Review of Tenses potx

Review of Tenses

Exercise 1.

I was walking along the deserted main street of a small seaside town in the north of England

looking for somewhere ( 1 – make )_________ a phone call. My car ( 2 – break )_________

down outside the town and I wanted to contact the AA. The street ( 3 – run )________ parallei

to the sea and ( 4 – join )__________ to it by a number of narrow side street. Low grey clouds (

5 – drift )__________ across the sky and there ( 6 – be )______ a cold damp wind blowing off

the sea which nearly threw me off my feet when I ( 7 – cross )_________ one of the side streets.

It ( 8 – rain )________ for a long time.

Exercise 2.

I woke up when I ( 1 – hear )________ a noise downstairs. I ( 2 – get )________ out of bed

quietly because my wife ( 3 – still sleep )________ and ( 4 – go )_______ to the top of the

stairs. It was dark, but I could see two men downstairs in the living room. They ( 5 – try

)_______ to open the safe. When I ( 6 – switch )______ on the light, the two men ( 7 – run

)_______ into the kitchen and ( 8 – escape )_______ out of the back door. Then, before I ( 9 –

have )_______ a chance to do anything I ( 10 – hear )_______ a police car pull up outside the

house. A neighbour of mine ( 11 – see )_______ the men ( 12 – break )________ into my

house and ( 13 – phone ) the police.

Exercise 3.

John ( 1 – come )_________ from England. He ( 2 – come ) ________ to Paris six months

ago ( 3 – learn )______ French. He ( 4 – start )________ ( 5 – learn) ________ French at

school in England when he was eleven so he ( 6 – learn )_______ it for nearly 10 years. He ( 7

– just take )_________ an exam . If he passes, he ( 8 – move )_______ into the next class. He (

9 – be )_________ excited today because his parents ( 10 – come )___________ tomorrow to

stay with him for a few days.

Exercise 4.

Shortly after the world, my brother and I ( 1 – invite )_______ ( 2 – spend )_________ a

few days’ holiday with an uncle who ( 3 – just return )________ from abroad. He ( 4 – rent

)_________ a cottage in the country, although he rarely ( 5 – spend )________ much time there.

We ( 6 – understand )_________ the reason for this after our arrival. The cottage ( 7 – have

) _________ no comfortable furniture in it, many of the windows ( 8 – break )_____ and the

roof ( 9 – leak )________ , ( 10 – make )_________ the whole house damp.

Exercise 5.

Mary ( 1 – have )________ to go to New York last week, but she almost ( 2 – miss

)_______ the plane. She ( 3 – stand )_________ in the queue at the check – in desk when she

suddenly ( 4 – realize )_________ that she ( 5 – leave )_________ her passport at home.

Fortunately,she ( 6 – not live )________ very far from the airport so she ( 7 – have )________

time to go back home to get the passport. She ( 8 – get )__________ back to the airport just in

time for her flight.

Exercise 6.

One of the first novels in history of literature ( 1 – be )________ written in England in 1719.

It ( 2 – be )_________ Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. He ( 3 – bear )______ in London in

a rich family. When Daniel ( 4 – be )________ a school boy, he ( 5 – begin )________ to write

stories. After ( 6 – leave )_________ school, he ( 7 – work )_______ in his father’s shop and (

8 – write )________ articles for newspapers. Defoe ( 9 – visit )________ many countries and (

10 – meet )__________ many people. That helped him much in his writings.