The Millennials

1 Look at the timeline infographic for the Millennials generation. What do you think of the design, pictures, colours etc.?

I (quite) like … The … looks + adjective I’m not sure about … I think … would be better

2 Read the timeline infographic. Which sections mention that the events happened for the first time ever?

The past simple

3 We use the past form of to be and the past participle born to talk about birth dates etc. Find two examples in the infographic.

4 Some past simple forms of verbs are regular; you add -ed to the infinitive. If a regular verb ends in -e, you just add -d. Underline eight examples of regular verbs in the infographic.

5 Some past simple forms of verbs are irregular. Circle thirteen examples in the infographic.

6 What are the infinitive forms of the past simple verbs from exercises 5 and 6?

7 Complete the sentences with the correct past simple form of the verbs below. Which verbs are regular and which verbs are irregular?

destroy · die · fall · finish · fly · improve · tell · watch

1. The country’s international image __________ when he was the head of the government.

2. Because of this success, the sale of jeans __________.

3. Ms. Koch also __________ 223 million km in space, the longest space flight by a woman.

4. More than 84,000 spectators __________ the final in Johannesburg.

5. First the sea disappeared from the beaches, before it returned and __________ everything.

6. She __________ the last story in 2007.

7. She __________ at the age of six on February 14th, 2003.

8. The government __________ people to leave the town 36 hours after the explosion.

8 Match the sentences from exercise 7 to the events in the timeline.

9 Look at this sentence from the timeline infographic. What word do you add to write the negative past simple form of a sentence? What one other change must you make? They didn’t return to the town.

10 Complete the rule. We use ____________ + ____________ to make negative past simple sentences.

11 Correct the mistakes about the infographic.

1. Scientists cloned a person: Scientists didn’t clone a person. They cloned a sheep.

2. 60% of Americans said Obama was a bad president.

4. The spacewalk took more than an hour.

3. David Villa scored the goal for Spain.

5. People wore athleisure in bed.

LANGUAGE TOOLBOX GRAMMAR theory and practice

12 Listen to a student talking about one of the events in the timeline graphic. Which one do they talk about? What did the president of the United States say?

13 Listen again. Complete the information with one word in each gap.

Retro News

Scientists wanted to create farm animals that produced 1) _____________ food and also to save some animals that were in 2) _____________ of disappearing from the planet. Scientists cloned 3) _____________ other types of animals, but they didn’t clone a person. However, the experiment helped humans. Scientists learnt about how 4) _____________ like cancer affect humans. She died 5) _____________ but scientists said she didn’t die because of cloning. They gave her 6) _____________ to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where you can see her today.

14 Which event in the infographic would you like to know more about?

* Find three new pieces of information about the event.

* Prepare a short presentation.

* Include interesting images or short videos.

* Make a few notes and check that you use the correct past simple forms.

15 Present the new information to your group.