Thanksgiving Dinner (past perfect)
Last Thanksgiving my parents had a large family dinner at their house. Getting ready for
Thanksgiving dinner takes a lot of work.
The day started well and by late afternoon we had completed most of the work. Everyone had
helped to make the meal a success. We had put the turkey in the oven earlier that day so the
house was starting to smell like roast turkey. The grandchildren had finished setting the table for
Thanksgiving dinner. My aunt had made two pies for dessert, a pumpkin pie and an apple pie.
My brother and I had peeled the carrots and the potatoes. We had just turned on the stove to
start cooking the vegetables when the power went out! The oven stopped working! We couldn’t
cook the vegetables! The turkey wouldn’t finish cooking! We waited. We talked. We went for a
walk.
We had waited two hours by the time the power came back on. We had almost given up hope.
Dinner was late that night but it was a Thanksgiving dinner that we won’t forget.
http://www.readingesl.ca/grammar/past.htm#story11
Vocabulary help:

afternoon (noun) - the time of day between noon and evening

aunt (noun) - the sister of one's mother or father, or the wife of one's uncle.

complete (verb) - to finish

cook (verb) - to prepare food for eating by using heat.

dessert (noun) - sweet food that is eaten after the main part of a meal

dinner (noun) - the main meal of the day.

given up (phrasal verb) - past tense of give up - to stop or to admit defeat

grandchildren (noun) plural of grandchild - the child of one's son or daughter.

meal (noun) - when you eat, or the food that you eat at that time. Example: Lunch is a
meal that we eat in the middle of the day

oven (noun) - a piece of equipment that you cook food in. An oven has a large metal box
with a door

parent (noun) - a mother or a father.

peel (verb) - to remove the outer covering from something.

pie (noun) - a cooked dish that has a crust made of dough and a thicker layer of fruit,
meat, or something else on top of it. Sometimes it has another layer of crust on top of
that.

power (noun) - energy that can do work

roast (adjective) - something that is roasted.

roast (verb) - to cook with dry heat, as in an oven.

smell (verb) - to sense something by means of the nose.

turned on (phrasal verb) - past tense of turn on - to cause something to begin. Example:
Turn on the lights if it is too dark to see.

vegetables (noun) - a plant you can eat, examples: potatoes, corn and onions
http://www.readingesl.ca/grammar/past.htm#story11
Comprehension Check:
Did you understand the story? Are these sentences true?
1. The word had is used when making the past perfect verb tense. Yes or no?
2. Use the past participle of the main verb when making the past perfect. Yes or no?
3. My aunt made two apple pies for dessert. Yes or no?
4. When the power went out there was no electricity. Yes or no?
5. The turkey was finished cooking before the power went out. Yes or no?
Fill in the Blanks:
6. It was two _______________ before the power came back on.
7. My brother and I had _____________ the vegetables for dinner.
8. Everyone had ______________ to make the meal a success.
9. By late afternoon we ____________ completed most of the work.
10. For Thanksgiving dinner we had _____________ and vegetables and then we had pie for
_______________.
http://www.readingesl.ca/grammar/past.htm#story11