Reading activity

...According to my guide, there are lots of things to do in Saigon, Iam going to spend only two days there, so I will choose only a fewplaces to visit. Let's see, the Reunification Palace is a must, well thenI will visit it first. After that I will visit the old Post Office. I am goingto do a tour to the Mekong Delta, so I will look for a booking touroffice recommended in the guide....this seems to be nice, it is besidethe post office and the guide says a local music band is playing aconcert on Mondays just opposite the office. ..that's cool! The perfectplace to have lunch is in the restaurant in the corner with traditionalVietnamese food and cheap prices...um if I finished with the tourbooking on time, I would eat there. Well let's go on reading...Cholonis a jewellery box of interesting Chinese style temples, if you spendmore than one day in the city, go there...., in the afternoon, and ifI'm not tired I will have a walk around'.

'Wow...look at all the activities that can be done in this city: bowling,cooking courses, massages...if I had decided to spend more dayshere, I would have done some of them, surely...well it isn't worthregretting now. I think the planning is already closed...'

Identify the different future tenses appearing in the textabove. Colour them in red.

Read the passage again and identify the different functions ofthe future tenses appearing on it. Write them below.

IMPORTANT: Remember the three tenses used above to indicatefuture are used for different functions.

Write at least five predictions about how a big city will be in the22nd century using the will future.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Read the passage again and identify the conditional sentencesand their type. Write them below.

Reading activityOn the way to Pham Ngu Lao in Central Saigon, where Paco's hotel is,he realizes that this city is really chaotic. Motorbikes, bikes,rickshaws....bustling everywhere...he wonders: 'Will I have chosenmy destination properly?'

He has been on a taxi for about twenty minutes now and he istrapped in a traffic jam. He asks the taxi driver:

Paco: Is this usual?

Taxi driver: Yes, it is, sir. But this is because of the president, he iscoming to the city at 11.00. How long are you going to stayhere?

Paco: For two or three days.

Taxi driver: I hope you enjoy your time here, I know a goodrestaurant, I will take you there.

Paco: No, thanks. I will have a rest first....

One hour later the president has already passed and the traffic jam isdissolved. Paco arrives at the Blue Dragon Hotel and feels exhausted.He pays for the taxi and goes straight to the reception desk. Aftergreeting the receptionist, doing the check in and receiving his roomkey, he tells the receptionist:

Paco: I feel very tired and need a rest; but first, have you got sometouristic brochures of the city? I'm planning to go to the ReunificationPalace this evening.

Receptionist: Here you are, sir. Shall we give you a wake up call at 4o'clock?

Paco thinks: At this time I will have been sleeping for threehours....That's OK.

Receptionist: One last thing, sir, Will you give me your passport,please?

Paco: Of course, here you have.

Receptionist: Thanks, sir. Bye.

Paco: Bye.

So, Paco is now lying on his bed and reading a brochure about thecity but falls asleep in a minute.

Match the future tenses used in the text with their forms

Future tense Form

Future perfect

Present Continuous for future

Going to future

Will future

Future perfect continuous

You have studied five tenses to indicate future (six with thefuture continuous)....Could you transform this will future sentence, Paco will visitSaigon, into the other future tenses forms studied?

As you can see for every future tense there is usually a timeadverbial or expression accompanying it which differentiatesits use.

Can you join the following future tenses with the timeadverbial clause which best fits in every case?

Next Friday at eleven o'clock Paco will have visited Saigon.

For three days at that time Paco is visiting Saigon.

When the Monsoon has already finished Paco is going to visit Saigon.

Next summer Paco will have been visiting Saigon.

In those days Paco will be visiting Saigon.

The quiet American.Pyle said solemnly: 'A man becomes trustworthy when you trust him'.It sounded like a Caodaist maxim. I began to feel the air ofTanyinwas too ethical for me to breath.

-'Have a drink?', Pyle said.

-'There is nothing I'd like better'.

-'I brought a thermos of lime juice with me'. He leant over and busiedhimself with a basket in the back.

-'Any gin?'

