B1 Lesson 4 Writing about the past
B1 Lesson 4
Writing about the past
Activity
Circle the regular simple past tense verbs.
A Great Leader
Cesar Chavez was an important civil rights leader in the United States. Chevez was born in Arizona to a Mexican-American family. Life was hard for his family there ,so they moved to California. In California, most of the family needed to work in the fields picking lettuce. Working in the fields was difficult. His family received very little money, and people often treated them badly. Chavez stopped school in the eighth grade and started to work in the fields, too. Chavez wanted to make changes to field workers’ lives. He was angry about the discrimination he saw. In the 1970s and 1980s, he organized many boycotts and protests against companies to demand better treatment for the workers. Like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., Chavez's protests were nonviolent. He often used hunger strikes to bring attention to his fight. Over time thousands of people joined his peaceful case. It was not always easy, but in his lifetime, Chavez helped to improve the lives of America's field workers.
Who was Cesar Chavez?
Where was he born?
What work did his family do?
What did he do when he stopped school in the eighth grade?
How did he fight against discrimination?
Change the sentences with the simple past tense
Julian Silverman and Jessica Matthews study at Harvard University.
In class, an engineering professor asks them to solve a world problem.
The women are not engineers, but they are creative.
Julia and Jessica decide to create a playful energy source for the world.
They study different countries with few power sources.
In these countries, both adults and chiñdren play soccer daily.
Julia and Jessica finally discover their idea!
The women create a soccer ball with a battery inside.
Jessica, Julia, and their friends work on many versions of the soccer ball.
Finally, they develop a working ball!
They decided to call the ball the soccket.
When someone kicks the soccket, it captures the energy from the ball’s motion.
Then the battery stores the energy and powers LED lights and cell phones.
Julia and Jessica introduce their product in El Salvador, Mexico, and South Africa.
People use the Soccket and live it.
Write about an important person
Who is the person?
Where was the person born?
What was the person’s job?
Why is the person important to you? What did he or she do?
How do you feel when you think about this person? Why?
Activity
Circle the 13 irregular simple past tense verbs.
Helen Keller
Helen Keller was a famous American author. Until Keller was two years old, she was a healthy and happy child. However, when she was two years old, she became very ill with an extremely high fever. The fever made her deaf and blind. Because she could not communicate with anyone, she became a wild and uneducated child. When she was seven years old, her parents hired Annie Sullivan to teach Helen. After many long struggles, Sullivan taught Helen to communicate with sign language. This achievement opened a new world to Keller. When Helen was 20 years old, she began taking college courses. After her graduation, she wrote 13 books and traveled around the world to talk about her life. She was an incredible human being.
Why was Keller blind and deaf?
What happened when she became blind and deaf?
What did Annie Sullivan do for Helen?
What happened when Helenwas 20 years old?
What did Helen do after she graduated?
Activity
Practice negative forms of be in the simple past
Moving to the United States
My name is Panada, and I ________ born in Thailand. I (negative)_______ the first child. My sister Suntri ________ born three years before I _______ born. My parents (negative) _________ rich, but they ________ always happy. They _______ hard workers. In 2012, we moved to the United States. Everyone in my family ________ very excited. We ________ also scared. My mother (negative) __________ able to speak English at all. When we arrived, she began English classes. My sister and I started school. We (negative) ______ comfortable in the classroom because we did not know the language. After a few years, however, we learned the language and the culture of the United States.
Complete the paragraph
Bob’s Horrible Day
Bob (have)______ a horrible day on Monday. First, he (be) _______ supposed to get up at 6 am., but his alarm clock (work, negative) _________. He (get up)_______ at 8 am. There (be, negative) _______ any got water for a shower, so he had to use cold water. After that, his car (car, negative)________, and he had to take the bus. When Bob (get) ______ to work, his boss (yell)_______ at him for being late. Next, his computer (crash)_______, and he (lose) _______ all of his documents. He (stay) ________ at work until midnight to redo the documents. Bob (decide) _______ to stay home the next day because he (be) _______ too tired from all his bad luck.
Using but correctly
But is not always a connector. Sometimes it is a preposition that means except. When but is used a preposition, do not use comma.
Use but as a preposition
I ate the food on my plate. I did not eat the spinach.
Every student in the class is wearing running shoes. Stephanie is not wearing running shoes.
The teacher asked everyone a question. The teacher did not ask Ryan and Joe a question.
My mother cleaned every room in the house. My mother did not clean my room.
The official language of every country in South America is Spanish. Spanish is not the official language in Brazil, Suriname, and French Guyana.
Identify each sentence as a simple or compound sentence.
The girls practiced every day.
They did not win the tennis tournament.
The girls practiced every day, but they did not win the tennis tournament.
The committee members made a decision but the manager did not like it.
Neal worked with his father at the shoe store for almost twenty years.
We went to Canada but we did not visit Toronto.
With the recent increase in crime in that area of the city, the local residents there are worried about their safety.
Summer is a good time to practice outdoor sports but winter is not.
All of the workers but Marian arrived at yesterday’s meeting on time.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait import equipment, cars, food, and medicine.
The chairs in the living room are made of wood but the chairs in my office are made of metal.
All of the chairs in the kitchen but this one are made of wood.
Grammar for writing
Sentence variety: complex sentence
When you write, sentence variety is important. A complex sentence is a combination of two clauses. A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb. In a complex sentence, one clause begins with a connecting word such as after, before, when, until, and as soon as.
More examples:
Until he bought a car, John rode his bicycle to work.
My mom made dinner when my dad got home.
After she ate dinner, she called her friend.
She called her friend after she ate dinner.
Identify sentence types
Alexi and Juan finished their essays last night.
Karl saw a movie this weekend, but he thought it was really boring.
Before Mahmood left class, he spoke to the teacher about his homework.
AMy expected to take a test today but she was wrong.
The students did not have any questions after the teacher gave the assignment.
My friends and I went down to the cafeteria and had lunch.
We arrived at school early enough to get a coffee before class.
We can study here or we can go to the library.
I got a horrible grade on my first test but a good one this time.
When Karen wanted information for her report she went to the library.
We cannot take a break until we finish the project.
Everyone but Ricky came to the study group.
Sam began to study as soon as he got to the library.
Ying decided to ask a friend to edit her paper and she liked her friend’s comments.
Grammar for writing
Using complex sentences to show time order.
Writing complex sentences in the past
As soon as. I graduated from high school. I got a summer job.
Before. Jack traveled around the world. Jack began his English classes.
When. My sister and I finished our homework. My sister and I went to a movie.
After. The house caught on fire. The fire department arrived very quickly to put out the fire.
Before. The young woman looked left and right. The young woman crossed the street.
When. The lights in the classroom went out. The teacher told the students not to worry.
As soon as. Jacob had the freedom to study abroad. Jacob moved to California to study English.
Fix the paragraph
Muhammad Ibn Batuta
Ibn Batuta was a famous moroccan traveler. He live in Morocco in the fourteenth century. When he was a man young, he made a religious trip to Mecca. Ibn Batuta loves to see new places so much that he continued to travel. This was no his original plan but he continued on his journey. He had many adventures during her travels and he met many interesting people. After he returned home he did not forgot about his journey. He wrote a book about his travels, this book new gives us a lot of information important about life in the fourteenth century. Also, gives us more information about this interesting and important man.
Parts of speech
Comments
Post a Comment