.

7. ..... we got home we listened to some music.

8. We got up late ..... Sunday morning.

9. ..... the afternoon we went for a walk.

10. I had an accident ..... last night.

11. It happened ..... 7.00 ..... the evening.

12. I took my car to the garage ..... this morning.

Exercis9. Copy these sentences using «one» or «ones» to avoid repetition of

nouns.

1. St.Peter’s in Rome is a large building, but the Great Pyramid is a much larger building.

2. Galileo showed that the small weight dropped as quickly as the large weight.

3. He is fond of nearly all games, but tennis and football are the games he likes best.

4. You asked me to get you a dictionary. Is this the dictionary you want?

5. These shoes are too small. Please get me some larger shoes.

Exercise 10. Translate from Russian into English.

1. Том пришел домой поздно в субботу. 2. Они продали свою машину месяц назад. 3. Вчера он проехал на машине 50 км. 4. Вы приглашали друзей в гости на прошлой неделе? 5. Вы встречали его на вокзале? 6. Они жаловались на погоду, не так ли? 7. Ты ведь не купил тот словарь, правда? 8. Кто потерял зонтик вчера? 9. Давайте посмотрим телевизор сегодня вечером. 10. Давайте не будем их ждать. 11. У них в квартире две больших комнаты и маленькая. 12. Почему он не купил черную машину? - Потому что он хотел белую.

UNIT 8

Grammar: Texts:

«Used to». Past habit with «used to» «Used to» and the Past Simple Tense Degrees of Comparison Numerals Prepositions of transport 1. «Transportation Used to Be Much Slower than It Is now» «The Richest Man in the World» «Harold is Coming» Dialogue

Text One

«Transportation Used to be Much Slower Than It is Now»

For many years in the desert, camels used to be the only form of transportation. Before the age of modern trains, camel trains used to carry all the goods for trading between Central Africa and Europe. Traders sometimes used to put together camel trains with 10,000 to 15,000 animals. Each animal often used to carry as much as 400 pounds and it could travel twenty miles a day. This form of transportation used to

Vocabulary: a desert a camel train transportation trader an improvement frequently a monoplane

a biplane a pilot a load an engine a tank further a jet

be so important that camels were called the «ships of the desert».

Now modern trains travel across the desert in a very short time. One engine can pull as much weight as 135,000 camels. In addition, trains use special cars for their load. Refrigerator cars carry food; boxcars carry heavy goods; stock cars carry animals; and tank cars carry oil.

Air travel has changed, too. The earliest planes were biplanes, with two sets of wings. The top speed of this plane was 60 miles per hour. The pilots used to sit or lie on the wings in the open air. The plane engines sometimes used to stop in the middle of a trip. It used to be impossible to fly in bad weather. In snow or in rain, the wings frequently used to become icy. Then the plane might go down.

Mechanical improvements during the first world war changed airplanes. Monoplanes took the place of biplanes. Pilots flew inside of covered cabins. Still, even these planes were small. Only rich people used to be able to travel in airplanes.

Now modern jets make air travel possible for all people. No place in the world is more than 24 hours away by jet. Further improvements have lowered the cost of flying, and they have made air travel much safer than it used to be. A modern Boeing 707 can carry 170 people and can fly at 600 miles per hour. People never used to eat, sleep, or watch movies on airplanes. Now these things are a normal part of air travel!

Text Two

«The Richest Man in the World»

His Majesty, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, the twenty-ninth Sultan of Brunei, is the richest man in the world. He is descended from one of the oldest ruling dynasties on earth - a royal line that goes directly back over 600 years to 1363.

Vocabulary to descend ruling wealth outgoing

to share despite shy reserved

His money. The Sultan’s total wealth is more than $25 billion. He owns hotels all round the world: the Dorchester in London, the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Hyatt Hotel in Singapore. He has a fleet of private planes, including an airbus.

Some years ago, in Brunei, he built the biggest palace in the world. It has 1,788 rooms, 5 swimming pools, 257 toilets, 44 staircases, and 18 lifts. The dining-room can seat 4,000 people. The total cost of the palace was $400 million. In 1996, he had a special party there for his fiftieth birthday. It lasted three days and the guests included Michael Jackson, the American musician, the Infanta Elena from Spain, and Prince Charles from Britain.

His country. Brunei is one of the smallest but richest countries in the world. Its wealth comes from oil and gas. Many people in the west think that Brunei is in the Middle East but it isn’t. It’s in East Asia, on the north coast of the island of Borneo. It sells the oil and gas to Japan, and earns $2 billion a year from it. And the beauty is that there are so few people to share all this money. The population of Brunei is only 230,000. The Sultan and his three brothers are part of the government.

His lifestyle. Despite all his money and power, the Sultan is a very shy man. He often goes to international meetings but says very little. In 1965, when he was nineteen, he married his cousin, Princess Saleha, who was sweet, pretty, and only sixteen. Time passed and she became more and more reserved. In 1980, the Sultan met an air hostess called Mariam Bell. She is much more outgoing than many Bruneian girls and the Sultan fell in love with her. So, in 1981, he married her, too, and now the two wives and ten children - four princes and six princesses - all live happily together in the palace.

And the Sultan himself? With all his wealth, is he a happy man? Nobody asks him that.

Text Three

«Harold Is Coming»

Mother: Nancy: Mother: Nancy: Mother: Nancy: Mother:

Nancy! Are you upstairs? Coming! Where is Peter? Is he at home? No, he’s playing football with his friends. Playing football on his birthday? Naughty boy! He’s trying his new football boots. Well, but he must come home, now.

Vocabulary: naughty dirty clean lazy to be good at What’s the matter?

Nancy: Oh, there he is.

Peter: Mother: Peter: Mother: Peter: Nancy: Mother: Peter: Mother: Peter: Mother: Peter: Mother: Harold: Mother: Harold: Mother: Harold: Mother: Harold: Nancy: Harold: Nancy: Mother: Harold: Mother: Harold: Nancy: Harold: Nancy: Mother: Harold: Mother: Father: Nancy: Harold: Father: Harold: Nancy: Harold: Topper:

Gosh, they are good football boots, super! Peter! Look, how dirty you are! Wash yourself and put on your new trousers and a clean shirt! Yes, mum. Hurry up! Harold is coming in a few minutes! All right! All right! Shall I make some tea, mother? Yes, do, dear. There’s a bottle of milk in the fridge. Mother! Yes, what’s the matter? Where’s my clean shirt? It’s on your bed. Oh! (Ding, Dong) Oh, there’s the bell. There’s someone at the door. Good morning. My name is Jones. Harold Jones. So, you are Harold. How do you do. I’m Nancy’s mother. How do you do. Do come in, please. Thank you. Was it very difficult to find? Oh, no, a postman showed me the way. It was very easy. Hello, Harold. There you are. Hello, Nancy. How are you? Fine, thanks. Come, let’s go into the sitting-room. Thank you. Sit down, Harold. What a big cat! Pussy, get off that chair! Is Pussy good at catching mice? Oh, no! She’s very lazy. Aren’t you, Pussy? How about a cup of tea, Harold? Yes, please. Oh, there’s Father at last. Hello, everybody. This is Harold, Father. How do you do, sir. How do you do. Did you have a good trip? Yes, thank you. This is our dog. His name is Topper. How do you do, Topper? Bow-wow!