Page 50 - BACKUP ENGLISH | PREPARATORY CLASS

THEME 4 ANIMALS AND NATURE

Structure

Can / Can’t
Usage Example
Giraffes are tall, so they can reach up to high areas.
We use can to talk about our abilities, Penguins are not tall, so they can’t reach up to high trees.
and we use can’t to talk about our
inabilities. My cousin lives in England, so he can speak English fluently.
I can also speak English, but my English is not as fluent as his.
a) Circle the correct answer.

1. Turtles are slow animals, so they can / can’t travel long distances in a short time.
2. Nancy doesn’t know enough words to speak English because she can / can’t memorise new words quickly.
3. Amanda can / can’t drive her car because she is afraid of having an accident.
4. Steve is good at playing any instrument, so I think he can / can’t play the violin well.
5. Fiona can / can’t do any extreme sports because she finds them exciting, and she is open to new things.
6. Because the team has got a lot of good players, I think they can / can’t win many games.

The Present Simple Tense
Usage

We use the simple present tense to express: Examples
Patrick always comes to school by car.
1. habits / routines and repeated actions. Carol often brushes her teeth after dinner.
The bank opens at 9 a.m.
The sun sets in the west.
2. facts and generalisation. If you mix blue and red, you get purple.
A cat has four legs.
Alice likes chicken and pilaf, but I don’t like pilaf.
3. permanent situations. Zack lives in London, and he works as a fireman.
I don’t eat mushrooms; I’m allergic to them.
Affirmative

I / You / We / They eat chicken with rice.
He / She / It eats scrambled egg for breakfast.

Negative
I / You / We / They do not / don’t eat chicken with rice.
He / She / It does not / doesn’t eat scrambled egg for breakfast.

Interrogative Short answers

Do I / you / we / they eat chicken with rice? Yes, I / you / we / they do.
No, I / you / we / they don’t.

Does he / she / it eat scrambled egg for breakfast? Yes, he / she / it does.
No, he / she / it doesn’t.

We add –s to the verb to form the third person singular. Example
Ece carries a heavy school bag every day.
With verbs ending in consonant + y, we remove y= -ies.
My sister studies for the Maths exam.

John plays football at the weekends for his school team.
With verbs ending in vowel + y= -s as usual.

My father pays the rent monthly.
My mother watches ‘The Earth’ every Sunday.
With verbs ending in -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, -o.= -es.
My brother does the laundry at home.

48 English for Preparatory Class