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Simple Past Question

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote 36 plays over the course of his career, usually writing two plays per year. Some of his most famous plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Shakespeare retired from writing plays in his old age and returned to Stratford, where he died in 1616 at the age of 52. His plays remain popular around the world to this day.

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159 views2 pages

Simple Past Question

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote 36 plays over the course of his career, usually writing two plays per year. Some of his most famous plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Shakespeare retired from writing plays in his old age and returned to Stratford, where he died in 1616 at the age of 52. His plays remain popular around the world to this day.

Uploaded by

Alexandre Rodrigues
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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www.handoutsonline.

com Supplementary EFL Materials

William Shakespeare
Read the following text:

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon.


He went to school in Stratford. In 1582 he got married to Anne
Hathaway. He was 18 years old. He had three children,
Susanna, Hamnet and Judith.

In 1599 he built a theatre in London. He wrote his first play in


1588. He wrote 36 plays – usually two a year. Shakespeare was
also an actor. When he was an old man, he retired, and returned
to Stratford. He died in 1616. Today, his plays are still very
popular all around the world.

Write the questions. Then check with a partner.

1 When ?
He was born in 1564.

2 Where ?
He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

3 Where ?
He went to school in Stratford-upon-Avon.

4 When ?
He got married in 1582.

5 How ?
He had 3 children.

6 When ?
He built it in 1599.

7 How ?
He wrote 36 plays.

8 When ?
He died in 1616.

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William Shakespeare: Teacher’s Notes

Target Structure: Past Simple Questions


Vocabulary: General
Level: Elementary
Time: 20 minutes
Preparation: None

Suggested Teaching method

This exercise is gives intensive practice of did auxiliaries in Past Simple questions. There’s also one passive
(be born): students need to be able to ask this even if they haven’t studied the grammar yet.

Warm-up Put students in small groups. Write ‘Shakespeare’ on the board. Ask students to work in groups and
brainstorm anything they know about him. If they’re stuck, ask them to guess a few play titles in English:
the results are usually amusing (for the teacher…).

Give one copy of the handout to each student. Tell them to read the text. Check for any vocabulary
problems.

Ask the students to read the questions. Answer any vocabulary problems. Then ask a confident student
the answer to question one. Working alone, the students should make questions for all the other answers.

Get students to check in pairs when finished. Go through the answers as a group.

There are many follow up exercises to this handout. Students could prepare some questions about a
famous person, and get other students to look up the answers for homework: the Internet would be useful
here. Or you could get students to role-play an interview with Shakespeare. Anything is ok.

If you have a few minutes left at the end of the lesson, why not teach a couple of (easier) Shakespearian
quotations? You might like to try: ‘To be or not to be; that is the question.’ (Hamlet)
‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ (Twelfth Night)
‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ (M-N-Dream)

However, if you have a class full of engineers, this idea might crash and burn…

Answer Key (Other answers may be possible)

1. When was he born? 5. How many children did he have?


2. Where was he born? 6. When did he build a theatre?
3. Where did he go to school? 7. How many plays did he write?
4. When did he get married? 8. When did he die?

How are we doing?

We’d be pleased to hear some feedback on our worksheets. You can do so anonymously, if you wish. Let
us know what you think, by clicking on the ‘Feedback’ link from www.handoutsonline.com.

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Updated 12/1/03

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