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Compare and contrast

Instructions: Copy, paste and print the following information, text and graphic organizer. Paste them into your reading notebook.

If you compare two things you tell how they are alike. If you contrast two things you tell how they are different. If you compare and contrast two things you tell how they are alike and how they are different.

Past Simple vs. Past Continuous: HW due Tuesday Jan. 14

Past Simple and Past Continuous

Use the verbs in parenthesis to complete the story.

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins ________ (to be) a Little hobbit, who _______(like) nothing more than a warm meal and a hot cup of tea. Until one day, while he _____________(smoke) his pipe and blowing smoke rings an old wizard named Gandalf __________(come) along and _____________ (ask) him to go on an adventure. Together with thirteen dwarves they set out to reclaim an old dwarf treasure from Smaug the dragon.

One night, they _____________(complain)about their miserable situation, when they ____________(encounter) three large, evil and dumb trolls. The trolls ____________(catch) them and ______________(plan)to eat them when Gandalf ____________(arrive) just in time to confuse and make the trolls fight amongst each other until the sun ____________(come out)an the trolls _____________(turn) to stone.

HW due Fri. Jan. 10th (Copy into Grammar notebook)

How do we use the Past Continuous Tense?

The past continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at that moment. For example, yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.

At 8pm yesterday, I was watching TV.

past

present

future

8pm

At 8pm, I was in the middle of watching TV.

When we use the past continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

I was working at 10pm last night.
They were not playing football at 9am this morning.
What were you doing at 10pm last night?
What were you doing when he arrived?
She was cooking when I telephoned her.
We were having dinner when it started to rain.
Ram went home early because it was snowing.

How do we make the Past Continuous Tense?

The structure of the past continuous tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb BE	+	main verb
		conjugated in simple past tense		present participle
		was were		base + ing

For negative sentences in the past continuous tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past continuous tense:

	subject	auxiliary verb		main verb
+	I	was		watching	TV.
+	You	were		working	hard.
-	He, she, it	was	not	helping	Mary.
-	We	were	not	joking.
?	Were	you		being	silly?
?	Were	they		playing	football?

Prof. Hector's Madness

The story of Paul Bunyan