Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Acuña
Exercise 1: READING
Nelson Mandela was born in Muezo, South Africa, on 18th July 1918. His father died
when he was nine and he went to live with a chief of the Thembu tribe. Nelson grew up in
two worlds: the traditional culture of his tribe and the terrible reality of apartheid. He
studied law at university and left in 1942.
He started working in a law company. During this time he was living in Alexander
and he was very poor. In 1952 he started his own law company with a friend, Oliver
Thambo. They defended black Africans.
It was at this time that Nelson Mandela became active in the ANC (African National
Congress) and he began to have problems with the police because of his anti-apartheid
views. He was very active in politics and he spent very little time with his family because
he was often hiding from the police – or in prision. He went to prison in 1964 and spent a
total of 27 years there.
He was finally released in February 1990 and continued his work as a freedom
fighter. He had a lot of international support and on 2 nd May 1994, he became South
Africa’s first black president.
He married Winnie, his second wife, in 1958, and they had two daughters called
Zenani and Zindzi. Two of his other four children are still living. He is now divorced from
Winnie.
a)Write True (T) – False (F) – I don’t know (DK) next to the following sentences. Then correct the wrong
ones. 10pts.
3- John meets his friend Peter or Monday. Read the dialogue and put the verbs in the past tense.
JOHN : How 0) was (be) your weekend?
PETER: I 1) ____________ a wonderful weekend.
JOHN : What 2) ________________(you/do)?
PETER: Lots of things. On Friday I 3) ________to the cinema...
JOHN : 4)______________________(you/see) ' Love at First Sight'?
PETER: No, 5)______________. I 6) ___________(see) 'The Soldier'. And then, on Saturday I
7)________________(dance) all night with Jane. It was terrific.
JOHN : And what about Sunday?
PETER: My uncle John 8)______________(visit) us and 9)____________________(stay) for lunch and then I
10) _________________(study) all afternoon.I 'm really tired today, what a busy weekend!
4- Complete the sentences with the past tense forms of the verbs in
brackets.
William shakeaspeare (1) ................ (be) born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-On-
Avon, England.
He (29 .......- (go) to a good local school, where he probably (3) ............... (study) Latin
and Greek. In 1577 there (4) ............... (be) some difficulties with money in his family,
and William (5) ............... (start) to work in the family business of glove-making.In 1583
he married Anne Hathaway. They (6) .................. (have) three children.
In the late 1580s Shakespeare went to London, where he (7) ..........................
(stay) for most of his life. He (8) ................... (write) plays and, with some of his friends
and fellow actors, (9)........................... (help) to build his own theatre, The Globe.
Shakespeare (10) .................. (die) on his birthday in 1616.
6- Complete the following sentences with the correct word. There are some words that you don't need.
film – working – drama- jokes -cheese- cartoon- rode- drove- tired- going- chess-
1- Brave Heart is a historical _____________.
2- I hate going to the gym because I don't like __________out. I'm lazy.
3- I'm always ______after a day work. I start early in the mornings and finish late at night.
4- Jane is very funny, she always tells good ___________and make people laugh.
5- when I was a child, I _________my bicycle in the park every Sunday.
6- I love The Simpsons. It's a funny _______________.
7- I love board games. Checkers, Monopoly and ___________are my favourite.
7- Read the following letter and circle the correct form of the verb: