I.

In the following sentences, use past perfect or simple past tense of the verbs given in
parentheses

1.Molly (be) a teacher before she (become) a lawyer.

2. Yesterday I (see) Susan Chan, an old friend whom I (see, not) in many years. At first, I (recognize, not)
her because she (gain) fifty pounds.

3. Joe suddenly (realize) that the teacher (ask) him a question.

4. It (be) midnight when I finally (go) to bed.

5. I (feel) better after I (take) some medicine.

6. When I (go) to see my math teacher about why I (receive) a failing grade on the last test, he (examine)
my paper and then (announce) that he(make) a mistake and (change) my grade to an "A."

7. When I (try) to explain to my friend why I (call, not) him in several weeks, he (tell) me not to worry
because he (be) out of town for a month.

8. When Sharon and Will (get married) last month, they (knew) each other for only two weeks.

9. I (go) to the movies after I (finish) my homework even though I (see) the movie many times.

10. Jerry (come) to the party, but no one (invite) him.

II. Complete the sentences with the past simple or the past continuous form of the verbs in
brackets.

1 I (switch off ) the computer because it (make) a strange noise.

2 My dad (listen) to classical music when I (arrive) home from school.

3 We (play) video games when my mum ,(say) ‘Turn the volume down!’

4 My cousin (meet) his wife, Bianca, while he (live) in Italy.

5 My little sister (draw) a picture while I (study) for my French exam.

6 While they (try) to fix the computer, all the lights (go out).

7 When we (leave) school yesterday, it (pour) with rain.

8 When you (see) Paul, he (wear) a black jacket?

9 I (try) to log on when the WiFi (stop) working.

10 While Dad (print) an article, the printer (run out) of paper

III. Fill the gaps with the correct tenses.

1. They (build) a new power station at the moment.

2. When I was buying the stamps somebody (call) my name.

3. 'What time (Kevin come) ?' 'An hour ago.'

4. I (not go) to the cinema last night. I was too tired.

5. Carol invited us to the party but we (not go) . We had other things to do.

6. I saw Bridget at the museum when I was going to the restaurant but she (not see) me.

7. 'Where (your parents live) ?' 'In a village near London. They have always lived there.'

8. She speaks English but she (not speak) French.

9. Jeff is from London. He (live) there all his life.

10. My favourite country is Canada. I (be) there four times.

11. I (never eat) bananas.

12. 'How long (you study) Photography?' 'For one year.'

13. 'Where are you going on holiday?' 'I don't know. We (not decide) yet.'

14. Who (invent) the washing machine?

15. 'Where's Jill?' 'She (have) lunch at the moment.'

16. (Terry work) ? No, he is on holiday.

17. Somebody (steal) my sunglasses at the swimming pool last week.

18. (she wear) the nice jacket when you saw her?

19. Where (be) you yesterday?

20. As you (see / can) , I (become) a real London fan already.

 IV. Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the adjective or adverb,
comparative or superlative of the words provided.
1. This is ___________________________ (fancy) dress I own.
2. In my opinion, a deer moves ____________________ (graceful) of all the animals.
3. The politician spoke ________________ (loud) than was necessary.
4. When we travel, my suitcase is always _______________ (heavy) than my husband’s.
5. January is _____________________ (cold) month of the year.
6. Mrs. Pedrido speaks _______________________(fluent) than her husband, but her
daughter speaks _______________________ (fluent) of the whole family.
7. December 21 is the ________________(short) day of the year. It is ______________
(short) than any other. 8. Andrew is __________________ (fast) runner on the team.
9. This apartment is __________________(convenient) of all the apartments I have seen. 10.
Annie usually gets up ________________(early) than her sister.
11. Max finished the homework _________________ (fast) than anyone else in the class.
12. A turtle moves _____________________(slow) than a rabbit.
13. Bonnie works ___________________(hard) of all the employees in the office.
14. This book is _____________________ (interesting) than the one I read last week.
15. Daniel drives ____________________________ (careful) than his father.
16. Judy goes to the library ____________________ (often) than I do.
17. That gold necklace is ____________________(expensive) one in the whole store.
18. This is _____________________ (bad) movie I have ever seen.
19. Shaun sings even __________________(beautiful) than her mother, who is a famous
opera star. In fact, she has ___________________ (beautiful) voice I’ve ever heard.

V. Complete the sentences with the correct passive form of the verbs in brackets. Use the Present
Simple.

a. English ____________________ (speak) in many countries.

b. The post ______________________ (deliver) at about 7 o’clock every morning.

c. ______________________________ (the building/use) any more?

d. How often ______________________________ (the Olympic Games(hold)?

e. How _______________________ (your name/spell)?

f. My salary _____________________ (pay) every month.

g. These cars _________________________ (not make) in Japan.

h. The name of the people who committed the crime _____________________ (not know).

i. His travel expenses ________________________ (not pay) by his company.

