Simple Past lesson

Hello Everybody! You’re very welcome to our English

Class!
Today we are going to read about a very famous dancer
who became a spy.
Any idea of who she was?
Let’s find it out then!

Activity 1: Look at the following picture and answer the questions

below

Do you know who she is? No idea?

Her initials are M_ _ _ H_ _ _
What did she do?
Where was she born?

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Simple Past lesson

Activity 2: Mata Hari’s biography.

Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. She
was born on 7th August, 1876 in the Netherlands.
Educated in a convent, she married Campbell MacLeod, a British-born captain of the
Dutch army, when she was 18 years old; they were divorced a few years later. She settled in
Paris, and shortly after 1900 she began to perform erotic dances for private gatherings. In
1907 she became a spy for Germany, attending a school for espionage in Lörrach. Through
her liaisons with high-ranking Allied officers she was able to obtain important military
information.

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her Paris hotel

room. She was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and
consequently causing the deaths of thousands of soldiers. She
was found guilty and was executed by the French by firing squad
Femme
on 15th October 1917, at the age ofFatale
41. and brave spy

Mata Hari, exotic dancer and

convicted spy, made her name
synonymous with femme fatale
during World War I.

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Simple Past lesson

Activity 3: Read the text again and decide if the following statements
are true or false. Then correct the false sentences.

1. Mata Hari was a Dutch dancer.

2. She married an American captain.
3. Their marriage lasted only a few years.
4. She lived in France where she performed erotic dances.
5. She became a Dutch spy in 1907.
6. The French arrested and executed Mata Hari
when she was 40 years old.

Activity 3: Think it over It isn’t fair! I always have to

do the hard work!!

Read again the true/false statements in activity 3.

Can you turn the following sentences into the simple past tense?

Mata Hari marries a British Captain.

__________________________________________________

She lives in France.

__________________________________________________

She becomes a spy in 1907

_________________________________________________

The French arrest and execute Mara Hari in 1917

__________________________________________________

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 Simple Past lesson

Activity 4: Reflecting on grammar: The Past Simple tense

(affirmative)

We use the Past Simple to talk about things which happened in the past,
often with expressions like two years ago, last month, yesterday, to give
particular dates or times.

Many Past Simple verbs end in ED. They are regular verbs. For example:

work worked play played clean cleaned

start started need needed last lasted

Some verbs change their spelling before ED. For example:

live lived dance danced

cry cried study studied copy copied

stop stopped plan planned

Some verbs are irregular. The past simple is not ed. For example:

be was/were becomebecame begin began come came

do did drink drank eat ate get got give gave

go went have had leave left make made meet met

put put read read /red/ say said speak spoke

take took tell told think thought write wrote

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Simple Past lesson

Regular verbs…ed… ied,

Irregular verbs…change
mmm… It seems so
complicated!!

Don’t worry my friends! It isn’t so difficult!

All you need is a little more practice.

Activity 5: Bob Marley.

Read and complete Bob Marley’s Biography with the past tense with
the verbs in brackets. Use a dictionary if necessary.

FROM-FROMED
FORM-FORMED

He 1__________ (be born) Jamaica in 1945. He 2______ (be) a

singer, guitarist and song writer, pioneer of Jamaican reggae music.
Marley 3 ______ (form) his first harmony group, the Rudeboys, in
1961. The group later 4__________ (becomes) known as the
Wailers.
The group's early recordings 5_______ (be) in a style called ska,
and Jamaican mento. Mento 6_______ (be) the first of the reggae
styles. By the late 1960s Marley 7 ________ (emerge) as a rising
talent in this new genre of Jamaican music.
In 1967 he 8 _________ (convert) from Christianity to
Rastafarianism, a religion that 9 ______ (have) a profound influence
on reggae music. The Rastafarian movement of this period, among
other beliefs10_______, (recognize) Haile Selassie I, king of
Ethiopia, as the living God; 11 _______ (praise) the spiritual effects
of marijuana; and 12_______ (approve) black racial superiority.
Influenced by the Rastafarian movement, Marley's music contains
elements of spiritualism and mysticism. Some songs call for
personal freedom through revolution, while others embrace carefree
attitudes
toward life or convey stories of love. He 13 ______ (die) in 1981.

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Simple Past lesson

Well done! You’ve learnt a lot of new things today!

Now it’s time to relax. Next class we will continue
working hard with the past tense.
Bye!