Unit 2. Past Tenses

We use the past simple:

to talk about completed actions in the past.

They went camping by the lake last month.

for action which happened immediately one after the other in the past.

First she paid the driver, then she got out of the taxi.

for past habits or states which are now finished. In such cases we can also use the expression used to (See page 30 for more information about used to).

They travelled/used to travel a lot when they were younger. (They don’t any more).

The past simple is used with the following time expressions: yesterday, then, when, How long ago …?, last night/week/month, etc., three days/years, etc. ago, in 1999, etc.

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Exercise 2

Put a tick next to the correct forms of the past simple, and cross out those which are

Exercise 3

Write sentences about the past.

1.Jim always goes to work by car. Yesterday he went to work by car.

2.I take my paid leave every year and go on holiday. I _____________________last week and ______________________________.

3.Do you work flextime? ___________________________________two years ago?

4.He leaves his “to do” list on his desk and doesn’t work from home.

______________________________________.

5.Does Kate change her job every year? ____________________________last year?

6.This service is free. Yesterday it _______________________________________.

7.He doesn’t usually have any problems at work. He _________________________.

8.We usually do overtime. Last week we __________________________________.

9.Now Jane is at home but last week she __________________________on holiday.

Exercise 4

Rewrite each statement about the playwright William Shakespeare as a yes/no question.

1. He came from a rich family.

Q: Did he come from a rich family?

A: No, not really. His father was a glove maker. 2. He grew up in London.

Q: _____________________________________?

A: No, in Stratford upon Avon, a small town about 160 km from London. 3. He went to school.

Q: ________________________________________?

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A: Yes, we think so. 4. He knew Latin.

Q: ________________________________________? A: Yes, he learnt Latin at school and some Greek as well. 5. He got married.

Q: _________________________________________?

A: Yes, he was only 18 when he married Anne Hathaway, aged 26. 6. They had children.

Q: _________________________________________?

A Yes, a daughter Susanna, and twins: a boy Hamnet and a girl Judith. 7. He began writing plays in Stratford.

Q: __________________________________________?

A: We don’t really know. We only know that after 1592 he was an actor and writer in London.

8. He wrote 37 plays all by himself.

Q: ___________________________________________?

A: Well, we know he wrote two plays together with John Fletcher. Some people think that all his plays were really written by somebody else.

9. He made up all the characters and plots of his plays.

Q: ____________________________________________?

A: Actually no. He borrowed lots of ideas from other writers. This was quite usual in his time.

10. He became rich and famous.

Q: _______________________________________________?

A: He certainly became quite rich, and his plays were popular. But he only became really famous in the 18th century and later.

Exercise 5

Make sentences using the correct form of the past simple.

Example: (When/you/leave/the party?) When did you leave the party?

1.(When/you/finish/your exams?) ________________________________________.

2.(I/wait/for an hour, but he/not/phone.) ___________________________________.

3.(you/watch/the news on TV last night?) __________________________________.

4.(I/work/hard/last year and/get/a good bonus.) _____________________________.

5.(Mark/stop/smoking last month, and he/start/playing tennis again last week.) ____.

6.(Klaus Kleinfeld/become/chief executive of Siemens/in 2005.) _______________.

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7.(He/ask/me a question, but I/not/know/ the answer.) ________________________.

8.(We/finish/the meeting/at 7 o’clock in the evening.) ________________________.

9.(I/live/there for a few years, but I/not/like/the place.) _______________________.

10.(He/found/his company in 2010.) _______________________________________.

Exercise 6

Complete this article by putting the verbs into the past simple.

Samsung: from dried fish to high tech

In 1938 Byung-Chull Lee (1)… (start) a business in Korea called Samsung. He (2)

… (sell) vegetables and dried fish to China. Ten years later he (3) … (have) his own manufacturing and sales operations, and the business (4) … (grow) quickly. Over the next few decades Samsung (5) … (buy) several insurance companies and department stores. In the 1970s Samsung (6) … (invest) in heavy industries like chemicals and shipbuilding, but then in the 1980s they (7) … (begin) to focus more on technology and electronic products. In 1987 Kun-Hee Lee (8) … (take) the place of his father as Chairman of the company. In 1988 he (9) ... (announce) the “Second Foundation” of the company, directing Samsung towards becoming a world-class 21st century corporation.

Exercise 7

Translate from Russian into English.

1. В прошлом году на каникулах мы ездили в Шотландию. 2. Они погуляли в парке и поиграли в теннис. 3. – Ты понял этот фильм? – Нет, я пытался понять его, но актёры говорили очень быстро. 4. Он начал заниматься бизнесом пять лет назад. 5. Мужчина сказал что-то своему другу в магазине, но тот его не услышал. 6. Потребители были недовольны обслуживанием этой компании. 7. Три дня назад он вложил свои деньги в ту страховую компанию. 8. Я позвонил, и женщина открыла мне дверь. 9. Сколько стран вы посетили в прошлом году? 10. Она вчера ничего не выиграла в лотерею.