6. a) Complete the following passage by putting the verbs into the past tense.
After the Second World War, Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony (1) joined (join) forces with a friend, Masaru Ibuka. Both men (2) __________ (know) a great deal about telecommunications, so (3) __________ (use) all their money, about £100, and (4) __________ (set) up a small engineering company, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. They (5) __________ (find) a small broken down building to use as a laboratory in Tokyo. There (6) __________ (be) so many holes in the roof that when it (7) __________ (rain), they (8) __________ (have) to continue working under umbrellas.
Their first task (9) __________ (be) to decide what to make. They (10) __________ (not want) to make radios because of the competition from much larger companies. Instead, they (11) __________ (decide) to create an entirely new product, a tape recorder. They (12) __________ (succeed) in making a machine, but unfortunately they (13) __________ (not have) any tape, and they (14) __________ (not know) how to produce it.
So they (15) __________ (start) to experiment, and (16) __________ (try) using a number of different materials. Finally, they (17) __________ (make) a breakthrough. They (18) __________ (cut) up strips of paper to make a reel, and (19) __________ (paint) them with a magnetic material that they (20) __________ (heat) on a frying pan in their small room. It (21) __________ (work), and they gradually (22) __________ (improve) the process. In 1950, they (23) __________ (begin) trying to sell their revolutionary machine.
And the rest is history!
b) Ask ten questions to the text.
c) Retell the text.