Joshua

Tonight’s singer grew up in the mountains of Tennessee, one of twelve children. This song tells a story: a lonely girl, and a man everybody was afraid of.

Why were they afraid of him?

People said he was mean. He lived alone, far from town. But she went to see him herself.

And was he mean?

Listen once. What did people say about Joshua? What happened when she went to see him?

Then answer Section A.

She walked to his door. She knocked. They talked for hours. She stayed.

Regular verbs add -ed: walk → walked, stay → stayed. Careful with spelling: stop → stopped, carry → carried, live → lived.

She heard about him. She went to his shack. He came to the door. She thought he was kind.

Irregular verbs have their own past forms: hear → heard, go → went, come → came, think → thought, say → said, feel → felt. Learn them in groups.

He wasn’t mean. She didn’t go home. Did she like him? Yes, she did.

Negatives and questions use did / didn’t + infinitive: never “didn’t went”. But be is different: was / were, wasn’t / weren’t, Was he lonely?

One day she went to see him. At first he was angry. Then they talked. In the end she stayed.

Time words help the listener follow a story: one day, at first, then, after that, later, in the end.

Socrates was the ugliest man in Athens. His friends said he was like those statues of Silenus that sculptors sell: ugly outside, but when you open them, there is a little golden god inside.

When Samuel went to choose a king, he looked at the tall brothers. But God told him: people look at the outside, but I look at the heart. So the king was David, the youngest, out with the sheep.