UNIT 2
PAST SIMPLE
PRESENTATION
1. Here are the past tense forms of some verbs. Write them in the base forms.
………………… took ………………… decided
………………… believed ………………… set
………………… was (were) ………………… went
………………… reversed ………………… made
Three of them end in –ed. They are the past tense form of regular verbs. The others
are irregular.
2. Read the text below.
In 1952, a major computing company made a decision to get out of the business of
making mainframe computers. They believed that there was only a market for four
mainframes in the whole world. That company was IBM. The following years they
reversed their decision.
In 1980, IBM determined that there was a market for 250,000 PCs, so they set up a
special team to develop the first IBM PC. It went on sale in 1987 and set a world wide
standard for compatibility i.e. IBM-compatible as opposed the single company Apple
computers standard. Since then, over seventy million IBM-compatible PCs, made by
IBM and other manufacturers, have been sold.
Work in pairs
Ask and answer questions about the text.
Example: What did IBM company decide to do in 1952?
− They decided to get out of the business of making mainframe computers.
• Grammar questions
− Why is the past simple tense used in the text?
− How do we form questions?
− How do we form negatives?
PRACTICE
1. Grammar
13
, The present simple or the past simple. Put the verbs in brackets in the correct
forms.
a. The problem of constructing a regular polygon of nine sides which
…………..(require) the trisection of a 600 angle ……… (be) the second source
of the famous problem.
b. The Greeks ……… (add) “the trisection problem” to their three famous
unsolved problems. It ……… (be) customary to emphasize the futile search of
the Greeks for the solution.
c. The widespread availability of computers …………… (have) in all, probability
changed the world for ever.
d. The microchip technology which ………… (make) the PC possible has put
chips not only into computers, but also into washing machines and cars.
e. Fermat almost certainly ………… (write) the marginal note around 1630, when
he first ………… (study) Diophantus’s Arithmetica.
f. I ………… (protest) against the use of infinitive magnitude as something
completed, which ……… (be) never permissible in maths, one …………
(have) in mind limits which certain ratio ……….. (approach) as closely as
desirable while other ratios may increase indefinitely (Gauss).
g. In 1676 Robert Hooke .……………(announce) his discovery concerning
springs. He ……………..(discover) that when a spring is stretched by an
increasing force, the stretch varies directly according to the force.
2. Pronunciation
There are three pronunciations of
the past tense ending –ed: / t /, / id /, / d /.
Put the regular past tense form in exercise 1 into the correct columns. Give more
examples.
/t/ / id / /d/
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... .……………………….... ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
14
PAST SIMPLE
PRESENTATION
1. Here are the past tense forms of some verbs. Write them in the base forms.
………………… took ………………… decided
………………… believed ………………… set
………………… was (were) ………………… went
………………… reversed ………………… made
Three of them end in –ed. They are the past tense form of regular verbs. The others
are irregular.
2. Read the text below.
In 1952, a major computing company made a decision to get out of the business of
making mainframe computers. They believed that there was only a market for four
mainframes in the whole world. That company was IBM. The following years they
reversed their decision.
In 1980, IBM determined that there was a market for 250,000 PCs, so they set up a
special team to develop the first IBM PC. It went on sale in 1987 and set a world wide
standard for compatibility i.e. IBM-compatible as opposed the single company Apple
computers standard. Since then, over seventy million IBM-compatible PCs, made by
IBM and other manufacturers, have been sold.
Work in pairs
Ask and answer questions about the text.
Example: What did IBM company decide to do in 1952?
− They decided to get out of the business of making mainframe computers.
• Grammar questions
− Why is the past simple tense used in the text?
− How do we form questions?
− How do we form negatives?
PRACTICE
1. Grammar
13
, The present simple or the past simple. Put the verbs in brackets in the correct
forms.
a. The problem of constructing a regular polygon of nine sides which
…………..(require) the trisection of a 600 angle ……… (be) the second source
of the famous problem.
b. The Greeks ……… (add) “the trisection problem” to their three famous
unsolved problems. It ……… (be) customary to emphasize the futile search of
the Greeks for the solution.
c. The widespread availability of computers …………… (have) in all, probability
changed the world for ever.
d. The microchip technology which ………… (make) the PC possible has put
chips not only into computers, but also into washing machines and cars.
e. Fermat almost certainly ………… (write) the marginal note around 1630, when
he first ………… (study) Diophantus’s Arithmetica.
f. I ………… (protest) against the use of infinitive magnitude as something
completed, which ……… (be) never permissible in maths, one …………
(have) in mind limits which certain ratio ……….. (approach) as closely as
desirable while other ratios may increase indefinitely (Gauss).
g. In 1676 Robert Hooke .……………(announce) his discovery concerning
springs. He ……………..(discover) that when a spring is stretched by an
increasing force, the stretch varies directly according to the force.
2. Pronunciation
There are three pronunciations of
the past tense ending –ed: / t /, / id /, / d /.
Put the regular past tense form in exercise 1 into the correct columns. Give more
examples.
/t/ / id / /d/
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... .……………………….... ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
……………………... …………………………. ………………………
14
