II. The Past Simple.

The Past Simple expresses a past action that is finished or several actions one after another.

I lived in Rome when I was 6.

Positive	Negative	Question
I/he/she/it/we/you/they moved/went to London in 2011. We use: ago, last night/Saturday/week/year/ month, yesterday morning/ evening/afternoon.	I/he/she/it/we/you/they did not (=didn’t) move/go to London in 2011.	Did I/he/she/it/we/you/ they move/go to London in 2011? Yes, I did. No, I did not (=didn’t). Where did I/he/she/it/we/ you/they move/go in 2011?

Spelling rules: 1. The normal rule is to add –ed: worked, started. If the verb ends in –e, add –d: lived, loved.

2. If the verb has only one syllable and one vowel and one consonant, double the consonant: stop → stopped.

3. Verbs that end in a consonant + -y change to –ied: study → studied.

4. Some verbs are irregular. The past simple is not –ed: begin → began. See Appendix.

Ex. 1 Scan the article below and answer these questions.

1. Who is Kevin Mitnick?

2. Why is he famous?

3. What kind of child and teenager was he?

The most famous hacker in history.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Kevin Mitnick is the most famous computer hacker in the world. He was once on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list of dangerous criminals, and was also the inspiration for a Hollywood film. Here is the story of his life. His parents divorced when he was three but he says his childhood was happy. He lived with his mother in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He was a genius with electronic devices and computers soon attracted his attention. By the age of 17 he was an expert in telephone and computer systems, but there was a criminal side to his interests. He hacked into computers at Motorola, Nokia Mobile Phones and other companies. Some reports estimated the damage to be $80 million. In1981 police arrested him. He was in prison for 5 years. The judge prohibited him from using computers. Now he has a business consultancy and fight against software piracy.

Ex.1 Find the Past Simple forms of the verbs in the text.

Ex.2 Work in pairs, ask and answer questions about Kevin Mitnick as in the model.

Model: a. He lived with his father.

A. Did he live with his father?

B. No, he didn’t. He lived with his mother.

b. His parents divorced when he was 16.

c. He hacked into Sun Microsystem telephone system.

d. The damage from his hacking was100$ million.

e. The judge prohibited him from using mobile phone.

d. At present he continues hacking new companies.

Ex. 3 Look at the opinions below. Which one you most agree with?

a. Munick isn’t a thief or a terrorist, he’s a recreational hacker. He didn’t do it for economic gain or damage anything.

b. Kevin Munick represented a real danger for business.

c. Hacking is illegal. Kevin Munick is a dangerous criminal and deserves to go to prison.

d. Kevin Munick demonstrated the companies that computer security is a problem.