1. What's in the news?

What’s in the news ?

 

Starter

  • What is the past simple of these verbs ?

Leave       take       begin        become      go      do      think      meet      walk      arrive explain      end      want      decide

 

  • Practice saying them loudone by one.

He walked 6000 Miles !

Past Simple And Continuous

  • Visit ED Stufford’s web page. What was he the first to do ?
  • Read and complete the text with the verbs from the starter in the past simple.

Walking the Amazon

Amazing journey ends after 6000 miles

ED Stufford became the first man in history to walk the length of the Amazon River from the source to the sea. He…………..for 860 days. The journey………….in aparil 2008 when ED………….the town of Camana on the Pacific Coast of Peru. It in August 2010 when he in Maruda, on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. He ………….through three countries, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. The journey…………nearly two and a half years. ‘I………………it for the adventure.’ Says ED.

  • Now listen and check. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the verbs.
  • Work with a partner. Write the questions. Take consideration of the form of the questions in the past tense.
    • How far/ED walk ? (how far did he walk ?)
    • When/ journey begin ?
    • Where/ journey end ?
    • Which countries /go through ?
    • How ling/ journey take ?
    • Why/do it ?

 

  • Now look at the map and read the text silently. Contextualize difficult words. Answer the questions you formulated. Be careful with the tense form (simple past).
  • Listen and check. Practice the questions and answers with a partner if possible ; if not, do it yourself. Pay attention to the tense form and pronunciation of words.
  • Read Cho’s story. Who is Cho ?

Cho’s story

ED didn’t do the trip alone. His companion was Gadiel Cho Sanchez Rivera, a forestry worker from Peru. Cho said, ‘when I first met ED, I was working in the forest. I thought he was crazy, but I wanted to help him and his guide.’ One day we were walking in a very dangerous part of the forest when we saw a hostile tribe. They didn’t understand what ED was doing there. I explained he was an adventurer and he was walking the Amazon. They decided he was crazy, too.

  • Which tense are the verbs in bold in Cho’s story ?
  • Complete the sentences.
  • Cho was working in the forest when he…….
  • They were walking in a dangeroous part of the forest when they………
  • The tribe didn’t understand that ED ………..

 

  • Write the questions. Pay attention to the form of the tense (past continuous).
    • What /Cho doing/ when/met ED ?
    • Where/ walking/when/saw/ tribe ?
    • Why/tribe think/ED/ crazy ?/
    • Listen and check. Pay attention to pronunciation, stress patterns, intonation, and use of past continuous tense.

 

Grammar spot

  1. The past simple expresses acompleted action in the past.

ED walked the Amazon. He began his journey in 2008.

  1. Complete the question and negative.

When……..the journey  begin ?

They……….finish the journey till 2010.

  1. The past continuous expresses an activity in progress in the past.

Cho was walking in the forest when he met ED.

Compare these sentences.

I had a shower last night (completed action).

I was having a shower when the phone rang (interrupted activity).