Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

England (along with other English-speaking countries and members of the Commonwealth, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan and the West Indies) also has a summer game: cricket. It’s played between two teams, one of which batswhile the other fields. The batsmen (two at a time) try and hit the ball and run between the wicketswhen they succeed.

The fielders try to get them out(of the game) by knocking down the wicket, or by catching the ball when it’s been hit . . . or in several

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other ways. Yes, it’s all rather mysteriousand sounds very complicated to the uninitiated, but, like most things in life, it’s easy when you know how. There are plenty of books in the shops that’ll explain the rules of cricket in detail (sometimes far too much detail) – and there are plenty of people around who’ll save you the money by doing the job themselves.

Cricket is a summer game in the UK, but it’s played all year round now, because during the football season the national cricket team goes to play the national teams of the other countries in warmer parts of the world. So being a professional cricketer for your country has now become a full-time year-round job!

Glossary

regarded as– thought of as, considered

professionally– in return for payment

amateur– without being paid

spectator– someone who watches a game

ground– the field (or stadium) where a game is played action– what’s happening on the field

match– a game between two teams

live– at the time that it happens, not recorded and shown later fan– supporter

strip– the uniform that a team wears when they are playing Commonwealth– a federation of countries with historical and cultural links to the UK

West Indies– the island nations of the Caribbean bats– uses a bat (a wooden thing for hitting a ball) at a time– simultaneously

wicket– three sticks in the ground (don’t ask – just buy a book on cricket) out– out of the game

mysterious– hard to understand

uninitiated– someone who hasn’t been told the rules

9 I’ve lost my

passport!

In this unit you will learn how to:

• talk about things that have happened recently

• talk about a a sequence of events

• ask people about events that have already happened

• form and use the past simple

• form and use the present perfect

• use some time adverbs

Dialogue 1

Shamira and Liz are at the supermarket checkout.

LIZ:

Have we bought everything we need?

SHAMIRA:

I think so – I’ve crossed everything off the shopping list and I don’t think we’ve forgotten anything.

[ The checkout assistant greets them ]

C/ASSISTANT:

Hello. Have you got a dividend card?

SHAMIRA:

Yes – hang on . . . it’s in my bag.

[ Shamira looks in her bag for her card, and notices her passport is missing! ]

. . . Liz! I think I’ve lost my passport!

LIZ:

What? Oh no – are you sure you brought it with you?

SHAMIRA:

Yes, quite sure – it was in my bag when I left the house, and now it’s gone!

LIZ:

Have you dropped it somewhere in the shop here?

SHAMIRA:

I don’t think so – I’ve only just opened my bag.

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LIZ:

OK. Don’t panic.

Let me pay for all

this, and then we’ll

go to the police

station and report

it lost.

SHAMIRA: Yes. Maybe

someone’s found it

somewhere and

handed it in.

Language point 53 – present perfect

This is a very important form of the verb in English – it is used for talking about things that have recently happened (happened a short time ago) – so it is a past tense.

In Dialogue 1 Liz asks:

Have we bought everything?

She uses:

• the PRESENT tense of have

+

• the PAST PARTICIPLE of the main verb buy

to form the PRESENT PERFECT.

We already know the present tense of have– go back to Language point 25 in Unit 4 if you want to remind yourself. Now we need to know how to form the PAST PARTICIPLE:

• REGULAR verbs add -edto the BASE-FORM. For example: Base-form

Past participle

laugh

laughed

open

opened

hand in

handed in

cross off

crossed off

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Spelling rules

• when the base-form of a regular verb ends in -e, we simply add -d:

close

closed

• when it ends in a SINGLE VOWEL + SINGLE CONSONANT, we double the consonant before adding -ed:

drop

dropped not ‘droped’

• when it ends in CONSONANT + ywe drop the yand add -ied: try

tried

cry

cried

but

play

played(VOWEL + y)

Pronunciation

The -edending is pronounced:

/d/ after -dand -t:

handed/`hndd/

/d/

after vowel sounds and

VOICED consonants:

opened/`əυpənd/

/t/

after UNVOICED consonants:

kicked/kkt/

• For IRREGULAR VERBS, we have to learn the past participle with every verb. So, for example, the past participle of buyis not

‘buyed’ but bought. Here are some more example of irregular past participles.

see

seen

fly

flown

lose

lost

find

found

At the end of this book you will find a list of all common irregular verbs with their past participles.

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With all verbs, regular and irregular, we form questions in the present perfect by simply reversing the position of the SUBJECT and have:

Statement

Question

I’ve lost

Have I lost?

Dave’s arrived

Has Dave arrived?

They’ve phoned

Have they phoned?

And we form negatives by adding notto have/ has: Statement

Negative

I’ve lost

I haven’t lost

Dave’s arrived

Dave hasn’t arrived

They’ve phoned

They haven’t phoned

Remember that we normally use SHORT FORMS of havein statements, and n’tinstead of notin negatives – and that we must use the FULL