1. Look at the words below. Talk to your partner about the words you know. Ask your
partner about any words you don’t know.
dog-sit
veterinarian
duffle bag
deceased
struggling
heavy
took off running
relieved
New York City
subway
2. Work with your partner to think of a story that uses all the words in the box. You can
change the order of the words, but don’t change the form.
3. Read this true story that happened to my friend Daisy in New York City.
A few years ago, my friend Daisy was living in New York City. She was working as a waitress, just
like me, and like me, she was quite poor. She was always looking for ways to earn some extra
money, so when our boss asked Daisy to dog-sit while she was on vacation, she happily accepted.
Everything was going fine, until one day, Daisy entered her boss’s apartment and discovered that
the dog had died. Daisy freaked out. She was afraid of what her boss would say. But when she
called her boss, her boss was really nice about it. She said, “Don’t worry. The dog was very old
and I understand. Just take him to the veterinarian, and he’ll know what to do.” She gave Daisy
the vet’s address, and hung up the phone.
Well, this was a new situation for Daisy and she didn’t really know what to do. She found a big
duffle bag - it was a big dog, a golden retriever - and she put the deceased dog inside the duffle
bag and walked to the subway. The bag was really heavy, and she was struggling to get down the
stairs when a man approached her and asked her if he could help carry her bag.
Daisy was relieved to have the help, so she let the man carry the bag. The man said, “Wow, this is
really heavy! What have you got in here?” Of course, Daisy didn’t want to tell the man the truth so
she said, “Um, just some stuff from school. Books, speakers, my computer, my iPad…” she tried
to think of things that would explain how heavy the bag was.
Daisy and the man got to the bottom of the stairs just as the the subway train was pulling up to the
platform. Daisy wanted to thank the man for his help, but as she was turning around to face him,
the man suddenly took off running - with the bag! Daisy never saw the man, the bag, or the dead
dog ever again.
4. Answer the questions about the story.
1. What job did Daisy accept and why?
2. What did Daisy do with the dead dog?
3. What did the stranger in the subway offer to do for Daisy?
4. What did the stranger in the subway do at the end of the story?
5. Find the different verb tenses in the story and complete the chart.
Tense
Examples in the story
was, asked, accepted,
past perfect
6. Look at the examples of the past perfect and decide which of the sentence endings (a-c)
completes the rule. Circle the correct answer.
7. Look at the examples of the past continuous and past simple and complete the rules
with simple or continuous:
a. We use the past ____________________ for actions in progress that are interrupted by a
second action.
b. We use the past ____________________ for shorter, completed actions.
c. We use the past ____________________ to set up or describe the scene of the story, and give
background information at the beginning of the story.
d. We use the past ____________________ for consecutive past actions.
8. Read the urban legend below, and fill in the blanks with the correct tenses.
Night was 1) __________________________ (fall) in a small, mountain town. A woman 2)
__________________________ (watch) TV when she 3) __________________________ (see) a
news report that said a man 4) __________________________ (escape) from the mental hospital
and was on the loose. The news report said the man was very violent and dangerous, and warned
everyone to stay inside until he was caught.
The news scared the woman. She 5) __________________________ (lock) her doors, 6)
__________________________ (reach) for a cigarette to calm herself down, and 7)
__________________________ (discover) she was out of cigarettes. The woman didn’t want to
leave the house, but she really wanted a cigarette. There was a gas station down the road that
was close to her house, and the thought she could get there and back quickly. She 8)
__________________________ (decide) to drive to the gas station for cigarettes.
The whole time she 9) __________________________ (drive), she was frightened, but she kept
going. When she got to the gas station she 10) __________________________ (run) into the
store and then 11) __________________________ (run) back out as quickly as she could. She
jumped back in her car and she 12) __________________________ (drive) away when a man 13)
__________________________ (jump) in front of her window and started screaming at her.
The man 14) __________________________ (shout) at her and 15)
__________________________ (bang) on her car like a madman. “Get out of the car!” he was
screaming. “Get out of the car RIGHT NOW!”
The woman froze. She didn’t know what to do. She had never been so scared in her whole life.
As she 16) __________________________ (wonder) what to do, the man 17)
__________________________ (break) her window, 18) __________________________ (reach)
inside the car, and 19) __________________________ (drag) her out into the parking lot.
The woman thought she was going to die. She 20) __________________________ (scream) and
21) __________________________ (cry) and 22) __________________________ (beg) the man
to let her go, but the man 23) __________________________ his hand over her mouth to keep
her from screaming. Then, he 24) __________________________ (point) to her car.
That’s when she saw the man hiding in her backseat, with a knife in his hand.
9. Now it’s your turn! Write a true story that happened to you, or an urban legend that you
have heard. We will read the stories aloud and guess which ones are true and which ones
are urban legends.