Exercises
Grammar focus task
This is an extract from the first text. Without looking back at it, fill in the gaps using the past perfect or past simple of the verb in brackets.
But in this vast ocean of time Mr. Hosokawa could not seem to startle up any concern for Nansei. While he (1)___stared _______(stare) at the weather he never (2)___wondered __ (wonder) if his abduction (3)__had affected ________(affect) stock prices. He(4)___didn’t ___ (not care) who was making his decisions, sitting at his desk. The company that (5)______had been_______ (was) his life , his son, (6)__had fallen ____(fall) away from him as thoughtlessly as a coin is dropped. He (7)__took___ (take) a small spiral notebook from the pocket of his tuxedo jacket and, after inquiring as to the correct spelling from Gen, (8)____added____(add) the word garúa to his list. Incentive(9)___was _______ (be) key. No matter how many times Mr. Hosokawa(10)___had listened________(listen) to his Italian tapes in Japan he could remember nothing that was on them. No sooner(11) ___had he heared_________ (hear) the beautiful words, dimora, patrono, than they (12) ___vanished_____(vanish) from memory. But after only one week of captivity look at all the Spanish he (13)___had learned___(learn)!
Complete this radio news report with the verbs given. Use these tenses – present simple, present continuous, past simple, past continuous – giving alternatives where possible. Sometimes you may need to change the order of the adverb and verb.
Emergency services were bombarded with phone calls from all over the north of England last night by people who REPORTED seeing blue objects shoot across the sky. Mrs. Linda Hayward WAS DRIVING along the B456 road at the time.
‘I usually CAME along that bit of road at about ten. As I WAS GOING past the old barn, I SAW a single bright light going across the road in front of my car. I stoped the car and WATCHED it for about fifteen minutes. It TRAVELS quite slowly from east to west and then it suddenly DISSAPEARED. Until now I never BELIEVED in UFOs, although my son forever HAD TRIED to persuade me that they exists.
But now I THINK that maybe he WILL BE right.
At the height of the panic, polices stations GOT around a thousands calls an hour from members of the public. Sergeant Ron Drake of the Ambledale police WAS particularly busy. ‘Between 10 and 11 o’clock we RECIVED around thirty calls. The callers said they HAVE SEEN a single blue light about as big as a car over the village. We now HAD CONSIDER searching the fields around Ambledale for any evidence left behind’.
Dr Bart Mastow, a lecturer in astronomy al Trumpton University OFFERED a simple explanation, ‘The reports that HE CAME in last night SUGGESTED that it CAN BE a meteor shower. This WASN’T unusual on a small scale, but last night’s shower HAD SEEMS to have been very large. In fact, we GOT an increasing number of meteor showers, and my department currently RESEARCHING possible reasons for this.
But many witnesses to the events BELIEVES that they OBSERVES more than a meteor shower, and the Ministry of Defence SAID that they WILL TAKE the reports of the UFO sightings very seriously.
Complete the sentences using the verbs in the box. Use the same verb in each pair of sentences. Use the present simple, present continuous, past simple or past continuous.
1. I ’M THINKING about taking a gap year before I go to university and going traveling around South America.
A: Why’s Terry having a party?
B: I THINK it’s his birthday.
2. A: How did the cat get up into the tree?
B: I SAW he was chasing a bird.
A: Let me know when the post arrives.
B: Why, HAVE you SEEN something important?
3. A: Did you enjoy your time at boarding school?
B: No I HATE every minute of it.
A: As the boat was thrown about bye the huge waves, she looked across at Paul and wondered if he HATES this, too.
4. A: This month’s special exhibition of South African art EXPECTING over 5000 visitors a day to the museum, whereas we normally only get about 2000.
B: As the home of William Shakespeare, Stratford EXPECTS tourists from all over the world.
5. A: HAVE you LOOKED that big house over there? It’s my uncle’s.
B: I split up with Alex when I found out that he WAS LOOKING someone else.
6. A: What happened to your wrist?
B: I WAS MESURING the window for some new curtains when I fell off the ladder and sprained it.
B: I was given this pedometer for my birthday. You just hook it on your belt and it MEASURES how far you walk during the day.
7. A: What on earth are you doing down there?
B: I WAS ATTRACTING for one of my earrings – it fell off and rolled under the bed.
A: Which course are you going to apply to?
B: Well, this one on anthropology IS ATTRACTED interesting.
