UNIT 1 LESSON A: Simple Present & Present

Progressive
 PRE - READING:

1. Think about your name. Do you like it? Do you know where it comes from and what it means?

2. Who chose your names? Did he / she / they have any special reason for naming you that way?

3. Do you think the way someone is named may affect his / her personality? If so, how?

4. What’s the difference between nickname, title, given name and family name (last name,
surname)?

5. What do you think the picture below is trying to say? Do you agree with the caption?

"Who said I wanted to be called after my father, grandfather, great

grandfather and so on? What's the point on being called little John
Smith VIII? I'm one more of the million John smiths in the world!
Where's my own, particular and distinctive personality in such a
name?

 WHILE READING:

1. What’s the main idea of the article? People’s names

2. Scan the text and find words that mean:
a) of a style or kind that is no longer in vogue old fashioned
b) familiar, informal form of a proper name nickname
c) to appear or pretend to be seem
d) difficult hard
d) a word hard to pronounce mouthful

3. Answer the following questions according to the text.

a) What’s a big difference between naming people in Russia and in America? Titles
b) What’s different when naming people in Russia and Mexico? In Russia people only use one last
name, and their middle name comes from their father’s last name. In Mexico people use two
last names.
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 Hola! My name is

What’s in a Name? Jorge Santiago García

de González, and I’m
from Mexico city.
Hi. My name is Yevdokiya
I’m studying English
Ivanova. I’m from Russia, but
here at the language institute. Jorge is my first, or
this year I’m living and working
given name; Santiago, my middle name; García
in Canada.
comes from my father (it’s his surname); and de
Yevdokiya is an old-fashioned
González from my mother (it’s her surname).
name, but it’s coming back into
People often think my name is Mr. González, but
style.
it’s actually Mr. García. Of course in class,
everyone just calls me Jorge. People here find my
My classmates find it difficult to pronounce, so
name a “mouthful,” but to me it seems perfectly
they call me by my nickname-Dusya.
normal. Some of my new friends are trying to
In my country, people always call their teachers by
convince me to call myself “George! While I’m
a first and a middle name, for example, Viktor
here, but I like my name, and I don’t want to lose
Antoninovich. The middle name comes from the
my identity.
father’s first name and it means “son of Antonin.”

We don’t use titles like “Mr.” or “Professor.” Here, Common Last Names Around the
some teachers actually prefer to be called by just World
their first name. At first, this was very hard for me ARABIC Ali, Ahmed, Haddad
to do. It still seems a little disrespectful, but I’m CHINESE Zhang, Wang, Chen
getting used to it. ENGLISH Smith, Jones, Williams
JAPANESE Satou, Suzuki, Takahashi
KOREAN Kim, Lee, Park
RUSSIAN Ivanov, Smirnov, Vasilev
SPANISH García, Fernández, López
TURKISH Özkan, Akcan, Gürbüz

 POST READING:

Answer the following questions:

1. How do you like your name?

2. Given the chance, would you change your name? Why? / Why not?

3. Do you think it’s a good or bad idea to give children in Chile two given names? Why?

4. Do you think it’s important to have two family names? Why? / Why not?

5. How important are in Chile titles such as Mr., Mrs., Professor, etc.? Why? / Why not?
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GRAMMAR NOTES

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 Simple Present and Present Progressive
Simple Present Present Progressive
1. Describes routines, scheduled or repeated 1. Describes what is going on at the moment of
actions, what generally happens and speaking, what is going on during this period
permanent situations. of time and describes temporary events or
situations.

Example:
I usually read at night. Example:
Now, I’m reading a book on baby names.
More and more people are learning English
these days.

2. Describes future arrangements with “time 2. Describes actions or events in the future that
words.” have been planned.

Example: Example:
Our plane departs tomorrow at 9 o’clock. I’m visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.

3. Describes general truths, scientific facts and 3. Describes repeated actions when used with
physical laws or any situation that is not “always”.
connected to time.

Example:
She’s always smiling, that’s why we call her
“Sunshine.”
Example:
Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Summarizes books/movies or books/movies 4. Describes a negative reaction to a situation.

reviews.

Example:
In her book, Browder describes the naming
systems among different ethnic groups. She Example:
also explores the psychological effects of He’s always calling me “Sweetie”. I wish he’d
names. stop.

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Non-action verbs (Stative Verbs)
Non-action verbs usually describe states or situations but not actions. Non-action verbs are not usually
used in the present progressive even when they describe a situation that exists at the moment of
speaking.

I want to leave now. (not I'm wanting)

Non-action verbs do the following:

a. express emotions (hate, like, love, want)

b. describe perception and the senses (hear, see, smell, taste, feel, notice)
c. describe mental states (know, remember, believe, suppose, think (believe),
understand)

d. show possession (have, own, posses, belong)

e. describe appearance (seem, be, appear, sound, look (as seem))

Be careful! Some verbs can have both a non-action and an action meaning.

ex. The soup tastes good. Try some.

She is tasting the soup to see if it needs more salt.

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1. DISCOVER THE GRAMMAR
Read this book review. Underline all the present progressive and circle all the simple present verbs.

Are you living or working in a foreign country?

Do you worry about making a mistake with someone’s
name? You are right to be concerned. Naming systems
vary a lot from culture to culture, and people tend to
have very strong feelings about their names. Well, now
help is available in the form of an interesting and
practical book by Terri Morrison. Kiss, Bow, or Shake
Hands: How to Do Business in Sixty Countries gives the
information on cross-cultural naming customs and much
more. And it’s not just for business people. In today’s
shrinking world, people are traveling abroad in record
numbers. They’re flying to all corners of the world, and
they’re e-mailing people they’ve never met. So, if you’re
doing business abroad or making friends across cultures, I
recommend this book.

