Harriet Green wrote a letter describing her summer sailing trip to Florida. She found sailing on the boat to be boring with nothing to do but read and eat. However, she enjoyed the week spent at the sailing club with hot weather, swimming, windsurfing, and making new friends. The food was okay and she had to buy ice cream and soda from the snack bar since there were no stores.

4. Our first letter is from Harriet Green.
She writes...
•My name’s Harriet Green. I´m thirteen. This
summer I went sailing in Florida. Sailing on
the boat was a little boring because there
was nothing to do but read and eat.
•The week in the sailing club was great. The
weather was hot, and I swam and windsurfed.
I liked making new friends.
•The food was OK. There weren’t any stores,
but I bought ice cream and soda from the
snack bar.

5. Language focus
Last month I went sailing in Florida.
SIMPLE PAST TENSE
Affirmative form Interrogative form Negative form
I I I
You You You
He He He
She worked yesterday. Did she work yesterday ? She did not work
It It yesterday.
We We It (didn’t)
You You We
They They You
They

6. 1. Use the simple past tense to talk about things that
are now finished.
2. You can use the simple past with TIME
EXPRESSIONS that refer to the past
(yesterday, last week, by 2000, in the 20th
century, some years ago).
3. The simple past of REGULAR VERBS
is formed by adding –d or -ed.
4. Many common verbs are IRREGULAR
eg. Base form – see past – saw
go went
have had

7. LISTENING
Listen to Rachel’s and Tim’s letters and
complete this table.
Harriet Rachel
Tim
went sailing in Florida ... ...
liked making new friends ... ...
didn’t like being on the boat ... ...
thought
the food was OK ... ...
bought ice cream and soda ... ...

8. Guess!
• These are some of the places we
visited on vacation!
• Can you tell us where are these
locations?

16. The girl in the hospital bed is giving
her version of...
• What she usually did in the past.
• What she was doing at the time of
her accident.

23. Your turn:
Do you remember the accident in the Caribbean
when a cruise ship hit a cargo ship?
Describe what was happening on the ship
before the crash.

25. References:
NOLASCO, Rob WOW! American Window on the
world, O.U.P., 1993
FUCHS, M., BONNER, M., Grammar Express,
2002, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.