8. A: Our neighbour’s cat APPEARS at our door every morning, demanding to be fed.
B: Chris is incredibly busy. At the moment he IS APPEARING in Hamlet at the Crescent Theatre.
Complete the sentences with an appropriate form of the verb given. Use the past simple, present perfect, past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses. Use each tense at least once in each group of four sentences, but give alternatives where possible.
1. play
a. We HAVE PLAYED 35 matches so far this season, so we’re all feeling pretty tired.
b. After the match, she admitted that she __have played___ badly.
c. ___Do__ you __play__ rugby or football at the school you went to?
d. We ____have been playing___ really well all year, so it came as a big surprise when we were beaten by Wales last December.
2. make
a. We __made__ the right decision in emigrating to Canada in the mid-1990s.
b. Henson never thought about retirement. In fact, he ___made__ a documentary film about the indigenous people of Chile when he died.
c. A: When did you realise that you __make__ a mistake in joining the army?
B: When I was posted to Afghanistan.
d. Korean scientists believe that they __are making___ a breakthrough in the fight against cancer by developing a technique for containing the disease. They reported their findings at the AAL conference in New York this week.
3. eat
a. The couple described how they __were eating___ in the dining room when the explosion destroyed the hotel.
b. My mother was a vegetarian, and as children we rarely _ate__ meat.
c. I __have eat__ prawns a few times before last week without any ill effects, but the ones I had at the restaurant made me very sick indeed.
d. A: Would you like some of these cherries?
B: Yes, please. I __have been eating___ any fresh fruit for days.
4. run
a. Over the last year I __have been running___ workshops on creative writing in twelve colleges and universities.
b. She was breathing hard as if she __runs___.
c. She ___have run____ only two marathons before breaking the world record in the Pan-African Games.
d. I was late for work so I ___ran___ most of the way.
Complete the sentences using either the present perfect or present perfect continuous form of the verb given. Something both are possible.
1. Alice HAS COMPLETED (compete) in the London Marathon twice before, but hopes to achieve her best time this year.
2. Income from manufacturing exports still provides the largest proportion of the country’s export earnings; buy the proportion _HAS DROPPED____ (drop) for many years.
3. The house __HAS BELONGED___ (belong) to the Beecham family for over 250 years, but the present owner, Donald Beecham, is selling it.
4. Campbell __HAS SERVED___ (serve) a life sentence for murder since 1990, but his lawyers are arguing for an early release.
5. So far, attempts to rescue the climbers from the ledge where they camped during the storm ___HAVE FAILED_ (fail).
6. A: I’d like a career where I can travel and meet people.
B: ____I HAVE CONSIDERED___ (consider) becoming a tour guide?
7. A: ____HAVE YOU SWAM___ (swim)? You look really exhausted.
B: I am. I did fifty lengths of the pool.
8. A: Did you manage to get in touch with Tony?
B: No, I ___HAVE TRIED__ (try) three times in the last hour, but he’s always engaged.
9. A: Hello, Stannard’s Plumbers. How many I help you?
B: My hot water tank ___HAS BURST___ (burst) and my sitting room is flooded!
Choose the correct tense. Sometimes both are possible.
A: Good morning, Mr. Davies. What can I do for you?
B: Well, doctor I’VE BEEN GETTING/I’ve got some really bad headaches.
A: Okay. Can you tell me exactly when these headaches were starting/STARTED?
B: Oh, yes, I HAVE REMEMBERED/remember it vividly – it was on a Friday three weeks ago. I HAD BEEN WORKING / had worked in front of my computer all week because I did / WAS DOING a job for an important client – I was working/ I’VE BEEN WORKING as a website designer for the last few years, you see. I HAD JUST FINISHED/had just been finishing when the pain started, and by the end of that day I WAS FEELING/felt really bad.
A: Okay. And how have you slept/ HAVE YOU BEEN SLEEPING?
B: Not very well, actually. Usually I’m asleep as soon as my head HITS/ is hitting the pillow, but recently I’ve been having/ I’M HAVING difficulty getting to sleep.
A: I see. Now, I’M NOTICING/I notice that you wear glasses. HAVE YOU HAD/ were you having your eyes tested recently?
B: No, I HAVEN’T HAD/ didn’t have them tested for a couple of years, I suppose.
A: Okay, what I SUGGEST/I’m suggesting is that first you get your eyes tested. Then when you ARE WORKING/work at your computer, take frequent breaks to rest your eyes. If that hasn’t solved/DOESN’T SOLVE the problem, come back and see me again.
