Topic Two (1.2): It’s better to give than to receive

In this topic, you will learn what gifts people have given each other in history, as well as practise the use of the past simple tense in English.

Please work through the following sections in your coursebook, completing all listed exercises:

There are three pictures on page 22. Do you know what the object or structure is in each picture? What can you say about each picture?
Page 22, Exercise 1 – Read the text ‘Famous gifts in history’. Look up any words that you don’t understand.
Page 23, Exercise 1a – You need to match the information in each numbered paragraph with a picture.
Page 23, Exercise 1b – Look at the words in the Key Words: History orange box on page 22. Can you find the words in the text? What are these words in your language?
Page 23, Exercise 2 – Look at the sentences a, b and c. You need to choose the correct sentence to complete each paragraph in the ‘Famous gifts in history’ text on page 22. Once you have done this listen to the whole text and check if you have put the correct sentence at the end of the correct paragraph.

LISTEN – TRACK 04

Page 23, Exercise 3 – Now let’s learn some more vocabulary! Look at the words in the box. Do you know what they mean? Try to find them in the text using the context and the pictures to help you understand their meaning. Look at the Reading tip box on page 23 to help you. If you have a friend or family member who can speak English, you could complete this exercise with them. If not, try to find the words yourself. Then check your answers in a dictionary - remember Wordreference.com Links to an external site. is a very good online dictionary that you may wish to use. This will give you the meaning of the word in your own language.
Page 23 – Use of English Past Simple: regular and irregular. The past simple is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The past tense is used in the text on page 22. Look at the verbs in the Use of English box. Can you find the past tense form of the verbs in the text? The first verb has been done for you.

Page 23 – Write answers to the questions in Exercises 5a, b and c. Write two questions of your own for each paragraph of the text and then answer your questions. Look at the example from Exercise 4 to help you. Underline the use of the past tense in both your questions and your answers.

Remember that you do not need to read the text in detail in order to do the exercises. You need to ‘scan’ the text, that is, read it quickly in order to find specific information that will help you, for example, words such as ‘horse’ or ‘egg’. Choosing how to read is an important step in building effective reading skills. In this course, you will be taught how to read a variety of text-types.
When reading a more difficult text, you should try and work out the meaning of unfamiliar words from their context. Sometimes, it may help to identify what part of speech it is (is it a noun, verb, adjective or adverb?) or its position in a sentence. This is a skill that can be developed over time. You may want to take this quiz here to practise this skill further.

We have a number of words that have a similar meaning to ‘gift’ in English. Can you work out what they mean and in what context they would be used?

Donation
Present
Grant
Contribution
Offering

The past simple tense is used to talk about past events or states which have finished. To form the past simple of regular verbs you add -ed to the infinitive of the verb, for example:

pull – pulled
jump – jumped

Read the explanation in the link below then try the exercises that follow.

Irregular verbs will behave differently and these do need to be learnt. Read the explanation in the link below then when you are ready, try the exercises that follow.

If you would like to check your answers to the exercises in this topic, please consult this document here. Download here.
The section with the answers is highlighted in yellow.
If you would like to access the audioscript(s) for this topic, please click here. Download here.