VI. Change the following sentences into passive sentences using the words in brackets.

a. We sell tickets for all shows at the Box Office. (Tickets for all shows/sell/at the Box Office)

b. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. (The electric light bulb/invent/by Thomas Edison)

c. Someone painted the office last week. (The office/paint/last week)

d. Several people saw the accident. (The accident/see/by several people)

e. Where do they make these video recorders? (Where/these video recorders/make)

VII. Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.

a. They will build a new bridge next year.

b. Brian Brody directed The Ultimate Space Adventure.

c. Pierre Matie will design her costume.

d. Someone found my wallet.

e. One of the students broke the window.

f. They will deliver my computer on Monday.

g. Mary invited Paul to her birthday party.

h. British astronomers discovered a new planet.

VII. Write these sentences in indirect speech.

a. “I’m very tired”, she said.

b. “I’ll see them soon”, he said.

c. “I’m going to the cinema”, she said.

d. “I see the children quite often”, he said.

e. “I’m having a bath”, she said.

f. “I’ve already met their parents”, she said.

g. “I stayed in a hotel for a few weeks”, she said.

h. “I must go home to make dinner”, he said.

i. “I haven’t been waiting long”, she said.

j. “I’m listening to the radio”, he said.

k. “I’ll tell them the news on Saturday”, she said

l. “I like swimming, dancing and playing tennis”, he said.

VIII. Report the following sentences.

a. “Don’t try to be funny.”

b. “Wait here till I come.”

c. “Go to bed and don’t get up till you’re called.”

d. “Be a good girl and sit quietly for five minutes.”

e. “Watch the milk and don’t let it boil over.”

f. “Don’t take your coat off.”

g. “Don’t forget to thank Mrs Jones when you’re saying good bye to her.”

h. “Stop that dog.”

Thanksgiving is perhaps the most American of America's festivals.
While many countries have days when everyone eats a lot, only the
Americans have a day on which they celebrate having enough to eat.
Perhaps this may seem rather superfluous in a country whose
inhabitants are today among the best-fed in the world; but to
Americans, Thanksgiving is a reminder that this was not always the
case.

   The last weeks of the year are a festive time in most countries; but while Europeans
just celebrate Christmas and the New Year, Americans begin their festive season about
a month earlier. The feast of Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in
November, is second only in importance to Christmas in the American calendar of feast days.
    Thanksgiving is the oldest non-Indian tradition in the United States, and was first celebrated
in the year 1621. It was in this year that the men and women in Plymouth, one of the first New
England colonies, decided to establish a feast day to mark the end of the farming year.
    As devout Protestants, they called their feast day "Thanksgiving", a day on which people
could celebrate and give thanks to God for the crops that they had managed to grow
and harvest. This was not in fact an original idea, but was based on the English
"Harvest Festival", an old custom whereby people gave thanks to God once the crops were all
in.
    In America however, a successful harvest was more significant than in England, for
any failure to bring in an adequate supply of crops could be fatal for a new
colony, struggling to set itself up in an alien continent. Several early North Americans colonies
failed because the colonists were killed off by disease or fighting, and others perished because
they did not have time to prepare enough land and grow enough food for their needs during the
long cold winter months. The year 1621 was a particularly bountiful one for the Plymouth
colonists, so they  "gave thanks" for their good fortunes.
    In the years that followed, other colonies introduced their own Thanksgiving festivals, each
one at first choosing its own date, and many varying the date according to the state of the
harvests. In 1789, President George Washington gave an official Thanksgiving Day address in
honor of the new Constitution; and Thanksgiving Day, like Independence Day (July 4th) became
one of America's great days.
    Nevertheless, at first the date was not fixed nationally; indeed, it was not until 1863 that
President Abraham Lincoln declared that Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated on the last
Thursday of November. Other presidents made similar proclamations, and the date of
Thanksgiving tended to move around until the year 1941, when Congress and the President
jointly declared that it should henceforth be fixed on the fourth Thursday of November. Since
then, Thanksgiving Day has remained fixed.
The Mormons - A curiously
American phenomenon
When Mitt Romney was designated as the Republican challenger to Barak Obama in
the 2012 US Presidential election, Americans were once again talking about the
"Mormons". Romney is a Mormon, a member of a strange American church that
believes that the Americans are descended from the lost 13th Tribe of the Children of
Israel. This religion was founded in the 19th century by a man called Joseph Smith, who
said that God had shown him a third testament of the Bible, the "Book of Mormon",
written in a strange language, on leaves of gold. Smith translated this divine book into
English, and convinced a lot of people that his story was true. Nobody else ever found
the books of gold: but Mormonism has become a powerful force in America today. 
        To Americans, Utah means "Mormons" - one of the most surprising religious
groups in the USA. To this day, Mormons largely run Utah, as they have done since
their ancestors first colonized the state in the 19th century. And even if, today, there are
more and more non-Mormons living in Utah, it is still Mormons who govern many
aspects of life in this part of the Mountain West.
           Churches tend to play a major role in American life; while religion plays a
relatively small part in people's lives in modern day Europe, it is still a major force in the
USA - and perhaps no more so than in Utah, in the mountains of America's far
west.               

          Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, is a remarkable city, one whose center is not
a high-rise business quarter, but a temple. The Great Temple, the heart of the city of
Salt Lake, is the building around which the whole city was designed, and the spiritual
headquarters of one of the strangest, yet most active churches in America, the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. To many people, this church, which has  four
million followers in the USA, is considered more as a sect, and better known, simply, as
"the Mormons".
        There are plenty of weird and wonderful religious groups in the USA; the quest for
religious freedom was, after all, one of the reasons that caused the first pilgrims and
colonists to leave Europe in search of a new life beyond the Atlantic.  Since those days,
religious freedom has been a corner stone of American societies, and many unusual
religious groups have been established over time.
      The Mormons are one of the more surprising of these. This church, with its peculiar
mixture of Christianity and apparent mythology, has survived and prospered, becoming
one of the most powerful churches in America, controlling (as it always has done) the
state of Utah,  and possessing enormous wealth. The Mormon church itself has an
annual income estimated at $8.7 billion (enough to make place it among the biggest 60
corporations in the USA!). Furthermore, Mormons control a number of the biggest
corporations in the USA, including the Hyatt and Marriott hotel chains.
     For an outsider, Mormonism may seem like an absurd (or a worrying) joke. The
introduction to the "Book of Mormon", the third testament of the Mormon Bible opens
with these words: "The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the
Bible. It is a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas."
     For a non-Mormon, the story of the book of Mormon is rather hard to believe.
According to the legend, the book, engraved on plates of gold, was discovered by a
man called Joseph Smith in 1823, on a mountain top near New York.  Inspired by God,
Smith was able to translate these books written in an unknown language, into English,
and bring the translation down from the mountain. Unfortunately for the credibility of
the Mormon church, Smith then hid the "golden tablets" where he found them, leading
many people to concluded that he was really just a rather slick power-hungry charlatan.
No-one else ever saw the tablets, and no part of the original text in the mysterious
language has ever been revealed!
           Be that as it may, Smith quickly managed to persuade thousands of people that
he was authentic, and soon built up a strong band of followers, whose devotion to their
leader was total.
           Persecuted and often ridiculed by other Americans, Smith led the Mormons on
one of the biggest and most remarkable internal migrations in the history of the United
States. After settling initially in Missouri, he was later forced to move his people on to
Illinois, where his megalomania became even more apparent. His decision, in 1844, to
run for the US Presidency provoked a surge of anger against the Mormons, as well as
criticism from his own followers; and after a riot in the Mormon city of Nauvoo, the
father of Mormonism was executed by local militiamen.

         Smith's place was taken by a new leader, Brigham Young, revered as a saint by
Mormons, mocked as a dictatorial tyrant by their opponents. Saint or tyrant, he was
certainly not a calm and gentle man, but a leader who was willing to push his followers
to the limits, and would not tolerate opposition to his views.
            He it was who decided to uproot the Mormons once more, and take them in
search of "the new Zion", a land in which they could establish their own independent
state, undisturbed by anyone else. And thus, under his orders, thousands and
thousands of "Latter Day Saints" trekked on foot with their carts across the American
West, eventually reaching one of the driest and most inhospitable spots in the whole of
North America, the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
     Here, Young ordered them to establish their new Zion, in the place he
named Deseret. The Saints were astonished at the news, as they had been led to
believe they were going to fine farming country. Yet thanks to Young's determination,
and to the streams flowing from the mountains, the settlers did actually manage to turn
the desert into green pastures, and before long, a prosperous and well ordered
community grew up.
      In 1853, once the community was well established, the first stone of the great
temple was laid: forty years later, in 1893, the building was finally completed.
      Since then, Utah, largely populated by Mormons, has become a prosperous state,
and the Mormon church one of the richest organizations in the USA.
    If the founders of Mormonism appear to many observers as successful charlatans,
their followers tended to be very devout people, and remain so to this day. Most
Mormons live very sober lives, respect strict codes of moral behavior, and give a tenth
of their income to the church. Visitors to Salt Lake City may complain that they find it
hard to buy alcoholic drinks, but they appreciate the city's low crime rate and its clean
streets, and are full of praise for Mormon hospitality and helpfulness.  On the negative
side though, Utah has one of the highest rates of suicide and depression in the United
States.
      Many non-Mormons find it very hard to understand how it is that so many rational,
intelligent and sincere Americans can, in today's world, follow a religion (many call it a
"sect") whose beliefs are founded on a basis as dubious and implausible as the story
of Joseph Smith.