Question

6. a) complete the following passage by putting the verbs into the past tense. after the second world war, akio morita, the co-founder of sony (1) joined (join) forces with a friend, masaru ibuka. both men (2) (know) a great deal about telecommunications, so (3) (use) all their money, about £100, and (4) (set) up a small engineering company, tokyo tsushin kogyo. they (5) (find) a small broken down building to use as a laboratory in tokyo. there (6) (be) so many holes in the roof that when it (7) (rain), they (8) (have) to continue working under umbrellas. their first task (9) (be) to decide what to make. they (10) (not want) to make radios because of the competition from much larger companies. instead, they (11) (decide) to create an entirely new product, a tape recorder. they (12) (succeed) in making a machine, but unfortunately they (13) (not have) any tape, and they (14) (not know) how to produce it. so they (15) (start) to experiment, and (16) (try) using a number of different materials. finally, they (17) (make) a breakthrough. they (18) (cut) up strips of paper to make a reel, and (19) (paint) them with a magnetic material that they (20) (heat) on a frying pan in their small room. it (21) (work), and they gradually (22) (improve) the process. in 1950, they (23) (begin) trying to sell their revolutionary machine. and the rest is history! b) ask ten questions to the text. c) retell the text.

Answer 1

1.joined
2.knew
3.used
4.set
5.found
6.were
7.rained
8.had
9.was
10.didn't want
11.decided
12.succeeded
13.didn't have
14.didn't know
15.started
16.tried
17.made
18.cut
19.painted
20.heated
21.worked
22.improved
23.began