UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE INGENIERIA

Sede Regional UNI Norte, Estelí

Recinto Universitario Augusto C. Sandino

EXERCISE 3: Write the base form of the verbs. Write R for a regular verb. Write / for an
irregular verb. Write B for the verb be.
1. ____cheer____ cheered ___R__ 9. _____________ heard ______
2. _____be______ were ___B__ 10. _____________ learned ______
3. _____________ attempted ______ 11. _____________ took ______
4. _____________ thought ______ 12. _____________ left ______
5. _____________ died ______ 13. _____________ climbed ______
6. _____________waved ______ 14. _____________ brought ______
7. _____________ froze ______ 15. _____________ traveled ______
8. _____________ lifted ______ 16. _____________was ______

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold.
George Dawson was a successful man. Was he famous? No, he wasn't. He
was just an ordinary man who did something extraordinary.
George Dawson lived in three centuries--from 1898 to 2001. He was born in
1898 in Texas, the grandson of slaves. At that time, there were fewer opportunities
for African Americans. Dawson was the oldest of five children. His family was very
poor, so George had to work to help his family. He started working for his father
when he was only four years old. As a result, he didn't have a chance to get an
education. He didn't learn to read and write. He signed his name with an X.
When Dawson was ninety-eight years old, he decided to go to school. He
wanted to learn to read and write. He went to adult literacy classes. The teacher
asked him, "Do you know the alphabet?" When he answered "no,;" his teacher was
surprised. Over the next few years, his teacher taught Dawson to read and write.
Dawson said, "Every morning I get up and I wonder what I might learn that day!"
In 1998, Richard Glaubman, read an article about Dawson in the newspaper
and wanted to meet him. Glaubman helped Dawson write a book about Dawson's
life, called Life is So Good. Dawson wrote about what makes a person happy. He
learned from his father to see the good things in life. They had a close family, and
George never felt lonely. Dawson says in the book, "People worry too much. Life is
good, just the way it is."
Was George Dawson a success? He definitely was. He enjoyed life and
accomplished his goal: learning to read and write
 EXERCISE 4: Fill in the blanks to complete these affirmative and negative statements and
questions.
1. George Dawson _______was______ por.
2. Dawson_________ born in 1898.
3. At that time, there________ many opportunities for him.
4. His parents________ poor.
5. Dawson's father used to tell him, "We __________born to die."
6. He _______ unhappy.
7. George Dawson wasn't able to write his name. Why _______ able to write his
name?
8. George Dawson _________ lonely.
9. __________ happy to go to school? Yes, he ______
10. How old _________ when he learned to read? He _______ ninety-eight years old
11. ______________ slavery in the U.S. when Dawson was born? No, there wasn't.
12. ______________ a lot of opportunities for African Americans at that time? No,
there weren't.
13. Dawson's teacher was surprised. Why__________ surprised?

EXERCISE 6: Fill in the blanks with the simple past form of one of the verbs from the
box. In some cases, more than one answer is possible.
try attend help
discover occur learn
fail want start
land decide rescue
ask attempt die

1. Dawson___lived_____ from 1898 to 2001.

2. He_________to work when he was four years old.
3. Many changes _________ during his long life.
 4. His teacher__________him, "Do you know the alphabet?"
5. He___________ when he was ninety-eight.
6. Richard Glaubman______ Dawson write a book.
7. Salomon Andrée ________ to explore the North Pole.
8. Many people _______to reach the North Pole by land, but they weren't successful.
9. Andrée _______ too use balloon
10. The balloon_________ far from the North Pole.
11. Andrée and his men_________
12. In1914, Ernest Shackleton________ when he tried to cross Antarctica.
13. He______ from his failure.
14. He _______ his men.
15. Robert Ballard _________ the Titanic on the ocean floor.

EXERCISE 7: Fill in the blank with the simple past form of the verb given. to the Arctic
in a balloon.

1. Andrée __flew___ (fly) to the arctic in a balloon.

2. Andrée _________ (think) he could reach the North Pole in a balloon.
3. He and his men _____ (leave) in July 1897.
4. Fog ________ (make) the balloon heavy.
5. Strong winds_______ (hit) Andrée's balloon.
6. They ______(have) problems with the weather.
7. No one ______ (know) what happened to the men.
8. The Titanic _______(sink) in 1912.
9. Robert Ballard________(grow) up near the ocean.
10. He _____ (become) an oceanographer.
11. He______(find) the Titanic on the ocean floor.
12. Earnest Shackleton_______ (lead) an expedition to Antarctica.
13. He_______ (bring) all of his men home safely

EXERCISE 8: Fill in the blanks with the simple past form of one of the verbs from the
box. You may use the same verb more than once.

teach say write

 begin have become

see go

1. Dawson___had____ a hard life.

2. He______to work for his father when he was four years old.
3. He _______ many changes in his lifetime.
4. He________ interested in reading when he was 98.
5. He________to school when he was 98.
6. His teacher________ him the alphabet.
7. Dawson _________"I wonder what I might learn today."
8. Dawson________a book about his life.

EXERCISE 9: Fill in the blanks with the negative form of the underlined verbs.
1. Andrée and his men landed on ice. They______ didn't____ on the North Pole.
2. George Dawson knew how to do many things. He _________ how to read and
write.
3. His father taught him many things. His father___________ him to read or write
4. He had the chance for an education when he was old. He __________ the chance
when he was young.
5. He wrote a book about his life. He _________ it alone.
6. Diana Nyad wanted to swim from Cuba to Florida. She ___________ to die without
achieving her goal.
7. She swam a lot when she was young. She __________ for many years.
8. Nyad went to Cuba. She __________ alone.

EXERCISE 10: Fill in the blanks to complete the conversation. Use context clues to help
you.
A: Did you read (1) the Harry Potter books?
B: Yes, I _____ (2) I read all of them. I recently wrote a paper about the author,
J.K.Rowling. She's the first author to become a billionaire from her writing. When she first
started writing, she considered herself a failure_________ (3) that?
A: No, I ________ (4) But I'd like to know more. When_______(5) the first Harry Potter
book?
B: She wrote the first one in 1995. She always wanted to be a writer. But her parents
___________(6) the idea. They thought she needed a "real" job.
A: Why__________ (7) that writing novels was a real job?
B: They were worried that it wouldn't pay the rent for her. She was very poor. She went on
welfare.
At that time in her life, she was very depressed.
A: Why _________(8) on weltare?
B: She was divorced and a single parent. She ________ (9) enough money to support her
daughter. She was also very depressed because her mother died. She sent her Harry Potter
novel to twelve publishers, but they all rejected her novel
A: Why ________ (10) her novel?
B: They didn't think it would be successful. Finally, a publisher agreed to publish it.
A: _________ (11) her a lot of money?
B: No, they ______ (12) They only offered her about $2,000. They printed only one
thousand copies.
A: That's not very many books _______ (13) their offer?
B: Yes, she _______ (14) She was happy to accept it.
A: _________ (15) more copies?
B: Yes, they ________ (16) They had to print more copies because so many people wanted
to read about Harry Potter. By 1999, her book went to the top of best-seller lists. When she
wrote the fourth book, the publisher printed lots of copies.
A: How many copies ________ (17)?
B: They printed over five million copies.
A: Wow! She wasn't a failure. She was a real success.
B: Besides writing, Rowling does other things. For example, she spoke to the graduating
class of Harvard in 2008.
A: ________ (18) about her novels?
A: No, _______ (19) She spoke about the benefits of failure. She said, "It is imposible to
live without failing at something.!" I recently read that she's not a billionaire anymore.
She's just a millionaire.
A: How _______(20) her money?
B: She didn't lose her money. She started to give away money to charity.
A: Cool! She sounds like a very interesting person.