The following story will help you practice the past simple and past continuous tenses. This story is good practice for all levels of English but it has been written with lower level learners in mind. While reading the stories look for verbs in the past simple and the past continuous tense. I have included notes at the bottom to help you with this, highlighting the tense and why it has been used.

Another good exercise is to read the story out loud. This gives you some good pronunciation practice. Please refer to the following articles to help you with the past tenses.

Key Vocabulary for the story

Travel company

Boarding pass

Abroad

Peanuts

Student exchange

Atmosphere

Romance

My Trip to the UK.

My name is Pedro and I’m from Spain. As a teenager I always wanted to go to the UK (1). In English classes at school my teacher talked about the UK a lot. She talked about how beautiful the cities are and how friendly the people are. But she also told us that the food is awful! When I was in school I was very shy (1) and although I wanted to ask more questions about the UK I couldn’t.

When I was 20 I was working at a travel company and I saved up enough money for a trip abroad. There was only one place that I wanted to go and that summer I travelled around the UK for 3 weeks (2). Before my trip I was very excited and I read about the cities that I was going to visit; London, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh.

I took the metro to get to the Valencia airport and it only took me 20 minutes from my house (2). While I was waiting for my boarding pass someone shouted my name (3). I stopped, looked back and Sara, an old friend from school, was standing 10 metres behind me. I went over to her and we chatted while waiting for our boarding passes. She was also going to London and we decided to travel together. I always liked Sara and thought that she was looking really good. I also thought that there might be some romance on my trip!

It was a short journey and during the flight we ate some peanuts and drank some beer. The sun was shining when we landed in London (3) and everything looked so green. We quickly collected our bags and went to find a taxi to take us to a hostel. While we were waiting for a taxi we both saw someone else that we knew. Paul, who we knew from a student exchange 4 years ago, was talking with two friends. He wanted to join us as he was travelling too. He and Sara talked a lot before we all caught our taxi. I think she liked him. After a 15 minute taxi drive we arrived to a lively and friendly hostel close to the centre of London.

After we put our bags in our room I went to find a computer. While I was sending my family an email, Sara and Paul were drinking beer in the bar (4). She definitely liked him! My thoughts of romance soon went away and I decided to start thinking about the trip.

I had a great trip! London was beautiful and I went to see 3 shows in the West End. I also went to Buckingham Palace, rode the London Eye and I walked around the centre and by the river. I really enjoyed Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh also. The northern cities were a lot of fun and the people were very nice. I was very lucky because I managed to get tickets and watch a football game. Manchester City against Blackburn Rovers. The atmosphere was fantastic.

The one thing that surprised me the most was the food. It was excellent. I ate a lot of different foods from all over the world. I now love Indian food and I cook it all the time. I also ate fish and chips, sushi, and some wonderful pub food.

I also met a lot of people and I want to go back again very soon. Sara has now moved to London and she and Paul are now a couple. I liked Sara but I am happy for them. Although there wasn’t any romance, my 3 weeks in the UK was fantastic. In fact, this time 2 years ago, I was drinking beer in a bar in Leeds! (5)

Notes from the story

1. Past Simple – past facts or generalizations.

2. Past Simple – completed actions at a specific time in the past.

3. Past Simple and Past Continuous Together – the past simple action interrupts the past continuous action.

4. Two Past Continuous Actions – two actions happening at the same time.

5. Past Continuous – action in progress at a specific time in the past.