1.1 Paco's friends have never been to Africa

Icono IDevice Reading activity
 
After writing the letter to his friends, Paco left the room to have dinner. He went to a restaurant near the hotel. Now, he is back in his room, number 65. He likes that number. But he must plan his visit to the diamond mines. As he is not sure which the best place to visit is, he decides, once again, to netsurf to get some information about the subject. He has found out a webpage, Diamond Mining in Sierra Leone, where he can read the following article:

 


By nanoprobe67. C. Commons
Diamonds were discovered in Sierra Leone in 1930. The civil war has led to a proliferation of illegal diamond mining and smuggling, depriving Sierra Leone of at least $600 million a year in foreign exchange. Apparently, most diamonds are being smuggled to Liberia. Sierra Leone produced 2.5 million carats of diamonds a year prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1992.

DiamondWorks has invested $11 million in six mining projects. The company has a 25-year renewable lease to exploit diamond deposits around the eastern town of Koidu, 250 km from the capital city of Freetown, and has exploration licences for other diamond properties. DiamondWorks owns only 60% of the equity, with 30% of the equity belonging to the government while the other 10% being publicly owned. DiamondWorks are to return to the country to revive exploration and mining activities, where the focus will be on Koidu as well as other properties in the country. The company is also restoring the plant in the Koidu complex and Mano River Resources Inc since, working through its subsidiary Golden Leo Resources, it has discovered eight new places containing macrodiamonds in the Kono area.


Another company, De Beers, recently terminated offshore exploration for marine diamonds in Sierra Leone, probably due to poor expectations. Cassierra, a Canadian group, renewed its 600 km2 exploration licence after receiving more encouraging results. 20 commercial size diamonds were found with stones reaching a maximum size of 122 carats. These are the first diamonds to be located in marine sediments in West Africa. The country has experienced a notable increase in diamond exports from 2004 to 2005. It is estimated that diamond exports from Sierra Leone had amounted to about $126 million and is believed to have risen to over $140 million in 2005.

Most of the financial investment in the country’s diamond sector has been dominated by Koidu Holdings Limited (KHL), which had acquired kimberlite deposits in the Kono and Tongo Fields, and the Sierra Leone Diamond Company (SLDC), mostly involved in the prospecting side of the mining industry.


Read the article carefully and underline all the sentences in the present perfect tense.


Self_Assessment activity

Reading comprehension is very important to improve your English. However, remember that you do not need to know every single word in a text to be able to comprehend what the text is about and get some information provided in it.

Read the text again and say if the following statements are true or false. According to the text...



By cobalt123. C. Commons
1. Sierra Leona produced more carats before the civil war in 1992 than now.

Verdadero Falso


2. The government of Sierra Leone owns most of the equity in mining exploitation.

Verdadero Falso


3. De Beers has stopped offshore exploration because they didn't expect to find diamonds.

Verdadero Falso


4. The article was written in 2005.

Verdadero Falso

All the sentences in the present perfect tense in the article refer either to actions that are complete but whose time of completion is not specified or actions that started in the past and last until now. This are the two main uses of the Present Perfect Tense. In these sentences, a specific time referring to the past is not added since if it were added, we would need to use the Past Simple tense.

So, there are two main uses of the Present Perfect Tense:

USES To show... Examples
Unspecified time before now Experience
Paco's friends have never been to Africa
  Change over time
 The situation in Sierra Leone has changed after the civil war
  Accomplishments The companies have found lots of diamond stones.
  A completed action you are expecting
 Paco has already had dinner.
  An uncompleted action you are expecting Paco has not decided which mines he is going to visit yet.
 

Multiple actions at different times

(the present perfect suggests more actions are possible)

Paco has had many problems with planes.
Duration from the past until now

The action started in the past and has continued up until now

Paco has spent a lot of money on presents.
     

 

Icono IDevice Further knowledge
As always, the best way to improve your English and your knowledge on the subject is by practising. However, it is also important that you perfectly understand the different uses of the Present Perfect Tense before practising it, so, click here to get an excellent explanation on how to use this tense.

Icono IDevice Curiosity

The Star of Africa


By Unknown. Public domain
By Chris 73. GNU and C. Commons

The Star of Africa is not a singer or a football player. It is a diamond. In fact, it was the largest polished diamond from a stone ever found (530.2 carats) until 1985, when the Golden Jubilee Diamond (545.67carats) was found. It is also known as Cullinan I. The Cullinan stone was found by Frederick Wells in what is today known as Gauteng, South Africa, on January 26, 1905. The diamond was named Cullinan after the owner of the mine, Sir Thomas Cullinan and was presented to King Edward VII on his 66 birthday, after being cut into nine pieces.

This diamond is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross, one of the jewels of the British Crown Jewels.

When the diamond was bought by the Transvaal government, its transport from South Africa to England posed a security problem. Detectives from London were placed on a steamer ship which were supposed to carry the stone. However, the stone on the ship was a fake. It was meant to attract the attention of those who wanted to steal it. The actual diamond was sent to England in a plain box via parcel post.


Let's go on working on the use of the Present Perfect tense, and briefly compare it with the Past Simple! Come on, let's go on to next section!
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