(page 14)
I can talk about the past using a variety of past tenses.
1 Look at the photo. How old do you think the woman is? Why do you think she is famous?
2 Read the text and check your ideas.
Jeanne Calment, the person with the longest lifespan ever, was born in 1875, in Arles, France. Her parents ran a shop in the town and she worked there when she was a teenager. While she was serving in the shop in 1888, she met Vincent van Gogh, who had come in to buy pencils. She thought he was 'dirty, ugly and badly dressed!
In 1896, at the age of 21, she married Fernand Calment and then gave birth to a daughter, Yvonne. Fernand was very wealthy so Jeanne never needed to work. She lived in Arles for the rest of her life, dying on 5 August 1997 at the age of 122.
So how did Jeanne manage to live so long? The French have their own theories, noting that she ate more than two pounds of chocolate a week and rode a bicycle until she was 100!
3 Complete the Learn this! box with the tenses below. Then underline an example of each of the rules (a-d) in the text in exercise 2.
past continuous
past perfect
past simple
LEARN THIS! Past tenses
a We use the 1____________ for a sequence of events that happened one after another.
In 1989, my parents met, fell in love and got married.
b We use the 2____________ to describe a scene in the past. The events were in progress at the same time.
It was raining and people were rushing home from work.
c We use the 3____________ for a single event that interrupted a longer event in the past. We use the 4____________ for the longer event.
My parents got engaged while they were living in Wales.
d We use the 5____________ for an event that happened before another event in the past.
He had started a business before he left school.
4 Complete this sentence in three different ways using the three tenses in the Learn this! box. Use the verb learn. How does the meaning change?
When Tom left school, he____________/____________/____________to drive.
5 Complete the sentences with the correct past simple, past continuous or past perfect form of the verbs in brackets.
1 We ____________ (move) house a lot while I ____________(grow up).
2 After Joe____________ (learn) to drive, he ____________(buy) a car.
3 George ____________(leave) school, ____________(go) to university and ____________(study) engineering.
4 My parents____________ (get) engaged in 1990. They ____________ (fall) in love two years before, while they____________(work) in London.
→ Grammar Builder 1.1 page 115
6 Complete the text with the past simple, past continuous or past perfect form of the verbs below.
be be become die get leave live
meet not stop retire say work
Japan is the country with the most centenarians: over 50,000. It is also where Jiroemon Kimura, the man with the longest lifespan ever, 1____________ born in 1897. Kimura 2____________ school at fourteen and 3____________ a job in a post office. While he 4____________ there, he 5____________ his future wife Yae. He 6____________ a postal worker for 45 years when he 7____________ in 1962. But he 8____________ working! He 9____________ a farmer! In an interview just before he 10____________ at the age of 116, he said he wasn't sure why he 11____________ so long. 'Maybe it's thanks to the sun,' he 12____________. 'I'm always looking up to the sky!'
7 SPEAKING Tell the class about a real or invented person from a previous generation (e.g. a parent, grandparent). Use the headings below and make use of past tenses.
Born when / where? Education?
Jobs?
Married?
Family?
Moved?
Other interesting facts?
