Grammar: The kindness of strangers

Past simple

1Read the story. Complete the text with the past simple form of the verbs in brackets. 

You need to use normal letters and capital letters correctly in this task.

A final journey?

On 10 April 1912, eighteen-year-old Anna Turja 

¹

 

(leave) England on a large ship. Her family, who 

²

 

(come) from Finland, 

³

 

(be) poor and she 

⁴

 

(need) a job. When a relative 

⁵

 

(ask) her to work in his shop in Ohio, USA, she 

⁶

 

(decide) to go there.

 

Anna 

⁷

 

(like) the ship. She 

⁸

 

(describe) it as a floating city because the deck 

⁹

 

(be) wider than the streets in her home town back in Finland. One evening, she 

¹⁰

 

(be) asleep when someone 

¹¹

 

(knock) on the door. Anna 

¹²

 

(go) out, but she 

¹³

 

(not understand) what people were saying because she 

¹⁴

 

(not speak) English. She 

¹⁵

 

(not know) what to do. Then a stranger 

¹⁶

 

(take) her to a lifeboat…

 

The ship was called the Titanic. Anna 

¹⁷

 

(survive), but 1,502 others didn't. She never 

¹⁸

 

(forget) that night and every year on 12 April, she 

¹⁹

 

(tell) the story to her children.

Past simple

2Read the interview and write the interviewer's questions. Use the past simple. 

You need to use normal letters and capital letters correctly in this task. You also need to use correct punctuation.

• Interviewer why / you / visit / the island of Nuku Hiva / ?

  ¹

  Peter I wanted to see how the islanders lived.

  Interviewer how / you / get / there / ?

  ²

  Peter I went by boat on a dangerous two-week voyage.

  Interviewer what / be / the islanders / like / ?

  ³

  Peter They were kind and friendly. They gave me food and a place to sleep.

  Interviewer how / the islanders / survive / ?

  ⁴

  Peter They hunted and fished.

  Interviewer you / eat / unusual food / ?

  ⁵

  Peter Yes, I did. I ate lizards and seabirds.

  Interviewer when / you / leave the island / ?

  ⁶

  Peter I left after staying there for three weeks.

Past simple and past continuous

3Complete the sentence halves using the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Match 1–5 to a–e to make sentences about acts of kindness. 

You need to use normal letters and capital letters correctly in this task. You also need to use correct punctuation.

• 1It  (rain) when we  (arrive),

• 2I  (ride) a bike in the town when I  (fall) off,

• 3We  (walk) in the mountains when we  (get) lost,

• 4Peter  (take) photos of the town when he  (drop) his wallet,

• 5I  (carry) a heavy bag in the hotel,

• abut a kind man  (help) me to take it downstairs.

• bbut a friendly local person  (tell) us where to go.

• cbut two helpful people  (carry) me and my bike back to the hotel.

• dbut someone  (lend) us an umbrella.

• ebut someone  (pick) it up and  (return) it to him.

• 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

Past simple and past continuous

4Choose the correct words. 

Volcano!

It 

¹waswas being

 

the summer of 1995. I 

²stayedwas staying

 

in a small hotel in the capital of Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean Sea, when a group of important scientists 

³invitedwere inviting

 

me to investigate the volcano in the Soufrière Hills. They 

⁴wantedwere wanting

 

me to study it because they 

⁵knewwere knowing

 

that it was dangerous.

Every day, I 

⁶gotwas getting

 

up early to do this important work. Then, early one morning, when I 

⁷sleptwas sleeping,

 

the volcano 

⁸startedwas starting

 

to erupt. The government 

⁹decidedwere deciding

 

to tell everybody to leave the city. Everybody 

¹⁰leftwas leaving

 

as fast as possible, and the city was soon deserted. I remember that people were really kind and helpful, carrying bags for old people and helping poor people to pay for flights. Today, the city is a deserted ghost town. Nobody lives there.

5  Imagine that you were in a small town of Miseria on the island of Unfortunato when there was a major earthquake. Describe your experiences. Speak for no longer than one minute. When were you on the island and where were you staying? What was the town like? What were you doing when the earthquake began? How did you react? What did you do? How did you escape? Did you help anyone? What happened after the earthquake?

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