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Past Tense

This story uses only two types of past tense: 

  1. the simple past tense describes an activity that took place (was completed) in the past: I walked to school yesterday.
  2. the past continuous tense describes an activity that was ongoing in the past at the time you are talking about: I was walking to school when I started to feel sick.

Story

On Tuesday, Anna missed the school bus. Anna had very long blond hair. She was drying her hair and brushing her hair for a long time that day, and she lost track of time. When she looked at the clock, she saw that she had only five minutes to get to the bus stop.

Anna jumped up and grabbed her backpack. She ran into the kitchen and kissed her mother goodbye. Her mother told her to have a good day. Then Anna ran out the door and ran to the bus stop as fast as she could.

She was running faster than she had ever run before! She was running so fast that she almost tripped and fell. Anna decided to slow down a little. She didn’t want to fall.

Anna arrived at the bus stop and saw that the bus was not there. Then she saw it way down the street. It was driving away from her. The bus was already gone.

Anna walked back home. She knew her mother would still be eating her breakfast. Anna needed a ride to school. She decided to ask her mother to drive her to school.

Her mother was surprised to see Anna return home so soon. Anna explained the situation and asked her mother to drive her to school. Her was happy to drive her. Surprisingly, Anna was not even late for school that day! Anna’s mother suggested that Anna pay a little more attention to her clock on school days.

Questions

Try to answer the questions with complete sentences. Example: What day was it when Anna missed the bus? Don’t just answer ‘Tuesday’. Answer with a complete sentence, preferably in past tense: ‘She missed the bus on Tuesday.'

  1. What day was it when Anna missed the bus?

  2. Why did she miss the bus?

  3. What did she look at that told her she was late?

  4. What did Anna grab before she went to the kitchen?

  5. Who did she see in the kitchen?

  6. How did Anna get to the bus stop?

  7. What almost happened on the way to the bus stop?

  8. Did Anna make it to the bus stop in time?

  9. Did Anna walk or run back home?

  10. Who do you think gave Anna a ride to school that day?