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 2. LISTENING 1: PARTY TALK
Listen to the four conversations and answer the questions.

Conversation A:
- What surprises Al about Iantha’s name? It’s unusual.

Conversation B:
- Why doesn’t Bela recognize the name “Greg” at first? Because everybody calls him by his
nickname “Lucky.”

Conversation C:
- Why does Lola like the baby’s name? Because it sounds pretty.

Conversation D:
- What’s the difference between boiling water at sea level and higher above sea level? In the
mountains, water boils at lower temperatures.

3. LISTENING 2: FAMILY NAMES AND NICKNAMES

Listen to two classmates discuss these photos and label them with the correct name(s) form the box.
Which nickname seems to surprise Janine the most? Bozo Why? It’s insulting. Which name does she
think does not match the bearer? Why? Sunshine because she’s not smiling / Bertha and Vicky.
Bertha sounds as a name for an older woman and Vicky for a young and sexy one.

Alex – Bertha – “Bozo” – Karl – Red – “Sunshine” – Vicky

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3. A TREKKING JOURNAL
Complete this trekking journal with the present progressive and the simple present.

November 12, 2019

Today (be) is the second day of my trek around Mount Annapurna. I am exhausted and my legs
(shake) are shaking; I just hope I am able to complete the trek. My feet (kill, really) are killing me and
my toes (bleed) are bleeding, but I (want, still) still want to continue.

Nepal is a fascinating country, but I have a great deal to learn. Everything (be) is so different and I
(try) ‘m trying to adapt to the new way of life here. I (learn) ‘m learning a little bit of the language to
make communication easier; unfortunately, I (learn, not) don’t learn foreign languages quickly. Although
I (understand, not) don’t understand much yet, I believe that I (improve, gradually) ‘m gradually
improving.

I (travel, currently) ‘m currently traveling with Liam, a student from Leeds University in England. He
(be) ‘s a nice guy, but impatient. He (walk, always)’s always walking /always walks ahead of me and
(complain) complaining / complains that I am too slow. I (do) do my best to keep up with him, but he is
younger and stronger than I am. Maybe, I am just feeling sorry for myself because I am getting old.

Right now, Liam (sit)‘s sitting with the owner of the inn. They (discuss) ‘re discussing the differences
between life in England and life in Nepal. I (know, not) don’t know the real name of the owner, but
everybody (call, just) just calls him Tam. Tam (speak) speaks English very well and he (try) ‘s trying to
teach Liam some words in Nepali. Every time Tam (say) says a new word, Liam (try) tries to repeat it.
Unfortunately, Liam (seem, also) also seems to have difficulty learning foreign languages. I just hope we
don't get lost and have to ask for directions.

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 4. EDITING
Read this post to a class electronic bulletin board. There are eleven mistakes in the use of the present
progressive and the simple present. Find and correct them all.

Posted February 16, 2020, at 09:35:03

‘m writing
Hi. Everybody. I write this note to introduce myself to you, my classmates in English 047.
wants
Our teacher is wanting a profile from each of us. At first I was confused by this assignment
defines
because my English dictionary is defining profile as “a side view of someone’s head.” I
want
thought, “Why does she wants that? She sees my head every day!” then I saw the next

definition: “a short description of a person’s life and character.” OK, then. Here is my

profile:

call
My name is Peter Holzer. Some of my friends are calling me Pay-Ha because that is
sound studying
how my initials sounding in German. I am study English here in Houston because I want
you are asking
to attend graduate school in Colorado or Montreal. Maybe are you asking yourself, “Why
does he want come
he wants to leave Houston to go to these places?” The answer is: snow! I am coming from

Austria, so I love to ski. In fact, my nickname in my family is Blitz (lightning) because

I’m always trying
always I am trying to improve my speed.

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 5. SPEAKING
What do you think the following quotes mean? How do you agree or disagree with each one? Which one
do you think is the best? Why?

The glory and the nothing of a name.

- Lord Byron (British poet, 1788-1824)

A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
- William Hazlitt (British essayist, 1778-1830)

The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.

- Marshall McLuhan (Canadian Educator, 1911-1980)

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare, from Romeo and Juliet (British playwright, 1564-1616)

Consider the state of your like before you name a child.

- Nigerian proverb

6. WRITING
Write a profile to introduce yourself to your class. Write about your name, your interests and hobbies, and
your plans. Use the simple present and present progressive. You can use the profile in Exercise 4 as a
model.

7. ON THE INTERNET
There are many websites about names. Do a search to find out information about your name and report
back to the class what you found out.

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 LIST OF NON-ACTION (STATIVE) VERBS

WANTS AND APPEARANCE

EMOTIONS MENTAL STATES
PREFERENCES AND VALUE
adore agree desire appear
appreciate assume need be
care believe prefer cost
detest consider want equal
dislike disagree wish feel
doubt disbelieve look
envy estimate matter
fear expect represent
hate feel (believe) resemble
hope find seem
like guess signify
loathe hesitate smell
love hope sound
regret imagine taste
respect know weigh
mean
mind
presume PERCEPTION POSSESSION
AND THE AND
realize SENSES RELATIONSHIP
recognize feel belong
remember hear contain
see (understand) notice have
suppose observe own
suspect perceive possess
think (believe) see
understand smell
wonder taste

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