Exercise 1

fill in the gaps with one of the words:

autobiography, recognition, sensation, grant, pen-name, fictional, unexpectedly

joanne rowling ((1) j. k. rowling) is a famous british novelist. her fantasy books about harry potter brought her world (2) and popularity. they became the best-selling books in the history of literature. these books have become the basis for a series of films, which were also highly successful. the writer was born on july 31st, 1965, in yate, which is north-east of bristol. her father was an engineer and her mother was a science technician. when joanne was four, her family moved to winterbourne. she attended st michael’s primary school there. many biographers believe that the headmaster of that school became the prototype of the headmaster of the (3) school of magic in “harry potter”.

she started writing fictional stories rather early, at the age of nine. her first listener was her younger sister dianne. joanne became genuinely interested in literature after she got jessica mitford’s (4) this author became her idol and she wanted to be like her. joanne’s childhood wasn’t easy. her mother was often ill and she had to take care of herself and her sister. later, she met her boyfriend and moved to manchester with him. the intention to write a fiction about a magical school came to her (5)

soon, her mother died and it had a great influence on her novel. she described in details what harry felt after the loss of his parents in her first book. in 1993, she had a daughter jessica. in scotland she received a (6) to finish the novel about “harry potter and the philosopher’s stone”.

the book soon received a number of awards. the sequel of joanne’s story was released next year. the writer quickly achieved world recognition and became an international literary (7) all in all, she wrote seven books about harry potter. apart from that, she created a number of novels which are somehow connected with the hogwarts magical world.

exercise 2

choose the present perfect or past simple. write full sentences.

john (not call) me recently.
they (buy) a new car last month.
the teacher (not return) the tests yet.
how long she (know) about this problem?
you ever (hear) such an unbelievable story?
when i was a child, i (live) in england for two years.
he (buy) me a beautiful gift for my birthday.
i am so excited to have a dog. i (always / want) one.
they (go) to venice three years ago.
she feels great. she (lose) five kilos since christmas.

exercise 3

fill in the gaps with for or since.

steven has been a he left school
we have had three tests tuesday.
the couple have stayed here three days.
i have had my player ten weeks.
molly has had the christmas.

exercise 4

fill in the gaps with the following words:

to cut down, to destroy, to throw away, to waste.

we shouldn’t:

paper, bottles and clothes.

the ozone layer.

tropical rainforests.

water and energy.

exercise 5
open the brackets using present perfect continuous. write full sentences.

i (listen) to this for 2 hours.
you (wait) since this morning.
she (watch) their dog since saturday.
we (talk) for over an hour.
i (prepare) for this test for almost 2 weeks.
joe (work) here since 1987.
you (do) nothing for the last 30 minutes.
lilly (teach) english for many years.
i (eat) tomatoes for my entire life.
recently, she (feel) quite better.