Describing routines

Look at the possible answers to this question.

How often do you use a computer?

every week, once a month, every day, twice a year, once a week.

Now ask and answer the questions below. Begin each question with HOW OFTEN.

1. drive/work?

2. receive / salary?

3. go / the theatre?

4. go / the hairdressers?

5. drink / wine?

Now work in pairs. Think of more questions with HOW OFTEN. Take turns to ask and answer your questions. Give short answers.

Examples:

How often do you go to the restaurants? > Once a week.

Match each job with the correct description.

Factory worker, secretary, sales representative, owner of a small business.

She usually works from 9.00 to 5.00 (but longer if there is an

emergency). She answers the phone and types a lot of letters and

documents. She never works at the weekend.

He always gets up early to start work at 6.00. He assembles machinery.

His work rarely changes.

She hardly ever works regular hours. She sometimes works in the

office, occasionally works at home and often travels for work.

He often has to travel for work and drives all over the country. He

sometimes works on Saturdays. He has a meeting with the Area Manager every month.

Work in pairs. Tell your partner about your daily work routine.

Here is a description of Helen Jackson's daily routine. Fill in the gaps. The first ones are already done for you.

Helen Jackson works for a marketing company in London. She usually leaves the hou ___ at eight o'clo___ and trav ___ to wo ___ by underg___.

She usua___ arrives a___8.45, bu___ if the__ is a tras __problem, she occasi___ arrivers la___. In th__ morning sh__ attends meet ___with he__ colleagues an__ often vis___ clients i__ the after__. She nev__ finishes wo__ early an__ is alw___ tired.

Work in pairs. Take turns to ask and answer questions.

Examples:

you work / head office / your company?

Do you work at the head office of your company? > No, I work at the

Bristol office.

1. you / work / head office / your company?

2. which department / work?

3. what / your department / do?

4. you / work / open-plan office?

5. you / share / other people?

6. what / furniture / your office? Where?

7. what / equipment / your office? Where?

Write the questions for these answers

1. A large manufacturing company. We make parts for cars.

2. There aren't very many employees, but the turnover is quite high.

3. Head office is in Paris - but we have operations all over the world.

The present continuous tense.

The use of the Present Continuous.

1. Something happening at the time of speaking.

Examples:

Juan Gonzales is in his office. He is working. He is looking at last month's sales figures and comparing them with figures from last year. The Managing Director is speaking to the Advertising Manager. What are you doing at the moment? I'm not watching this programme.

2. Something happening around the time of speaking.

Examples:

Heanz isn’t working on this project this month. He's planning the sales conference and preparing his presentation.

My daughter's learning to drive.

Tom's writing a book about golf.

They arc building a new road in the city centre.

Are you working on the report this week? - Yes, I am. (He may not be

doing this exactly at the time of speaking).

3. Changing situations.

Examples:

The company is making a loss because the cost of components is

increasing and product sales are decreasing.

The rate of inflation is rising very fast.

We're not getting any younger.

Profits are increasing.

The weather is changing.

4. Future arrangements.

Examples:

The Sales Manager is flying to Rome on Monday. He's arriving at

11.00 a-m. and he's meeting the client at 2.00 p.m.

We're making a presentation to the directors tomorrow.

I'm having lunch with the Financial Director on Monday.

Are you coming to the theatre with us on Saturday? - No, I’m not. I'm

meeting John.

EXERCISES

Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form.

1. Mr Straub ___ in his office. (work)

2. ___ you ___ your holiday? (enjoy)

3. John ___ to the meeting. (go)

4. Sales of the product___ rapidly. (increase)

5. The demand for these products ___. (fall)

6. I hope we ___ our time on this project. (not / waste)

7. The price of petrol in Germany ___. (rise)

8. My secretary ___ the report at the moment. (type)

9. Why ___ you ___ that report? (read)

10. The Financial Director ___ to Paris with me tomorrow. (travel)

11. He ___ on Fiat project at the moment. (not / work)

12. The Sales Manager ___ dinner with a new client tomorrow. (have)

13. Excuse me. I ___ to find the Post Office. Is it near here? (try)

14. The economy ___ at the moment. (improve)

15. What __ he on Friday afternoon? (do)

16. The economic situation ___ worse. (get)

17. We ___ at the Hilton Hotel. (stay)

18. The local construction company ___ a lot of new flats. (build)

19. He and his wife ___ for a new house. (look)

20. At the moment they ___ me figures from the USA. (analyze)

21. The market outlook ___ better. (get)

22. James ___ the stock in the warehouse today. (check)

23. He ___ in London at the moment but he usually works in Madrid. (work)

Put the verbs into the correct form in this dialogue.

"Hello Bill. Nice to see you. What (1) ___ you ___ (do) these

days?"

"Hello Graham. Well, I (2) ___ (work) in London just now but we

(3) ___ (move) to France next month. We (4) ___ (start) a new

business there."

Decide whether the verbs in these sentences are right or wrong. Correct those which are wrong. (Some sentences need the Present Simple and some need the Present Continuous).

1. Look at that man! What does he do?

2. The sun is rising in the East.

3. Are you meeting your friend tomorrow?

4. "Where's Jane? "She plays tennis."

5. He is usually staying at the Sheraton Hotel when he goes to Brussels.

6. I always do the shopping on Saturdays.

Work in pairs. Look at the extracts from newspaper articles below. Underline all the examples of the Present Tense ( Present Simple and Present Continuous). Discuss together why you think the writer used each tense.