This is an extract from the first text. Without looking back at it, fill in the gaps using the past perfect or past simple of the verb in brackets.
But in this vast ocean of time Mr. Hosokawa could not seem to startle up any concern for Nansei. While he (1)___stared _______(stare) at the weather he never (2)___wondered __ (wonder) if his abduction (3)__had affected ________(affect) stock prices. He(4)___didn’t ___ (not care) who was making his decisions, sitting at his desk. The company that (5)______had been_______ (was) his life , his son, (6)__had fallen ____(fall) away from him as thoughtlessly as a coin is dropped. He (7)__took___ (take) a small spiral notebook from the pocket of his tuxedo jacket and, after inquiring as to the correct spelling from Gen, (8)____added____(add) the word garúa to his list. Incentive(9)___was _______ (be) key. No matter how many times Mr. Hosokawa(10)___had listened________(listen) to his Italian tapes in Japan he could remember nothing that was on them. No sooner(11) ___had he heared_________ (hear) the beautiful words, dimora, patrono, than they (12) ___vanished_____(vanish) from memory. But after only one week of captivity look at all the Spanish he (13)___had learned___(learn)!
Complete this radio news report with the verbs given. Use these tenses – present simple, present continuous, past simple, past continuous – giving alternatives where possible. Sometimes you may need to change the order of the adverb and verb.
Emergency services were bombarded with phone calls from all over the north of England last night by people who REPORTED seeing blue objects shoot across the sky. Mrs. Linda Hayward WAS DRIVING along the B456 road at the time.
‘I usually CAME along that bit of road at about ten. As I WAS GOING past the old barn, I SAW a single bright light going across the road in front of my car. I stoped the car and WATCHED it for about fifteen minutes. It TRAVELS quite slowly from east to west and then it suddenly DISSAPEARED. Until now I never BELIEVED in UFOs, although my son forever HAD TRIED to persuade me that they exists.
But now I THINK that maybe he WILL BE right.
At the height of the panic, polices stations GOT around a thousands calls an hour from members of the public. Sergeant Ron Drake of the Ambledale police WAS particularly busy. ‘Between 10 and 11 o’clock we RECIVED around thirty calls. The callers said they HAVE SEEN a single blue light about as big as a car over the village. We now HAD CONSIDER searching the fields around Ambledale for any evidence left behind’.
Dr Bart Mastow, a lecturer in astronomy al Trumpton University OFFERED a simple explanation, ‘The reports that HE CAME in last night SUGGESTED that it CAN BE a meteor shower. This WASN’T unusual on a small scale, but last night’s shower HAD SEEMS to have been very large. In fact, we GOT an increasing number of meteor showers, and my department currently RESEARCHING possible reasons for this.
But many witnesses to the events BELIEVES that they OBSERVES more than a meteor shower, and the Ministry of Defence SAID that they WILL TAKE the reports of the UFO sightings very seriously.
Complete the sentences using the verbs in the box. Use the same verb in each pair of sentences. Use the present simple, present continuous, past simple or past continuous.
1. I ’M THINKING about taking a gap year before I go to university and going traveling around South America.
A: Why’s Terry having a party?
B: I THINK it’s his birthday.
2. A: How did the cat get up into the tree?
B: I SAW he was chasing a bird.
A: Let me know when the post arrives.
B: Why, HAVE you SEEN something important?
3. A: Did you enjoy your time at boarding school?
B: No I HATE every minute of it.
A: As the boat was thrown about bye the huge waves, she looked across at Paul and wondered if he HATES this, too.
4. A: This month’s special exhibition of South African art EXPECTING over 5000 visitors a day to the museum, whereas we normally only get about 2000.
B: As the home of William Shakespeare, Stratford EXPECTS tourists from all over the world.
5. A: HAVE you LOOKED that big house over there? It’s my uncle’s.
B: I split up with Alex when I found out that he WAS LOOKING someone else.
6. A: What happened to your wrist?
B: I WAS MESURING the window for some new curtains when I fell off the ladder and sprained it.
B: I was given this pedometer for my birthday. You just hook it on your belt and it MEASURES how far you walk during the day.
7. A: What on earth are you doing down there?
B: I WAS ATTRACTING for one of my earrings – it fell off and rolled under the bed.
A: Which course are you going to apply to?
B: Well, this one on anthropology IS ATTRACTED interesting.
