📝 Daily Practice
🎯 Lesson Goal
In this lesson, you will learn how to tell a story using the past simple tense. You will practice talking about past events clearly and in order. This skill helps you share your experiences at work, school, or with friends.
🧠 Grammar Focus
The past simple tense is used to describe actions or events that happened and finished in the past. We use it to tell stories, say what happened yesterday, or describe a completed activity. The structure is: subject + verb in past form. For regular verbs, add -ed (walked). For irregular verbs, learn their past forms (went, saw). Example: I visited my friend last weekend. She worked late last night. We watched a movie yesterday. The past simple shows the time is finished; the story is complete. We often use past time words like yesterday, last year, or two days ago.
📖 Short Reading
Last Saturday, Anna visited her grandmother in the countryside. She woke up early and took a bus to the village. When she arrived, her grandmother cooked a delicious lunch. After eating, they walked in the garden and talked about old times. Anna helped her grandmother pick some apples from the trees. In the afternoon, she read a book and rested. Before leaving, Anna thanked her grandmother for the lovely day. She said she would visit again soon because she enjoyed the story and the fresh air.
✏️ Exercise 1 – Fill in the Blanks
1. Anna ____ her grandmother last Saturday. (visit / visited / visits)
2. She ____ up early to catch the bus. (wake / woke / wakes)
3. Her grandmother ____ a delicious lunch. (cook / cooked / cooking)
4. After lunch, they ____ in the garden. (walk / walked / walking)
5. Anna and her grandmother ____ about old times. (talks / talked / talking)
6. She ____ some apples from the trees. (pick / picked / picks)
7. In the afternoon, Anna ____ a book and rested. (read / reads / readed)
8. Before leaving, Anna ____ her grandmother. (thanks / thanked / thank)
🔗 Exercise 2 – Matching
1. Visited
2. Woke up
3. Cooked
4. Picked
5. Rested
6. Talked
✅ Exercise 3 – Multiple Choice
1. What did Anna do after eating lunch? (walk / walked / walks)
2. When did Anna visit her grandmother? (last Saturday / yesterday / tomorrow)
3. Which verb is past simple? (talk / talks / talked)
4. Anna ____ a book in the afternoon. (read / reads / reading)
5. Before she left, Anna ____ her grandmother. (thank / thanked / thanks)
6. To show something happened in the past, we use: (past simple / present simple / future simple)
📝 Writing Practice
1. Write about a trip you took recently. Say where you went, what you did, and how you felt.
2. Tell a short story about a special day with your family or friends.
3. Describe a time when you helped someone or someone helped you.
📚 Key Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| visited | went to see someone or a place |
| woke up | stopped sleeping |
| cooked | made food ready to eat |
| walked | moved by feet slowly |
| talked | spoke with someone |
| picked | took fruit or flowers from plants |
| rested | relaxed or stopped work |
| thanked | said thank you |
| enjoyed | liked and had fun with |
| afternoon | the time after noon until evening |
🔎 Answer Key
- exercise_1_fill_blanks: 1.visited 2.woke 3.cooked 4.walked 5.talked 6.picked 7.read 8.thanked
- exercise_2_matching: 1.Visited – Went to see someone 2.Woke up – Stopped sleeping 3.Cooked – Made food ready to eat 4.Picked – Took fruit from plants 5.Rested – Relaxed or stopped work 6.Talked – Spoke with someone
- exercise_3_multiple_choice: 1.walked 2.last Saturday 3.talked 4.read 5.thanked 6.past simple
🤖 Need More Help?
The SFC Learning Assistant is a custom ChatGPT assistant created for StartFreeCourses lessons.
It can explain grammar in simpler words, give extra examples, and create more practice for this lesson.
You can use it with your own ChatGPT account. A free ChatGPT account is enough to open the assistant. If you are not logged in, ChatGPT will ask you to sign in before opening the assistant.
This assistant is optimized for the StartFreeCourses learning style: simple explanations, beginner-friendly examples, and practical English practice.