Tenses to use: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, Past Continuous
Saturday (be) a beautiful day. It (be) summer and there (be) flowers in all gardens. It (be) a day for everybody to be happy.
Tom (come) out of the house with a big bucket of white paint in his hand. He (look) at the fence. It (be) three metres high and thirty metres long. He (put) his brush in the paint and (paint) some of the fence. Then he (put) down his brush and (sit) down. There (be) hours of work in front of him, and he (be) the unhappiest boy in the village. But after 10 minutes Tom (have) an idea.
…Tom (paint) when Joe Harper (come) to the fence.
«I (be) sorry you (not/can) (go) with me to the river, Tom. You must work.»
Tom (say) nothing. He (paint) the fence. He often (stop) and (look) at his work. The brush (move) np and down. At last he (say),
«You (call) this work?»
«Painting the fence? Of course, it (be) work».
«Perhaps, it (be). But I (like) it».
Soon Joe (begin) to get very interested and (say),
«Tom, can I paint a little?»
Some time later, Tom (sit) under the tree (eat) an apple. Joe and other boys who (come) to laugh at Tom (wait) to paint the fence.
In the afternoon Aunt Polly (see) a beautiful white fence. She (be) very pleased. She (take) Tom into the house and (give) him an apple. Tom quickly (take) a second apple and (run) off.
Answer the questions:
1. Why was Tom unhappy when he came out of the house?
2. What did Joe see when he came to the fence?
3. Why did Tom often stop?
4. What did Joe ask Tom some time later?
5. What did Aunt Polly see in the afternoon? How did she feel? What did she do?
12. «Three Men in a Boat» by Jerome K. Jerome
Vocabulary: serious – серьезный, fishing-line – удочка, sail – плыть, pick off – стряхивать.
Tenses to use: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, Past Continuous
It (be) very quiet on the river that evening. We (see) only three men. They (sit) in a boat and they (fish). As we (get) nearer, we (see) that they (be) old. They (be) very serious, because they (watch) their fishing-lines very carefully. The sun (go) down and there (be) a red light on the water. It (be) very beautiful and we (feel) that we (sail) in some strange land.
We (not/sail) in some strange land. We (go) into the boat with the three old men in it. At first we (not/understand) it. But then, from the words that we (hear) we (understand) that we (be) near people. We also (understand) that those people (not/be) happy. They (try) to stand up and they (pick) fish off themselves. As they (work), they (shout) bad words about us.