8. A: Our neighbour’s cat APPEARS at our door every morning, demanding to be fed.
B: Chris is incredibly busy. At the moment he IS APPEARING in Hamlet at the Crescent Theatre.
Complete the sentences with an appropriate form of the verb given. Use the past simple, present perfect, past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses. Use each tense at least once in each group of four sentences, but give alternatives where possible.
1. play
a. We HAVE PLAYED 35 matches so far this season, so we’re all feeling pretty tired.
b. After the match, she admitted that she __have played___ badly.
c. ___Do__ you __play__ rugby or football at the school you went to?
d. We ____have been playing___ really well all year, so it came as a big surprise when we were beaten by Wales last December.
2. make
a. We __made__ the right decision in emigrating to Canada in the mid-1990s.
b. Henson never thought about retirement. In fact, he ___made__ a documentary film about the indigenous people of Chile when he died.
c. A: When did you realise that you __make__ a mistake in joining the army?
B: When I was posted to Afghanistan.
d. Korean scientists believe that they __are making___ a breakthrough in the fight against cancer by developing a technique for containing the disease. They reported their findings at the AAL conference in New York this week.
3. eat
a. The couple described how they __were eating___ in the dining room when the explosion destroyed the hotel.
b. My mother was a vegetarian, and as children we rarely _ate__ meat.
c. I __have eat__ prawns a few times before last week without any ill effects, but the ones I had at the restaurant made me very sick indeed.
d. A: Would you like some of these cherries?
B: Yes, please. I __have been eating___ any fresh fruit for days.
4. run
a. Over the last year I __have been running___ workshops on creative writing in twelve colleges and universities.
b. She was breathing hard as if she __runs___.
c. She ___have run____ only two marathons before breaking the world record in the Pan-African Games.
d. I was late for work so I ___ran___ most of the way.
Complete the sentences using either the present perfect or present perfect continuous form of the verb given. Something both are possible.
1. Alice HAS COMPLETED (compete) in the London Marathon twice before, but hopes to achieve her best time this year.
2. Income from manufacturing exports still provides the largest proportion of the country’s export earnings; buy the proportion _HAS DROPPED____ (drop) for many years.
3. The house __HAS BELONGED___ (belong) to the Beecham family for over 250 years, but the present owner, Donald Beecham, is selling it.
4. Campbell __HAS SERVED___ (serve) a life sentence for murder since 1990, but his lawyers are arguing for an early release.
5. So far, attempts to rescue the climbers from the ledge where they camped during the storm ___HAVE FAILED_ (fail).
6. A: I’d like a career where I can travel and meet people.
B: ____I HAVE CONSIDERED___ (consider) becoming a tour guide?
7. A: ____HAVE YOU SWAM___ (swim)? You look really exhausted.
B: I am. I did fifty lengths of the pool.
8. A: Did you manage to get in touch with Tony?
B: No, I ___HAVE TRIED__ (try) three times in the last hour, but he’s always engaged.
9. A: Hello, Stannard’s Plumbers. How many I help you?
B: My hot water tank ___HAS BURST___ (burst) and my sitting room is flooded!
Choose the correct tense. Sometimes both are possible.
A: Good morning, Mr. Davies. What can I do for you?
B: Well, doctor I’VE BEEN GETTING/I’ve got some really bad headaches.
A: Okay. Can you tell me exactly when these headaches were starting/STARTED?
B: Oh, yes, I HAVE REMEMBERED/remember it vividly – it was on a Friday three weeks ago. I HAD BEEN WORKING / had worked in front of my computer all week because I did / WAS DOING a job for an important client – I was working/ I’VE BEEN WORKING as a website designer for the last few years, you see. I HAD JUST FINISHED/had just been finishing when the pain started, and by the end of that day I WAS FEELING/felt really bad.
A: Okay. And how have you slept/ HAVE YOU BEEN SLEEPING?
B: Not very well, actually. Usually I’m asleep as soon as my head HITS/ is hitting the pillow, but recently I’ve been having/ I’M HAVING difficulty getting to sleep.
A: I see. Now, I’M NOTICING/I notice that you wear glasses. HAVE YOU HAD/ were you having your eyes tested recently?
B: No, I HAVEN’T HAD/ didn’t have them tested for a couple of years, I suppose.
A: Okay, what I SUGGEST/I’m suggesting is that first you get your eyes tested. Then when you ARE WORKING/work at your computer, take frequent breaks to rest your eyes. If that hasn’t solved/DOESN’T SOLVE the problem, come back and see me again.