Week 1: Day 3

A Done Deal
This expression is used to refer to an agreement or decision which has been
reached on a certain matter.

Example: “We’re still considering possible solutions, so it’s not a done deal yet.”

1
Week 1: Day 3

SIMPLE PAST vs. PAST PROGRESSIVE

SIMPLE PAST PAST PROGRESSIVE

Description: Description:

Use the simple past to talk about actions that The past progressive is used to talk about
happened in the past. an action that continued during a period of
time in the past.
Examples:
Examples:
I had a lot of work yesterday.
I was taking a call when he showed up.
I worked on the report last week.
They were tailgating during the whole day.

Structure: Structure:

 We use the verb in past form.  We use was/were + a verb in –ing

 We also use did + simple form of the form.
verb in questions.
Was/were + Verb in -ing
Verb in past form
 We use wasn’t/weren’t + a verb in –
 We use didn’t + present simple form ing form in negative statements.
of the verb in negative statements.
Wasn’t/weren’t + Verb in ing
Didn’t + Verb in present form

Examples: Examples:
We sent you an e-mail with details on your The agent was taking calls when the
new contract yesterday. system went down.

We received a copy of your invoice, and will We were waiting for the trainer to arrive.
honor your warranty.
I wasn’t listening to the client’s complaint.
Sir, when did you lose your credit card?

Expressions commonly used with the Expressions commonly used with the
Simple Past: Past Progressive:
Yesterday While
Last (week) When
(four days) ago

2
Week 1: Day 3

Exercise 1:

Complete the sentence with the appropriate form of the verb.

1. Did you_________ (know) about the long distance telephone savings plan?

2. Yes, I___________(sign) up for that plan last week.

3. I _____________(receive) a special discount for being a long time customer.

4. The agent didn’t_________________( troubleshoot) before escalating this case to the

technician .

5. The Team Manager ____________(answer) all the questions his team had.

6. The client _______________(escalate) the agent because she thought he/she was
disrespectful.

7. According to what I see in your ATT account you_______________(have) and individual plan
before you______________(decide) to move to the new plan. Is this right, sir?

8. When the agent couldn’t find the date he/she_____________________(place) the customer
on hold to ask the TM; however, the client ____________not (be) happy about waiting.

9. The customer_____________(make) the decision to interrupt the contract.

10. When Phil_____________(stop) making the payments by phone, things got mixed up.

3
Week 1: Day 3
Exercise 2:

Describe the picture below by writing 5 sentences using the past progressive.

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Now, check the following website and work on the quiz.

http://www.englishmedialab.com/Quizzes/intermediate/past%20simple%20or%20past%20continuous.htm

4
Week 1: Day 3

ED Endings – Regular Verbs

There are THREE pronunciations of past participles of verbs that end in –ed, depending on the
FINAL SOUND of the BASE FORM of the verb.

Rule 1

If the last letter of the word is spelled with a d or a t, the -ed is pronounced as /Id/ and as a separate
syllable.

needed activated decided deposited forfeited

Rule 2

If the last letter of the word ends in a voiced consonant or a vowel sound, the e is silent and d is
pronounced as /d/. (Reminder: Voiced consonants are /b/, /d/, /g/,/v/, /m/, /n/, / r/, /l/, /z/, /ʤ/, /y/, and
/ð/.)

opened changed earned pulled called closed

Rule 3

If the last letter of the word ends in a voiceless consonant, the e is silent and the d is pronounced as
/t/. (Reminder: Voiceless consonants are /p/, /t/, / k/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, and /θ/.)

passed helped laughed stopped washed worked liked

5
Week 1: Day 3

Exercise 1

Complete the following dialogue with the correct past tense from the verbs in parenthesis. Then, read
the dialogue with your classmate. If you or your classmate notice mistakes in the correct
pronunciation of –ed endings, provide feedback to your partner.

Customer: Hello, I _____________ (request) a new credit card yesterday; but I ________(change)
addresses; so I’m not sure if it got to the right place.