1. The Leclerc hypermarket empire is continuing its expansion in Poland. The Leclercs want a return on their investment in the near future but know that success depends on developing Polish expertise. At the moment 90% of the shares belong to the French but the management is already local.

2. Renault is closing its car plant at Setubal in Portugal despite a long-term agreement made in 1980. The factory manufactures the Clio model, whose production cycle will end in 1997.

3. Pepsi Cola is launching a blue can for its famous drink in an effort to fight the dominance of Coca-Cola, which sells twice as much cola worldwide.

4. The Banco di Napoli is looking for buyers for the two newspapers which it owns after it made a net loss of L3,160 billion ($1.99bn) in 1995.

5. Dutch brewing giant Heineken is starting a major marketing campaign in Russia despite the country's strict rules on advertising. Russian law forbids the advertising of any alcoholic drink on electronic media.

6. The number of wealthy individuals in the world is increasing. However, private banking is coming increasingly competitive as more and more banks are offering special services for the rich.

Work in pairs. Think of the activities below and prepare to tell your teacher:

a) three regular activities of your company.

b) three current activities of your company.

c) three of your company's plans.

STATIVE VERBS

Some verbs are not used in Continuous tenses. This is because they describe states, not actions. They are called stative verbs. There are three basic categories:

1. Opinions and emotional states, e.g. He dislikes working at the weekend.

2. Knowledge and states of mind. e.g. We understand Spanish.

3. Other states. e.g. They own two cars.

Put the following stative verbs into the correct category.

like, want, own, know, understand, love, dislike, contain, remember, belong (to), prefer, hate, believe, depend (on), forget.

Work in pairs. Close your books. There are fifteen stative verbs in Exercise 5. Can you remember all of them? Take turns to make true sentences using each verb.

With some words the Present Simple can be used or the Present Continuous tense. It depends on the situation. Can you explain the using of each form in the situations below?

Present Simple: Present Continuous:

I have a headache. I'm sorry, Mrs Castelli's having

lunch

at the moment

This wine tests really good. I'm just tasting this wine to

check

that it's OK.

The verb think is used to talk about our opinions, the Simple form is

used. e.g. I think it's a good idea.

The verb think is used to talk about possible plans, and the Continuous

form is used.

e.g. We're thinking of opening a new factory in the south of the

country.

Work in pairs. Say three things that you are thinking of doing personally. Say three things that your company (or somebody in your company) is thinking of doing.

Examples:

Personal: I’m thinking of moving a house.

Company. My company is thinking of expanding its business in the

USA.

Write the correct form (Present Continuous or Present Simple) of the word in brackets in each gap.

1. Now the company ____ (continue) its expansion into Central and Eastern Europe.

2. At the moment we ____ (own) three subsidiaries in other countries.

3. They normally ___ (manufacture) the XY10 model in Spain only but demand is so high at the moment that they ___ (produce) it in Italy.

4. Our industry ___ (become) increasingly competitive.

5. At the moment 51% of the shares ___ (belong) to the Government.

6. We ___ (think) of opening an office in Munich.

Continue each sentence about possible plans. Write something true.

1. I'm thinking of

2. My wife / husband / partner is thinking of

3. My company is thinking of

4. My boss is thinking of

5. The Government is thinking of

Write a paragraph about the current activities of your company.

PUT THE VERB IN THE PRESRNT CONTINUOUS OR PRESENT SIMPLE

1. Tom /have/ a shower at the moment.

2. They /not, watch/ television very often.

3. Listen. Somebody /sing/.

4. She is tired. She /want/ to go home now.

5. How often /you, read/ a newspaper?

6. Excuse me, but you /sit/ in my place.

7. I am sorry, I /not, understand/. Please speak more slowly.

8. ‘Where are you, Roy?’ ‘I am in the sitting room. I /read/.

9. What time /she, finish/ work every day?

10. You can turn the radio. I /not, listen/ to it.

11. He /not, usually, drive/ to work. He usually /walk/.

12. ‘Can you help me for a minute?’ ‘I am sorry, I /work/.

13. /you, work/ on Saturdays?

14. How many languages /you, speak/?

15. Why /you, wear/ a sweater? It is not cold.

16. My father /always, go/ to Ireland in August.

17. Robert /play/ football most weekends.

18. ‘Where is Lucy?’ ‘She /shop/.

19. ‘What /you, eat/?’ ‘Chocolate.’

20. I would like to go home. It /get/ dark.

21. The Scots /make/ the best whisky in the world.

22. Italians /drink/ more wine than English people.

23. ‘What /do/?’ ‘I am practicing the guitar.’

ARE THE UNDERLINED VERBS RIGHT OR WRONG? CORRECT THE VERBS THAT ARE WRONG.

1. Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.

2. The water boils. Can you turn it off?

3. Look, that man tries to open the door of your car.

4. Can you hear these people? What do they talk about?

5. The moon goes round the earth.

6. I must go now. It gets late.

7. I usually go to work by car.

8. Hurry up. It is time to leave. – OK, I come.

9. I hear you’ve got the new job. How do you get on?

10. I’m seeing the manager tomorrow morning.

11. I’m feeling hungry. Is there anything to eat?

12. Are you believing in God?

13. This sauce is great. It’s tasting really good.

14. I’m thinking this is your key. Am I right?

GOING TO

The use of GOING TO.