Task 1. Comment on the use of past tenses.

1. He did a lot in his short life.

2. Why didn’t you tell me you were starting?

3. They had been climbing for five hours before they reached the top of the mountain.

4. It was pouring with rain and she was wondering what to do.

5. When I had bought some fruit I went back to the beach.

6. The first modern Olympics took place in Athens more than a hundred years ago.

7. I had been feeling sleepy all day so I went to bed early.

8. Sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you.

9. Fleming was studying influenza when he discovered penicillin. She told us she had found the answer.

10. Why, I saw the announcement in the paper this morning.

11. We stayed with the Smiths for two days and returned to London.

12. I knew they loved each other but they always quarreled.

13. She looked unbelievingly at him. Surely he was joking.

14. Roy mentioned that he had dined at home since his return.

15. Ann had risen and was peering over his shoulder.

16. She knew what he had been thinking about since he got a telegram.

17. Hardly had I entered the room when Ann broke off.

18. They had been walking for less than an hour when the moon suddenly appeared between the heavy clouds.

19. What were you doing in Paris? – I was trying to find a publisher for my new book.

20. She was constantly trying to attract attention by any means.

Task 2. Decide whether the following statements about the use of the past tenses are true or false. Correct the false statements. Use examples from Task 1 to illustrate your answer.

1. The Past Indefinite may be found in present-time context as well as in past-time contexts. / T

2. It is always necessary to mention the time or the place of the past action./F

3. We often use the Past continuous and the Past Simple together to say that something happened in the middle of something else./T

4. The Past Perfect is often used to talk about things that happened some time ago./F

5. The Past Perfect Continuous is common in reported speech./F

6. The Past Perfect is used when we talk about two things that happened at different times in the past. /T

7. If we give the events in the order they occurred in the past, the Past Indefinite should be used./T