July 10, Mwizi

I am supposed to teach the past tense using material from “English Language for Secondary Schools Book One.” I thought I would share the passages/sentences that are in Chapter 9, which introduces the simple past tense. They get progressively weirder, so if you have a short attention span, skip to passage two.

Passage #1: Jacqueline was born in a family of four children. She was born in 1985 and studied at Mwakaleli Secondary School. She was very intelligent. She always did very well in class. Most of the time she came first in examinations.

            One day, her mother asked her to go to the nearby shop to buy eggs. Jacqueline did as her mother asked her to. After a while, she returned home with five eggs. Then, her mother asked her to fry the eggs in a frying pan for her younger sister. She agreed and began preparing the eggs so that she could fry them. All of a sudden, she smelt a foul smell. Afterwards, she realized that one of the eggs was rotten. She took it and carefully put it in a dustbin.

            After that, she rushed to the shop and angrily told the shopkeeper to give her another egg or the money with which she had bought the rotten egg. Interestingly, the shopkeeper gave her another egg. Jacqueline went back home and continued preparing the eggs. Later, she narrated the story to her mother who, in turn, praised her for her courage and for the immediate reaction.

Regular verbs:

1.     Asha helped me to clean the room before she left for school.

2.     The car stopped suddenly.

3.     Julius killed the snake with a stick.

4.     Ntuta opened the door and went out quickly.

5.     Halima studied at this school ten years ago.

6.     He died of AIDS because he did not use condoms.

Passage #2 (the end of the passage, the beginning gives details about his outfit what he was buying at the market etc.):

As the seller was busy looking for the change, a certain young man came to the kiosk and stood near me. I thought he was a customer too, even though his appearance shocked me. He wore ragged clothes which had holes. A few minutes late, the seller returned. As he was handing me the change, that young man left the place quickly. I took the money and put it in the pocket which had the phone. To my surprise, there was no phone in the pocket. Quickly, I turned and caught sight of the young man, fading into the distance.

            “Thief! Thief! Thief!” I shouted unconsciously, pointing to the direction which the young man had taken. All at once, people from all corners of the market came out. Some carried stones in their hands. Others carried sticks and empty bottles of soda. And yet others had knives.

            The young man tried to run as fast as he could but his skinny legs failed him. He threw the phone when he saw angry people racing after him. But unfortunately for him the angry people reached him and started pounding him with the weapons they were carrying as if they were pounding cassava leaves in a mortar.

            “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” the thief cried. However, people went on beating him mercilessly. Blood gushed out of his body. In fact, blood flowed from his nostrils, mouth, eyes, and other parts of the body. One muscular man stabbed a knife into the thief’s eye, and then he took a wheel from somewhere and put it around the thief’s neck, ready to burn him. But the thief was lucky. Three police officers appeared. They saved his life at last!”