E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

Afirmative Statements
subject
have/has
past participle
I
have
traveled
lown
to Chicago.
You
He
She
It
has
We
have
You
They
Yes/No Questions
have/has
subject
past participle
Have
you
traveled
lown
to Chicago?
Has
he/she/it
Have
they
• 
The past participle of a regular verb has the same form as the simple past: 
verb + -d/-ed.
• 
Irregular verbs have different past participle forms. Here is an example of 
six common irregular verbs and their past tenses:
Base Form
Simple Past
Past Participle
be
was/were
been
bring
brought
brought
cut
cut
cut
ly
lew
lown
go
went
gone
B.
Use the present perfect
Using the following table, create eight logical sentences in the present perfect: 
four affirmative statements, and four questions.
subject
have/has
past participle
she/he
have
was/were
for a long time
you
has
taught
to the movies
we
learned
English
they
went
sick

---

166
|
Better Reading English
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
VI. READ IT AGAIN
Read the article again. Answer the question.
What are three stress factors that could cause depression?
1.
2.
3.

---

167
9
Children and Parents
POSITIVE PARENTING
I. PRE-READING
A.
Background information
This brief is from the book 
Why Boys Don’t Talk—And Why It Matters
, by Susan 
Morris Shaffer and Linda Perlman Gordon
. 
It lays out thirteen principles of good 
parenting.
B.
Words to know before you read
Match the words to their definitions.
____
1.
predictable 
a. always acting or behaving in the same 
way
____
2.
reliable 
b. without being stopped or affected by 
(something)
____
3.
consistent 
c. the act of giving your time or effort in 
order to accomplish something or make 
something better
____
4.
regardless 
d. able to be trusted to do or provide what 
is needed
____
5.
investment 
e. capable of being known before 
happening
C.
Reading strategy
Quickly scan the parenting brief. Then answer the question.
Who will beneit from 
positive parenting
—the parents, children, or both?

---

168
|
Better Reading English
II. READ
Read the brief. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look 
them up.
Positive
Parenting
The Law of Return
“One good parent is worth 1, 000 schoolmasters.”
—Chinese Proverb
The purpose of this parent brief is to present 13 principles of positive parenting.
1.
Parenting is a process. You never arrive with all the skills that you need.
2.
Parents are not trained to be parents; kids are not trained to be kids. Kids 
train parents; parents train kids.
3.
It is more challenging to be a parent than to function in your job.
4.
Parenting is a journey, not a destination.
5.
Parents are the most signiicant inluence in a child’s life.
6.
A parent is the greatest teacher a child will ever have. A parent and child 
certainly have the longest teaching relationship ever known.
7.
It is not a question of whether a parent is a teacher or not, it’s a question of 
what is taught. Parents teach kids a whole language before they come to 
school.
8.
If you pay attention to your child, he will teach you what you need to learn.
9.
Parent modeling that includes the unspoken as well as the spoken word is 
the most powerful force in shaping a child’s life.
10.
How you spend your time and money tells your kids what you value, 
regardless of what you say.
11.
Successful parenting is predictable, reliable, and consistent.
12.
There’s no greater investment in life than children.
13.
Parents who praise each of their children at least twice a day maintain a 
positive relationship regardless of the problems they encounter.
Source: 
Why Boys Don’t Talk—And Why It Matters
, by Susan Morris Shaffer and 
Linda Perlman Gordon, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Circle the letter of the sentences with the same meaning as the first sentence.
1.
Parenting is a process. You never arrive with all the skills that you need.
a.
You learn the skills of parenting over time.
b. 
Everyone knows the skills of parenting before becoming a parent.

---

Children and Parents
|
169
2.
It is more challenging to be a parent than to function in your job.
a. 
A job is harder than parenting.
b. 
Parenting is harder than a job.
3.
Parenting is a journey, not a destination.
a. 
The importance of parenting is what you do along the way, not the inal 
result.
b. 
The importance of parenting is the inal result, not what you do along 
the way.
4. If you pay attention to your child, he will teach you what you need to learn.
a. 
You can learn how to be a parent by paying attention to your child.
b. 
You can learn how to be a parent by reading books about parenting.
5.
Parent modeling that includes the unspoken as well as the spoken word is 
the most powerful force in shaping a child’s life.
a. 
Parents’ actions are much more important than their words in shaping a 
child’s life.
b. 
Parents’ actions and words are extremely important in shaping a child’s life.
6.
How you spend your time and money tells your kids what you value, 
regardless of what you say.
a. 
Teaching a child what you value can be done by a simple explanation.
b. 
Children learn what you value by seeing the way you spend your time 
and money, not by what you tell them you value.
IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Using new words
Read the words and their definitions. Then complete the sentences that follow 
with one of the words from the list.
principles
rules or beliefs that helps you know what is right and 
wrong and that influences your actions
function 
to work or operate
encounter 
have to experience
proverb
a brief popular saying that gives advice about how people 
should live
destination 
a place to which a person is going
signiicant 
very important
inluence 
the power to change or affect someone or something
1.
I cannot ______________________ after working for nine hours straight.
2.
Have you ever had an ______________________ with a mean dog?

---

170
|
Better Reading English
3.
London, England is my inal ______________________.
4.
Our team made ______________________ improvements this year.
5.
The children tried to ______________________ me into buying them candy.
6.
At the beginning of each class, she writes a ______________________ on 
the board.
V. UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR: HOMONYMS AND 
HOMOPHONES
A 
homonym
is a word that is spelled and pronounced like another word but is 
different in meaning. A 
homophone
is a word that is pronounced like another 
word but is different in meaning, origin, or spelling. Here are some homonyms 
and homophones from this article:
Homonyms: