Exercise 3. Read the text “A brief history of pizza” and fill in the gaps with the verbs in
the Past Simple.
A brief history of pizza
It’s kind of silly to talk about the moment when pizza _______ (be) “invented”. It gradually
__________ (evolve) over the years, but one thing’s for certain – it’s been around for a very
long time. The idea of using flat, round bread as plates __________ (come) from Greeks.
They _______ (call) them “plakuntos” and _______ (eat) them with various simple toppings
such as oil, garlic, onions and herbs. The Romans _________ (enjoy) eating something
similar and ________ (call) it “picea”. By about 1000 A.D. in the city of Naples, “picea” had
become “pizza” and people _____________ (experiment) with more toppings: cheese, ham,
anchovies, and finally the tomato, brought to Italy from Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth
century. Naples___________ (become) the pizza capital of the world.
In 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita
_________ (hear) about pizza and_________ (ask)
to try it. They ___________ (invite) pizza maker,
Raffaele Esposito, to make it for them. He
___________ (decide) to make the pizza like the
Italian flag, so he _________ (use) red tomatoes,
white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The
Queen __________ (love) it and the new pizza __________ (get) the name “Pizza Margherita” in her honour.
Pizza ____________ (migrate) to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth
century. But the popularity of pizza ___________ (explode) when American soldiers
__________ (return) from Italy after the World War II and ____________ (tell) about “that
great Italian dish”. Americans are now the greatest producers and consumers of pizza in the world.