5. Solved exercises

Icono IDevice Reading activity
When Paco remembered the story of that man who had undergone a tornado, he felt curious and decided to search on the Net for more information about this natural disaster. On one of the sites, he could read another experience undergone by a 14-year-old boy. This is what he read:

 

By saharsh. C. Commons

It was a hot, steamy day of May, 1982. I was 14 years old and lived with my parents and my sister in a nice small village in Iowa. My father worked at a huge consulting company 10 miles away. My mother was a housewife, so she didn’t work outside.

 

My sister and I were coming home from school when something surprising and terrible occurred. We passed the cinema of the town, and turned left when, all of a sudden, it started to rain heavily and we could hear a strong wind blowing. My sister and I were sitting together at the back of the bus and got really frightened because we didn’t know what was happening. We could only see people running here, there and everywhere.

 

The storm continued for a while, then it stopped, and nothing could be heard, the sky turned orange. As time passed, things became more and more amazing. We had never had such an exciting experience before. But the worst was to come… Then we heard it and looked through the windows of the bus. We all realized that the immense spinning column was coming towards us. The driver told all of us to go to the rear and I could see nothing. My schoolmates started to cry and ran to our seats. I got up and told the excited screaming children to shut up… All of them were shocked.

 

By Stuck in Customs. C. Commons

As we had seen on TV, it was a fierce immense brown wall of dust, objects, and even animals from time to time. Now I can remember it as something oddly fascinating to look at the houses disappearing along with the rest of the objects in its path.

 

Suddenly, when the tornado was about to reach the bus, it turned right. We all stopped screaming and looked at it completely engrossed. It kept on devastating the long street of the town. When it was far away, we got off the bus and could see our parents running to pick us up. They had a very worried look on their faces. Suddenly we thought of our mum. She was at home, and the tornado was leading there. My father rang her but nobody answered the phone. When we got home, there was no house. My mother was standing in front of the place where it had once been, crying and really excited, but she was safe.

 

To our surprise, our house was the only one completely destroyed in our neighbourhood. Our neighbour across the street came out and with a friendly penetrating voice told us he had never seen such a dreadful thing!

 

Nowadays, we live in the same place but our house is bigger and far more resistant.


Read the passage paying special attention to the tenses used. Underline the verbs in the Past Simple and those in the Present Simple. If you click below, you'll find out some expressions used in the passage.

Click here to get the answer to the exercise.



As you can see, most of the verbs are in the Past Simple tense because the narrator is telling a story that started and finished in the past. All the events took place in 1982. The verbs in the Present Simple tense refer to a present situation and all of them are modified by adverbs which state that: Now and Nowadays.
Icono IDevice Example activity

When using the Past Simple tense, we must distinguish between two kinds of verbs: regular and irregular ones. Remember that regular verbs form the Past and Past Participle forms by adding -ed to the bare infinitive. On the contrary, irregular verbs have their own past and past participle. It is quite frequent that we forget to add suffix -ed to the bare infinitive to form the Past Simple of regular verbs and not to know the forms of irregular verbs because they haven't been learnt properly.

We encourage you to learn irregular verbs little by little! If you forgot to get a good and complete list of them, click on the picture on the left and you'll have the chance to get it right now.


Recognize all the regular and irregular verbs in the passage.


Icono IDevice Example activity

It is also very important that you remember that in English the third person singular only adds -(e)s in the present tenses. So, to ask questions and do negative sentences in the Past Simple tense, we only use did (except with modal verbs and the verb to be, of course), which is the Past Simple of the verb to do. The main structure of the sentences doesn't change. Remember:

 

Subject Verb (Indirect Object) (Direct Object) (How) (Where) (When)
The storm
continued
        for a while
The driver
told
all of us to go to the rear
     

 

Auxiliary verb Subject Verb (Indirect Object) (Direct Object) (How) (Where) (When)
Did
the storm
continue
        for a while?
Did
the driver
tell all of us to go to the rear?
     

