Urban Legends
The Warehouse Madrid
Upper Intermediate Class
Pass on
• To pass on a message is to tell somebody a
piece of information that another person has
told you.
• Can you pass on to José Maria that we have #3
for homework tonight?
Make up
• Invent an excuse, explanation, story, etc
• He made up an excuse for being late to class.
• He told her he couldn’t date her anymore
because he was moving to another city. I
could tell he’d made it up when I didn’t see
any moving boxes in his house.
Turn out
• Happen in a particular way or have a particular
result, which is often unexpected: I wasn’t
looking forward to the evening, but it turned out
to be a lot of fun.
• I wasn’t looking forward to the event, but it
turned out to be a lot of fun.
• It turns out he wasn’t lying. He really didn’t cheat
on the exam. He must have studied a lot!
Run over somebody with something
• Hit somebody with something while you are
driving and knock them to the ground:
• Have you ever run over an animal?
• I’ve run over a cat before.
Go off
• Explode
• The bomb went off at exactly 6:30.
• Man, he really just went off on his boss! He
really hates his boss!
Run away
• Leave a place quickly because you are
frightened or don’t want to get caught.
• The thief took the bag and ran away.
• She ran away from home when she was 16.
Work something out/ work out
something
• Understand or find the answer to something
by thinking about it.
• It took me ages to work out the answer to
question 3.
Take off
• Leave the ground and begin to fly
• The plane took off an hour late.
• The academy is finally taking off.
Knock somebody out/ knock out
somebody
• Hit somebody hard so that they become
unconscious.
• The mugger hit the man so hard that he
knocked him out.
Come round
• Become conscious again after being knocked
out:
• When he cam round, he couldn’t remember
anything.
PAST SIMPLE
PAST CONTINUOUS
Past Simple
• For completed actions in the past. These tell
the main events of the story in the order that
they happened.
• One day, one of the sailors went for a drive in
the outback and accidentally ran over a
kangaroo.
Past Continuous
• For a longer action that was in progress when
another (shorter) action happened:
• While the sailor was taking some photos, the
kangaroo came round.
Past Continuous
• Background information that isn’t part of the
main story
• In 1987 the world’s best sailors were
competing the in the America’s Cup yacht race
off the coast of Fremantle.
Which happened first?
• While they were flying at 25,000 feet, one cow
broke free and started running around inside
the plane.
• What was the action already in progress?
• What are the shorter actions?
Past Continuous
• When two longer actions are happening at the
same time:
• While I was watching TV, Steve was making
dinner.
When, while, as
• When I was talking to Angel, José María
walked in.
• While I was taking a shower, the phone rang.
• As I was just leaving, someone rang the bell.
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
Past Perfect Simple
• Action that was completed before another
action in the past.
• Eventually the pilot of a Russian transport
plane told the police what had happened.
Past Perfect Continuous
• Longer action that started before another
action in the past (probably up to this past
action)
• The beat had been sailing in calm waters
when a cow fell from the sky.
• A few years ago, Robert Monaghan from Ballymena
in Northern Ireland, had a very bad day.
• He was crossing the road near his home when a van
hit him.
• While he was getting to his feet, another car ran him
over and then drove away.
• Some people who had been walking past stopped to
help Robert.
• They had called an ambulance and helped him to his
feet.
• When the ambulance arrived, everyone stepped
back – everyone except Robert, who didn’t realize
what everyone had been waiting for and was run
over by the ambulance.
1. I knew that Rory had been trying to find a job
for ages.
2. My brother called while I was watching football.
3. Robin and Cecilia weren’t going out together for
very long when he proposed to her.
4. When I got home, I realized that I had left my
mobile at work.
5. By the time that others arrived, we had already
been waiting for over two hours.
6. While Angela was walking home she met an old
old school friend that she hadn’t seen for years.