Our first letter is from Harriet Green. She writes...•My name’s Harriet Green. I´m thirteen. This summer I went sailing in Florida. Sailing on the boat was a little boring because there was nothing to do but read and eat.

•The week in the sailing club was great. The weather was hot, and I swam and windsurfed. I liked making new friends.

•The food was OK. There weren’t any stores, but I bought ice cream and soda from the snack bar.

Language focusLast month I went sailing in Florida.

SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Affirmative formI

You

He

She worked yesterday.

It

We

You

They

Interrogative formI

You

He

Did she work yesterday ?

It

We

You

They

Negative formI

You

He

She did not work

yesterday.

It (didn’t)

We

You

They

1. Use the simple past tense to talk about things that are now finished.

2. You can use the simple past with TIME EXPRESSIONS that refer to the past

(yesterday, last week, by 2000, in the 20thcentury, some years ago).3. The simple past of REGULAR VERBS is formed by adding –d or -ed. 4. Many common verbs are IRREGULAReg. Base form – see past – saw

go went have had

LISTENING Listen to Rachel’s and Tim’s letters and complete this

table.

Harriet Rachel Tim

went sailing in Florida ... ...liked making new friends ... ...didn’t like being on the boat ... ...thought the food was OK ... ...bought ice cream and soda ... ...

Guess!

• These are some of the places we visited on vacation!

• Can you tell us where are these locations?

The girl in the hospital bed is giving her version of...

• What she usually did in the past.

• What she was doing at the time of her accident.

Your turn:

Do you remember the accident in the Caribbean when a cruise ship hit a cargo ship?

Describe what was happening on the shipbefore the crash.

References:

NOLASCO, Rob WOW! American Window on the world, O.U.P., 1993

FUCHS, M., BONNER, M., Grammar Express, 2002, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.