CSR: Mrs. Pickens, I __________ (check) the information I have in my system, and you __________
(close) this account 2 months ago. You don’t need to worry, though. I will reopen this account for
you and request a new card.

Customer: Oh! I remember now! I___________ (call) a couple of months ago and ______(ask) the
agent to close it. I _________ (travel) to Brazil in October; and I _________ (decide) to close the
account; since I wasn’t going to use the card. I’m so sorry! I forgot about it.

CSR: Not a problem, Mrs. Pickens. I already ___________ (submit) this request for you. You should
be getting your card in 5 to 7 business days.

Customer: Wonderful! You certainly _________ (help) me a lot today. Thank you!

Listening Website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1413_gramchallenge26/page
2.shtml

6
Week 1: Day 3

Exercise 2

Pat, Bud and Astrid represent three ending sounds for regular past tense verbs. According to the
verbs, identify which person did the activity. The first one is done as an example.

(Exercise taken from Timesaver Pronunciation Activities, Mary Glasgow Magazines 2005)

7
Week 1: Day 3

Exercise 3

Choose the correct sound for each underlined -ed below.

1. Use /t/ after unvoiced final sounds 2. Use /d/ after voiced final sounds 3. Use / \d/ after
f, k, p, s, ch, sh, th b, g, j, l, m, n, ˜, r, th, v, z, + vowels final /d/ and /t/ .
look - looked (t) push - pushed (t) sob - sobbed (d) roam - roamed (d) **/\d/ adds an extra syllable
ask - asked (t) watch - watched (t) believe - believed (d) judge - judged (d) need - needed (\d)
help - helped(t) dress - dressed (t) fill - filled (d) enjoy - enjoyed (d) wait – waited (\d)

① [ t ] marked /markt/ ② [ d ] hugged /h\gd/ ③ [ \d ] painted /peynt\d/

①●③ Ex.1. love / loved 21. play / played ①②③

①②● Ex. 2. repeat / repeated 22. watch / watched ①②③
①②③ 1. dish / dished 23. page / paged ①②③
①②③ 2. like / liked 24. walk / walked ①②③
①②③ 3. add / added 25. depend / depended ①②③
①②③ 4. laugh / laughed 26. fax / faxed ①②③
①②③ 5. stop / stopped 27. bug / bugged ①②③
①②③ 6. rub / rubbed 28. kiss / kissed ①②③
①②③ 7. end / ended 29. believe / believed ①②③
①②③ 8. mix / mixed 30. dance / danced ①②③
①②③ 9. box / boxed 31. ask / asked ①②③
①②③ 10. call / called 32. part / parted ①②③
①②③ 11. study / studied 33. date / dated ①②③
①②③ 12. point / pointed 34. decide / decided ①②③
①②③ 13. stay / stayed 35. enjoy / enjoyed ①②③
①②③ 14. present / presented 36. investigate / investigated ①②③
①②③ 15. marry / married 37. romance / romanced ①②③
①②③ 16. work / worked 38. dream / dreamed ①②③
①②③ 17. dress / dressed 39. pat / patted ①②③
①②③ 18. create / created 40. wage / waged ①②③
①②③ 19. talk / talked 41. finish / finished ①②③
①②③ 20. continue / continued 42. wait / waited ①②③

(Taken and adapted from http://English-Zone.com©)

8
Week 1: Day 3
/T/ vs. /D/
/t/: Put your tongue just behind your top teeth.

Your tongue should not touch your teeth. Push air

forward in your mouth. Then quickly move your
tongue away. Do NOT use your voice.

/d/: Practice the sound /T/, but use your

voice.

(Illustrations taken from Pronunciation Pairs. Cambridge University Press)

2007.)

Exercise 1

Listen to your teacher read the following sentences. Choose the word you hear. Check with your
teacher once you are done with the exercise.

