Iceland The Thoroddsen family

The Thoroddsen _________in a quite a large detached house in Hafnarfjordur, a small town eight kilometers from Reykjavik.

Summers in Iceland are quite mild but winters are cold. Surprisingly, most houses in Iceland __________central heating. Instead of fireplaces heat _________from volcanic activity.

Bjorn is a pilot and _________most of his time in the air or on the ground in other countries. And when he ___________for his job he is usually up in his private plane. As a result, most of the housework and childcare is done by Margaret, who ____________her family life with her hat-making business. She also ________time to go riding with her children on their Icelandic horses and to practice the cello by herself or with her young son.

The three youngest children ___________Olduhinsskoli Elementary School. At weekends, the family often _________to the thermal pool in Hafnarfjordur.

sell spend×3 share do take×2 come enjoy collect

China The Wu family

The Wu family live in a small town called Shiping, about 150 km from Kunming, in southern China. The nine members of the Wu family ____________an attractive house surrounded by trees, next to a lake. Every three days, different members of the family ___________the boat out on the lake and ___________the plant called water hyacinth which is used to feed pigs. Every Sunday, Yu Xian and Ba Jiu _________their produce to the village market to sell and most of the family income __________from this. They are well respected in the village and known for their honesty. Ba Jiu is retired local official.

Eight-year- old Wu Dong ____________his whole morning at school. His school is one of the best in the area.

At the moment Yu Xian ___________a wide variety of dishes in the kitchen. Jian Chun and Rong, the daughters-in-law, ______________the family washing.

After working hard all day, the family usually ___________ their evenings relaxing on the sofa in front of the television. They __________this opportunity to spend time together.

B Read the three texts again and fill in the table

China Mexico Iceland

family members
Who the breadwinner is
How they relax
How they earn for living
Family values
What they are doing at the moment

The simple past and the past continuous

THE SIMPLE PAST		(a) Mary walked downtown yesterday. (b) I slept for eight hours last night.		The simple past is used to talk about activities or situations that began and ended at a particular time in the past (e.g. yesterday, last night, two days ago, in 1990), as in (a) and (b).
THE PAST CONTINUOUS		(c) I sat down at the dinner table at 6:00 P.M. yesterday. Tom came to my house at 6:10 P.M. I was eating dinner when Tom came. (d) I went to bed at 10:00. The phone rang at 11:00. I was sleeping when the phone rang.		The past continuous expresses an activity that was in progress (was occurring, was happening) at a point of time in the past (e.g. at 6:10) or at the time of another action (e.g. when Tom came.) In (c): Eating was in progress at 6:10; eating was in progress when Tom came. FORM: was, were + -ing
(e) When the phone rang, I was sleeping. (f) The phone rang while I was sleeping.			when = at that time while = during that time (e) and (f) have the same meaning.
(g) While I was doing my homework, my roommate was watching TV.			In (g): When two actions are in progress at the same time, the past continuous can be used in both parts of the sentence.
STATEMENT	I- She – He – It was working.
NEGATIVE	You – We – They were working.
QUESTION	Was I- She – He – It working? Were You – We – They working?
SHORT ANSWER	Yes, I- She – He – It was. No, I- She – He – It wasn’t. Yes, You – We – They were. No, , You – We – They weren’t.