The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

5.6. Past time 1
Unit five. Time, tense and aspect

Sections 122-127; 550-572

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

• the (simple) past tense refers to a definite time in the past and is identified by a past-time adverbial, the preceding language context or the context outside language.

• the past progressive refers to a past activity in progress or a state with limited duration.

• the (simple) present perfect refers to a past happening in relation to a later event or time. It is used for past events with results in the present time and for past indefinite events, past habits and past states (in a period) leading up to the present time.

• the present perfect progressive stresses the idea of limited duration and/or continuation of an activity up to the recent past or into the present.

• the past perfect refers to a time in the past as seen from a definite time in the past (= ’past in the past’). It can be the past equivalent of both the past tense and the present perfect.

Task one **

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

(a) which of the above meanings is expressed

(b) which verb form is used (in terms of tense and aspect).

Example: I have visited Canada. → have visited: past indefinite event - simple present perfect

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.

Example:

Local chiefs stress that more food aid may be needed this winter to stave off famine.

→ Local chiefs stressed that more food might be needed that winter to stave off famine.

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.

Example:

Stella Soames often said that she had experienced an unhappy childhood but had always been a very happy adult. →

Stella: “I experienced an unhappy childhood but have always been a very happy adult.”

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.