2. Recalling the past
To describe things that happened in the past in a historical context we use the Simple Past tense. Queen Victoria died in 1901. What war finished on November 11th 1918? I went to London in 2012 for the Olympics. |
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To describes events ocurring at a certain moment in the past we use the past continuous. The orchestra was playing while the ship sank. People were swimming in the cold sea. The radio wasn´t working after the accident. |
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Culture counts
Storytelling
The UK and many English speaking countries have a vast storytelling tradition, it is very popular. There are many associations and storytelling festivals where you can listen to and watch people telling all type of stories. Most stories refer to times in the past.
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Do it yourself
Did you know there are storytelling schools? They are schools where children learn maths, languages, arts and ... to tell stories.
What is storytelling?Stories are all around us – in newspapers, novels, on TV and the Web. True storytelling happens when the story is told person to person, live, without print or technology. Storytelling is a unique human skill shared between people, in ordinary conversation, full of anecdotes and real life stories. It is one of our oldest artforms. It brings words and the world to live together, stimulates the imagination, and builds a sense of community between tellers and listeners. Many older stories are originally traditional folktales. But historical stories, legends and contemporary stories can equally be the subject of the storyteller's art, and they too embody a strong element of community or collective experience. "The story is told eye to eye, mind to mind, and heart to heart." Scottish Traveller Proverb |
An excellent speaking and pronunciation practice is to repeat and memorize short poems.
A limerick is a short poem in five lines with a strict rhyme AABCA.
Listen and repeat the rhyme below. Remember to record your voice, listen and compare.
There was an Old Man of the West,
Who never could get any rest;
So they set him to spin on his nose and his chin.
Which cured that Old Man of the West.
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
'If this were only cleared away,'
They said, 'it WOULD be grand!'
Source: Lit2go
Do it yourself
Order the words in this Limerick by A. de la Riva and form the rhyme.
You are babysitting for your English neighbour's daughter. She is bored and wants to listen to a short tale. You remember this story but she doesn't understand any Spanish. Tell her the story in English summarising the main points. Talk for about 2-3 minutes.