Taku's Homestay Report: Scrambled Sentences
Taku is writing a short report about his homestay in English. He has four sentences with scrambled word groups. He must put the words in the correct order and choose the correct form. The sentences are: (1) [ used / I / to / get up / early ] in Japan. (2) My host mother is [ cooking / used / to / for me ] every morning. (3) I am [ looking / forward / to / meet / your family ] again. (4) Dinner [ by / was / cooked / my host father ]. Taku knows each word, but he is not sure how the groups fit together. He also thinks that if a sentence is understandable, the exact form is not important.
1. Write the correct sentence for (1) and (2), and explain the difference in meaning between 'used to get up' and 'be used to cooking'.
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(1) I used to get up early in Japan. (2) My host mother is used to cooking for me every morning. In (1), 'used to + base verb' expresses a past habit that no longer continues: Taku got up early in the past, but the sentence implies he does not necessarily do so now. In (2), 'be used to + noun/gerund' means 'be accustomed to'. The 'to' is a preposition, so it is followed by 'cooking', not 'cook'. The two patterns look similar but have different grammar and meaning.
2. Correct sentence (3) and explain why 'meet' cannot stay.
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Correct sentence: I am looking forward to meeting your family again. 'Look forward to' contains the preposition 'to', so it must be followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form). 'Meet' is a base verb, so it cannot follow the preposition directly. The correct form is 'meeting'. This is not a choice of tense; it is the requirement of the preposition.
3. Correct sentence (4) and explain when the passive 'by' phrase is used.
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Correct sentence: Dinner was cooked by my host father. The passive is 'was cooked', and 'by my host father' names the agent - the person who did the action. The passive is natural here because the report is about dinner and what happened to it, not mainly about the father. The 'by' phrase can be left out if the agent is unknown or unimportant, but it is included when the writer wants to say who did it.