A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (10 page)

Sections 122–127; 550–572

Past-time meanings are similar to present-time meanings and can be expressed in various ways:

Task one **

Identify the verb phrases which refer to past time in the following texts, specifying for each

A former teacher from Coventry, who was shot in the stomach at point blank range while on holiday in Turkey, has been awarded £495,000 compensation.

Mick Botterill was seriously injured when he disturbed a burglar at the holiday apartment in the resort of Side where he was staying with his wife and two teenage daughters in August 1996.

Mr Botterill, from Stoke Park, lost two litres of blood and needed two operations to remove the bullet, which had perforated his intestine and nicked his spinal cord.

(from the
Coventry Evening Telegraph
, 13 November 2001, p. 5)

Task two **

Use a simple past or a present perfect form (active or passive) in the following sentences.

1.
TV and stage actress Peggy Mount (die) ____________ aged 86. The star (become) ____________ known to millions in the early ITV sitcom
The Larkins
.

2.
Scotland (elect) ____________ its first Parliament in May 1999 while it (have) ____________ its own legal system for centuries.

3.
Salman Rushdie (be) ____________ born in India but (spend) ____________ most of his life in Britain.

4.
The Ramblers’ Association (found) ____________ in 1935 and (help) ____________ to develop the footpath network ever since.

5.
Alcohol-related deaths (rise) ____________ by nearly half over the past five years, a report (warn) ____________ yesterday.

6.
The ancient Greeks (think) ____________ pearls (create) ____________ when lightning (strike) ____________ the sea.

7.
Environmentalists (make) ____________ significant progress in recent years: they (even succeed) ____________ in preventing further destruction of the coral reefs.

8.
People (know) ____________ to die as a result of the fever they (contract) ____________ while travelling in the tropics.

9.
Some artists (escape) ____________ the Soviet Union while others (send) ____________ to one of the gulags.

10.
The current year (be) ____________ a bad one for the economy: one airline alone (shed) ___________ thousands of jobs and many other industries (have) ____________ to sack workers too.

Task three **

All three (slightly adapted) extracts below are from articles which appeared in various issues of
The Independent
in mid-2001. Rewrite them as if you were a journalist reporting in 2010 about states and events at the beginning of the decade.

1.
Rural communities feel their traditions are threatened as English people buy property at prices that are out of the reach of locals.

2.
Police officers approaching retirement are to be offered more money to stay on for a further five years under new Home Office plans to retain experienced staff.

Supporters of the proposals hope they will encourage long-serving constables and sergeants in their 50s to stay on. Under existing rules, police in the lower ranks must retire at 55, and many choose to take their pension after 30 years’ service. As a result, forces across the country are facing a retirement “timebomb”, with many officers due to leave this decade.

3.
Top scientists believe that global warming has caused an unexpected collapse in the number of the world’s most hunted whale.

They think that a sharp contraction in sea ice in the Antarctic is the likeliest explanation behind new findings, which suggest that the numbers of minke whales in the surrounding seas has fallen by half in less than a decade. The findings have greatly strengthened the arguments of conservationists who are resisting moves to lift a 15-year-old official ban on the hunt. (…)

Commercial whaling has been banned officially since 1986, but Japan and Norway each continue to kill about 500 minke whales a year. Japan does so under the guise of “scientific research”, allowed under the IWC’s treaty; Norway by exempting itself from the ban, which is also permitted under the agreement.

Task four *

Complete the following sentences, using a simple or progressive present perfect.

1.
It (rain) ____________ cats and dogs again.

2.
(you see) ____________ any films directed by Stanley Kubrick?

3.
I (write) ____________ at least five letters to complain about the infernal noise next door.

4.
(you drink) ____________, I can smell it!

5.
Liz and I (know) ____________ each other for only a few days.

6.
Tell me, how long (you wait) ___________ here?

7.
We (study) ____________ your report but (not draw) ____________ any conclusions yet.

8.
The refugee camp (become) ____________ quite crowded as people (cross) ____________ the border in ever greater numbers.

9.
I (never witness) ____________ a hijacking although I (fly) __________ across the oceans dozens of times.

10.
Boris (cheat) ____________ on his live-in girlfriend for months, so she (decide) __________ to leave him at last.

11.
Somebody (just tell) ___________________ me that Fred and Wilma (constantly argue) ______________________________ about trivial things lately.

12.
Pat (work) ____________ flat out all morning but (still not finish) ____________ the repair job.

Task five ***

Rewrite the following text using direct instead of indirect speech. Replace the past perfect forms by corresponding simple past or present perfect forms.

