Grammar focus 1 – past Simple tense

i The Past Simple is used to talk about a finished action in the past. We usually know when the action / event happened or didn’t happen.

e.g. I was at the meeting last week.

I received your message yesterday.

You didn’t send me the document.

Affirmative (+)		Negative (-)		Question (?)
I You He She We They	worked.	I You He She We They	didn’t work.	Did	I You He She We They	work?

ii Spelling

Most regular verbs: verb + -ed

start – start ed

Verbs ending in –e: verb + -d

decide – decid ed

Verbs ending in consonant-vowel-consonant: double the last

stop – stop ped

Verbs ending in consonant + -y: replace –y with –ied

try – tr ied

iii Past Simple irregular verbs

Many of the most common verbs in English are irregular. Some of the irregular verbs from this module are given below. For a full list, see the table of irregular verbs.

buy	bought	leave	left
fly	flew	meet	met
go	went	take	took
have	had	write	wrote

ASSIGNMETNTS

A Fill in the gaps using the verbs below in the correct form.

get	leave	see	have	be
visit	arrive	make	meet	go
travel	attend	go	return

Mike Hodgkinson is the Chief Executive of British Airports Authority. This is his diary for last week.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
I ………...……¹up early and ……………..²at theoffice at 8.00 a.m. At 9.00 I ……………..³a meeting with Gabriele Renzully, the Director of Naples Airport. After a nice lunch I ……….⁴to the bank to discuss future investments. At 5.00 p.m. I ………..….⁵ the office and …….…..⁶to the Millennium Dome by boat. I ……..……⁷delegates for the ACI conference. In the evening there.………..⁸a conference dinner at the Dorchester Hotel.	I …………..⁹the opening speechfor the ACI conference and then …………….¹⁰different talks and seminars during the day. I ……………¹¹lots of old contacts.	A normal morning at the office. I had lunch with a journalist who wanted to hear about our future plans. In the afternoon I attended a board meeting and made a presentation on our future strategy. In the evening my wife and I …………….¹²our son and daughter –in–law for dinner.	Trip to Stansted Airport. I met a lot of staff and customers. I …………¹³ to London in the evening and …………¹⁴to the opera to see La Bohéme.

B Change the order of these words to make questions, as in the example. Then answer the questions.

1) morning who he Monday on he meet?

e.g. Who did he meet on Monday morning? He met Gabriele Renzully.

2) the Dome time he did what visit?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

3) travel how he there did?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

4) he evening on dinner where have did Monday?

………………………………………………………………………………………….

5) on did lunch he who Wednesday have with?

………………………………………………………………………………………….

6) he who on evening did visit Wednesday?

………………………………………………………………………………………….

7) did Thursday on where he evening go?

………………………………………………………………………………………….

8) see he did what?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

C Now answer these questions with full sentences.

1) What did he discuss with Gabriele? – e.g. He discussed Naples Airport.

2) What time was his first meeting on Monday? - ……………………………………..

3) What did he make on Tuesday morning? - ………………………………………….

4) Where did he spend the day on Tuesday? - ………………………………………….

5) What did he attend on Wednesday? - ………………………………………………..

6) What did he do there? - ………………………………………………………………

7) Where did he go on Thursday? - ……………………………………………………..

8) Who did he meet? - …………………………………………………………………..

TEXT B

1 Study this vocabulary and definitions and think of Russian equivalents:

acquisition – the act of buying something such as a company, a building, or a piece of land

(приобретение чего-л.; процесс)

brand – the name of a product produced or sold by a particular company

customer – a person or an organization that buys a product or service

developing country – a country with little industrial and economic activity and where people generally

have low incomes (развивающаяся страна)

division – one of the main separate parts that a company, or group of companies, is divided into (отдел,

отделение (в учреждении)

market leader – the company that sells most of a product or service in a particular market

market share – the number of products or services that a company sells compared to the number that

other companies sell (доля рынка (удельный вес компании в общем объеме

рыночных продаж)

production site – an area of land or place where a particular manufacturing activity happens or is planned

to happen (местоположение производства)

research centre – the part of a business that tries to find ways to improve existing products, and to

develop new ones (отдел исследований и разработок)

staff - all the people who work for a particular company or organization, or in a particular place (штат

служащих)

subsidiary – a company that is controlled by another (дочерняя компания)

takeover – taking control of a company by buying enough of its shares to do this (поглощение (другой компании); приобретение контрольного пакета акций)

turnover – the amount of money that a company gets from sales during a particular period

(товарооборот)

2 Read and translate the text. Pay attention to the words in bold..

PERRIER VITTEL

Perrier Vittel is a subsidiary of the Nestlé Group. It has millions of customers all over the world. It is the water division of the group and has many famous brands such as San Pellegrino, Contrex, Panna and Aquarel. There are sixty-seven production sites producing billions of litres of bottled water. The main research centre of the Nestlé Group is Lausanne and there is a network of seventeen other centres on four continents employing 2,500 staff. This research helps produce safe and affordable water for everybody.

A recent new product is Nestlé Pure Life. The company bottles this water locally in developing countries such as Pakistan and Brazil.

Nestlé’s interest in water began in 1969 with the acquisition of 30% of Vittel. After the takeover of Perrier in 1992 the new company Perrier-Vittel became a major part of the Nestlé Group. Today water sales represents 8.8% of the groups turnover. The group is international market leader for bottled water with 15% market share. A new CEO, Frits van Dijk took over in 2000 and he aims to keep Perrier-Vittel at the front of the bottled water market in both sales and technology.

3 Look at this organization chart. Use the information from the text above to complete the missing information.

1 Parent company

Nestlé

2 ………………..

Perrier Vittel

3 ………………. 4 ……………….. 5 … ……………..North America,

Perrier, Nestlé Pure Life Frits van Dijk Europe, Asia, South America

4 Issac Cady is on a visit to Milan. Piera Macaluso introduces him to some colleagues. Listen to the dialogues and write down what jobs they do. (BB, T.34, 05’00-06’25)