Easy Phrasal Verbs: Learn English verbs through conversations

Edward’s birthday together.

Patsy: Happy birthday, Eddy.

Edina: Thanks Pat. Pass me the champagne.

Patsy: Here you go. So how old are you now?

Edina: Twenty-nine. Same as last year, of course!

Patsy:  You  and  I  go  back  at  least  fifty  years.  Is  it  your  seventieth

birthday? Oh my God. It’s your seventieth birthday!

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Edina: No, it’s not. And don’t tell anyone.

Patsy: Happy seventieth birthday, Eddy. Have some more champagne. I

think you need it.

Edina: Thanks Pat.

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40.2 went back (past tense)

40.2.1 Liang is visiting her friend, Emma, in London. They are taking a walk around Emma’s

neighborhood.

Liang: That’s a nice apartment building. It looks very new.

Emma: Yes, but many of the local people don’t like it.

Liang: Why not? It looks so nice.

Emma: Well, they demolished a very old marketplace and built on top of

it.

Liang: Oh, I see. How old was the marketplace?

Emma:  I  think  it  went  back  a  few  centuries.  People  like  to  preserve  old

places in the UK.

Liang: Well, I guess that’s important, but people also need somewhere to

live, right?

Emma:  True,  but  these  new  apartments  are  too  expensive  for  most

people to afford.

Liang: Ah. I see why the locals are so upset now.

40.2.2 Tim is on a history tour in rural Japan. He is asking the tour guide some questions.

Tim: So, I read that the women on this island used to catch sea snakes

for food. Is that right?

Guide: Yes. Actually, the practice went back hundreds of years.

Tim: What happened?

Guide: Well, the old ways are gone now and the women who knew how

to hunt sea snakes have all died.

Tim: That’s too bad.

Guide: Yes, I suppose so. But, necessity is the mother of invention, right?

If we need to catch sea snakes again in the future, somebody will learn

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how to do it and teach others. Time moves on.

Tim: I suppose so.

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