-'No, I'm awfully sorry. You know', he said encouragingly, 'lime juiceis very good for you in this climate, it contains-I'm not sure whichvitamins'. He held out a cup to me and drank.

-'Anyway it's wet', I said.

-'Like a sandwich? They're really awfully good. A new sandwichspread called Vit-Health. My mother sent it from the States'.

-'No, thanks. I'm not hungry'.

-'It tastes rather like Russian salad-only sort of drier'.

-'I don't think I will'.

-'You don't mind if I do?'

-'No, no of course not'.

In the passage above appears a zero conditional sentence.Identify it and rewrite it correctly since it appears in colloquiallanguage.

Read the passage again.

There are also three offers in colloquial style. Rewrite themmaking use of the modal verb would.

'Don't you mind if I do?' is a zero conditional in the negative-interrogative form.

Rewrite the conditional above in the other two conditionaltypes of sentences studied in the topic.

Reading Activity

Hanoi is about 200 kilometres now. Paco has moved to Halong Bayand he is sitting on a deck looking into the emerald waters of thebay, waiting for the junk to come for a boat trip around the bay.There are lots of people everywhere waiting for the ships. Paco hasplanned to go on a cruise and sleep in the junk for one night andspend the next one in Cat Ba island. Although the landscape iswonderful, he is a little bit sad.

Finally Phuong accompanied him to the theatre and they had fun withthe performance. After that they were having a walk around the lakeand having dinner in the French Quarter....definitely he has fallen inlove with her but now, here he is lost in his thoughts...

'I would have liked Phuong to be here. I could have told her to comewith me, although she must work these days but her colleague mighthave changed her turns, well there is nothing to be done now. If Ihad spent some more days in Hanoi, we would have had more timeto know each other. But now it's too late to regret. Hopefully I willcall her later to chat with her, at about six she may have finishedwork. Oh! this one must be my ship'.

In the text above there are some sentences containing modalperfect verb forms. Can you identify them and complete thefollowing chart?

SUBJECT MODAL PERFECT PAST PARTICIPLE COMPLEMENTS

There is a third type conditional sentence in the text...

Identify it and rewrite it in the other three types of conditionalsentences (zero, first and second type) studied in the unit.

ExercisePaco regrets not having told Phuong to go with him to Halong Bay,when he says: 'If I had spent some more days in Hanoi, wewould have had more time to know each other'Could you finish the previous conditional in a different way? If I hadspent some more days in Hanoi...

Reading Activity

Here Paco is, comfortably seated in a modern train towards HongKong Island with three French planning what to do in the next threedays in this crowded town...

While the French are speaking in their native language, Paco isattentive to the signs in the train. He finds one of them especiallydifficult to translate. It says: 'Were you to take the ferry, youwould have to buy the ticket before at the ticket office in theharbour'. Just at that moment he hears from the train speakerssomething that he cannot understand very well, either: '...nextstation Kowloon town, should you travel to China, get off thetrain here'.

Then Eric interrupts:

Eric: We can lodge in a Hostel around Causeway Bay, where I stayedlast time I was here. We could book two twin rooms provided thatthere were any vacancies.

Paco: It's OK for me.

Marie: Oui, this is a very good area from which to explore the city.We can walk around unless it rains a lot because the weather forecastpredicts heavy rain in the evening.

Brigitte: Don't worry about the rain. As long as it rains we can travelby tram, there is an excellent tram network in this city.

Eric: I know, you are always so lazy to walk!

Identify the conditional sentences (not inverted) appearing inthe text and analyse them completing the chart below:

Main clause Conjunction Subordinate clause

Self-Assessment activityRead the sentences below and fill in the missing conjunctions.

You won't finish the race you control your effort.

you like it you won't get in withoutan invitation.

it rains we can travel by tram.

We could book two twin rooms there were anyvacancies.

In the text above there are two inversions for conditionals.They have got a special structure.

Order the following inversions paying attention to the casesappearing in the text:

1. Hongkong-to-get-to-visa-to-a-would-were-you-get-have-you-travel

2. Take-peak-you-tram-to-should-up-the-go-take.