Grammar. Simple Past.

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Interview with Brian Forbes.

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Q: Where and when was your first job and how old were you?

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Brian: "My first job was at Cornhill Insurance Company in Guildford, England in 1977. I was 16 years of age. I was responsible for processing information on a small computer."

Q: How did you get the job?

Brian: "There were only women working in the department and the manager said that they needed to employ boys, too."

Q: Were you the only boy working in the department?

Brian: "No, I worked with Ross, Chris, and Frank. They were good friends as well as colleagues."

Q: Did you socialize after work?

Brian: "Yes, every night we went to pubs to drink beer, and on Wednesday nights we went to football games at Aldershot F.C, the local team, or we went to London to watch Arsenal or Chelsea." 

Q: Did you earn a good salary?

Brian: "No. we were only 16 years old and the salary was the minimum possible. But the work was interesting and the time passed very quickly."

Q: How long did you stay at Cornhill Insurance Company?

Brian: "I stayed for one year and Chris stayed for 2 years I think. Frank moved to a new company after 6 months; he was very intelligent and very good at his job. He liked to drink a lot of beer, too. I remember that. Ross worked at the company for two years, but I lost contact with him."

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Q: Was it a good experience in general?

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Brian: "Yes, definitely. We learned a lot. I learned to use a computer and I learned how to write business letters to clients. It was a very important first job."

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Conversation:

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1: Where was Brian's first job?

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2: Where was your first job?

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3: How many boys worked in the department?

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4: How many boys worked in your department?

5: Did the boys socialize after work?

6: Did the boys go to football games?

7: Did you socialize after work in your first job?

8: Was Brian's salary very good?

9: Was your salary very good?

10: Was your first job very important to you?  

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Grammar. Simple past.

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Vocabulary. Past Tense.

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Go = went 

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Eat = ate

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Drink = drank

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Rob = robbed

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Look = looked

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See = saw

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Stay = stayed 

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Take = took

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Was = estava

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Were = estavam/ estavamos

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Like = liked

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Live = lived

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Study = studied

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e.g. I went to the beach yesterday = eu fui a praia ontem

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e.g. I ate cake after lunch yesterday = eu comi bolo depois do almoço ontem

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e.g. I went to work early yesterday = eu fui ao trabalho cedo ontem

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e.g. I liked the film yesterday = eu gostei do filme ontem

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e.g. I lived in Manchester in 2016 = eu morei em Manchester em 2016

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e.g. I studied at MIT university in 2017 = eu estudei na faculdade MIT em 2017

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e.g. I went to London last month = eu fui ao Londres no mês passado

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“My best holiday & my worst holiday.”

Interview with Brian Burn. (British actor)

What was your best holiday, and why?

I think the best holiday I ever had was in Kenya, Africa.

We flew out (pegamos avião) to Kenya on British Airways. The flight (voo) was very comfortable and we arrived in very good weather.

From the airport, we took a taxi to our hotel. It was a beautiful, luxurious hotel with 2 large swimming pools and an excellent restaurant.

On the second day in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, we took a safari trip (viagem) to see the lions, elephants and zebras. It was so beautiful. There were animals everywhere.

The lions were dangerous, and so we stayed in the jeep to take photos. The elephants were magnificent. They were graceful and spent (gastaram) all their time eating! But the most beautiful were the zebras. With their black and white stripes (listras), they stood out (se destacaram) from the green grass (grama) and the green trees (arvores).

I took many photos of all the animals that we saw, but the best photos I have are of the zebras. 200 photos!

Conversation.

77: Have you been to Kenya?

78: Would you like to go on a safari?

79: Do you like animals?

80: What's your favourite animal?

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What was your worst holiday, and why?

That would be (seria) when I went with my girlfriend to Paraguay.

The flight we took was terrible. The food was dreadful (péssimo) and the service was dreadful, too.

We landed (pousamos) in Asuncion almost 3 hours late (atrasado) because of problems in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Then, we took a taxi to our hotel.

The hotel was dirty (sujo) and the service was awful, (terrible) too. The people who worked in the hotel were not happy to see us. They didn’t want to work.

Well, anyway, the breakfast was adequate, but the lunch and dinner were awful.

We went to the centre of Asuncion, and it really is quite (bastante) pretty.

We did some shopping (fizemos compras) and everything was going well (indo bem). Suddenly (de repente), a motorbike passed us and the rider (motoqueiro) snatched (arrancou) my girlfriend's handbag. It was very frightening (assustador) and we will never go back there again.

The city of Asuncion is very pretty, but the country of Paraguay is very poor, and the services are inadequate and often rude.