MIXED TENSES
1. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
Tom Wilson 1) .... …...... (be) an explorer. He 2) ………….(be) to nearly every country in the world, but the most exciting time he 3) …………………………. (ever/have) was when he 4) …………………… (go) to the Congo jungle. A magazine 5)………………….. (ask) him to retrace the route of a famous explorer who 6) …………………. (disappear) in the 1920's. As he 7) ……………….(follow) a small river he got separated from his guides. He 8) …………………………. (go on) alone, hoping he 9) ………………….. (find) them, but instead he 10) ………………… (encounter) a group of natives. He 11) …............... (stay) with them for several days and 12) …………………….. (find out) that a very old woman
13) ……………………(actually/meet) the famous explorer. She 14) …………… (know)
how he 15) …………………………….(die). Tom 16) ………………………….(become) very friendly with the natives and now he 17) …………………………… (plan) to go back and see them again. He is sure they 18) …………………………………..(welcome) him back.
2. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
When Francis Lee was a boy he 1) ............................. (want) to be an astronaut. He
2) ……........…….(watch) TV one day in 1969 when he 3) ……………………. (see) Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Since then he 4) …………….......……… (always/dream) of doing the same. Every night when there is a full moon, he 5)………….……….. (stare) up at it for hours and 6) ……………..........……. (imagine) himself walking around on it. At the moment, however, he 7) ……………….(work) as a night-watchman at a meat factory. He 8) …………………………. (do) the same job since he left school fifteen years ago, but he still hopes that one day his dream 9) ……….............………….. (come) true. He 10) ………………… (hear) that in the 21st century they 11) …................... (sell) tickets to fly to the moon. For this reason he 12) …………….............(save) half of his wages every month for the past two years.
3. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
Sue Thomas is a fashion designer. She 1) ... …………………...... (make) clothes ever since she 2) ………….(be) a young girl. She 3) …………………………. (get) her first job in a clothes factory when she was sixteen. She 4) …………………… (sew) buttons onto a shirt one day when she 5)………………….. (have) a brilliant idea for a design. After she 6) …………………. (speak) to her bank manager, she got a loan and she 7) …………....…….(open) her own little workshop. Now she 8) …………………………. (make) lots of money. Next year she 9) ………………….. (open) a shop which will sell all her own designs. She 10) ………………… (sell) clothes to a lot of famous people, including film stars and singers, and she 11) …...................... (think) she will be very rich soon.
4. Fill the blanks with the correct tense of the verb in brackets.
Claude and Anna ________________ (be) to the pictures. Now they ________________ (sit) in the bus on their way home. Suddenly Anna (say) ________________ : "Oh, dear.""What's the matter?" asked Claude."I ________________ (forget) my key," replied Anna.Claude ________________ (look) at his watch. "Never mind. It ________________ (not be) late. It's only eleven o'clock.""But my parents always ________________ (go) to bed about 10.30." Anna looked terribly worried."I ________________ (know)," said Claude. "You can sleep on the sofa in the sitting-room in my home." They ________________ (arrive) at Claude's home ten minutes later. Claude's landlady, Mrs Briggs,________________ (be) still up. She ________________ (watch) television."This is Anna," said Claude, "she ________________ (forget) her key, so she ________________ (sleep) onthe sofa, if that (be) ________________ OK.""Very well," said Mrs Briggs. " ________________ (she phone) her landlady yet?"No, she ________________ (be) certainly in bed at the moment," said Claude."All right." Mrs Briggs ________________ (smile). "Well, I ________________ (phone) Anna's landlady first thing in the morning."
5. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
Kevin Adams 1)....................(love) trains. He first 2)........................(see) one when he was four years old and he 3) ..............................(think) it was great. He 4).........................(go) to a different railway station every week and 5).........................(write down) the engine number of every train he sees. He 6)............................(do) this since he was eight. By the time he was fifteen he 7).............................(collect) over 10.000 different engine numbers in various counties. Once, while he 8).............................(stand) in a station in Cheshire he saw something very unusual. He 9)............................(wait) for over an hour for a train to go by when suddenly he 10)..............................(see) a very old steam train coming down the track. It 11).............................(not/stop) at the station and, as it was passing, Kevin noticed that all the passengers 12)..............................(wear) old-fashioned clothes. When he told the station guard about this, the poor man turned pale. He said that no steam train 13)...........................(pass) through that station for years, and that the last one 14)...........................(crash), killing everyone on board.
6.Fill the blanks with the correct tense of the verb in brackets
Our memory can play strange tricks; there is often a considerable difference between what we________________ (remember) happening and what actually ________________ (happen). What we remember ________________ (seem) to be a combination of what we ________________ (see) and what we subsequently ________________ (think).In this connection, there is an interesting account from the Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, who________________ (have) a vivid memory of an event when he was very young. 'I ________________(sit) in my pram, which my nurse ________________ (push) in the Champs-Elysées, when a man ________________ (try) to kidnap me. I was held in by the strap fastened round me, while my nurse bravely ________________ (stand) between me and the thief. She ________________ (receive) various scratches, and I can still vaguely see those on her face. Then a crowd ________________ (gather), a policeman with a white baton ________________ (come) up, and the man ________________ (take) to his heels. I can still see the whole scene and can even place it near the tube station. When I________________ (be) about 15, my parents received a letter from my former nurse saying that she________________ (want) to confess her past faults, and in particular to return the watch my parents________________ (give) her on this occasion. She ________________ (make) up the whole, faking thescratches.' Then Piaget ________________ (realise) that he ________________ (hear) the story as a child, and that his imagination ________________ (construct) a visual memory of an event that________________ (never happen)!
7. Fill the blanks with the correct tense of the verb in brackets.
That evening, like every other evening, Jil ________________ (stay) at home. She ________________(iron) her school uniform when the telephone ________________ (ring).It ________________ (be) her best friend Sissy on the phone. "What ________________ (you do)tomorrow evening?""Saturday night?""Yes. There's going to be a party. You must go.""But Sissy, you ________________ (know) I ________________ (not go) to parties.""Come on Jil, you're a junior college students now. Your parents should let you have a little freedom to go to parties.""No, it ________________ (not be) my parents," ________________ (admit) Jil. "It's me. I________________ (not like) going to parties. It's ...""Come on Jil," ________________ (insist) Sissy, "How ________________ (you make) any friends if you________________ (not socialise)?"Jil ________________ (reply), " But I - I ________________ (never be) to a party. I mean, what________________ (I wear)?""Didn't you read The Textbook?""What textbook?""The Teenage Textbook, woman. The one I ________________ (give) you for your birthday. Look, you have to go. I ________________ (invite) all our old gang, as well as Rosie, Jillian, May, Linda and Toni. There'll be also guys. Sean________________ (come) with Rick - ________________ (you know) him? He used to have a crush on me. I ________________ (ask) Harry and Jason to come, too. Come on Jil.""Well, OK," Jil ________________ (say) eventually. "I ________________ (come).""Great. I have to go now, Jil. I have to go call some other people. See you tomorrow in school. Bye-bye."Sissy rang off. That night, Jil ________________ (sit) in bed, wrapped up in her soft blue blanket, two big pillows propping her up and her favourite pink bolster in her arms.She ________________ (pull) out The Teenage Textbook from the chest of drawers beside her bed and________________ (open) it to the lesson on parties. This is what it said: .......