TENSE FORMS (6) FCE USE OF ENGLISH

FCE USE OF ENGLISH

TENSE FORMS (6)

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Put the verbs in brackets into the Past Simple or Continuous. A few years ago a friend of mine, Tom, 1)_____was travelling ____ (travel) in Java. One day he 2)__________ (decide) to visit an ancient temple. The walls were covered in beautiful paintings of mysterious-looking faces. While he 3)__________ (walk) around the temple, he 4)__________ (feel) an inexplicable desire to remove one particular face which seemed to be staring at him. Nervously, checking to see that no one 5)__________ (look), he 6)__________ (peel) the face from the wall and 7)__________ (put) it carefully in his bag. Tom 8)__________ (think) no more about the incident until two years later. At that time he 9)__________ (live) in London and 10)__________ (work) in a shop selling old books and manuscripts. One day an extremely old man 11)__________ (walk) slowly through the door. Tom could hardly see him but he 11)__________ (notice) the man’s piercing black eyes. He 13)__________ (stare) at Tom, fixing him with his gaze, saying nothing. As the man 14)__________ (stare) at him, Tom 15)__________ (have) an awful terrifying feeling of shame and fear. Suddenly, the man was gone. When Tom got home that evening he 16)__________ (search) frantically through all his things until he 17)__________ (find) the face from the temple. It was the face of an old man from the shop! He 18)__________ (know) then that he had to return the picture to the temple, or something terrible would happen. Present Perfect Past Simple • She has come (unstated time; we don’t know when she came) • She came last Friday. (stated time-when? Last Friday. ) • He has been in hospital for two months. (he’s still in hospital-action connected to the present) • He was in hospital for one week. (he isn’t in hospital any more-action not connected to the present) • He’s been out twice this week. (It’s still the same week-action connected to the present) • He went out twice last week. (action not connected to the present – it’s the next week now) • I’ve seen Jessica Lange. (action connected to the present-she’s still alive) • I saw Richard Burton. (action not connected to the present – he’s dead) • The Prime Minister has decided to dissolve parliament. (announcing news) • He announced his decisions this morning. (giving details of the news – stated time in the past)

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Fill in with Present Perfect or Past Simple. 1 The president 1) ________has announced ______ (announce) the introduction of a new set of measures to deal with unemployment. The problem 2) ______________ (become) worse in recent months, and yesterday the president 3) ______________ (state) that action must be taken now. She actually 4) ______________ (sign) the new bill during this morning’s session of Parliament. 2 George 1) ______________ (arrive) late to work again this morning. He 2) ______________ (be) late at least five times this month. The supervisor 3) ______________ (speak) to him about it yesterday but he obviously 4) ______________ (not/pay) any attention. 3 John Keats, who 1) ______________ (die) when he 2) ______________ (be) only 26 years old, 3) ______________ (write) a lot of beautiful poems. I 4) ______________ (read) most of his poetry, but I 5) ______________ (never/manage) to get to the end of Endymion. It’s too long for me. 4 Clare 1) ______________ (be) in New York for almost a year now. I 2) ______________ (go) to visit her last month and I have to say I 3) ______________ (be) very impressed. I 4) ______________ (visit) most of major cities in Europe but I 5) ______________ (never/see) any place as exciting as the Big Apple. 5 I 1) ______________ (see) five films this month, but I 2) ______________ (not/like) any of them very much. Actually, I think the films they 3) ______________ (make) ten years ago 4) ______________ (be) much better than anything I 5) ______________ (see) for ages.

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