1. There was something wrong with the trains / drains.

2. She tied / dyed the scarf.
3. They saw a trunk / drunk lying on the ground.
4. He writes / rides very well.
5. This cart / card has just arrived.
6. My brother hit / hid the ball.
7. He has never made a bet / bed.

Exercise 2

Read the following dialogue with your partner. Identify and pronounce correctly all the /T/ and /D/
sounds

A: Good afternoon. I’ve just joined the library. How many books can I take out?
B: You can take two books, and keep them for ten days. After that, if you have finished them, you
return them. If you haven’t finished, you can renew them.
A: How do I do that? Must I visit the library?
B: No, you can call us. Tell us the tittles of the books, and the date they are due for return.
A: Splendid! Can you tell me where to find Thomas Hardy’s books – Tess of the D’Urbevilles, and Far
from the Madding Crowd? Today, I want A Tale of Two Cities, or David Copperfield.
B: Actually, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield are by Charles Dickens.

9
Week 1: Day 3

Listening Strategies

Take notes.

Set a purpose for listening.

Listen for the main points, the most important ideas.

Listen for important details that support the main points.

Listen for sentences that hint at the general idea of the

whole passage.

Listen for key words.

Listen for repetition and other clues that an idea is

important.

Exercise

Listen to the following phone call. Then, discuss with the rest of the class the following questions.

1. Which was your listening purpose?

2. Which are the call’s main points? What important details support the main points?

3. Which are some key words?

4. Did the customer repeat what he wanted? Was it necessary?

10
Week 1: Day 3
Reading Strategies
Skimming

This strategy is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text. When you read the
newspaper, you're probably not reading it word-by-word, instead you're scanning the text. Skimming
is done at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading. People often skim when they have
lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. Use skimming when you want to see if a manual
has the information you need.

There are many strategies that can be used when skimming. Some people read the first and
last paragraphs using headings, summaries and other organizers as they move down the page or
screen. You might read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. Consider reading the first
sentence of each paragraph. This technique is useful when you're seeking specific information rather
than reading for comprehension. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places. It might be
used to review graphs, tables, and charts.

Exercise

Read the headline and the first sentence of each paragraph of the following article. Then pair
up to discuss the guessed-at topic of the article.

Call Centers

A call center is a facility in which calls are answered and originated, typically between a company
and a customer. Call centers assist customers with requests for new service activation and help with
product features and services. A call center usually has many stations for call center agents that
communicate with customers. When call agents assist customers, they are typically called customer
service representatives (CSRs).

Call centers use telephone systems that usually include sophisticated automatic call distribution
(ACD) systems and computer telephone integration (CTI) systems. ACD systems route the incoming
calls to the correct (qualified) customer service representative (CSR). CTI systems link the
telephone calls to the accounting databases to allow the CSR to see the account history (usually
producing a "screen-pop" of information).

This figure shows a sample call center. This diagram shows that calls may be received or originated
from the call center. The customer traditionally communicates with the call center by telephone.
When a call is received by a call center, the user is typically provided with a list of options by an
automated interactive voice response (IVR) unit. As the user selects from the list of options, an ACD
system routes the call to a CSR station that is qualified to assist the customer (e.g. sales agent or
technician). When the CSR agent answers the call, some of the customer's account information may
become available on the CSR's computer screen ("screen pop"). The CSR will communicate with
the customers and should make notes in the customer's account regarding the activity that
progressed.

11
Week 1: Day 3

Customer Service

Come up with examples of polite questions in the following situations:

You need to place the customer on hold.

1. ___________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________

12
Week 1: Day 3

You do not understand what the speaker is saying.

1. ___________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________

You need to get more information about the customer’s issue:

1. ___________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________

You need to ask the customer some personal information questions:

1. ___________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________________

13
Week 1: Day 3

Being helpful and polite

Look at the examples of a phone call with very rude language. For each stage of the call,
rewrite the phrases to produce a flow chart of useful expressions. You might want to use
INDRECT QUESTIONS to sound more polite.

14