The English Lesson 3 theme is SOUTH AFRICAN SPORT

Part One: Crazy Cricket

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow:

South African Sport People who do not know the sport of cricket cannot understand it.

A person throws a leather ball at three sticks. A person from the other team stands in front of the sticks and tries to hit the ball with a bat, and prevent the ball from knocking over the sticks. This can go on for five days!

Cricket is believed to have begun centuries ago in England. There is evidence that a similar game was played even earlier, around the time of Buddha, in India.

The British Empire spread cricket all around the world and the game is popular in most of the old British colonies. The British are unhappy because most of the countries that they taught to play cricket are now much better at the game than they are.

In South Africa, cricket is almost like a religion, while in India the whole country goes into mourning when the national team loses.

Cricket has had an influence on the English language and there are many metaphors that relate to it. Cricket is considered to represent the spirit of fairness. When somebody cheats or plays against the rules, the English say that "It just isn't cricket".

Your Turn

Why is cricket popular in countries such as South Africa, Pakistan and Australia?
Where does "leather" come from?
What does it mean to "drop the ball"?
When do people usually "mourn"?
Genius question: What is a metaphor?

Part Two - Grammar Groans

This week we will cover Past Tenses, which are very important.

The Simple Past Tense (for regular verbs: "verb + ed")

You use the Simple Past Tense to describe actions in the past that are finished now. For example: "The cricketer invited his mother-in-law to the game." "I ate a hamburger at the cricket match."

Your turn:

Can you put the following sentences into the past tense? (Hint: Be careful! Some of the verbs are irregular.)

I ______ (play) cricket yesterday.
We ______ (like) the people we met at the cricket game.
She ______ (buy) a red hat at the cricket match.
The cricket captain ______ (sell) his t-shirt to a fan.

The Past Continuous Tense (for regular verbs: "had / have verb + ed")

You use the Past Continuous Tense to describe actions that continued over a period of time in the past.

The actions stopped before the present, but they may have stopped only a short time ago - or people may not know when they stopped. You also use the Past Continuous Tense to describe an action that just finished.

For example:

"They have gone to watch her favourite sport." (She left a short time ago) "Cricket has had an influence on the English language."

Your Turn:

Can you put the following sentences into the Past Continuous Tense? (One of the verbs is irregular. Do you know how to change it into the Past Tense?)

We ______ (visit) Cape Town three times.
I ______ (ask) her to go out with me.
He ______ (eat) his lunch already, so he isn't hungry any more.
We ______ (enjoy) our stay in South Africa.

The next lesson will look at the Past Perfect Continuous Tense, which is a bit more difficult. Make sure that you understand the Simple Past Tense and Continuous Past Tense before moving on to the next lesson.

Part Three: Funnies

The cricketer was proud of his progress as a batsman and invited his mother-in-law along to watch him play, hoping to impress her.

Getting ready to hit the ball being bowled at him, he turned to another player behind him and said: "I'm anxious to do well and really hit this ball. That's my wife's mother over there."

"Don't be silly," said the other player. "You'll never hit her at this distance."

Part Four: Famous Words

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. - George Orwell

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. - John Andrew Holmes, Jr.

Part Five: Links

An anagram of a word or phrase is another word or phrase composed of exactly the same letters.

For example, an anagram of "sporting" is "Go sprint" (or "Pig snort"!). An anagram of "Learn English" is "She'll earn gin".

English Anagrams

To find interesting anagrams of your own name, or any word or phrase, you can use the automatic anagram generator at:

http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

English Crosswords

There is a crossword which will test your sports vocabulary at:

http://www.englishday.com/crosswords/S/sport.htm

Answers

Answers to Part One

Cricket is popular in most of the old British colonies.
Leather is made from the skin of an animal.
The idiom "drop the ball" means to make a mistake in your part of the job.
People usually "mourn" when someone close to them dies. In many cultures this means dressing in special clothes for a period of time.
A metaphor is created when we describe something using the characteristics of a different thing. For example: The cricket ball sailed through the air. This means that the ball moved as smoothly as a yacht on the water.