Unit 6: Great achievers
Past simple
Select a unit
- 1 Nice to meet you!
- 2 What to wear
- 3 Like this, like that
- 4 The daily grind
- 5 Christmas every day
- 6 Great achievers
- 7 The Titanic
- 8 Travel
- 9 The big wedding
- 10 Sunny's job hunt
- 11 The bucket list
- 12 Moving and migration
- 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
- 14 New Year, New Project
- 15 From Handel to Hendrix
- 16 What's the weather like?
- 17 The Digital Revolution
- 18 A detective story
- 19 A place to live
- 20 The Cult of Celebrity
- 21 Welcome to your new job
- 22 Beyond the planets
- 23 Great expectations!
- 24 Eco-tourism
- 25 Moving house
- 26 It must be love
- 27 Job hunting success... and failure
- 28 Speeding into the future
- 29 Lost arts
- 30 Tales of survival
Session 4
So you've learnt about past simple tense - now it's time to put it to use. Listen to some stories of childhood heroes - and tell us about your own hero.
Activity 2
News Report
How Ronaldo became 'the perfect player'
Most football fans agree that Cristiano Ronaldo is a great player – but is he perfect?
In this episode of News Report, we hear what two of Ronaldo’s coaches think about his rise to fame – and how he made it happen. You’ll hear some examples of the past simple in action. There’s a transcript to read while you listen – or if you're feeling brave, listen without the transcript.
Listen to the audio
Cristiano Ronaldo is considered to be one of the world's best footballers.
He has achieved great success with Real Madrid and Manchester United, and won FIFA's world player of the year award twice. In 2013 alone, the Portugal captain scored 66 goals in 56 games.
But when he first joined Manchester United in 2003, it wasn't so simple.
He had a lot of skill, but was too skinny, and didn't score many goals.
"Ronaldo was a natural talent, a rough diamond," said Mike Clegg, his power development coach at Manchester United.
But Clegg said he did "thousands and thousands of hours" of hard work to "turn himself into the perfect player."
Whenever he made a mistake in a game, he kept practising until he got it right.
He became physically stronger, and bought a house with a swimming pool to help him recover after games.
In 2009, Ronaldo was bought by Real Madrid for a world-record fee of £80m.
So, the question is: when he is already so good, is it possible for Ronaldo to improve even more?
"Ronaldo improves every day," said coach Aitor Karanka, who worked with Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
"‘Look at his numbers three years ago and you think, it's impossible he can do better, and then you look at him this year and he's done better again."
It seems that, for Ronaldo, the sky's the limit.
Download
You can download News Report from our Unit 6 downloads page.
Vocabulary
captain
someone who leads a team
skill
ability, especially in difficult things
skinny
very thin
talent
natural ability
rough diamond
someone who is very good or nice, even though they don't look that way
coach
someone who teaches people sports or other subjects
physically
in terms of the body
recover
get better after losing something (like health or energy)
fee
price; amount of money you pay for something
To do
Now that you have heard News Report, why don't you write a report about a sportsperson you admire? Read it aloud and try to sound like our newsreader.
End of Session 4
That’s all for Session 4 - we hope you enjoyed it. Coming up in the next session, you can test what you’ve learnt so far this unit, plus you can enjoy episode 6 of our weekly drama series, The Race. Phil and his friends have reached Reunion Island, but pirates have stolen their yacht. Where will the crew find it?
See you then!
Session Vocabulary
captain
someone who leads a teamskill
ability, especially in difficult thingsskinny
very thintalent
natural abilityrough diamond
someone who is very good or nice, even though they don't look that waycoach
someone who teaches people sports or other subjectsphysically
in terms of the bodyrecover
get better after losing something (like health or energy)fee
price; amount of money you pay for something