- •The past tenses
- •1. Read part of the Alibi, a radio play. What tense is used here? Find the examples.
- •2. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
- •4. Complete the conversation with the simple past tense or the past progressive form of the verbs in parentheses.
- •6. Combine these pairs of sentences. Use the simple past tense or the past progressive form of the verb. Remember to use commas when necessary.
- •8. Look at this picture for ten seconds (your teacher will show it). Write down what was happening. See how many details you can remember. What were the people doing? What were they wearing?
- •11. Look through the text. What is it about? Fill in with an appropriate past form.
- •12. Scan the text for about 2 minutes. What is its main idea? Fill in with an appropriate past form.
- •13. Complete the sentences using any appropriate past forms.
- •14. Identify the tenses in bold, then match them to their use. Underline the time adverbs used with each tense. Make up three sentences using them.
- •16. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct past tense. Justify your answers.
- •17. Underline the correct words.
- •18. Look at the cartoons (pic. 4), then in teams try to explain what happened to each of the people using past tenses. Each correct sentence gets 1 point. The team with the most points is the winner.
- •19. Work in two teams. Make as many sentences as possible using the picture below (pic. 5).
- •The future tenses
- •1. Look at the picture (pic. 7). Describe the car. What's new about it? What's the same? Read an article about future transportation.
- •2. Read a radio interview with Professor Harry Vroom, a well-known researcher of the Future Watch Institute. There are fifteen verb forms that refer to the future. Find and underline them.
- •3. Look at the pictures (pic. 8). They show events from a day in Professor Vroom's life. Write predictions or guesses. Use the given words.
- •5. Radio listeners are calling in with questions for Professor Vroom. Complete the questions and answers. Use the words in parentheses.
- •7. Two people are traveling to the Car Show. Read their conversation and circle the most appropriate future forms.
- •8. Most Chinese restaurants in the United States give you fortune cookies at the end of your meal. Inside each cookie is a small piece of paper with a prediction about the future (pic. 9).
- •9. Complete your weekend schedule. If you have no plans, write free.
- •10. Work with the same partner as in Exercise 9. Look at this movie schedule. Then look at your schedules from Exercise 9. Decide which movie to see and when.
- •11. Read this article about setting goals. How is future expressed in the text?
- •12. Read the first sentence in each set. Then circle the letter of the sentences whose meaning is similar.
- •13. Combine these sentences.
- •15. Fill out this questionnaire.
- •16. Complete these three sentences. Then compare your answers with your groupmates' answers. How many different answers are there? Remember that all sentences refer to future time.
- •17. Work with a partner, interview him or her about some future plans. Ask questions such as:
- •20. It's 10 o'clock on Sunday night. The Miltons are at home making a statement to the police. Look at the pictures (pic. 10) and write their statement about the burglary. Use a variety of tenses.
- •24. Work in four groups. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English. Exchange your translations and correct mistakes if there are some.
- •Home exercises the past tenses
- •1. Underline the correct time expression. Identify the past forms.
- •2. Fill in with Past Simple or Continuous.
- •3. Fill in with Present Perfect or Past Simple.
- •8. Use the prompts to write sentences.
- •9. In this exercise you have to read the situation and then write a sentence. Use the verbs given in brackets. Read the example carefully first.
- •10. Are the underlined parts of these sentences right or wrong? Correct the ones which are wrong.
- •11. In this exercise you have to put the verb into the correct form, present perfect or past simple.
- •12. Complete these sentences using the verbs in brackets. You went back to your home town after many years and you found that many things were different.
- •13. Now you have to make sentences using the words in brackets.
- •14. Put the verb into the correct form, past perfect or past simple.
- •15. In this exercise you have to read a situation and then write a sentence.
- •16. In this exercise you have to read a situation and then write a sentence.
- •17. Put the verb into the correct form, past perfect continuous or past continuous.
- •18. Write about one of your older relatives. You can write about his/her:
- •The future tenses
- •2. Fill in the correct present or future forms.
- •3. Fill in: will or be going to.
- •4. Fill in the correct present or future forms.
- •6. Decide which form of the verb is correct (or more natural) in these sentences. Cross out the one which is wrong.
- •7. Answer these questions using the words in brackets.
- •8. In this exercise you have to put the verb into the correct form using will or going to.
- •10. This time you have to ask questions with Will you be -ing?
- •11. In this exercise you have to use will have done.
- •13. Underline the correct item.
- •14. All the sentences in this exercise are about the future. Put the verbs into the correct form.
- •15. This time you have to make one sentence from two sentences.
- •16. In this exercise you have to put in “when” or “if”.
- •17. Complete the following sentences using the words in brackets.
6. Combine these pairs of sentences. Use the simple past tense or the past progressive form of the verb. Remember to use commas when necessary.
1. The blizzard started. Mr. Ligo attended a party. When…
When the blizzard started, Mr. Ligo was attending a party.
2. It began to snow. The electricity went out. When…
3. He drove home. He listened to his car radio. While…
4. He pulled over to the side of the road. The visibility got very bad.… when …
5. He listened to the news. He heard about the burglary. While …
6. The police began the investigation. It snowed. … while …
7. It stopped snowing. Mr. Ligo went to the police station. When…
7. Work in small groups. Reread the Alibi (ex. 1). Do you think it is a good alibi? Pretend that you are a suspect in the burglary. What were you doing last Friday night between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m.? Give your alibi to the group. The group will decide which alibis are good and which are bad.
Example:
I work from midnight until 7:00 a.m., so between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. I was sleeping.
8. Look at this picture for ten seconds (your teacher will show it). Write down what was happening. See how many details you can remember. What were the people doing? What were they wearing?
Example:
A man and woman were standing by the fireplace. The woman was wearing . . .
Compare your list with a partner’s.
9. Write a description of an event that you witnessed: an accident, a crime, a wedding, or any other event. Use the past progressive and the simple past tense to describe what was happening and what happened during the event.
Example:
While I was going to lunch today, I saw a wedding party. People were waiting for the bride and groom outside a temple. They were holding bags of rice. When they saw the couple, they…
10. Identify the tenses, then match them with the correct description.
1. She opened the cupboard, took out a dress and put it on. 2. They received the telegram at 10 o'clock that evening. 3. She was upset because she had been waiting to hear from her son for days. 4. They were still discussing the plan at midnight. 5. They were flying over the Andes when the plane crashed. 6. James Dean made one film with Natalie Wood. 7. Tom was reading out the data while Sara was writing it down. .8 She had finished most of the work by the time her boss arrived. 9. She missed the end of the film because she had fallen asleep. 10. He always went to work by train. 11. She was pleased because she had been given the job. 12 We had been living in the same house for twelve years before we decided to move. 13 He left his job because he had been feeling dissatisfied for months. |
a) past action in progress interrupted by another past action b) past action which occurred before another action or before a stated past time c) two or more simultaneous past actions d) action continuing over a period up to a specific time in the past e) complete past action which had visible results in the past f) past actions which happened immediately one after the other g) past action of certain duration which had visible results in the past h) past habit or state i) action in the middle of happening at a stated past time j) action not connected to the present which happened at a definite past time not mentioned k) complete action or event which happened at a stated past time |