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Past simple Vs. Past continuous


SECTION 1 - Explanation









SECTION 2 - Practice



Self-study
Each student is going to practice with the following exercises. Click on the links below to access the content.

Exercise 1        Exercise 2       Exercise 3       Exercise 4  





SECTION 3 - Speaking practice


a) Each student is going to read a paragraph and will receive feedback about her/his pronunciation, stress placement, fluency and intonation. 

1. Last month I was on holiday in Ireland with my mum and dad. One day, we were driving through a small village. It was time for lunch, so we stopped at a restaurant .
It was a large , old builiding. We looked through the window. There were lots of people in the restaurant. They were eating , drinking and chatting . A musician was playing the violin.

2. But there was something strange about the people . They weren't wearing normal , modern clothes. They were wearing hats, jackets and dresses from another century . We couldn't understand it. But we were hungry , so we opened the door .
When we went into the restaurant, everything was different. The people were wearing normal clothes. The musician wasn't there- the music was on CD. It was a very strange experience!

3. Two minutes later he said: ‘The next song is by Coldplay. It’s called Yellow and it’s for a beautiful girl who is dancing over there.’ Hannah knew that the song was for her because she was wearing a yellow dress. When Hannah and her friends left the club the DJ was waiting at the door. ‘Hi, I’m Jamie,’ he said to Hannah. ‘Can I see you again?’ So Hannah gave him her phone number.

4. One evening in October, Hannah was at work. As usual she was going to meet Jamie at 5.30. It was dark and it was raining. She looked at her watch. It was 5.20! She was going to be late! She ran to her car and got in. At 5.25 she was driving along the High Street. She was going very fast because she was in a hurry.



b) Students will be divided into small groups and practice speaking by asking some of these questions:

Past continuous questions
1. What were you doing yesterday at 3pm?
2. What were your friends doing Saturday evening?
3. What were you doing right before class?
4. Who were you talking to yesterday afternoon?
5. What were you eating the last time you spilled food on your clothes?
6. What were you doing Friday night at 9pm?
7. What were you doing last New Year’s Eve at 11:30pm?
8. Were you watching a movie last Sunday at 8pm?
9. Who were you texting before class?
10. What were you doing yesterday at nine in the morning?
11. What TV show were you watching Monday night?
12. What were you doing the last time you got a phone call?
13. Were you working hard last night? What were you doing?
14. What were you doing last Christmas morning at 10am?
15. What were you doing the last time you got caught in the rain?
16. What were you doing while you were eating dinner last night?
17. What were you doing the last time someone told you to stop being childish?

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HELPFULL LINKS

TEXT TO SPEECH TOOL - Click HERE
DICTATION TOOL - Click HERE


  

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