Stella Soames phoned last night to tell me that her husband Kevin had just died in hospital. He had fallen off his horse a week before and broken a leg and several ribs. Instead of recovering after the operation, however, he had suffered a stroke and lain in a coma for three or four days, from which he had not woken up again.

Stella told me she had already fixed a date for the funeral but hadn’t contacted her husband’s brother and sister yet as she had been out of touch with them for years. She added that Kevin had been a wonderful man and she had never regretted marrying him.

She also asked me if I knew about Kevin’s recent conversion to Buddhism. I said I had heard some rumours about it at the local pub and had considered converting to it myself lately. I told Stella I had always believed in an afterlife but had kept it to myself until then. Upon which she thanked me, saying I had at least offered her the prospect of one day meeting Kevin again.

5.7. Past time 2

Sections 128–131

The difference between past tense and perfect aspect cannot be expressed by infinitives or -
ing
constructions. Instead, the perfect expresses general past meaning: It seems that John (
has
)
missed
the point ⇒ John seems
to have missed
the point.

Adverbials referring to a point or period of time which finished in the past go with the past tense, while those referring to a period leading up to present or recent past time go with the present perfect. Adverbials such as
this morning, today
and
recently
can go with either verb form.

The auxiliary
used to
can express state or habit in the past as contrasted with the present, while
would
stresses the idea of characteristic behaviour in the past.

Task one ***

Rephrase the following sentences, replacing the finite verb phrase of the subclause by the perfect infinitive or perfect -
ing
form as in the example above.

1.
It is suspected that Harry Trotter killed his aunt.

2.
It appears that 60 per cent of viewers watched the Cup Final yesterday.

3.
Edith is very pleased that she has been given a second chance.

4.
It is rumoured that millions of euros were stolen from a local bank last night.

5.
It is unlikely that the police have identified the culprits.

6.
I’m so sorry I drew everyone’s attention to the flaws in your project.

7.
We are very much aware that the authorities were forced to accept this questionable deal.

8.
It is certain that all three candidates have been screened.

9.
Some people are worried about the fact that they have not been informed at all.

10.
Mr Bunker is the first man who swam across the lake in winter.

11.
It is alleged that some politicians accepted bribes from lobbyists in the early 90s.

12.
Dozens of drivers were fined because they had exceeded the speed limit.

Task two **

Complete the following sentences, using the simple past or present perfect form.

1.
A small number of tourists (catch) _______________ malaria in Africa last summer.

2.
Humphrey (lie) _______________ in bed until a quarter to nine.

3.
(you teach) _______________ any of the third formers lately?

4.
The mugger apparently (creep) _______________ up from behind before attacking his victim.

5.
I (spend) ______________ two hours marking exams up until now.

6.
The number of people below the poverty line (not rise) _______________ any more since 1998.

7.
The town council (choose) _______________ to renovate the opera house half a decade ago.

8.
I (tear up) ______________ the receipt after leaving the shop.

9.
A major earthquake (strike) ____________ eastern Iran on Monday.

10.
The main waterpipe (burst) _______________ early this morning but we (have) _______________ a regular supply for about half an hour now.

11.
– (you feed) _______________ the parrot yet? – Oh, (it already eat) _______________ more than its daily ration!

12.
Arthur (bear) _______________ me a grudge ever since I (beat) ______________ him at chess.

Task three **

Replace the underlined verb phrases, using either
used to
or w
ould
in order to express the idea of past state or habit.

1.
Bouncy castles
were
an attraction at fair grounds, pubs and school fêtes – now you can hire one for your own back garden.

2.
As I entered Grandma’s shop, a brass bell
tinkled
and the smell of putty filled my nostrils. Then I
opened
the door marked
Private
, leading to the dining room where Grandma was sitting. She always had a welcoming smile and I
kissed
her soft cheek.

3.
The chief child-eating troll in Iceland, Gryla,
sent
her 13 sons out every year to catch bad children for her table. But the violent figure has softened and now gives children presents when they come back to her home.

(1,2 and 3: adapted from various articles in
Woman’s Weekly
)

4.
Kate Simpson
hated
exercise, but when Mom took it up, she did, too, and slimmed down.

(
Newsweek
, 3 July 2000, p. 58)

5.
When I went into the studio as a young boy, 5 or 6, my father
did not stop
as he was working. I
did not ask
for the attention. Later on, when I was a little older, sometimes I
worked
side by side with my father, with my sister present, too. We
were working
at the same table, we
were doing
something, he
was doing
something else. Sometimes he
asked
me to help prop something up or hold something. He worked with plaster, and the plaster
had to set
. I could see he was always trying to do something a little bit different.