 

Subject Auxiliary Verb Verb (Indirect Object) (Direct Object) (How) (Where) (When)
The storm
did not (didn't)
continue         for a while
The driver
did not (didn't)
tell
all of us to go to the rear
     

Draw two charts similar to the ones above and put the following sentences from the text in the interrogative and negative forms.

Things became more and more amazing / They had a very worried look on their faces / Nobody answered the phone / Our neighbour across the street came out



By kasaad. C. Commons
Remember that we must master how to form negative statements and questions with all the verb tenses in English. We must also be able to change from one tense to another asked so that we may achieve the grammar question in the PAU (Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad) successfully.
Let's see some examples working on the Present and Past Simple tenses.
Rewrite the following sentence in the forms asked: It kept on devastating the long street of the town.
a) the interrogative form of the Present Simple. Answer: Does it keep on devastating the long street of the town?
b) the negative interrogative form. Answer: Didn't it keep on devastating the long street of the town?
c) the negative form of the Present Simple. Answer: It doesn't keep on devastating the long street of the town.
d) the interrogative form. Answer: Did it keep on devastating the long street of the town.
Icono IDevice Reading activity
In the text you can also see some words ending in -ed but which are not Past Simple tenses. They are adjectives, and more concretely, Past Participial adjectives that have the same form as Past Participles (e.g.: frightened, excited). There are also Present Participial adjectives in the passage. These adjectives are formed by adding -ing to the bare infinitive. Do they remind you of anything special? Yes, you are right, the Present Participle (and Present Participial adjectives) and the gerund of verbs have the same -ing form.
Elaboración propia. Derechos cedidos a la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura
Quite frequently we get wrong when we have to use these adjectives.

However, it is very easy to use them. Have a look at the following sentences:

* I am interested in that story of yours about the tornado you underwent. (This adjective expresses my feeling towards the story).
* That story of yours about the tornado you underwent is very interesting. (This adjective refers to the story itself, and this is what makes me feel interested in it).
So, in a word, adjectives in -ing (that is Present Participial adjectives) make people feel as adjectives in -ed (that is Past Participial adjectives). That is the reason why if, for example, you say I am boring, English-speaking people may laugh, since what you mean is that you make people around you get bored. The correct sentence would then be: I am bored (because there's something boring that makes you feel this way, maybe even another person!!!).
Click on the picture to see more examples!

Recognize and underline all the Present and Past Participial adjectives you can find in the passage above.

Click below to see the chart of these adjectives, and click here if you want to see them in context.



Icono IDevice Reading activity

When Present and Past Participial adjectives as well as the other adjectives that appear in the text are in attributive position, that is are placed in front of a noun, they normally follow a concrete order. Click here to remember the correct order of the most frequently-used adjectives according to type.

Now, have a look at the following chart with examples of noun phrases from the passage.

Determiner Opinion
Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Qualifier Noun
a
  huge
          consulting
company
that
  immense
          spinning column
the
excited
            screaming children

Draw a similar chart a complete the correspondent boxes with the following noun phrases:

a fierce immense brown wall of dust / a friendly penetrating voice



Icono de iDevice Example activity
Elaboración propia. Derechos cedidos a la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura.

Another question in the PAU is, up to now, as you already know related to pronunciation. In it, remember that you are asked to find out in the text two words which contain the same sound as a word which is provided. Normally, the sounds asked are long vowels, short vowels, diphthongs, and, more oddly, triphthongs.

Let's see and example and later we will briefly see how it works.

Find two words in the text containing vowels that are pronounced in the same way as i in it, ee in see, and i in miles. (Underline the part of the word that contain the sound).

To complete this exercise, it is essential that you recognize how the vowels in the examples given are pronounced. Let's concentrate for a while on /ɪ/ and /i:/.

Find as many words as you can in the text containing vowels that are pronounced in the same way as

ea in seats

... ... ... ... ...

i in wind

... ... ... ... ...

(Underline the part of the word that contain the sound).

Don't you worry if you find it difficult now. When you get used to this exercise you'll find it easy and simple.