Lesson 1

Conversation

Person 1: Oh, I’m really sorry.  

Person 2: Are you OK? 

Person 1: I’m fine. But I’m not very good at this.

Person 2: Neither am I. Say, are you from South America?

Person 1: Yes, I am, originally I was born in Brazil.

Person 2: Did you grow up there?

Person 1: Yes, I did. But my family moved here eight years ago, when I was in high school.

Person 2: And where did you learn to Rollerblade? 

Person 1: Here in the park. This is only my second time.

Person 2: Well, it’s my first time. Can you give me some lessons?

Person 1: Sure. Just follow me.

Person 2: By the way, my name is  Mary

Childhood games

Hula Hoop

Hide and seek 

Puzzle

Hopscotch

Jump the rope

Card games

Marbles

Crossword puzzle

Conversation

Student 1: Are these pictures of you when you were a kid? 

Student 2: Yeah. That’s me in front of my grandpa’s stable. When I was a kid, we used to spend weeks there every summer.

Student 1: Wow, I bet that was fun!

Student 2: Yeah. We always had a great time. Every day we used to get up early and ride the horses. I had a great photo collection. In fact, I think it’s still up in the attic!

Student 1: Hey, I used to collect pictures of my vacation, too, when I was a kid. But my parents threw them out by mistake. 

Used to

We use this expression to talk about habits or repeated actions in the past which we don’t do in the present. We also use it to talk about states in the past which are no longer true. For example:

• I used to have long hair (but now I have short hair).
• He used to smoke (but now he doesn’t smoke).
• They used to live in India (but now they live in Germany).

Watch out! With the negative and the question it’s ‘use’ and not ‘used’:

• Did you use to be a teacher?
• Did he use to study French?
• She didn’t use to like chocolate, but she does now.
• I didn’t use to want to have a nice house.

Note! With this ‘used to’ there is no verb ‘be’. We CAN’T say ‘I am used to have long hair’.

Reading

Michael was born in 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, US. He was the youngest of four children. He wanted to become an actor. In 1975, he played in a TV show about a high school teacher and his students.

The TV show was very popular and Michael became famous. Then he started making movies and starred in several successful films. 

People liked his acting and dancing. In 1980, things suddenly went wrong. His sister and his wife died. Michael said it was the worst time of his life. He made several unsuccessful movies, and thought about giving up as an actor. He is a mechanic and has five BMW, so he considered becoming a full-time mechanic for the BMW company.

But then, when he was working on a movie in 1987, he met Michelle Bolt. The film didn’t do well, but Michael and Michelle fell in love. They got married and they now have two children. They named them Mercedes and Cooper because Michael loves cars. Before they were born, Michael and Michelle used to work or go out on weekends, but they prefer to stay home now. The only problem is deciding which home.

They have three homes. In the mid-nineties, Michael’s luck as an actor changed for the better. He made some very popular films. For the second time in his career, he became successful.