Week 3

Past unreal conditionals

Jingjing
IECP Grammar 4A
Fall 2014

1. Read the following text, and write down everything that went wrong yesterday in the
table below.
Broken Hearts and Fish out of Water
1) Yesterday Tad and Hannah went to a seafood restaurant for lunch. While they were
eating, Hannah noticed a very cute guy at the next table. 2) Later, when Tad went to the
restroom, Hannah started talking to the man, Jim. 3) Tad came back while they were
talking, and he got very angry. He yelled at Jim and grabbed him by the neck. 4) Suddenly,
Jim fainted. Tad didnt know what to do, but Hannah started to perform CPR on Jim. 5)
While Hannah was performing CPR, Jims girlfriend, Tammy, walked into the restaurant.
Tammy thought Hannah was kissing Jim, and she suddenly fainted. 6) Unfortunately,
when she fainted, she crashed into a giant fish tank. The fish and water spilled everywhere.
7) After the fish tank fell over, the restaurant manager left the cash register and ran over to
see what was happening. 8) Before he returned to the cash register, someone robbed it.
Both Jim and Tammy recovered, but the restaurant lost a lot of money and fish. The
restaurant manager is suing Tad, Hannah, Jim and Tammy.
Cause
Hannah was flirting with Jim when Tad
came back from the restroom
Jim fainted.

Effect
Tad got very angry, so he yelled at Jim and
grabbed him by neck.
Hannah started to perform CPR on Jim.

Tammy thought Hannah was kissing Jim

Tammy fainted.

Tammy crashed into a giant fish tank when

she crashed.

The fish and water spilled everywhere.

The restaurant manager left the cash register

and ran over to see what was happening.

Someone robbed the cash register when

the restaurant owner left.

2. Work in pairs and write out all the things that might/might not have happened if the
characters in the story had not made any mistakes yesterday. For example:
1) If Hannah hadnt been flirting with Jim after Tad went to the restroom, Tad would not
have grabbed him by neck.
2) If Tammy hadnt thought Hannah was kissing Jim, she would not have fainted.
3) If Tammy hadnt fainted, she would not have crashed into a giant fish tank. If the fish
tank hadnt broken, the poor fish wouldnt have died.
4)

Week 3
Past unreal conditionals

Jingjing
IECP Grammar 4A
Fall 2014

3. Determining Who Was at Fault

The restaurant owner is suing Tad, Hannah, Jim, and Tammy. Students are divided into
two groups and role-play the trail scene. In each group, students are assigned roles of Tad,
Hannah, Jim, Tammy and Jury members. Please write down your lines before acting it out!
Make sure you use at least one past unreal conditional.
The restaurant owner: retell the robbery and criticize other characters using past unreal
conditionals
(i.e If the fish tank hadnt broken, I would not have left the cash register to see what was
happening. If I hadnt left the cash register, it would not have been robbed!)

Tammy: retell the story, criticize Hannah and Jim, emphasize the fact that you are also a
victim because you was shocked and fainted.

Hannah: emphasize the fact that you were saving Jims life, and blame on Tad.

Tad: emphasize the fact that you did not damage anything and blame on others (Hannah,
Tammy or Jim)

Jim: emphasize the fact that you did not damage anything and you have no idea what had
happened before you recovered.

Jury members: Decide who is at fault. Write down your judgments of the case and be
specific about your rationales. After listening to both the plaintiff and the defendants,
reach a decision.